magazine archive
magazine archive
Russ Mould
How three years of sound and fury on the markets signified nothing
Thursday 23 Mar 2023The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the latest round of strife to engulf Credit Suisse (CSGN:SWX) , forced into a union with UBS (UBS:SWX) , are once more putting the spotlight on monetary policy and begging the question of whether central banks may already be running it too tightly, as they...
Should investors seek exposure to the FTSE 100? Here are the pros and cons
Thursday 09 Mar 2023The FTSE 100’s brief flirtation with the 8,000 level is attracting a lot of attention. This may be a sign UK equities are still the subject of much scepticism, as the tone of the mainstream coverage seems to be one of pleasant surprise. Bulls will point to fund management legend John Templeton’s...
Is the US headed for a hard or soft landing in 2023?
Thursday 23 Feb 2023American musician and bandleader Frank Zappa once asserted that: “The mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.’ Investing is surely just the same. No-one has a crystal ball and financial markets are at their most volatile – and therefore ripe with opportunity – when consensus...
Markets must keep watching Japan as there are big risks brewing
Thursday 09 Feb 2023T he Magnificent Seven may be one of the most famous films, or at least most famous Westerns, ever made, but both the 1960 version (Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and the rest) and the 2016 remake (with Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt, to name but two) draw heavily on 1954’s Seven Samurai and the...
Which are the most and least popular stocks heading into 2023?
Thursday 26 Jan 2023Every year this column tracks the ratings put on stocks across the FTSE 100 and FTSE 350 by the investment banks which provide research on the UK equity market. This time, the analyst community is the most bullish it has ever been since our first survey back in 2015, based on stock-specific, public...
The five big factors which could push oil prices higher or lower in 2023
Thursday 12 Jan 2023Oil and gas prices are down so far in 2023 and both are trading back where they were a year ago. If central bankers, politicians, companies and consumers are looking for good news when there seems to be so much bad around, this is it. Higher energy prices stoke inflation, crimp corporate profit...
Discover what the yield curve is telling investors right now
Thursday 15 Dec 2022America’s S&P 500 is up by 11% in the last two months and the UK’s FTSE All-Share by 10% from the bottoms seen in early October. This may seem counter-intuitive, as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Office for Budget...
Does FTX’s collapse mean the cryptocurrency bubble is about to burst?
Thursday 01 Dec 2022Lurid stories continue to emerge as the courts, regulators and creditors continue to sift the wreckage of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, its trading and research arm Alameda and the financial affairs and reputation of their founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Three crushing ironies are apparent: 1. FTX...
History shows US stocks do well in the third year of a presidential term
Thursday 17 Nov 2022The rapturous response offered by equity and bond markets to a lower-than-expected US inflation print last week (10 Nov) only served to reinforce the importance of the debate over whether or when the Federal Reserve and other central banks will pause or pivot on monetary policy. The mere whiff of...
How to measure the new chancellor’s progress
Thursday 27 Oct 2022South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt is the fourth chancellor in four months. Assuming he remains in place under new prime minister Rishi Sunak he is likely to measure success in terms of jobs, economic growth and ultimately opinion polls and then votes when the next general election comes around, in...