Monthly Review - April 2026

Equities lead the rally

Equity markets rebounded strongly, after sharp falls in response to the outbreak of Middle East conflict. The S&P 500 touched new highs, demonstrating a belief that the gradual de-escalation of hostilities was well underway¹. Fears of rising inflation were outweighed by the promise of accelerating earnings growth. Not so for fixed income markets. Bond yields, which rise as bond prices fall, moved in lock-step with the price of crude oil. The US dollar gave up much of its ‘safe haven’ gains, while gold rallied somewhat after sharp falls in March.

All change at the Fed?

The appointment of Kevin Warsh as chair of the US Federal Reserve (Fed) moved closer to Senate approval, after the criminal case against the outgoing Jay Powell was dropped. Warsh testified before the Senate banking committee, confirming that, despite his own plans for reform at the world's top central bank, the Fed ‘must stay in its lane’². Meanwhile, the Fed's patient attitude in the face of geopolitical uncertainty has likely encouraged global counterparts to moderate their stance on near-term rate hikes. The ECB (European Central Bank) now claims it has ‘the luxury to wait’.

Disappearing digital jobs

The social media platform Meta, one of the Magnificent Seven* tech stocks, announced 10% job cuts in order to ‘offset other investments’³. Spending on AI this is forecast at US$135 billion, as founder Mark Zuckerberg aims to create ‘personal superintelligence’⁴. He has admitted lagging rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Big tech rival Microsoft, meanwhile, announced that voluntary redundancy might affect 7% of its US workforce⁵. Elsewhere, Anthropic's new Mythos AI tool sparked fears of an escalation of cyber crime. Its bug-busting capabilities could be exploited by hackers to develop autonomous attack agents, capable of operating at alarming speed.

*Magnificent 7: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and Tesla.

Clean power surge

According to an independent report, fossil fuel output in 2025 fell for the first time since the pandemic, while clean energy generation grew faster than electricity demand⁶. Underscoring the shift away from fossil fuel, renewable energy production outstripped output from coal-fired power stations. The report outlined a new structural reality, with the Middle East conflict only accelerating the adoption of clean energy, such as wind and solar power, amid government efforts to reduce energy supply risks. Separately, the report revealed China's exports of green technologies, including solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles, reached a record high in March.