Being long into the M&S results, I was understandably happy to root for the old girl as she struggles to re-invent herself for the modern world. The numbers themselves were broadly as expected and while it was comforting to have the dividend not only held, but forecast to remain that way, I was never in […]
Continue reading
Many companies resemble sharks. Not just for their need to keep eating new prey to grow, but to keep growing to stay afloat. The capital intensive airlines are perhaps the most glaring example of this in action, particularly given the additional scale advantage that can be secured. The problem for investors however, is being able […]
Continue reading
Markets love corporate activity. Bankers love them as shifting assets around companies earns them big fees. Managements love them because they provide opportunities to earn big bonuses. Investors therefore are encouraged to believe all this will enhance shareholder value, so as to endorse the merry-go-round. How many times have we seen acquisition led growth disguise […]
Continue reading
There seems to be a whole industry that has emerged to pore over the monthly US non-farm payroll numbers, but ultimately there are only two things of interest. Are US corporate sacking enough employees to signal an impending recession, or employing so many and paying so much as to spook the Fed into tightening monetary […]
Continue reading
When a slow, or no growth company offers stock to acquire a faster business, then there is always a risk that time value will whittle away the initial bid premium. For AT&T’s offer for Time Warner, this has been accentuated by the drawn out litigation with the DoJ to get the deal approved as well […]
Continue reading
It’s not exactly rocket science to work out that upstream oil profits and therefore oil major share prices are sensitive to prevailing oil prices. It therefore ought not come as too much of a surprise then to see sector share prices respond favourably to the better than expected rally in oil prices, with Brent hitting […]
Continue reading
As a student of history, Putin is probably well aware of Napoleon’s maxim of “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake”. The US, France and UK may well feel empowered this morning after attacking Syria with around $200m worth of missiles, but what have they achieved? The Syrian military has not been […]
Continue reading
Facebook is “responsible for the content” on its platform, Zuckerberg says Wow, now that’s quite an admission! Zuckerberg, by implication no longer sees Facebook as an open social platform to enable users to connect and share their own content, but one where Facebook participates in the ownership of that content and can impose its own […]
Continue reading