What M&S’s new boss Steve Rowe can learn from Sir Alex Ferguson about crafting a winning business January 11, 2016 "It's a bit like being asked to be England football manager… you don’t turn it down.” These were the words of one analyst when Marc Bolland, soon to be former Marks & Spencer chief executive, took the retail hot seat back in 2009. Now, like so many England managers, he departs with a sense that adversity [...]
After one of the worst starts to a year on record, will 2016 prove a poor year for stock markets? January 11, 2016 Paul Markham, Newton’s global equities portfolio manager, says YES For equities overall, it is clearly too early to tell whether a bad start to the year is a sign that 2016 will be challenging. However, it is true that leadership of markets in recent months has been ever narrower, with a small number of large-cap stocks [...]
Corbyn, business and the diplomatic dance January 8, 2016 Hands up: who was gripped by Jeremy Corbyn’s reshuffle this week? By normal Westminster standards this wasn’t exactly a swift and decisive event. It started late on Sunday night and is just about wrapping up now. Westminster watchers were in overdrive, camped outside the office of the Leader of the Opposition, live-blogging every twist and [...]
Why financial markets matter for the real economy January 8, 2016 Much like Jose Mourinho’s second spell at Chelsea, 2015 turned out to be a false dawn for the stock market. After breaking through 7,000 in April, the FTSE 100 ended the year barely over 6,000. The rollercoaster was even bumpier in China, where the market rose by 54 per cent by mid-June, only to lose [...]
Meet Ted Cruz: The dark horse Republican who could pip Donald Trump to the nomination January 8, 2016 Senator Ted Cruz is the most interesting candidate in the US presidential race right now. As a darling of the Tea Party, in 2012, he swept into the Senate, representing Texas, having campaigned on deeply conservative principles and policies. At the time, many dismissed him as a rabble-rouser who would wind up as a less [...]
China is exporting a new wave of deflation – and global growth downgrades are inevitable January 8, 2016 Global equity markets are battling against the third wave of deflation which Fidelity first spoke about last summer. The first wave was the US housing and financial crisis of 2008-9, the second the euro crisis of 2011-12, and now, the third, the emerging market crisis of 2015-16. All emerging market crises start in the foreign [...]
With Marc Bolland stepping down, can anyone turn around M&S’s faltering clothing business? January 8, 2016 Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, says Yes. The M&S clothing business can be fixed, starting with these three moves. First, stock availability has to be improved as this has been an issue since 2012. The firm needs to do more dual-sourcing for quick, repeat sales on strong lines. This would maximise full-price sales, help [...]
More to capitalism than good economic growth January 7, 2016 What are the hallmarks of capitalism? Typically you might think of cities, skyscrapers, banks, insurers, people in sharp suits, and so on. These are some symptoms of a market-orientated economy, for sure, but they do not tell the whole picture. There are two factors that accurately signal the degree to which a society is free [...]
Prepare for civil war: Tory Brexit splits will have shades of 1970s Labour January 7, 2016 Was there anyone in the Conservative Party who didn’t see it coming? David Cameron has finally given the Cabinet’s Brexit faction the free vote on the EU they so deeply desired. Given that this follows a series of previous climb-downs on everything from the wording of the referendum question to limits on the use of [...]
As it claims to have tested a hydrogen bomb, does North Korea pose a serious threat to global peace? January 7, 2016 Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, says Yes. The corrosive nature of its regime, coupled with possession of nuclear weapons, makes North Korea a dangerous international menace. At just 32, Kim Jong-un is the despotic ruler of a country cut off from the outside world and with internal dissent stifled by his security [...]