Crisis, what crisis? All good here!
Before anything else, have a really lovely Bank Holiday weekend. I shall be helping at Braunton Fair on Monday and catching-up tomorrow…
Crisis? What crisis? Could be the question our investors pose about the recent Trumpian-created volatility as we seemed to sail-through unscathed and emerging from the other side seemingly in better shape than when...
Market news and investment
Meta and Microsoft both topped analysts’ expectations for latest quarter’s results at the same time the US economy suffered a regression of 0.3% in the first quarter’s ‘growth’ – apparently nothing whatsoever to do with President Trump of course and his actions of late.
Gold has come-off its top – an over-extended spike it might...
Growth, debt and the Titanic…
I was reminded recently that on 14 April it was the anniversary of the Titanic hitting the iceberg, in 1912. Had it hit it head-on, it would not have sunk. Are there analogies here for President Donald Trump’s tariff announcements…?
This is either the fact that 90% of the problem isn’t obvious or maybe that...
Client Letter – Trump’s tariffs
April 2025
Dear Client
Almost five years to the day of the last such letter, I must contact you with our latest thoughts as a consequence of the traumas on global investment and economic markets. We have all been left shell-shocked on President Trump’s tariffs, creating a whirlwind of volatility with it. The US markets have...
Tariffs leave shaken shares and markets
Well, the world is still coming to terms with what has been unleashed upon it and the volatility in the financial markets as a result. Not only have shares been shaken-up but other things are not necessarily reacting as they ‘should’ and perhaps for ‘other’ reasons. I am also taking this opportunity to wish...
Trump tariffs – don’t panic
This is not long after my last missive but clearly President Trump’s tariffs are creating temporary havoc. However, it is very disconcerting and especially when a whole year’s ‘normal’ returns for investors can be wiped out in just a day’s movement on a market. No-one alive has faced tariff announcements of this nature.
The last...
Days left to make ISA and Pension contributions before Financial Year ends
So the dearly departed are coming to the rescue of the Chancellor, as Inheritance Tax receipts for the period from April 2024 to February 2025 topped £7.6billion and that is before the swingeing increases in the Autumn Statement where these death duties will affect pensions and businesses too.
The figure is projected to grow another...
US wobbling subsides – for now
Volatile US stocks
Volatility led by the US has escalated quite dramatically. It's impacted market values – especially some US tech cos and Nasdaq has drifted 10% now but the concerns over tariffs and the Ukraine situation and the US reaction to it, let alone clumsy politics and diplomacy, have not helped. Suddenly Nvidia and Tesla aren't...