magazine archive
magazine archive
Russ Mould
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...
Watch margin debt as tech giants keeps powering S&P 500
Thursday 09 Sep 2021The S&P 500 index continues to barrel higher, setting fresh peaks as it does so. The American benchmark has advanced for seven straight months, its best run without a loss since its 10-month romp between April 2017 and January 2018, even if some of the market technicals have not convinced...
Why gold could yet shrug off an unhappy anniversary
Thursday 26 Aug 2021In August 1971, America’s 37th president, Richard M. Nixon, took the greenback off the gold standard, ‘closing the window’ though which overseas governments could exchange paper dollars for the precious metal at a fixed rate of $35 an ounce. That manoeuvre, which signalled the end of the 36-year-...
Five ways to take the markets’ temperature
Thursday 12 Aug 2021The FTSE 100 continues to paddle gently sideways – it is summer after all. The UK’s benchmark index has gone nowhere since May and still stands around 10% below its May 2018 peak of 7,779. Yet the vagaries of the FTSE 100 – which has exposure to sectors that are unpredictable (miners and oils),...
Why Chinese stocks are still not partying
Thursday 22 Jul 2021Tomorrow (23 July) heralds the one-hundredth anniversary of the first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party and the country’s leadership continues to mark its birthday with a series of high-profile events, speeches and actions Whether the centenary is anything that investors can mark with pleasure...
Dividends: the FTSE 100 could yield 3.9% in 2022
Thursday 15 Jul 2021Environmental campaigners may grimace and investors who run strict environmental, social and governance ESG screens are likely to remain indifferent, but yield-seeking portfolio builders will doubtless be delighted to see Royal Dutch Shell ( RDSB ) promise higher cash returns to shareholders in the...