The row with the US over the UK’s commitment to continue to use Huawei systems for its 5G roll out has filled the column inches not already consumed with the CoronaVirus.

It is often said that markets don’t like uncertainty. This is not strictly true, for while long term investors are seeking to match asset and liabilities and to price actuarial risks and thus are largely indifferent to noise and uncertainty

The traders got handed their script for the New Year nice and early, with the dramatic escalation by the US of the tensions with Iran.

If 2018 was ‘the year when nothing seemed to work’ in Equity markets, then 2019 was the year when everything seemed to, with many indices closing at all time highs and the villains of 2018 becoming the heroes of 2019.