Gary McFarlane

In a sign of the extreme pressures building up inside the financial system, the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF (BND) has moved to an unprecedented discount to its net asset value.

On 12 March, BND traded at a discount of 6.2%. This is unusual because exchange traded funds (ETFs) are replicating an underlying asset or market and therefore their prices will typically be closely aligned to their net asset value. Vanguard’s BND fund at its height held assets under management of $55 billion.

With equities still on a bull run like no other, it would be reasonable to say that commodities might not be top of the buy list for private investors.

But if you are looking for a slug of diversification to add to your portfolio there are three commodities that might attract the interest of savvy investors.

The DGLD “digital gold” token, slated to start trading imminently, is backed by gold bullion held in Swiss vaults and runs on top of an infrastructure that leverages the bitcoin network to record transaction history.

Coinshares has partnered with MKS, a Swiss leader in bullion storage and fabrication and London-based Blockchain.com, one of the oldest crypto wallet providers in the industry with arguably the largest active wallet infrastructure.

Less than one in 10 of the British public are confident they have saved enough in their pension for their retirement.

That’s the finding of a survey conducted by insurer NFU Mutual of more than 2,000 people from across the country. Just 9% say they are “very confident” of being comfortable in retirement.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Henderson Investment Funds £1.9 million for failing to treat customers fairly.

The regulator says that 4,713 retail investors in the Henderson Japan Enhanced Equity fund and the Henderson North American Equity fund were treated differently from institutional investors in the same funds.

The government has addressed the problem of high-earning NHS doctors refusing to work extra hours because of the fear of being penalised on excessive pension contributions and facing unexpectedly high tax bills as a result.

The latest Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index report, a long-term study of global dividend trends, shows underlying growth in payouts from publicly listed companies of 5.3% for the third quarter, coming in at $355 billion (£273 billion).

Janus Henderson says growth is in line with the long-term trend identified by its index, but adds that a market slowdown is under way. There were notable above-trend performances from the US and Europe.

The Labour Party is proposing to nationalise BT Openreach in an unexpected election announcement that has taken the stock market by surprise.

BT Openreach is the telecom giant’s infrastructure division responsible for rolling out its high-speed broadband network across the UK.

The party plans for its new publicly owned British Broadband to be free to all households and businesses.

Bitcoin, currently priced at $8,508 (£6,725) according to data site cryptocompare, is trading at 12-month highs after staging a dramatic price recovery since the beginning of April.

It hasn’t been lost on investors looking to reposition their portfolios for more uncertain economic times that bitcoin is the best-performing asset this year by some considerable margin, having risen 122% since January. 

Only a small percentage of the UK population has bought bitcoin or any of the other cryptocurrencies, according to the Financial Conduct Authority.

Even among the 3% of consumers who have bought a cryptocurrency, there is a high degree of ignorance about what they are and how they work.