JD Wetherspoon sales jump despite continued pub sell-off May 7, 2025 Sales at JD Wetherspoon jumped five per cent over the last quarter as the pub giant continued to sell more locations. The pub giant has sold off seven of its pubs since the start of the year, despite opening only two new ones, it said in a trading update today. It said it expected to [...]
Billionaire Bill Ackman’s Pershing Square makes moves on Berkshire Hathaway aspirations May 6, 2025 FTSE 100 trust Pershing Square has made further steps towards billionaire manager Bill Ackman’s aspiration to emulate Berkshire Hathaway by building a diversified holding company. Pershing Square Capital Management, which runs the investment trust, has made a further $900m investment into property company Howard Hughes, bringing Ackman’s stake in the firm to 46.9 per cent. [...]
Terry Smith: Reeves must drop tax hikes to attract UK investment May 6, 2025 Star fund manager Terry Smith has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to cancel her tax hikes to make investment in the UK more attractive. Smith, who runs the £20bn Fundsmith Equity fund, argued that to boost the quality of UK companies the government should “reverse a lot of the policies that are in place with [...]
Ex-JP Morgan and Schroders manager launches boutique advisory May 6, 2025 A former fund manager at JP Morgan and Schroders has launched a boutique advisory firm. William Meadon, who managed the JP Morgan Claverhouse investment trust from 2012 to 2024, has launched a new firm called Steppingstone. Meadon said that the firm was launching in a bid to challenge the approach of larger firms, targeting clients [...]
Magnificent Seven magic is ‘dead’, says top tech investor May 6, 2025 For years, investors have relied on the Magnificent Seven to provide massive returns. Now, one of its biggest beneficiaries has said that strategy is “mostly dead”. The small group of giant tech stocks has seen a tripling of its total weight in the S&P 500 over the last decade, and now makes up around a [...]
Private capital investment into UK business jumps 44 per cent May 6, 2025 The volume of private equity and venture capital cash flowing into UK businesses jumped by 44 per cent last year as investors increasingly look outside of London for opportunities. Private capital firms invested £29.4bn into UK businesses over 2024, compared to £20.4bn in 2023, research from the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association revealed. [...]
US dollar supremacy is slowly eroding, investors warn May 5, 2025 Investors are warning that the supremacy of the US dollar is slowly eroding, as the currency struggles to regain its position after Trump’s trade war shook confidence in US assets. The DXY index, which tracks the greenback’s performance against a basket of currencies, is down 6.5 per cent since the start of the year, and [...]
Oil prices slump to four-year low amid Opec+ production push May 5, 2025 Oil prices have slumped to a four-year low as concerns over a supply glut from Saudi Arabia and a slowing global economy rattle the sector. Brent crude, the global benchmark, has fallen more than four per cent after oil cartel OPEC+ agreed over the weekend to increase oil production by another 411,000 barrels a day [...]
Warren Buffett set to resign as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway May 4, 2025 Warren Buffett is set to step down as CEO of Berkshire Hathaway at the end of the year, marking a surprise ending to his 60 year career as the ‘Oracle of Omaha’. The famed American investor said he will recommend to the company’s board that Greg Abel, chair of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, should take over [...]
Investment funds in April: Energy plummets while property soars May 1, 2025 Energy funds suffered deeply during April as an expected slowdown in global growth caused oil prices to tank throughout the month. Five energy funds featured in the bottom 10 performing investment funds, alongside two resource funds, with Guinness Global Energy as the worst performer, falling 13.5 per cent. “With the price of a barrel of [...]
