If you pick up a newspaper this month, you are almost guaranteed to read about the taxes the new chancellor is planning to hike, or the tax reliefs she is looking to axe. But one set of tax reliefs we know is here to stay are those supporting venture capital trusts.The Treasury has just confirmed the VCT scheme will now run until at least 2035 in order to support small British businesses. Many inv

Ulta Beauty (ULTA:NASDAQ) $391.70Market cap: $18.5 billionA 20% year-to-date share price drop at Ulta Beauty (ULTA:NASDAQ), America's biggest specialist beauty retailer, presents an attractive buying opportunity for growth and value seekers alike. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK:B:NYSE) evidently sees value in the name, having recently snapped up a stake in the Illinois-headquartered make

Ocado Retail revenue up 15.5% to £658 millionUK's fastest growing grower for seven months in a rowAverage basket value was broadly flat at £120.97Shares in Ocado (OCDO) were up more than 7% to 375p in morning trading as the company raised 2024 revenue guidance for its Ocado Retail joint venture with Marks & Spencer (MKS) to low double-digit growth following a strong performance in the first thre

At the start of 2024, I speculated that interest rate cuts could lead to takeovers involving bigger companies than the type of deals seen in 2023. While the rate-cut journey still remains in its infancy for the UK and other key geographies, the predicted wave of large-cap takeovers is firmly in motion. It's a reminder there is value on the UK market in droves.There have been bids or expressions of

US money market funds raked in their biggest haul of the year in the month of August, some $127 billion, taking total cash assets to a record $6.26 trillion according to data from the Investment Company Institute.To put that into perspective the total value of all publicly traded US stocks is $56.5 trillion based on the Wilshire 5,000 Total Market index. That means money market funds hold cash equ

The mining sector is at an inflection point. Historically associated with polluting materials like coal, the industry has a huge role to play if the world is to transition itself away from fossil fuels.However, while long-term targets remain around net zero, there are hints of governments backsliding on these commitments and prioritising other things like energy security.That makes it very difficu

Nvidia valuation under pressure despite earnings beatDisappearing discounter premium as Dollar General slumpsSalesforce delivers as it hunts for new CFOThe Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed to a record this week as Wall Street rebounded from the steep sell-off earlier this month, closing at 41,335 (overnight 29 Aug), with gains powered by the likes of Goldman Sachs (GS:NYSE), Intel (INTC:NASDAQ

Luca Maestri been in role for a decadeNew CFO Parekh to take role up in early 2025Investors hoping for more of the same, not step changeChange at the top always brings some sort of uncertainty, particularly when an incumbent has been in place for years. This is where Apple (AAPL:NASDAQ) finds itself after shuffling its C-suite and appointing a new chief finance officer.Long-standing CFO Luca Maest

Significant operating margin expansionFull year outlook raised againMaterial firepower for acquisitionsBunzl (BNZL) shares bounced 9.3% to an all-time high of £35.12 after the resilient distribution and services giant delivered another full year profit guidance upgrade driven by acquisitions and an improved first half margin performance.Drawing confidence from the strength of its balance sheet, t

It was a week of ups and downs for the US market as investors awaited Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell's address to the Jackson Hole Symposium on 23 August.<img src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/O7wOm/full.png" alt="" data-mce-fragment="1" data-mce-src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/O7wOm/full.png"><span id="mce_marker" data-mce-type="bookmark" data

It seems wise to follow what the most successful investors have been buying and selling. US Investment managers are required to file quarterly 13F reports detailing their holdings which gives investors a small insight into what the gurus have been doing.Second-quarter filings for the end of June were released on 14 August and reveal some intriguing moves.Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B:NYSE) chairman Wa

The death tax is dubbed Britain's most hated tax, but only around one in 20 estates pay it. Those numbers are rising, along with the amount of money HMRC is raking in each year. If you're concerned that your estate might have to pay inheritance tax (IHT) when you're gone, there are things you can do to reduce (or even eliminate) the amount it will pay. Here's seven tips to cut your bill. Step 1:

49% premium to undisturbed share priceDirectors unanimously recommend offeri3 shareholders to receive cash dividendCanadian oil and gas producer i3 Energy's (I3E:AIM) shares surged 25% higher to 12p on Tuesday morning after the board recommended a £174 million takeover by Toronto-listed Gran Tierra Energy (GTE:TSE) following a period of poor share price performance.While the offer represents a de

Stocks in London retreated on Friday, though ended the week as a whole higher, while gold notched a new record and sterling gained strength.The FTSE 100 index closed down 35.94 points, 0.4%, at 8,311.41. The FTSE 250 ended down 45.25 points, 0.2%, at 21,048.91, and the AIM All-Share closed down 0.52 of a point, 0.1%, at 774.27.For the week, the FTSE 100 ended 1.8% higher, the FTSE 250 gained 2.1%

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B:NYSE) dumped roughly half its enormous stake in Apple (AAPL:NASDAQ) in a shock shift for the famously long-term-focused investor.The Omaha-based conglomerate disclosed in its earnings filing that it slashed its holding from 789 million shares to approximately 400 million shares, suggesting that the Oracle of Omaha offloaded a little more than 49% of the t

It's fair to say earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA for short) is not universally popular as a measure of earnings.It has some notably high-profile detractors in the form of Warren Buffett and his late business partner Charlie Munger. Munger even crudely observed EBITDA earnings should be characterised as cow-pat earnings, although he didn't use the words cow or p

Stock prices stumbled in London on Monday, echoing the risk-averse mood of global equities peers.European investors did not have to look far to find reasons to be cautious, as Friday's sell-off persisted into the new week.The FTSE 100 index closed down 166.48 points, 2.0%, at 8,008.23. The FTSE 250 dropped 589.61 points, 2.8%, at 20,236.74, and the AIM All-Share closed down 22.65 points, 2.9%, at

Suitor walks awayBlames geopolitical risks, financial market turmoilWood reiterates outlooks for 2024 and 2025Shares in oil services and consulting firm Wood Group (WG.) slumped 38% to 122.3p on Monday after Sidara terminated takeover talks, the suitor citing 'rising geopolitical risks and financial market uncertainty' for its decision not to make a firm offer.Aberdeen-headquartered Wood had rejec

Bob Iger was summoned out of retirement in 2022 to get iconic media company Walt Disney (DIS:NYSE) whirring again, but there is still much for the chief executive to do to turn round the fortunes of the 'House of Mouse'.Cost-cutting progress, streaming business subscriptions and the outlook for the important Parks business will all be scrutinised when Disney delivers third-quarter results on 7 Aug

Pretty much all investors are tech investors. Whether you like the space or not, it is almost impossible to avoid owning exposure to the technology sector. More than a few analysts have referred to tech as a utility, as vital to modern everyday life as water, electricity, steel, and oil.For example, of the top 10 holdings of the £60.4 billion iShares Core MSCI World ETF (SWDA) ? the biggest world