An exciting UK Index earnings season will peak next week, a long list of household names updating on recent quarterly performance. While revenues and profits are of course important, the Brexit situation means outlook is more key than ever. Prepare for some big share price moves by the likes of Barclays, Lloyds, BP, Shell, BT,…
Shares in Nintendo are coming back from their highs following an impressive rally underpinned by the insta-mania surrounding some kind of new game for smartphones or something. That’s right, Pokémon Go – the killer (quite literally in some cases, so we’ve heard) new augmented reality game – propelled shares in the console giant up 120% between 6th and 19th July….
“One of the sad and unintended consequences of Brexit,” said Arm Holdings’ founder Hermann Hauser yesterday after SoftBank lodged a £24.3bn offer for the UK listed chip designer, representing a 43% premium to last Friday’s close. Unfortunately for me, Hauser is a Remainer. If he were a Brexiteer then this would’ve been a lot more fun to write, but hey….
The UK Index ’s Mining contingent is on the back foot this morning, holding the UK blue-chip index back after Rio’s Q2 Production Report delivered iron-ore shipments below analyst expectations, albeit still higher than both Q1’16 and Q2’15. Management has been fortunate to be able to reiterate 2016 production guidance thanks to limited weather impact,…
Macro observations Overview Fed chatter sees the US central bank desperate to keep markets expectant of at least one US rate hike in 2016. However, with some form of economic stimulus widely expected from the Bank of England in August, policy divergence between Europe and the US is only set to widen. A key test for…
Having read through the Bank of England’s July MPC minutes yesterday, the more I think about it the more I don’t see a rate cut in August either. UK interest rates are already at a historic low of 0.5%, and we know Mark Carney is not a fan of the negative. With so little room…