McDonalds share hits fresh highs

When other assets are not doing well, you can always turn to McDonalds (MCD).

The global fast-food company is positioned in all major cities. McDonald’s food quality and menu are famously standardised. Every Big Mac is the same in all stores; only prices differ (leading to the ‘The Big Mac Index’). In other…[Read more]

Rolls Royce jumped on excellent results and buybacks

Rolls Royce’s (RR.) growth results today continues to unpin its excellent recovery.

Over the past 5 years, Rolls Royce outperformed almost every other large cap stock in the UK. Prices rallied 20x from its 70p pandemic low. Investors who stayed steadfastly in the aerospace stock had reaped a…[Read more]

FTSE 100’s accelerated uptrend to pause?

In today’s The Telegraph business section (Feb 23), one prominent headline screamed: “Britain is biggest loser from Trump’s new tariffs”.

Last week, the Trump administration was dealt a significant blow after the US Supreme Court rejected its Liberation Day tariff plan. Not backing down, the US president…[Read more]

Is cattle meat (‘beef’) about to become more expensive?

The Barron’s cover story (‘The Cattle Crisis: Small Herd, High Prices’) last week highlights the impending crisis in the industry.

You can sense this by just looking at the price chart of Live Cattle.

Prices have been rising non-stop for the last 2-3 years. After a brief consolida…[Read more]

Is the Japanese Yen about to bounce higher?

Since Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide election win on February 8, the Japanese stock market has soared to all-time highs, bond yields slumped and the Japanese Yen became less weak.

Against the US dollar, the exchange rate has dropped from 157 to 153, extending the broad pattern beneath the c…[Read more]

Palantir completes a top formation?

Uncertainty is growing in financial markets.

Many long-running bull trends have collapsed (eg software stocks), while assets like gold and silver have regressed significantly from their recent peaks.

Meanwhile, a few red-hot Asian markets are near-term overbought (eg, Kospi and Nikkei 225).

In sum, it is…[Read more]

Surprise, surprise – UK utility stocks breaking out

One thing AI can’t really replicate is the provision of basic utilities. Can it, for example, provide clean water, electricity and install nation-wide power grid? No. So while AI may automate bookkeeping or chat with you online nonstop, it doesn’t pull copper wires to your property.

Perhaps for…[Read more]

Are housebuilders making a comeback?

While macro-data coming out of the UK economy these days is generally ‘subdue’ (latest GDP +0.1% in 4Q25), investors seem to be warming up to the housebuilding sector.

Yesterday, a few property instruments broke out to the upside.

One major speculation is that the beleaguered Labour government may rev…[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]

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]

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]

Tungsten maintains record rally

While gold and silver prices are melting down, one commodity extends its record-breaking rally on Monday. That’s Tungsten.

The industrial metal is a grayish-white element, labelled under ‘W’ in the periodic table. “Wolfram” is Tungsten’s former name.

Tungsten has many useful properties, such as highest mel…[Read more]

RELX extends cyclical bear trend into multi-year lows

The power of AI is now impacting many companies’ share prices.

One such stock is the multi-billion publishing and analytics company Relx (ticker: REL), a component of the prestigious FTSE 100.

If you look at its long-term share price, you’d think that AI has completely obliterated its ent…[Read more]

US Dollar slumps against major currencies

Financial markets are always full of surprises. Many old timers will attest to this.

“Thirty years ago,” wrote Buffett in 1994,” no one could have foreseen the huge expansion of the Vietnam War, wage and price controls, two oil shocks, the resignation of a president, the dissolution of the Soviet Union…[Read more]