By SIMON CONSTABLE
Chinese premier Xi Jinping might have cemented his power in China, but dreams of dominating the global economy could soon come to a screeching halt. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The Fed has a hard job ahead fighting inflation.
But its recent series of interest rate hikes have delivered a substantial increase in the cost of living for more than a few Americans. That’s at odds with the institution’s stated goals. Read more here.
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By SIMON CONSTABLE
There’s a been a lot of scaremongering about Russia and its threats to turn off Europe’s energy supply this winter by conducting ‘maintenance’ on the natural gas pipeline that goes through Ukraine.
But it's a hollow threat. So empty that it beggars belief. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Get ready for another lumber rally,
Despite its epic fall since March, lumber could be about to surge once again, experts say. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
As if California wasn't already hurting workers enough. Read more here.
Photo by Viviana Rishe on Unsplash
By SIMON CONSTABLE
She also 'detests' Conservative Party voters, which make up almost one-four Scots voters. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
What a difference a few decades make. In 1982, the reputation of the Federal Reserve was riding high after its leader Paul Volcker had deftly tamed the double-digit inflation that blighted the US economy during the late 1970s. A year later, when Hong Kong suffered a currency crisis, the Fed’s tangential involvement played an essential part in lifting the then-British territory out of economic and political turmoil. While the Fed’s glow lasted into the early 21st century, the institution now seems to have lost some of its luster, as have other major central banks, according to some experts. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The snarks keep on coming for Britain’s new Prime Minister and finance chief.
Just a few days into their new jobs, Liz Russ (PM) and Kwasi Kwarteng have received a barrage of criticism for introducing some new economic policies, including tax cuts.
But the critics seem to have gotten the wrong end of the stick. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Scotland’s stance on higher education should be a poster-child for public policy gone awry. In short, the outcome is the opposite of what the ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) says it desires. Read more here.
University of St. Andrews
Holger Uwe Schmitt, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The United Kingdom’s housing market is likely to screech to a halt.
For that, you can blame Britain’s banks.
Or the government...
Or investors.
Yep, it’s a complicated matter. But some people will find it tricky to buy or sell houses for the immediate future. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Communist China under premier Xi Jinping is wilting fast.
The economy, already under pressure so far this year, looks to get even worse, according to a recent report from London-based consulting firm Capital Economics.
Capital kicks off with the following blistering assessment of the situation:
By SIMON CONSTABLE
The United Kingdom’s finance chief just dealt an economic blow to Scotland.
It’ll likely be a slow-burn problem for the Scottish National Party, but it could end up being devastating. Read more here.
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By SIMON CONSTABLE
By SMON CONSTABLE
Stockholders have had a rough time this year, with surging inflation and fears of a recession. But there is a way to mitigate it: tobacco stock Imperial Brands
The company (ticker: IMB.UK) offers potential total returns above 22% over the next 12 months, some analysts say. It markets cigarette brands including Winston, JPS, L&B, and Gauloises, and rolling paper Rizla. It is also developing next-generation products, or NGPs, which include vaping materials and oral nicotine. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Listen here.
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COP 26 UN Climate Summit 2021
President.am, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine quickly laid bare Europe’s dependence on Russian energy. But solving the matter could take years, experts say.
Worse still, the EU and UK will likely suffer economic turmoil while the situation rights itself. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Here’s some bad news. Gold investors have taken a pummeling so far this year.
The SPDR Gold Shares exchange-traded fund, which tracks the price of bullion, is down 5.3% in the year through Monday, according to Yahoo Finance data. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
How bad is the worst thing you’ve ever done at work? Maybe you “borrowed” a few pens and paper for your kids. Perhaps, you “fudged” some expenses. And maybe you now feel guilty about such petty thievery.
A recently published book, Retail Gangster: The INSANE, Real-Life Story of CRAZY EDDIE, will likely make that guilt disappear in a trice.
When you compare whatever you did to what happened at long-gone electronics chain Crazy Eddie, most malfeasance will likely pale into insignificance. Put another way, your infractions would likely be as noticeable as a miniature barnacle on the backside of a blue whale. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
While soaring inflation took a bite out of your paycheck’s spending power, something else happened. The value of the dollar has surged, and by no small measure.
And it could go far higher before the rally ends, history shows. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
China’s economy continues to look wretched.
We know this because the country’s steel production continued to drop for yet another month. It fell 6.4% in July, and is down 6.4% for the first seven months of year, according to new data from the World Steel Association.
For years China has been the world’s largest steel producer with output of 1.3 billion metric tons of the metal in 2021, or more than half of global production. In other words, it’s the world’s major producer. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
At the beginning of the millennium, a massive stock market meltdown along with some notable examples of corporate malfeasance carved a hole in the public’s trust in the stock market. The government’s response was to enact the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, which would pile a heap of new regulations on publicly traded corporations and their leaders. At the time, the move saw huge bipartisan support and was generally greeted favorably. However, in the intervening two decades, the fallout from the new laws led to some likely unintended, but rather predictable, outcomes. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Swiss-based commodities company Glencore has emerged as a prime beneficiary of Europe’s energy crisis.
High prices for coal, one of the company’s main offerings, are likely to persist as the war in Ukraine pushes past the six-month mark. That, in turn, could lead to double-digit gains for the stock.
“Glencore has already outperformed, and we think there is more to come,” says Tyler Broda, head of European mining RBC Capital Markets in London. “Russia’s invasion changed the calculus in the global energy balance, and coal is a very key part of that, especially in Europe.” Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
It’s in language translators. Virtual shopping guides. Online movie suggestions. It helps diagnose diseases, makes video games more exciting, and so on. As the century progresses, artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. And that, say experts, is the problem. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
It could be time for a mimosa cocktail while you still can afford one.
Orange juice prices could get fizzed up over the next few weeks. The market is already suffering from ultralow inventory levels, which means the risks of bad weather could potentially drive prices up more than 20% to record levels, say experts. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Airbus is ready for takeoff. Investors in the European aerospace company could see gains of more than 35% over the next 12 months as the company boosts production amid surging demand, analysts say.
“Airbus is on a very strong growth trajectory regardless of a recession and postpandemic normalization,” says Colin Scarola, an analyst at financial research company CFRA. He sees the stock (ticker: AIR.France) rising to 140 euros ($143) over the next year, up 35% from its recent level of €104. Plus, the stock yields a 1.4% dividend currently. U.S.-based investors could consider buying the American depositary receipts (EADSY.) Read more here.
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By SIMON CONSTABLE
A key economic indicator continues to show weakness in China
Steel production in the second largest economy was down 6.5% in the first six months of the year versus the same period a year earlier, according to World Steel Association data. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
It’s more likely than not that the stock market has hit bottom.
In fact, it may have happened a few weeks ago, new research states.
“Odds that the S&P 500 put in a low on June 17th continue to stand at 60%,” according to a recent report from New York-based Macro Risk Advisors (MRA.) Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Europe’s largest economy continues to have economic problems. Read more here.
By SIMON CONSTABLE
Exchange-traded fund investors seem to be going soft on gold. On the face of it that doesn’t augur well for a rally in bullion prices anytime soon. But the truth is more complicated and there is still hope for the gold bulls. Read more here.
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