10 February 2021
Monthly Market review – Download Article
The surge in markets in late 2020, triggered by the positive vaccine news, Biden’s success
in the US election and the favourable settling of the UK-EU trade negotiations, continued
into the new year. Equity markets made a strong start while government bond yields rose.
However, optimism waned as January wore on, concerns rising about Covid mutations, the
pace of vaccine roll-out, especially in the EU, and the economic damage caused by tightened
and extended lockdowns across many parts of the world, most notably Europe. By month end,
expectations for a sharp economic recovery had been pushed out to later in 2021
