magazine archive
magazine archive
Russ Mould
Will the ‘Boris bounce’ fall flat?
Thursday 27 Feb 2020March could be a big month for the UK stock market. Investors continue to await news on the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) and whether containment and quarantine policies are starting to work. The Bank of England will formulate its first monetary policy decision under its new governor, Andrew...
What is behind Bitcoin's latest comeback?
Thursday 20 Feb 2020At a time when a FTSE 100 member’s shareholder list looks flaky and shares in a fake meat company’s shares are sizzling again in the US it may come as no surprise to some investors that an alternative currency (or a fake one, depending on your viewpoint) seems to be coming back into vogue. Bitcoin...
Will the global M&A love-in end in tears?
Thursday 13 Feb 2020Readers may beg to differ but this column is pretty sure that it was the Financial Times newspaper’s Barry Riley, in his always-readable Long View piece, who coined the phrase ‘the urge to merge’ when it came to corporate merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. (If anyone disagrees and has proof...
Look to January for clues on the coming year’s stock market performance
Thursday 06 Feb 2020There is a saying that a good start in January means the year as a whole is likely to see positive returns. Looking at the history of the FTSE 100 since its inception in 1984, seven of the index’s 10 best years came when it got off to a flyer in January and seven of its 10 worst showings came after...
Do markets need to care about who is the next US president?
Thursday 30 Jan 2020Despite the best efforts of the Democratic Party, it still seems unlikely that US president Donald J. Trump will be impeached, not least because the Republicans have a blocking majority in the Senate, the upper house of Congress. But Trump could still be unseated on 3 November, when Americans will...
Will China flourish in the Year of the Rat?
Thursday 23 Jan 2020The latest Chinese lunar year begins on 26 January as the Year of the Rat takes over from the Year of the Pig. In theory, China already has something to celebrate, in the form of the phase one trade deal signed with the US on 15 January. In return for Beijing agreeing to substantially increase...
The most and least popular stocks heading into 2020
Thursday 16 Jan 2020Although the UK’s stock market underperformed those of Eastern Europe, the US and Western Europe in 2019, in sterling, total-return terms, few investors are likely to sniff at a total return of 19.2% from the FTSE 350 index. The FTSE 250 outpaced the FTSE 100 with a total return of 28.9% against 17...
Five dangers to watch in 2020
Thursday 09 Jan 2020One of this column’s favourite aphorisms from master investor Warren Buffett (and there are admittedly quite a few of those) is: ‘speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest’. The strong returns offered by most asset classes in 2019 could tempt some investors to think making money is easy...
Where next for the price of oil and its producers?
Thursday 19 Dec 2019OPEC is ending 2019 where it ended last year – on the back foot, trying to support the price of oil with production cuts pushed through in conjunction with Russia and other countries who are not members of the cartel. The extra reduction, which takes the total to 1.7m barrels of oil a day, is...
Don’t get caught out by investment bubbles
Thursday 12 Dec 2019One theory held by some market strategists is that a tidal wave of cheap cash, provided by central banks’ interest rate and quantitative easing policies, means we are witnessing ‘The Bubble of Everything’ as prices surge across a range of assets, ranging from equities to bonds to property to art,...