An update on the latest news, insights, and market views shaping global wealth management and investment trends.

Weekly Snapshot

This section highlights weekly performance, notable volatility, and significant currency moves shaping investor sentiment.

• In the week the US granted Russia an oil waiver, the S&P is down -1.9% and the Nasdaq is down -0.6% Europe was down -6.8%. The Nikkei was down -5.5%, China’s mainland market was down –1.1%
• Brent oscillated between $81 and $119 in a single week. Monday’s retreat from the highs followed president Trump's comments about possible sanctions relief for Russia; by Thursday the move was fully erased as Iran’s new Supreme Leader doubled down on the Hormuz closure, sending Brent back above $100/barrel. Goldman Sachs revised its annual Brent forecast 20% higher. The IEA’s emergency release of 400 million barrels had little effect 
• The US 10-year Treasury yield climbed to 4.28%. The rate path this quarter will be driven by energy pass-through, not domestic fundamentals. The March FOMC is a near-certain hold (>99% per CME FedWatch); markets are pricing a single 25bp cut, pushed out to September at the earliest. The week’s coupon auction cycle was soft; domestic direct bidder participation on the 10-year collapsed to 12.8% vs. a 20.3% recent average, forcing dealers to absorb an outsized share. With $271bn in Treasury supply expected over the next four weeks, demand is a signal worth tracking
• The dollar firmed 1.4% on the week (DXY); gold held in the $5'015–5'238 range. Gold’s refusal to correct despite higher real rates speaks to the depth of the safe-haven bid
• Bitcoin recovered toward $74'000 on Friday on the Bessent Russian oil waiver announcement

Geopolitical Landscape

A summary of key political and geopolitical developments during the week that may influence global markets and impact portfolio positioning.

• Operation Epic Fury enterred its second week. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed to Western tanker traffic, affecting ~20% of global daily oil supply. Major container lines have rerouted around the Cape of Good Hope. Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei confirmed the closure is indefinite and threatened to open additional fronts if the conflict deepens. Strikes have spread to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Bahrain. Iran’s conditions for ceasefire, recognition of its rights, reparations, and security guarantees, are not ones the current US administration can accept
• Moscow is the clearest net beneficiary, and Washington has compounded the problem. Russian Ural crude briefly traded at a $12/barrel premium to Brent as the Hormuz shock redirected global supply attention. The US Treasury then issued a 30-day waiver authorising delivery of Russian crude loaded before March 12, the announcement was framed as a supply-stabilisation measure but widely criticised as strategically self-defeating, especially after US officials confirmed Russia was actively providing Iranian forces with the locations of American military assets including warships. Congressional Democrats immediately demanded reversal

Macroeconomic Developments

Key macroeconomic data releases and economic indicators across major regions and individual countries, providing insight into growth trends, and the broader economic outlook.

• February CPI was the last read before the energy shock. Headline +2.4% YoY, core +2.5%  were both in line, but the data entirely predates Hormuz. Apparel +1.3% MoM (largest jump since September 2018) shows tariff pass-through is already underway independently of oil. Services ex-shelter remain sticky at 3.1%. Consensus expects headline CPI to reprint above 3% by May as energy costs flow through. February. Core PCE rose 0.4% month-on-month in January, as expected
• US Q4 2025 GDP second estimate rose at a 0.7% annual rate downwardly revised from 1.4%, down sharply from Q3’s 4.4%. The deceleration was driven by the collapse in government spending during the 43-day shutdown
• UK January GDP flatlined, a miss that pre-dates the oil shock entirely. The Office of National Statistics reported 0.0% MoM growth against a +0.2% consensus, services were flat, industrial output -0.1%.The UK is heavily exposed to TTF gas prices

Corporate & Sector Highlights

Insights into notable developments among major global companies and sectors, including earnings results, strategic initiatives, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory developments, and trends influencing corporate performance.

• Oracle delivered  a good quarter. Revenues of $17.2bn (+22% YoY), cloud revenues +44% to $8.9bn,  EPS $1.79 vs. $1.70 consensus, it was the first quarter in 15+ years of simultaneous 20%+ organic revenue and EPS growth. Cloud infrastructure surged 84% YoY. The stock had fallen 23% YTD heading into the print and climbed 10% after-hours. FY2027 revenue guidance was raised to $90bn
• Nvidia  made a $2bn investment in Nebius (European AI cloud, focused on inference infrastructure) and a $2bn stake in Synopsys ($414.79/share). Next week, Nvidia is expected to launch NemoClaw, an open-source enterprise AI agent platform designed to run without Nvidia hardware. The logic is deliberate: broad software ecosystem adoption generates hardware pull-through over time. Jensen Huang is locking in positions across AI chip design, inference infrastructure, and agent orchestration while avoiding the regulatory scrutiny that outright acquisitions would invite
• Hims & Hers announced a distribution partnership with Novo Nordisk on March 9 to bring Ozempic, Wegovy, and the newly approved oral semaglutide tablet onto its platform...alongside the dismissal of Novo’s lawsuit. HIMS becomes Novo’s primary consumer-facing distribution partner in the US. The stock surged 40%+ in the sessions following the announcement before pulling back 7.9% Thursday on profit-taking; it remains down 27% YTD. Novo’s structural problem is unchanged: the company guided full-year 2026 adjusted sales of -5% to -13% at constant exchange rates, citing pricing agreements with the US, loss of exclusivity for semaglutide in key markets, and non-recurring 2025 gross-to-net adjustments. NVO currently trades at more than half its peak value
• Morgan Stanley capped withdrawals at its North Haven Private Income Fund after redemption requests hit 11% of net assets against a 5% quarterly cap, returning only $169m (45.8% of what was tendered). Cliffwater’s $33bn flagship gated simultaneously after investors sought to pull a record 14%. This follows similar moves by BlackRock, Blackstone, and Blue Owl. The common thread is AI-driven disruption to software borrowers’ earnings. Simultaneous gates across the sector’s largest managers is the kind of structural stress signal that warrants close monitoring. Morgan Stanley shares fell 4.1% on Thursday.
• Microsoft launched the E7 bundle, the new suite integrates Word, Excel, Teams, Copilot AI, and Agent 365 at a price below separate purchase. The explicit objective is to accelerate enterprise AI adoption and improve measurability of AI usage. This is Microsoft treating AI penetration as a distribution problem: bundle aggressively, track usage, demonstrate ROI. For standalone productivity and workflow software vendors, the E7 announcement is a material competitive headwind.
• Saudi Aramco raised its Q4 base dividend and launched a $3bn share buyback programme. With Brent above $100, both are comfortably funded from free cash flow. The dividend flows directly to the Saudi government as majority shareholder; the buyback is used selectively to support the share price and signal capital discipline to international investors
• Anthropic is suing the US Department of Defense, contesting its classification as a supply chain risk, which resulted in the termination of AI contracts with the Pentagon

Chart of the Week

Turns Out, Oscar Prefers it Cheap

The Chart below shows that peak studio-era budgets above $90M (Gladiator, Lord of the Rings, The Departed) gave way to a sustained sub-$25M regime from 2013 onward. Since 2013, every Best Picture winner has been a low-to-medium budget film, Oppenheimer (2023) at $100M is the only outlier in an otherwise unbroken indie run.

The contrast at last year's ceremony was especially sharp: Anora won with a $6 million budget, while fellow nominees Wicked ($150M) and Dune: Part Two ($190M) left empty-handed in the top category. 

Parasite, Nomadland, CODA, Everything Everywhere All at Once were all independently made with budgets below $20M, a trend that 2025 only reinforced. What will 2026 bring? Results this Sunday.