Modest decline in BP shares today from 20-month high, after management axed the buyback. Not a moment too soon IMO. The company has been poorly run for years and it would appear new management are drawing a line under the old regime with Meg O’Neil due to start as CEO in April.…[Read more]

JP Morgan wrote on Equity Strategy yesterday and kindly published a list of their top European stock picks as they did so see below.

They also posted a very useful valuations framework for European Equity sectors, out to 2027. So there is plenty to get your teeth into here

The action is in Asia once more.

US markets are unable to form a consensus right now when it comes to direction, and the most important narratives. Will AI eat software? Or will its gargantuan Capex requirements bankrupt the Mag 7 and Co before it reaches singularity?

South Korea and Japan, or at least their equity indices seen…[Read more]

Dow at 50,000!

The US Dow Jones Industrials Index bucked the rout in the tech sector by reaching the 50k milestone last Friday.

In particular, the blue-chip index surged 2.5% to break the range resistance and closed at 50,115. This is the highest close ever.

While many software stocks are wilting from growing fears of Anthropic’s AI o…[Read more]

Time to take a look at US Treasuries?

Market recap

– Bitcoin tanking. In yesterday’s post, I highlighted that $70k may be not the ultimate support that everyone was looking for. Indeed, Bitcoin smashed that level with relative ease and touched lows $60k in a bout of panic selling. But Bitcoin’s steep decline is now quite oversold. I ant…[Read more]

Its been a difficult couple of days for equity investors, particularly if you are exposed to technology stocks and given the weighting of the Mag 7, on a global basis, that’s pretty much everybody.

In times like this I find it useful to look at things from a top down perspective, tables like those shown below are helpful in this…[Read more]

Is Bitcoin slipping into a ‘Crypto Winter’?

Both gold – digital and real – have fared badly over the past week.

As gold crashed from $5,600 to $4,600 in a matter of hours, Bitcoin took its time. Still, the direction of its travel recently mirrors that of the precious metals: Down.

On Wednesday, Bitcoin slumped to its lowest level since lat…[Read more]

Two days ago I suggested that Unilever ULVR LN (or UNA NA), might benefit from the strength in US Consumer Staples.

see https://invesdaq.com/members/fatdaz/activity/515/.

The chart below shows the percentage change in both listings of Unilever, over two days.

And by my math they are up +4.0% that may not sound much but its more than…[Read more]

Are we seeing a growing shift into defensives?

The power of AI is hitting the corporate world.

Just this week, many previously stable large-cap data, analytics and software-related business (eg RELX, LSEG, SAP) were hammered into long-term lows. The fear is that generative-AI is expected to take future profits away from these tech firms.…[Read more]

The last few weeks have been a wild ride, driven by a changeable macro background and extreme volatility within precious metals.

However the S&P 500 Consumer Staples sector has been rallying in the background ,the whole time.

In fact, it’s up +9.39% over 1 month and by + 11.30% over 3 months

Not a bad return from stocks which are…[Read more]