Social Unrest Spreads Worldwide, Investors More Wary

NEW YORK, N.Y. – As social unrest spreads from Hong Kong to more countries all over the world, some global investors start to become wary.

Some investors are saying that the spread of social unrest worldwide, especially the Hong Kong protests as well as those in Lebanon, now including Chile, are forcing them to start becoming more cautious. It is despite the seemingly still unaffected financial market so far.

During the last week’s Reuters Global 2020 Investment Outlook Summit, investors were starting to get especially concerned about the state in Hong Kong. The protests for greater democracy have been going on in the country for more than six months. Some investors during the summit commented about the theme starting to build up with issues like wealth inequality, globalization, and climate change, which will cause political unrest for the upcoming five to 10 years. It will significantly influence the markets, according to them.

According to the group chief investment officer of one of the largest asset managers in the world, PIMCO, Dan Ivascyn, such factors is a risk that caused them to pause and become more cautious than they usually are.

On the other hand, a hedge fund manager and now an investor in cryptocurrency and blockchain, Michael Novogratz, the intense friction in global politics, is not going to die down anytime soon. He stated during the summit in New York that there is a unifying theme in global protests.

But so far, the reactions to the social unrest from other financial markets continued to be patchy.

For example, the stock market in Chile, posted a monthly decrease back in October, their largest yet after almost two years. President Sebastian Pinera also admitted to the abuses when it comes to the massive social protests that ensued in the country nearly three weeks ago.

Some of the bond yields in Lebanon reached record highs recently before retreating despite the protests against the regarded inept and corrupt political establishment.

On the other hand, the major stock indexes in the US closed at all-time highs on Friday. It was mainly because the conflicts of relatively smaller economies still haven’t caused any widespread strategy modifications towards the larger investors.

During a summit in Hong Kong, AIA’s chief investment officer of insurer, Mark Konyn, also commented about similar issues. He said that investors are concerned about the possible social impact of the things that happened after the global financial crisis. He further added that those possible effects concern them in the long term.