magazine archive
magazine archive
Russ Mould
Why US corporate profits need to recover – and fast
Thursday 04 Jun 2020As America’s benchmark S&P 500 index barrels beyond the 3,000 mark once more, the US equity market continues to price in either a rapid earnings recovery or substantial monetary stimulus (and support for financial markets from the Federal Reserve) or further fiscal stimulus from Capitol Hill –...
What a corporate dash for cash could mean for investors
Thursday 28 May 2020April gave investors a taste of corporates’ need for cash, as listed firms tapped shareholders for £3.3bn, according to London Stock Exchange data, but Compass ( CPG ) and Whitbread ( WTB ) moving to raise £3bn between them in the space of a few days takes the figures to a different level as firms...
Why the FAANGs are flying high
Thursday 21 May 2020The best performing stock in the S&P 500 in 2020 to date may be a gold miner, Newmont, but 10 of the top 20 names are tech stocks of various colours and five more are pharmaceutical or biotech plays. Two – Netflix and Amazon – are part of the FAANG quintet, along with Facebook, Apple and Google...
Can gold miners help to dig income seekers out of a hole?
Thursday 14 May 2020Whatever investors think of the quality and accuracy of the data coming out of China, on either the extent of the Covid-19 outbreak or the economy, they may be intrigued to note how the country is behaving, as that is much harder to obfuscate. Zijin Mining acquired Canada’s Continental Gold for C$1...
Where next for US shares?
Thursday 07 May 2020Hard to believe as it may be, America’s S&P 500 index is down by just 3% over the last 12 months, while the NASDAQ Composite is up by 7%. This seems remarkable, give the COVID-19 outbreak and the economic fallout of the lockdown that is being used to fight it. Surely things cannot be just 3%...
What does coronavirus mean for markets long-term?
Thursday 30 Apr 2020In last week’s edition this column looked at the potential near-term implications for financial markets of the coronavirus outbreak. At the time of writing, markets are still trying to rally and are being encouraged to do so by the combination of ongoing monetary and fiscal support from central...
Why markets have rebounded and what could happen next
Thursday 23 Apr 2020At the time of writing, Italy’s MIB-30 index is up by 15% from its 12 March low, a trend from which this column, looking at it solely from the narrow perspective of investments, can draw some modicum of encouragement. It is impossible to be dispassionate about, or comfortable with, such matters,...
Why the dollar is in demand
Thursday 16 Apr 2020Whatever your opinion of Donald Trump, you always know what the US president is thinking and he could not be clearer on the dollar: he does not like a strong greenback. This is odd, because a strong currency is usually a sign of economic strength in absolute or at least relative to international...
Insurers start to follow banks with dividend cuts
Thursday 09 Apr 2020At the time of writing more than a quarter of the FTSE 100 index has elected to defer, cancel or cut their final dividends for 2019 or interim dividends for their next fiscal year. Perhaps the biggest blow to income seekers has come from the banking sector, where the Prudential Regulatory Authority...
Five ways to spot a market bottom
Thursday 02 Apr 2020Late March’s sharp three-day rally is inevitably begging the question as to whether markets are nearing or are even past the bottom after the savage sell-off that dates back to 24 February. This column still has its doubts, not least because history suggests market downturns are usually littered...