The U.K. Parliament’s decision to postpone a final vote on the country’s exit from the European Union marks the latest geopolitical development likely to swing financial markets, highlighting the extreme levels of uncertainty that some investors worry isn’t being properly accounted for with U.S. stocks near all-time highs. The U.S.-China trade war, Britain leaving the EU and impeachment proceedings in the U.S. are just some of the major political obstacles facing investors. Adding to the uncertainty are the Turkish military...
International investor uncertainty is the highest it has been for more than 20 years, with uncertainty about Brexit, the US-China trade war, US impeachment proceedings and Turkey’s actions in Syria hitting sentiment. Academics from Northwestern, Stanford and Chicago universities have created a set of indices to show that political and economic uncertainties are at their highest since 1997, rising sharply during 2018. A second index shows uncertainty about global trading had risen to 100, having been an average of 2 between 1996 and 2018. Some analysts, however, have said Asian stocks could face a favourable scenario despite the uncertainties.