The summer months did not provide investors with the quiet period many had hoped for after a very busy start to the year.

We recently increased our asset allocation to emerging markets and made some changes within our emerging market holdings.

The investment team here at MAIA have been researching opportunities to increase our exposure to emerging markets for over a year now.

We thought it would be prudent to look back on what has occurred so far this year, highlight the main areas we believe markets will be focusing on for the rest of 2023 and provide an update on how the portfolios are positioned for the longer term.

One well known saying which always grabs the headlines at this time of the year is ‘sell in May and come back on St Ledgers Day’.

One quarter – Two ends of the volatility spectrum.

After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent backstops implemented by the US Federal Reserve and US banking regulators, we were hopeful that markets would once again focus on the fundamentals of the global market and not be driven by short term sentiment.

During afternoon trading in the US yesterday, equity markets came under pressure as Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) announced that additional financing is required due to issues they are having with capital within their businesses.