It’s been quite a test of resolve for global markets this week as a host of international crises have finally come to bear on what the US will have to pay to borrow. huge knock effects on other economies and markets.
The US Treasury has attempted to flatten the curve, arguably in a bid to tame inflation without raising rates.
To date, it feels like it hasn’t worked. This was the FT’s verdict - US long-term bonds slide as Treasury secretary Bessent’s intervention fails to soothe investors.
FTAdviser looked at the week in charts in an effort to explain the situation.
The Guardian is predicting interest rate rises for the US which will clearly have a bearing on the UK.
This from Morningstar also feels pertinent about a related stock market story - ‘There Are Many Ways This Can Go Wrong’: Bank of America’s Raedler Warns of AI Pullback.
Huge US borrowing (plus borrowing in other economies) has been exacerbated by the war/stand off in the Middle East and tariffs.
At the weekend, we saw an escalation in the tariff situation with the US placing tariffs reaching 50% on many Canadian goods and Canada saying it will match them. This is NBC news on the matter.
Royal Bank of Canada does more detailed analysis here.
Although it is a small impact, it may not help sentiment.
In other news,an interesting report from AJ Bell shows that 500 advisers and paraplanners have concerns that the IHT and pension shake up is putting pressure on some advice decisions with Four fifths of advisers are worried about wrapper inflexibility amid tech, process compliance obstacles. Octo Members thinks it’s the biggest story of the week.
A big FCA report notes that wealth management is consolidating significantly. Corporate Adviser sums it up – Ten largest wealth managers now have nine in ten clients.
Good comments collected by FTAdviser linking a big tax take to likelihood of more increases to come in CGT and IHT.
It reports that HMRC collected £322.7bn in total tax and national insurance contributions between April and July 2026, marking a £19.1bn increase on the same four-month period last year.
Wealth experts warn that approaching legislative reforms will soon pull significantly more client wealth into the Treasury’s net.
