WORLD

[Fabio Minozzi]

Risk rose in 2017—via North Korea’s ongoing saber rattling in the form of ballistic missile tests; the re-emergence of global populism which this past year included Donald Trump’s first year as president of the US; the UK’s continuing, muddled Brexit negotiations; the ascent of Catalan separatism and recent Euroskeptic election victories such as Sebastian Kurz’s People’s Party in Austria, not to mention the weak outlook for a variety of nationalist-leaning parties in South and Central America—but global markets remained exuberant, with US markets at the forefront, though shares in South Korea (up 20.2% YTD), Brazil(+26.3% YTD) and Hong Kong (+34.5%) outpaced US gains (19.8% for the S&P). The best performing index this year however was Vietnam's Hanoi 30, up a whopping 53% on the year so far.