Shaw Capital Management Newsletter: Summary

Equity Markets. All the major equity markets, and most of the emerging markets,
have moved higher over the month.
Wall Street has provided most of the momentum, encouraged by
optimistic comments from the Fed and by the flow of favourable
corporate results.

Markets in mainland Europe have responded, despite the
uncertainties about debt defaults; the UK market had coped well
with a disappointing Budget statement that has left all the difficult
decisions until after the forthcoming general election; and the best
performance amongst the major markets has occurred in the
Japanese market as it has recovered from earlier weakness.

Shaw Capital Management Newsletter: Summary. Financial Markets. The mood in the financial markets has become more optimistic
again over the past month.
There are still concerns about the prospects for the some economies;
and the latest agreement amongst the member countries of the
euro-zone to offer help to Greece “if this becomes necessary” has
been received with considerable scepticism in the markets.
This has not really eased the fears about the possibility of sovereign
debt defaults. But there have still been no significant moves towards
“exit strategies” by central banks and governments, and so monetary
and fiscal policies remain stimulatory, and this has helped to
reassure investors that the global economic recovery will continue,
even if the pace in the Euro zone is disappointing.

Government bond markets have had another difficult month. The
latest agreement amongst the member countries of the euro-zone
to offer help to Greece has not been well received, Greek bonds
have continued to weaken, and this has provided further momentum
to the switching operations out of the bonds of weaker countries.
For most of the past month these switching operations benefited
the major bond markets; but towards month-end a series of
disappointing auctions led to a sharp fall in the world bond market
and increased the overall mood of uncertainty.
The massive funding requirements resulting from the measures to
counter the recession are clearly putting great strain on all the
bond markets.

Movements amongst the major currencies have been fairly limited
over the past month, but the markets remain very uncertain. The
dollar has retained its “safe haven” status, despite the sudden
weakness in the world bond market.

Investors and traders have awaited further evidence about debt
problems in Europe that might affect the euro, and about the policy
decisions in the UK after the general election that might affect
sterling; but the view in the markets seems to be that both currencies
will fall further against the US dollar.
The yen has also weakened over the month, with the move
attributed to the resumption of “carry-trade” operations financed
by cheap yen borrowings.

Short-Term Interest Rates. There have been no changes in short-term interest rates in the
major markets over the month.

Shaw Capital Management Newsletter: Summary. Commodity markets have been encouraged by the general
improvement in sentiment, but have produced a mixed
performance.
Base metal prices are sharply higher, but soft commodity prices
are mixed, with the further big fall in sugar prices as the main
feature.

At Shaw Capital Management we give you the information and insight you need to make the right investment choices.
We look forward to working with you and being the open architects of your financial well being.

Every investor will achieve better long-term risk-adjusted results by working with a true open architecture advisor.
Our philosophy is simple: almost every investor will achieve better long-term risk-adjusted results by working with a true open architecture advisor.

Before Shaw Capital launched the open architecture revolution, investors had to make the unhappy choice between selecting an advisor who was independent, but unsophisticated (the traditional pension and endowment consulting firms), or selecting an advisor who was sophisticated but had conflicting interests (global banks, trust companies, money management firms).

Today, virtually all investors faced with the challenge of managing a significant pool of capital can access open architecture advice.

A true open architecture firm is completely independent of the rest of the financial services industry and accepts compensation only from its clients.
In addition, open architecture firms must make the financial commitment to hire only the most experienced advisors, and those advisors must apply their experience to the issues that will most affect their clients' wealth.
Matters like asset allocation and manager search are simply too important to be left in the hands of young analysts.
We are proud of our role in leading the open architecture revolution, and look forward to introducing you to its benefits.