Q2 2023 overall was a time when many investors pushed out forecasts of a recession until at least Q1 2024 and even a failed coup in Russia could not disrupt the markets optimistic feel. Focus was instead on micro developments, the most significant of which was the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) with the launch of ChatGPT in particular. This led to some spectacular individual equity performance, the most notable being Nvidia which rose 52.3%, adding some $358bn to its market cap. Technology overall led performance with the Nasdaq Composite up 12.8% (31.7% YTD) posting its strongest H1 performance in 40 years. Equities were strongly positive with the S&P 500 up 8.3% (15.9% YTD). In fixed income, the High Yield (HY) was up 1.2% (4.9% YTD), and the Investment Grade (IG) was down 0.4% (4.0% YTD).