magazine archive
magazine archive
Russ Mould
How does the UK escape from its debt trap?
Thursday 19 Nov 2020This week’s column comes in response to a number of questions from a reader about the national debt, how the Government funds it and what the implications are for investors’ portfolios. The last numbers with which we can work are those presented in the Budget of March 2020, although the world...
Why Turkey could still trouble global markets
Thursday 12 Nov 2020It may seem churlish to worry, given the enthusiastic response the markets are giving to news of the Phase III Covid-19 vaccine trial by Pfizer and BioNTech, but investors need to keep an eye on Turkey once more. The Turkish lira is on the slide and Ankara is facing what could yet become its second...
Why it helps if chip stocks show some sizzle
Thursday 05 Nov 2020The heavyweight sextet of Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Netflix are not the only names that matter in the broad technology sector. Granted, Amazon and Apple are among the 20 best performers in America’s benchmark S&P 500 index so far this year, but so are several other tech...
The factors that could make value outperform growth and tech
Thursday 29 Oct 2020Tesla wiped the floor with analysts’ consensus forecasts for its third-quarter results and Netflix missed, to get the reporting season off to a mixed start for momentum-fuelled technology stocks. Netflix’s shares sagged and Tesla’s advanced only modestly to again raise the issue of valuation and...
How to tell if the global economy can keep on trucking
Thursday 22 Oct 2020Regular readers will know this column is a big fan of Richard Russell’s so-called ‘Dow Theory,’ which argues that if the Dow Jones Transportation index is thriving then the better-known Dow Jones Industrials index should flourish too. In theory, it can only be good news if the share prices of the...
Reasons why cryptocurrencies are creeping higher
Thursday 15 Oct 2020The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Loretta Mester has raised the prospect of Americans having an account with the Fed, into which the central bank could directly pump digital dollars, thus bypassing the banks as the main mechanism for quantitative easing (QE). The European Central Bank has...
Predictions for a FTSE 100 earnings rebound look shaky
Thursday 08 Oct 2020No-one can agree upon the origins of the quote, ‘hope is not a strategy’. This column cannot be sure and a trawl of the internet sees commentators attribute to everyone from former US president Barack Obama to film director James Cameron to former New York City mayor Rudi Giuliani to one-time Green...
Will Suga stoke returns from Japanese stocks?
Thursday 01 Oct 2020Following the departure of prime minister Shinzō Abe for health reasons in September and his replacement by right-hand man and Liberal Democratic Party stalwart Yoshihide Suga, investors with exposure to Japan now have several questions to ponder. After all, the ‘Abenomics’ era, which began in...
Why bank stocks are getting bashed (again)
Thursday 24 Sep 2020Fresh allegations from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) about money laundering at HSBC ( HSBA ) and Standard Chartered ( STAN ) , among other leading global banks, may pertain to wrong-doing which is already covered by previously-paid regulatory fines, according to...
Is oil still on a slippery slope?
Thursday 17 Sep 2020Oil major BP’s ( BP. ) latest annual World Energy Outlook , released in conjunction with a three-day presentation from chief executive Bernard Looney and team outlining the oil major’s new strategy, offers three scenarios for demand for crude oil in 2050. They range from 89 million barrels a day,...