magazine archive
magazine archive
Editor's View
What could get Japanese stocks moving again?
Thursday 13 Feb 2025Japanese prime minister Shigeru Ishiba could have been forgiven for a degree of trepidation before his recent visit to the White House. Tariffs would have a major impact on Japan given how reliant its economy is on exports. Therefore, beyond a mild warning from president Donald Trump that Japan...
Trump tariffs, why UK stocks could be well placed and the benefits of investor participation
Thursday 06 Feb 2025Investors now have a flavour of how unpredictable life could be under a Trump administration as tariffs on neighbours Mexico and Canada were announced and then subsequently delayed in the space of 24 hours. Quite what this means for global markets is still up for debate and there remains an air of...
China AI venture DeepSeek comes out of nowhere to upset the apple cart
Thursday 30 Jan 2025Who had an open-source Chinese AI chatbot on their bingo card as something which could trip the markets up in 2025? Not me, I have to confess. We have a news special on the DeepSeek story and its implications from my colleague Martin Gamble, who won’t mind me saying has seen a few market cycles in...
Will mining M&A speculation prove to be more than just idle chatter?
Thursday 23 Jan 2025The market is alive with chatter about a mega-merger in the mining space after the revelation of a failed coupling between Rio Tinto (RIO) and Glencore (GLEN) . That’s understandable for several reasons, but recent history shows flirtations between corporate giants often go unconsummated. Having...
The Federal Reserve could be done with rate cuts
Thursday 16 Jan 2025Interest rates are back in focus. The UK is seeing its borrowing costs surge, as Martin Gamble explains in this week’s news section, and this has its own domestic causes, even if it also reflects similar moves in other sovereign debt. The latest US jobs figures strongly hint that the Federal...
Crunch time for UK investment trusts and stock market bargain hunting
Thursday 09 Jan 2025It’s crunch time for UK investment trusts. Already dealing with issues around disclosure on charges, the intervention of US hedge fund Saba just before Christmas, leveraging its large stakes in several trusts, is also shaking the foundations of the industry. We plan to look at this story in lots of...
Signs of life from the UK market as we end 2024
Thursday 19 Dec 2024The last 10 years have been pretty rough for UK stocks but there could be some signs of life emerging as we head towards 2025. Brexit, Covid and other political and economic shocks as well as a tilt towards ‘old economy’ stocks and a minimal footprint in technology have combined to undermine the...
Not all monopolies are created equal
Thursday 12 Dec 2024Some of the most successful businesses of our time (and all time in fairness) are effective monopolies (or perhaps part of a duopoly or triopoly) with such dominant market positions they are able to enjoy significant pricing power and generate above-average margins and returns on investment. This...
It’s crystal ball gazing time again as 2024 draws to a close
Thursday 05 Dec 2024In next week’s Shares, we face the unenviable task of getting out our crystal ball and attempting to work out what will happen with the markets in 2025. This time last year we were doing the same for 2024 and our resulting hit rate is reasonable looking back. We definitely got some things spot on...
The case for making yourself heard as an investor
Thursday 28 Nov 2024When you purchase shares, you are not just buying numbers on a screen - you are becoming a part-owner of a business. It’s important to remember this fact because, as a part-owner, you have a say in how the business is run and the ability to vote at annual general meetings (AGMs) and extraordinary...