Springing back to life

Although there were few reasons to be cheerful around the beginning of the year – mainly due to the health of the European economy and the fraught state of US-China relations, which could have a profound impact on the global economy – the outlook in early spring turned out to be much rosier for investors. First of all, the indications are that the trade war between the world’s two largest economies looks like fizzling out, with both parties likely to come to terms before the end of spring, which should add more fuel to the good mood on the stock markets. This promising news from the negotiating table has been accompanied by signals about the improving state of the Chinese economy with its increasing exports, which has been interpreted as a signal fto buy stock. As for the US economy, analysts have noted interest rate hikes coming to an end, which also tends to give the bourses a boost. But the uncertainty that there is has mainly been centred on Europe, and more speci