May Day holiday tomorrow, so we got what feels like 2 days in 1 with plenty of volumes, news, and interesting ideas… HSBC kicked it off out in Hong Kong and rallied 4% on numbers as CEO plans his exit, Samsung +2% on strong AI demand, GALP hit record highs on their quarter, Whitbread gained 4% on the buyback and cost cuts (but needs overall trading to improve to get us positive), K+S guided higher mid-morning, and then PLAYTECH rallied 18% the past 2 days yet has us all looking for news to ju…

A weird start to a fairly weird week which includes market holidays, a Fed rate decision, key data across the globe, month end, corporate earnings and as a result a fairly hesitant start. The Stoxx 600 gained a few bps and manage to close the day higher but without much style and fanfare when the day’s range stayed within an incredibly tight 35bps. That could probably end the Snapshot if we were keeping things super snappy but there was maybe a little bit more to mention. In macro German CPI wa…

There was something for everyone today: For the stock picking purists there was 70 odd European companies updating us today on how they’ve coped so far in 2024. The good news is that it is the most we’ll hear from in a single day for the quarter so the load will lighten from here on out. Another frantic morning made even the more interesting by M&A headlines within the mining sector as BHP drew up an approach for Anglo American which, if successful, would be the biggest shake up the industry ha…

A little delay to the Snapshot as days like today are hard to succinctly put into a couple of paragraphs. Lots of noise and a fast start as everyone tries to assess the earnings that rattle through at speed that shows no concern for the people trying to do the assessing. It always settles soon after the open with a bit more calm which is the thing we all have to have in mind especially ahead of a reporting schedules like tomorrow! The marathon of a week is now 60% complete and it feels like we’…

After a shoddy Six Nations campaign I’ve shifted my focus well and truly to the Euros and Scotland’s tilt at a generational changing title to put ourselves on the footballing map forever. A mouthwatering opening fixture vs Germany in Munich (Scott McTominay brace coming) followed by a clash vs Switzerland in Cologne which I’m very much hoping to attend. Flights booked but tickets are extremely hard to come by as Scottish fans amongst others fly over in their droves. The scarcity and demand woul…

Always an emotional weekend seeing all the inspirational stories from the London Marathon as 50k people trudged along the streets (some faster than others) and raised an incredible amount of money, all for amazing causes in the process. A marathon not a sprint certainly the theme for this week given the sheer volume of companies both sides of the Atlantic updating us we may have a very different view of how corporates are holding up in this higher(er) rate environment. Today was very much like…

So we got a little ahead of ourselves.. This may be best illustrated in Commodities, which saw their largest monthly allocation increase since 2006 (plot for the Big Short comes to my mind) – a rather startling reminder of how aggressively underweight some areas of the market remain when investors rush to balance their books (see visuals on the Copper & SXPP Index charts, which should include the caption “fomo”)…. And, with Powell finally throwing in his towel for June rate cuts Tuesday (partia…

Yields this, dollar that but today we got to ignore them (well as much as possible) and look under the hoods of some of Europe’s biggest companies. Far more interesting than what ECB speakers have to say about rate cuts and inflation targets as this was a look at how these big heavyweights have fared in the first quarter with yields elevated and the consumer surely coming under a pressure!? LVMH bounced 3% after results that were maybe not as bad as feared post some recent moves in the likes of…

The Snapshot doesn’t dwell on the weather too much for obvious reasons but last night was ridiculous – 4 seasons not in a day, but in an hour as I was caught in Hail, sun and then rain on my way home. The one we’re most concerned about is certainly the Winds that have been changing the past few days in Equities and we were certainly a little rocked by the moves after we left for the day. The Stoxx 600 opened down over >1% with a broad based risk off stroke of the brush but never really felt lik…

A bit of a spring cleanout in the Morrison household at the weekend and the outcome was despite the amount of arguments it creates it is a very therapeutic process. It’s an interesting experiment so we created a rule to make things simpler: it didn’t matter about how much it cost, if we hadn’t worn/used in a year and don’t envisage that changing in the next year it was for recycling/charity shop. Fair is Fair. Now I have no experience of investment management but this felt a little bit like Equ…