Allan Gray’s Umar-Farooq Kagee explores gold’s resurgence as a trusted store of value amid de-dollarisation, rising debt, and geopolitical shifts. With central banks increasing reserves and miners outperforming, investors can benefit through balanced exposure to both physical gold and equities.

Global investors risk missing opportunities by assuming US stock performance reflects the world. Schroders’ Duncan Lamont highlights how Value and High Dividend stocks are thriving internationally, while Growth and Quality struggle, challenging assumptions, reshaping valuations, and underscoring the case for active, diversified investing.

The GDP grew 0.8% quarter-on-quarter, lifting annual growth to 0.6%, an improvement on Q1’s 0.1% but still below population growth, leaving the country in what Citadel Chief Economist Maarten Ackerman calls a “per capita recession.”

Despite South Africa’s political and economic challenges, local equities and bonds are delivering solid returns. Structural reforms, private-sector investment, and attractive valuations suggest a positive long-term outlook, highlighting why investors should look beyond headlines and focus on fundamentals and diversification.

The World Gold Council, Linklaters and Hilltop Walk Consulting propose Wholesale Digital Gold, an innovation merging physical ownership with digital efficiency. By bridging allocated and unallocated structures, this vision could transform gold trading, settlement, and collateral use, reinforcing London’s global market leadership.

With inflation coming in line with expectations for August, tariff concerns took a backseat, Sebastian Mullins, Head of Multi-Asset and Fixed Income at Schroders Australia explores the tension between a resilient US economy and growing expectations for rate cuts.