Climate Progress Dashboard points to 4.1°C rise in temperature January 30, 2018 | City Talk Progress is being made in tackling climate change, with continued falls in oil and gas investment pointing to lower future production. However, the improvements have been offset by a global fall in investment in clean technologies. Those are findings of the Schroders Climate Progress Dashboard, updated quarterly, which tracks the temperature rises implied by key [...]
Corporate bonds vs shares: eight questions answered January 30, 2018 | City Talk Investors face a constant dilemma over which assets, such as shares, bonds and property, to invest in. The answer is often that a mix of assets can help meet your goals. Different investments can perform well at different times. For example, when shares languish, government or corporate bonds may fare better. This is considered to [...]
Global MBA rankings 2018: The best places to study in the UK January 29, 2018 Cambridge has fallen out of the top 10 best places to study for an MBA, leaving just one location in the UK – London Business School – among the very best in the world. University of Cambridge: Judge fell from fifth last year to 13th in the Financial Times' annual global MBA rankings. London Business [...]
Brexit didn’t break the UK in 2017 January 25, 2018 | City Talk When the UK voted to leave the EU in June 2016, many experts forecasted economic doom—if not immediately, then in the not-too-distant future. Some sentiment-related, short-term volatility followed, but the UK didn’t fall into recession following the referendum. Similar projections arose going into 2017, but those fell flat, too. Through all the noise and warnings [...]
How ‘blockchain’ compares with ‘dotcom’ in the company name game January 24, 2018 One of the first things you learn as a value investor is to dig below the surface of any potential investment – analysing a business’s balance sheet and other data to ensure you really understand its underlying value, its financial strength and how it works. In short, a relentless focus on the numbers means we [...]
The UK is leading the way in crowdfunding and P2P lending as the rest of Europe plays catch-up, says University of Cambridge data January 22, 2018 The UK has helped to prompt a boom in European crowdfunding and peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, according to new research from the University of Cambridge's Judge Business School. While the UK remained the largest alternative finance market in Europe by far, at €5.6bn (£4.9bn), the rest of Europe began to play catch-up as it grew its [...]
A year of President Trump: seven charts that reflect market reaction January 19, 2018 | City Talk Donald Trump became president of the US on 20 January 2017. Markets reacted positively to his pro-business rhetoric and his promise to cut taxes and spend big on infrastructure. The global economy was already picking up a significant head of steam for the first time since the financial crisis. But Trump’s election and his policies [...]
FTSE 100 predictions, share tips… forget it all and consider the 2018 anti-forecast January 17, 2018 | City Talk The start of January traditionally sees many investors trying to fill the blank slate the new year represents with forecasts of what the coming months will bring. Ever the contrarians, including us on The Value Perspective, a blog with value investing ideas, a more recent tradition has seen us offering up our own new year [...]
These are 2018’s most (and least) stressful jobs January 12, 2018 You could have been forgiven for thinking, in the year 2018, the world's most difficult occupations would include such futuristic roles as "robot wrangler" and "drone cleaner". But new research has shown the most stressful jobs are surprisingly traditional – with senior military personnel coming top. The list, by US recruitment site CareerCast, also ranked [...]
Investment trust winners of 2017 January 11, 2018 | City Talk Investment trusts enjoyed healthy investment returns last year, with funds focused on Japan delivering some of the best returns in 2017, according to data for trust sectors. Investment trusts are an alternative to more commonly held open-ended funds or unit trusts, offering some advantages. This is explained here: investment trusts vs open-ended funds. Here we [...]
