Which stock markets look cheap as we enter the final quarter of 2020? October 23, 2020 | City Talk While the virus itself hasn’t gone away, as far as financial markets are concerned, the pit of misery was back in March. At that point, a typical global market stock market portfolio had haemorrhaged around a third of its value in just six weeks. Stocks have soared As is often the case, peak despair turns [...]
Wall Street closes in the red as stimulus talks grind on October 19, 2020 Wall Street closed lower this evening as deadlock over a new stimulus package raised concerns that time was running out to agree a deal before the election on 3 November. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4 per cent, to 28,207, the S&P 500 lost 1.6 per cent to hit 3,427.37 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq [...]
The maths of why growth companies are beating value October 14, 2020 | City Talk One of the side effects of low interest rates is that, because of the way that companies are valued, investors place a higher value on companies (and investment projects) which have a low probability, high payoff, a long time in the future. This helps explain why investors have been prepared to pay up for loss-making [...]
Has demand for oil already peaked? October 13, 2020 | City Talk Alternative energy sources to fossil fuels have been around for many years. Countries around the world are now harnessing the power of the wind, sun and tides to cut their dependence on fossil fuels such as oil. Energy transition However, this transition to renewable energy is now set to accelerate rapidly, driven by a number [...]
Playboy set for Wall Street listing as iconic publisher looks to float October 1, 2020 The company, founded by Hugh Hefner in 1953 and forever synonymous with nude female centrefolds, said today it will merge with SPAC Mountain Crest Acquisition in a deal that values Playboy at $415m (£323m). Hugh Hefner’s company has in recent years moved into selling clothes, consumer accessories, gaming and promoting “sexual wellness”. It stopped printing [...]
US GDP plummets 31 per cent in second quarter to lowest on record September 30, 2020 US GDP plummeted 31.4 per cent in the three months to July to the lowest level on record, data revealed today, as President Donald Trump scrambles to restore the economy ahead of the presidential election next month. Annualised figures released today by the US Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) revised up an earlier estimate which [...]
Tiktok files for injunction to overturn US app store ban September 24, 2020 Tiktok has submitted a request to block President Donald Trump’s plans to ban downloads of the video platform from US app stores on Sunday. The request, filed in a Washington district court yesterday, marks the latest attempt by the Chinese social media company to protect its service in the US in the face of a [...]
Counting down to the US election September 24, 2020 US elections are always significant and a point of interest around the world, but many are seeing this November’s as particularly so. Here are the big questions on the minds of investors. Can we trust the polls? Polls, as we all know, are not always correct. This time around they are of particular interest because [...]
Big Tech’s market might in five charts September 21, 2020 | City Talk The largest US technology stocks – Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and Google (Alphabet) – known as the “FAMAGs”, tumbled sharply at the beginning of this month, after supercharging the US stock market from the depths of the Covid-pandemic in March. These “superstar” firms have largely benefitted from the economic fallout of the crisis, as more people [...]
Global stocks slip as coronavirus cases rise September 19, 2020 Stock markets around the world continued to stutter this week as an increase in Covid-19 cases in across Europe weighed on market sentiment. Wall Street saw early gains on Friday reverse and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the session posting a third straight week of declines, led by this week’s Federal Reserve meeting and [...]