Best Performing Investments and Holly's expert football views

It was the Boring Money Christmas party last night and what a blast! The head of tech was caught singing ‘Delilah’ into a spoon. I danced with the singer Colin in my spangly frock.

And the white wine tasted like paint stripper!

(Actually that paint stripper wine is maybe a good tip because I walked through London in temperatures of minus 5 in aforementioned spangly frock and didn’t feel cold one bit.)

House prices fall…

Gloomy news in the housing market this week as Halifax revealed the biggest monthly drop in prices since the 2008 financial crisis, and buyer demand is falling.

All eyes on interest rates, and as we move into 2023, the big question is how deep and how long the recession, and what will central banks do with rates, which impacts our investments as well as our mortgages.

If they are close to peaking as some believe, then will US tech stocks (which fall into a category we call ‘growth’ stocks) stage a recovery and will the beaten-up Nasdaq pick up its pace again? Or will the boring old established companies which make solid old-fashioned things (value stocks) prevail?

The UK stock market has done relatively well (in a muted way)…

Over in the States, the S&P 500 has fallen by about 16% this year and the more tech-heavy Nasdaq is down about 28%. Back in the UK the FTSE100 is actually up by about 2%.

European oil companies are attracting bargain hunters from the US who think they look cheap compared to Chevron and ExxonMobil, which are up about 55% and 80% this year respectively. Energy stocks in the US have soared, and according to the FT, the S&P 500 energy sub-index has risen by over 50% this year, compared to the 18% rise seen in the European Stoxx 600 energy sub-index. (And no, I didn’t own these stocks! B*gger!)

Four of the top five best performing sectors in the UK market so far in ’22 have been the Bad Boys - oil, tobacco, miners and defence – as sustainable investing has taken a back seat. And in general, commodities (things we take out of the ground like gold or oil, or agricultural products like wheat and pork) have been the best performing asset class.

What are the Pros picking?

Last week we launched our new ETF hub, explaining how these mysterious sounding things can be a good way to access global markets. Or sectors and themes. For example, if you want to get access to the FTSE100, an ETF is probably the simplest way to do this.

Today we add three new articles to the hub which are various fund selectors’ top picks, for those of you after some inspiration. There are some good ideas in here, including dividend-paying ETFs , inflation-busting ideas and larger, global picks.

And if you prefer to see what other investors are picking, you can check out the bestselling funds, ETFs and trusts of November here.

New Year, new you, baby!

Looking ahead, we are working up a whole program of activity for the New Year to help with all things saving, investing and pensions. All will be revealed next week with a smorgasbord of not-at-all Boring Money goodies.

One little sneak preview today... we are opening the waitlist for a webinar on 10th January at 6pm. This webinar is for women and will focus on how to start and build up an investment portfolio. With no jargon allowed! It’s part of a broader Get Money Fit course we’ll be running with online lessons, podcasts, adviser views and more. I’ll be joined by guests to tackle your questions, including our fantastic sponsors at Fidelity so ladies sign up today and get this free webinar booked for next year, before you descend into Quality Street and prosecco!

Also… if you have time this weekend, check out the Visible! pages on our site to take our Retirement Rocks course, or get your head around the basics with our Sustainable Investments course, or Investing 101.

In my spare time, I’m a football pundit

Have a lovely weekend everyone. Apparently the football is still going on so I will probably have to watch that on Saturday. Woop woop. Not. However… I like Saka. He’s sweet. I’m glad Maguire has played well after lots of criticism from armchair athletes. I wish Jordan Pickford would stop chewing gum although I do admire his nerve. Harry Kane is very manly. And I guess Jack Grealish is mildly easy on the eye – he could be my personal trainer any day, pa ha ha ha!😈

There ends my expert football commentary!

Holly