In recent years, marketers and product developers have done their fair share of using terms like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Internet of Things as if they interchangeably stood for the future of our world

Last month’s “risk-on” trend continued through February, in spite of concerns over the Coronavirus beginning to translate into lockdowns (in the UK and Germany), curfews (in, inter alia, France)

The year began on an optimistic note, with the early-January Democratic Sweep in the US re-igniting the reflationary narrative.

January was a very eventful month

Equity markets keep going up. Risky assets are supported by expectations of new stimuli in the US and elsewhere.

In the era of responsible capitalism, corporations are increasingly affected by societal debates.

While the coronavirus is still spreading and the vaccine rollout is more challenging than anticipated, the latest manufacturing PMI are resisting well and improving.

The year ended with financial markets firing on all cylinders and this carried on through the first week of January as, one by one, risks faded into the background on investors’ list of priorities.

The global stock market concluded the year on an all-time high, with investors cheering the news flow and the start of the vaccination process in regions such as the US, the UK and the Eurozone, despite a pandemic still out of control in many of those – and other – regions.