In December 2017 the average prudential balanced portfolio returned (-1.49%) (November: 0.40%). Top performer is Metropolitan (-0.60%); while Investec (-2.73%) takes the bottom spot. For the 3 month period, Stanlib takes top spot, outperforming the ‘average’ by roughly 1.13%. On the other end of the scale Allan Gray underperformed the ‘average’ by 1.34%.

What will 2018 hold in store?

The US tax code revision, the backlash against unfettered globalization, Bitcoin, the prospective withdrawal of quantitative easing by the ECB, the steep increase in crude oil prices, the possible return to a gold standard and the Korean crisis currently are probably the hottest topics that may impact financial and investment markets in 2018 and beyond.

The backlash against unfettered globalization has already led to the election of Donald Trump as president of the US in 2015 true to the adage that the wheel keeps turning. When the largest global economy is moving towards more protectionism and less globalization, other smaller economies will have to move towards more protectionism as a matter of course. Whatever one may think or say about president Trump’s lack of diplomacy and finesse, he is a businessman and not a diplomat unlike his predecessor, and he is starting to make an impact on the US economy that will reverberate on the global economy, with his America first credo. In its December 2017 approval of the most extensive tax-code revisions since 1986, the US Congress scrapped the previous international tax system for corporations - an unusual arrangement that allowed companies to defer U.S. income taxes on foreign earnings until they returned the income to the U.S. That “deferral” provision led companies to stockpile an estimated $3.1 trillion offshore and many were criticized for the moves.