magazine archive
magazine archive
Editor's View
Are we back in 1995 when it comes to the markets?
Thursday 02 May 2024In 1995, Oasis and Blur were duking it out at the top of the charts, Barings Bank went bust and Manchester United broke the British transfer record by signing Andrew Cole from Newcastle. Meanwhile, in Downing Street, a Conservative prime minister faced plotting from MPs seeking to unseat him amid...
What Bitcoin halving means and why the price barely moved
Thursday 25 Apr 2024Followers of Bitcoin will have been closely watching the latest ‘halving event’ in the cryptocurrency which took place on 19 April. For the fourth time, the number of new Bitcoin entering the market has been slashed by cutting the rewards earned by Bitcoin miners by 50%. Mining Bitcoin involves...
Pessimism towards UK stocks means there are bargains galore
Thursday 18 Apr 2024They say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink, however that’s exactly what we are trying to do with this week’s cover story on the compelling value being offered in UK stocks right now. We may be sowing our seed on stony ground – indeed according to figures from one newspaper...
Is the US in an ‘earnings bubble’ instead of a valuation bubble?
Thursday 11 Apr 2024With the S&P 500 index having made more than 20 new highs this year, questions are being asked over the sustainability of the rally and the earnings growth which appears to be driving it. Given the market gains have been led by technology – by way of which, Shares noticed the market cap of...
Are Nike and Adidas losing their touch?
Thursday 04 Apr 2024Confected or not the recent round of international football fixtures was coloured by outrage over two major kit makers. With Nike (NKE:NYSE) in the firing line thanks to its ‘playful’ update of the St George’s Cross on the latest England jersey. For its part Adidas (ADS:ETR) was caught up in...
What do European companies really care about right now?
Thursday 28 Mar 2024If a management team is any good at running a public company then the numbers contained in a results statement should often be something of a non-event. It means those at the top have done a good job of setting expectations for revenue and earnings ahead of time – both in the background through...
Energy stocks only this cheap three times in last 40 years
Thursday 21 Mar 2024Oil prices recently hit a four-month high with Brent crude topping $86 per barrel after US inventories came in lower than expected and amid reports of attacks on Russian facilities. Yet the FTSE 350 Oil & Gas Producers sector is pretty much flat, like the wider UK market. In the US, energy...
Currys batting off bid interest is something to be welcomed
Thursday 14 Mar 2024This column signed off last week by bemoaning telecoms testing specialist Spirent Communication’s (SPT ) surrender to a £1 billion from US rival Viavi. As we observed, the 61% premium was not anywhere near as generous as it looked when you consider the takeout price of 172.5p was 100p less than the...
When cutting the dividend can be the right thing to do
Thursday 07 Mar 2024There was interesting market reaction to the recent decision (5 March) by builders merchant Travis Perkins (TPK) to slash its dividend by a whopping 58%. At first the stock was down a little but it quickly rebounded and actually began trading higher as the day progressed. Now it’s important to add...
Why it matters that Nvidia is one of a small number of stocks which dominate the market
Thursday 29 Feb 2024At 10pm UK time last Wednesday (21 February) traders around the world would have been watching their monitors waiting for the latest quarterly results from Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ) to drop. A lot was riding on them as even a mildly disappointing showing from the AI chip star could well have triggered a...