Stock prices in Europe were in the green on Monday morning including all UK stocks, as the energy price cap in Great Britain is now expected to rise in January, as opposed to fall.Meanwhile, Swissquote's Ipek Ozkardeskaya commented: 'US retail sales and the inflation data came in higher than expected last week, and the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that the US economy is strong enough a

Surprisingly, one of the most talked-about US stocks of 2024 has nothing to do with AI (artificial intelligence), chips, gold or cryptocurrencies.It is a small tele-health company based in San Francisco called Hims & Hers Health (HIMS:NYSE), which provides prescription and over-the-counter medicines as well as personal care products through its online platform.When we say small, its market cap is

Fans of Gene Roddenberry's long running Star Trek television and film franchise will know that any would-be captain of a Starfleet vessel had to complete the so-called Kobayashi Maru test, a simulation from which there was no way out, to see how they responded to extreme pressure. The first captain of the USS Enterprise, James T. Kirk, earned his place at Starfleet Academy by reprogramming the com

Optima Health (OPT:AIM) 164.5pMarket Cap: £146.1 millionAs the UK's leading occupational health provider, Optima Health (OPT:AIM) is uniquely positioned to consolidate a fragmented market via bolt-on acquisitions as well as delivering organic growth faster than the underlying market.Analysts at RBC Capital Markets believe Optima Health's buy-and-build strategy can deliver a 23% compound annual gr

Bloomsbury (BMY) 700pMarket cap: £571 million Publishing group Bloomsbury (BMY) is a pandemic winner which has kept on winning since Covid.Lockdown saw people rediscover their love of reading, and the company has tapped into and exploited through successful marketing some popular trends in fiction which have helped drive a big increase in returns.That has meant Bloomsbury's return on capital empl

Stock prices in Europe were higher on Wednesday morning, as the post-election 'Trump trade' was wearing off, as investors await a consumer price inflation reading from the US.FXStreet-cited market consensus expects the US consumer price index to post a 2.6% annual rise for October.That said, Lloyds analysts declined to put much figurative stock in the release, saying: 'Just as yesterday the messag

Equities in London ended lower on Friday, with miners and other China-exposed stocks hurting the FTSE 100, though a reassuring update from the British Airways parent lifted travel shares.Broker cuts hurt Greggs and Mitchells & Butler, while investors fretted for Vistry again after the housebuilder warned on profit.The FTSE 100 index fell 68.35 points, 0.8%, at 8,072.39, fading 1.3% this week. The

Stock prices in London were down at midday on Friday, as attention shifted back to Trump's victory in the US presidential election, following yesterday's rate cuts.China said on Friday lawmakers had agreed to raise the local government debt ceiling by $840 billion, opening up new funds for its ailing economy.However, 'what has been announced so far doesn't seem to be moving the needle and the risk

Half year pre-tax profit up 4.7%Tasty grocery performanceArgos sales disappointFirst half sales and profits rose at Sainsbury's (SBRY) as the UK's second biggest supermarket continued to secure market share gains in groceries, making up for a soft first quarter at Argos and in general merchandise.CEO Simon Roberts insisted Sainsbury's core food business is 'making the biggest market share gains in

Consolidation is a growing theme across the investment trust sector against a backdrop of stubbornly-wide NAV (net asset value) discounts and increasing pressure on sub-scale funds.2024 is already a record year for M&A (mergers and acquisitions) in a sector which has just seen the eleventh such deal announced, the value-oriented Invesco Asia Trust (IAT) planning to combine with Asia Dragon Trust (

The FTSE 100 joined European peers in the red on Wednesday, while the US hit new highs following Donald Trump's win in the presidential election.The FTSE 100 index closed down 5.71 points, or 0.1%, at 8,166.68. It had earlier hit an intra-day high of 8,301.78.The FTSE 250 ended up 76.66 points, 0.4%, at 20,446.70, and the AIM All-Share rose 2.75 points, 0.3%, at 739.04.The Cboe UK 100 ended slight

Equities in London were lower on Thursday morning, UK bond yields spiked and the pound was around the $1.30 mark as investor digest Wednesday's budget announcement.Early UK corporate updates were mixed. Shell and Coca-Cola HBC impressed, but Smith & Nephew and Kainos were among those to disappoint.Those reports followed earnings from New York-listed Meta and Microsoft overnight, which similarly fa

Funds inevitably have their up and downs in performance. When a fund has gone through a particularly poor spell, does this represent a buying opportunity for investors in the expectation it will bounce back to form?Likewise for existing investors, should they stick or twist? Fortunately, there are lots of studies from the institutional fund management world which provide answers to that question a

Equity markets are buoyant, fixed income markets seem more nervous judging by the way yields are rising (at least for government-issued in the developed West), and commodity prices continue to march to their own beat, with gold and silver surging, industrial metals largely flat and oil and gas remaining subdued.The relative calm pervading hydrocarbon prices is in many ways surprising, given the on

As it stands, there are only two months left of 2024 and yet, for investors, the next few weeks could be some of the most consequential of the year.We provide a snapshot of the Budget and the market response to it in our News section this week but you can expect further analysis of the fall-out on our website and in next week's issue too.Also check our site for coverage of the latest Magnificent S

Stock prices in London were mixed just before the UK budget announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, with the FTSE 100 lower and the FTSE 250 and AIM All-Share registering a minor gain.The FTSE 100 index traded down 42.68 points, 0.5%, at 8,176.93. The FTSE 250 was up just 3.96 points at 20,626.75, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.98 of a point, 0.1%, at 716.77.The Cboe UK 100 was down 0.6% at 818.

Fall in third quarter vaccine salesFull year profit reiteratedQ3 dividend of 15p per shareDisappointing vaccine sales took the shine off GSK's (GSK) third quarter update and despite management reiterating full-year sales and profit guidance, the shares sank to the bottom of the FTSE, falling 3.6% to £13.99.The shares languish near one-year lows and sit just 14% above the five-year low, which mean

Stocks in Europe were mostly lower on Wednesday morning, ahead of the UK budget announcement by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, while Standard Chartered rose after it said it delivered a strong performance.Ahead of the budget, the pound was quoted at $1.3020 early Wednesday, rising from $1.2991 at the London equities close on Tuesday.Brown Brothers Harriman analysts believe the pound faces 'downside ris

Stock hits three-month high $181Cloud and YouTube shineAI a battlefield for AlphabetOut of the mega tech blocks first - excluding Tesla (TSLA:NASDAQ) ? Alphabet (GOOG:NASDAQ) calmed nerves on Wall Street after-hours Tuesday (29 Oct) with a sharp acceleration in Google Cloud's third-quarter growth rate, while election spending also boosted advertisement sales, especially on YouTube. Going from the

Blue chips in London made a solid start to trading on Tuesday, reflecting gains elsewhere in Europe, boosted by well received updates from HSBC and Pearson. The FTSE 100 index opened up 23.39 points, 0.3%, at 8,309.01. The FTSE 250 was down 70.22 points, 0.3%, at 20,764.88, and the AIM All-Share was down 0.96 of a point, 0.1%, at 720.14.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 832.16, the Cboe UK 250 fell 0