Credit Suisse

A selloff as violent as the one global equities markets experienced this past Monday can have effects that mirror a real-life earthquake. Once the earth stops moving, shell-shocked investors have to figure out what caused all the shaking and whether aftershocks are coming. They also have to determine whether anything valuable is hiding in the debris.   To the first point, it’s quite clear that trouble in China was the catalyst for the rout. It all started on Friday, August 21, when...

As the second-quarter earnings season draws to a close in the United States, with 89 percent of companies in the S&P 500 having announced quarterly results, there’s both good and bad news to report. Sugar first: Seventy-four percent of companies beat consensus estimates, slightly better than the 10-year average of 70 percent. The outlook for the future is getting rosier, too. The consensus forecast for 12-month forward earnings growth is now 7.2 percent, up from 5.2 percent at the...

It’s not an easy time to be a fixed-income investor, particularly for those seeking opportunities in the United States. The Federal Reserve’s stated intention to raise benchmark interest rates this year for the first time since 2006 hangs over the U.S. fixed-income market like a pall, threatening to drive bond prices down, introduce volatility, and even create a liquidity crunch. Investors who want (or need) to maintain exposure to fixed income through the rate hike might try looking across...

For the three months leading into August, the Chinese government had kept the yuan-dollar exchange rate fixed in a tight range around 6.115 yuan to the dollar. Yet the yuan’s spot price consistently traded about 1.4 percent weaker than the fix. Investors, in other words, sensed a devaluation coming. In mid-August, Chinese officials proved them right by intervening in currency markets for three days in a row, prompting a 3 percent drop in the value of the yuan.   An 8 percent decline in...

Credit Suisse employees in the UK have raised over £300,000 for their 2015 Charity of the Year partner FareShare, helping to provide more than 1.2 million meals to organisations such as children’s breakfast clubs, centres for victims of domestic abuse, lunch clubs for the elderly and youth empowerment projects. For more information on Fareshare visit: http://www.fareshare.org.uk/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out our...

Conventional wisdom says that gold is a ‘safe haven’, an asset to which investors flock when chaos threatens financial markets. Over much of the past century, it has served as a store of value. Those days may be over. Despite several such potential negative events in recent months, investors have wanted nothing to do with the yellow metal.   June and July featured exactly the kind of events that would have driven gold prices higher in the past – the Chinese stock market...

Did Enron and Bernie Madoff happen because we didn’t notice critical information? Or because we didn’t want to notice it? Harvard Business School Professor Max Bazerman says that it’s both. Watch our video from Credit Suisse’s 2015 Thought Leader Forum for Dr. Bazerman’s advice on how leaders can get better at noticing the things that really matter.

Want to be happier at work? Stop paying attention to money and promotions, and start paying more attention to the people around you. Paul Dolan, a professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics, explains how to refocus your attention on what truly matters. Watch our video from Credit Suisse’s 2015 Thought Leader Forum for his advice on finding workplace happiness.

Want to improve your investment performance? Start allocating you attention differently. Michael Mauboussin, Credit Suisse’s Head of Global Financial Strategies, thinks the way we pay attention is so important that he made it the theme of Credit Suisse’s 2015 Thought Leader Forum. Watch our video to hear his thoughts on that and more.

Christopher Chabris, assistant professor of psychology at Union College, studies “inattentional blindness” – the human tendency to ignore important stimuli while engrossed in a task. At Credit Suisse’s 2015 Thought Leader Forum, he explained how to stay focused on the things that matter.