Russ Mould is AJ Bell's Investment Director. He has a Master's degree in Modern History from the University of Oxford and more than 30 years' experience of the capital markets.
He started out at Scottish Equitable in 1991 as a fund manager, where he had responsibility for the Nordic and Swiss equity markets. In 1993, Russ joined SG Warburg, now part of UBS investment bank, and worked there as an equity analyst covering the technology sectors for 12 years. He has also worked on IPOs and M&A deals. Russ was voted best analyst in the semiconductor sector in 2001 by Institutional Investor and reached the level of Managing Director in 2003 when he became head of UBS' global semiconductor research effort.
A member of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (MSCI), Russ is responsible for providing written and video content for customers and clients. He also helps to build the company’s profile in print and broadcast media as part of AJ Bell's wider PR and brand team, working alongside the Investment Committee.
Russ joined Shares Magazine as technology correspondent in 2005 and took on the post of Editor in 2008. He was appointed as AJ Bell's Investment Director in 2013 following the company's acquisition of Shares' parent company, MSM Media. Russ regularly creates content across the AJ Bell website, including the Daily Market Update and Chart of the Week, and he hosts his own 'Breaking the Mould' weekly video series.
Outside of work, Russ is a qualified cricket coach, Italian speaker and avid fan of Doctor Who and NFL.
7 September 2023
Is it worth paying an arm and a leg for ARM?The price range set by Softbank and its army of bankers and advisers for ARM of $47 to $51 a share implies a total market capitalisation for the business of $47 billion to $51 billion (since it has a billion shares in issue) with its $2 billion net cash pile on top. That gives an enterprise value (EV), or total value for the business of $49 billion...
10 August 2023
Bellway shares refuse to crumble despite weak outlookReservation rates are down sharply, the order book is also down sharply, prices are no longer going up and completions are expected to go down in the coming year, but shares in Bellway are holding firm despite the gloomy outlook statement that accompanies the housebuilder’s latest trading update.
Analysts are cutting their profit forecasts for the...
13 July 2023
Dividend growth still expected in 2023 despite stalling profit forecastsAfter the index’s brief flirtation with the 8,000 mark, the FTSE 100 is trading no higher than it did in summer 2017. A forecast yield of 4.1% for 2023 (and 4.4% for 2024) offers some compensation, although these figures are no longer as eye-catching as they once were, when inflation was low and interest rates anchored at all-time lows of 0.1% for...
22 June 2023
Associated British Foods third-quarter trading updateAfter a 55% surge from their autumn lows, shares in Associated British Foods, the owner of Primark, British Sugar, Twinings and Ovaltine, are up by a sixth over the last year.
The shares rally has been fuelled by a rally in the pound, a drop in oil and gas prices (to the potential benefit of consumer spending) and a marked fall in sea freight costs...
16 June 2023
Why the US deficit is a taxing issue for the Federal ReserveThe Federal Open Markets Committee continues to argue that it is ‘data dependent’ when it comes to setting monetary policy. The latest round of inflation figures is therefore likely to be very influential but two equally important numbers that get less attention than they should are US tax receipts and the Federal deficit – not least because the...
9 June 2023
Central bank policy decisions in the USA, EU and JapanIt is one of those weeks when central banks take centre stage, because the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are all scheduled to make their latest policy decisions. The BoJ may be pleased to see inflation, after flirting with deflation for most of the last three decades, and seems in little rush to curb an...
2 June 2023
Prudential announces FTSE 100’s 26th CFO change in 2023Whatever lay behind the sudden dismissal of Prudential’s chief financial officer James Turner, a breach of conduct rules is an unusual reason for someone to leave such a position, even in a year when no fewer than 26 changes in CFO have already been announced by FTSE 100 firms.
Shareholder pressure on the board after poor operational or share...
23 May 2023
Have global stock markets reached peak USA?Softbank’s decision to list ARM on the New York Stock Exchange, rather than its London equivalent, and a seemingly growing queue of FTSE 100 firms that desire to switch their listing Stateside, is causing much angst and prompting the London Stock Exchange to ease its rules for new market entrants.
This raises two issues. The first is investor...
11 May 2023
Is the NASDAQ in a new bull market or stuck in the old bear one?It was the worst-performing major equity index in 2022 and, so far, it has been the best in 2023, so investors may well be tempted to think that the NASDAQ, and technology stocks more generally, are back in business, especially after the meaty rally in stocks such as Meta Platforms and Microsoft following their first-quarter results.
In addition...
27 April 2023
Why big tech needs to deliver if US indices are to maintain their momentumAmerica’s S&P 500 has added $2.4 trillion in market capitalisation so far in 2023 and just six stocks – Meta Platforms, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google’s parent Alphabet and Microsoft has provided $1.6 trillion of that gain between them, or two-thirds of the total.
After a lukewarm set of figures from Netflix last week, and a sharp year-on-year...
