That hitherto slightly unreliable port in a storm, spot gold (XAU/USD), is looking that much lighter than its underlying physical commodity in February. But what’s supporting the gold price today is exactly what should have supported the gold price last August, when we briefly got a taster of the sort of equity market volatility that’s…
Shares in Rolls Royce (RR) have finally broken above 9-month falling highs to retest a 600p handle as markets reward CEO Warren East for the difficult decision to slash the FY dividend by a whopping 50%, well beyond expectations of 25%, joining commodity sector peers – quite rightly – in doing what’s necessary to ensure…
Rio Tinto shares suffering from confirmation of commodity sector woes this morning. Shareholders are reacting unfavourably, maybe even a little unfairly, to a far from unexpected change to dividend policy after a 51% decline in FY earnings and a downbeat outlook – 2016 is set to be even tougher. Management ditching its progressive and currently generous…
A not unusually muted reaction to Fed Chair Janet Yellen’s testimony this afternoon, given that she’s come out and said ‘financial conditions in the US have recently become less supportive of growth.’ It doesn’t take a 1st class physicist to recognise that this is essentially another way of saying ‘we raised interest rates before we…
ARM Holdings (ARM) shares have broken below the key 900p level as investors balk at a Q4 earnings report card that showed its chip architecture licensed for use 4bn times last year, pre-tax profits growth of 17% a fraction ahead of consensus and growing faster than revenues, and a 25% hike to the FY dividend. What’s…
The UK trade balance for goods is experiencing the widest deficit since records began. But don’t worry – the UK trade balance for services is in surplus by the most it’s ever been! This, a stark indicator of the UK’s diminishing presence as an exporter of goods and looming champion as an exporter of services (think financial, legal and creative), has got…