magazine archive
magazine archive
Russ Mould
Two key takeaways from the silicon chip market
Thursday 10 Feb 2022Regular readers of this column will know of its affinity for the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, known as the SOX. The benchmark comprises 30 global – if primarily American – manufacturers of silicon chips and semiconductor production equipment. It can be followed for free on the internet, but it...
Why markets are worried about inflation
Thursday 27 Jan 2022Well, that didn’t take long. The US Federal Reserve began to pump less quantitative easing (QE) into the financial system in November and the stock market’s wheels have already started to wobble after barely two months of less cheap money, let alone any move to withdraw it. Investors can therefore...
Discover the least and most popular stocks heading into 2022
Thursday 13 Jan 2022Every 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. And what catches the eye this year is that the analyst community is the most bullish it has ever been since our first survey back in 2015...
Five key charts for 2022 (and beyond)
Thursday 16 Dec 2021No-one, not even central bankers, knows what is ahead of us in 2022, and whether inflation, stagflation or deflation will result from the combination of the pandemic, lockdowns and supply-chain chaos on one side, and massive amounts of fiscal and monetary stimulus designed to boost demand on the...
What president Biden could do to dampen oil prices (but probably won’t)
Thursday 02 Dec 2021It is a case of so far, so bad for US president Joe Biden’s plan to force the oil price lower by releasing 50 million barrels of oil from America’s SPR (Strategic Petroleum Reserve). Fifty million barrels a day may sound a lot. But in global terms it is half a day’s demand and America’s entire SPR...
Does Wall Street fail the Gordon Gekko test?
Thursday 18 Nov 2021Gordon Gekko, the insider-trading corporate raider of 1987’s Oliver Stone film Wall Street , may have been a villain but that did not stop him talking a degree of sense. Quite what he would have made of Rivian’s $100 billion-plus market value after its first day of trading we will never know, but...
What the bond market is telling investors
Thursday 04 Nov 2021The most violent price reaction to last month’s Budget was seen in the usually calmer environment of the bond market. The yield on the benchmark 10-year government bond, or gilt, plunged in one trading session from 1.11% to 0.985%. That equated to a 1.3% one-day gain in the paper’s price (since...
Inflation, deflation or stagflation: how to prepare your portfolio
Thursday 21 Oct 2021Doubt is not a not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd,’ is a valuable insight from 18th century French writer Voltaire and right now investors have much to consider. No-one knows what is coming next, not even central bankers. If they did, the monetary authorities would hardly still be...
Why the dollar must be watched
Thursday 07 Oct 2021The International Monetary Fund’s quarterly Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves report may not be everyone’s idea of bedtime reading but one trend immediately emerges from the latest data. The dollar is still – slowly – falling from favour as the globe’s reserve currency with non-US...
Will food prices fuel inflation?
Thursday 23 Sep 2021Just now investors will be interested – even concerned – to ascertain whether food prices will be the source of a sustained bout of inflation and one which may do damage to consumers’ ability and desire to spend. Central bankers will want to know too, in case inflation forces their hand and...