Tokyo, Japan-headquartered securities broker, Osprey Associates believes that, contrary to market consensus, the blame for the current rout in global equities can be laid squarely at the door of the US Federal Reserve.

According to James Conroy, chief economist at Osprey Associates, “China’s economic slowdown has nothing to do with the selloffs in Europe and the US and nor do falling oil prices. The hike in interest rates last month and endless rhetoric about how many times the Fed will hike them again in 2016 is what is spooking investors.”

Markets have been rocked by volatility since the start of 2016’s trading. The selling started in China and was reproduced in Europe and the US as investors failed to find any positive news to support stock prices that have, according to Osprey Associates, been propped up almost single-handedly by cheap money from the Fed.

“The Fed’s gone to great lengths to convince investors that the era of free or cheap money is over and they’ve succeeded in doing so. Nothing short of a miraculous resurgence of US economic fortunes or a complete volte-face on Fed policy will stop stock markets correcting,” said Conroy.

Osprey Associates spent much of 2015 advising clients to position themselves for what it saw as the inevitable slowing of the US economy and the broader market realization that the Fed would almost certainly be forced to restart its quantitative easing program to combat it.

“We’re bullish on gold, commodities and emerging market equities and believe these strategies will bear fruit this year.

About Osprey Associates:
We at Osprey Associates offer ourselves as a guide through an increasingly complex financial marketplace to thousands of investors both large and small and, with some $3.3 billion-worth of assets under our diligent stewardship as at March 1st 2014, we consider ourselves to be one of the premier wealth and investment management practices in Asia.

It is our sincere hope that your visit to our website provides you with valuable and easy-to-understand insight into the world of wealth and investment management.