There are lots of things that have no bearing on the stock market right now, and Corbyn is one of them. En passant, he poses an interesting question for the Labour party. They now have a leader voted for by a clear majority of party members, but whose politics do not broadly agree with a…
In a fascinating new study of metal prices on the London Metal Exchange, data compiled by Sanford Bernstein analyst Paul Gait suggests that base metals follow an almost boringly predictable seasonal pattern. Gait, who has become best known for his perma-bull stance on copper giant Glencore, has compiled metal price movements for every month and…
What knows he of equities, that only equities knows? That old observation by a poet about England in the early 19th century is based on the fact that all things are relative and need to be put into context. For many equity investors foreign government band markets may look to be on another continent but…
The last time the BoE moved its key interest rate was in March 2009, when the financial crisis was at its peak and the British economy was thirsty for liquidity. Six and a half years later, the financial crisis is over but the BoE is still afraid of touching its near-zero rate. The last MPC…
I kicked off writing about football and economics back in February, hot on the heels of the English Premier League clubs spending a record £950 million on player transfer fees. I also suggested that if current trends continue, we could well see the first £1 billion player within the next 20 years. While Gareth Bale’s…
– The FTSE 100 closed the day at 6,117.76, a decrease of 38.05 points. – The FTSE 250 fell by 51.66 points to finish at 16,968.4. – The FTSE All Share dropped by 18.29 points to 3,372.85. – The FTSE AIM All Share finished at 733.80, down by 0.34 points. A fall in housebuilding activity…
In part three of our series on mining companies warehousing assets at a cyclical low, we look at Newfound-based Altius Minerals, which is having a very good downturn indeed… “The eagle is landing,” Rio Tinto told shareholders, after a high-grade base metals discovery it made in Upper Michigan in 2002. The copper content was more…
By James Tuckett, Co-founder and CEO of investUP – the crowdfunding supermarket Every couple of months I write a blog talking about trends in crowdfunding. Now one might think that this is simple regurgitation of the same tepid words, like much of the content which plies the inter-web. But what’s great about crowdfunding is that…
Builders in this country are, in the main, a bunch of corner-cutting scallywags. But builders’ merchants are a good group of geezers: knowledgeable, happy to help and well organised. What’s more, given their increasing economies of scale they are enjoying nice margins, with much less business risk than their professional clients. In the current UK…
Alex Brummer is presumably a tolerably sensible chap in his private life. But at the Daily Mail he is told to write whatever causes a daily hate even if the text that emerges is palpable rubbish. A very good example is his criticism today of The Mashley when Brummer remarks that “Business history tells us…
