European stocks were in the green at Friday midday after a slew of fiscal stimulus measures from China, and as investors await key US inflation data which is crucial in the Federal Reserve's interest rate decisions.The core personal consumption index remains traders' main focus going into Friday afternoon, and is expected to remain unchanged at 0.2% on a monthly basis with a small annual uptick fr

If anyone thought financial markets were efficient at pricing in all available news and views, the experience of the last few weeks should have shown them they are anything but.For months the US Federal Reserve has been repeating the mantra that interest rates would need to stay 'higher for longer' to tame inflation, yet equity and bond investors chose to ignore the message.The penny - or dime - f

It was a cautious Monday for European markets, though the FTSE 100 in London managed to kick off the week in the green.London's flagship index got a boost from news of an ease of Covid curbs in China. Miners ended higher, as did Prudential, supporting the blue-chip index and ensuring it outperformed struggling counterparts in New York and Europe.The FTSE 100 index closed up 11.31 points, 0.2%, at

A rapid relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions in China following rare public protests a week ago was giving stock markets a lift on Monday, while the risk-on mood was undermining the dollar.'After several weeks of investors asking, 'will it, or won't it?' about China relaxing its Covid restrictions, the balance of opinion seems to be positive at the start of the new trading week,' said Russ Mould at

A stronger pound was holding back the FTSE 100 early Monday, but market mood was positive due to moves by China to ease its strict Covid restrictions, which hindered economic activity.The FTSE 100 index opened up 3.54 points, 0.1%, at 7,559.77. The FTSE 250 was up 15.37 points, 0.1%, at 19,378.65, but the AIM All-Share was down 0.88 points, 0.1%, at 852.44.The Cboe UK 100 opened marginally higher

Just now investors will be interested - even concerned - to ascertain whether food prices will be the source of a sustained bout of inflation and one which may do damage to consumers' ability and desire to spend.Central bankers will want to know too, in case inflation forces their hand and requires a tightening of monetary policy in the form of a tapering of QE (quantitative easing) and higher int

A month ago (Shares, 26 Nov 2020) this column flagged how commodity prices were rising and how this could be a possible harbinger of inflation, whether it was down to near-term factors such as a La Niña weather pattern or something more deep rooted.The answer will only become clear with the fullness of time but one trend is worthy of further attention, namely the movement in the S&P GSCI Ag

THIS IS AN ADVERTISING FEATUREBy James Thom, Investment Director, Aberdeen New Dawn Investment Trust PLCIt is 30 years since the launch of the Aberdeen New Dawn Investment Trust PLC. Asia is both the same as, and fundamentally different from 1989. It is still home to fast-growing economies, an emergent middle class and innovative companies. However, there are important differences, with far greate

The gambling sector has this year experienced a mixture of very good and very bad news, prompting wild share price movements.Now is an opportune time to take stock of the sector, particularly as share prices have had time to price in forthcoming changes to the UK fixed-odds betting terminals market and the hype has died down about the opening up of the US sports betting industry.The latter event i

Notwithstanding the challenging market conditions in which it is operating, weakness at aerospace and defence outfit Senior (SNR) has created a compelling entry opportunity in our view. There are plenty of reasons to believe that the £967.2 million cap can respond to the difficult environment that it and its peers are presently experiencing.Land and airSenior designs, manufactures and markets hig

Profit takers moved on regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press (JPR), down 7.9% to 17.5p on a trading update. The top line continues to fall, down 11.4% on a like-for-like basis in the 18 weeks to 4 May as the deterioration in print advertising revenues shows little sign of moderating. But operating profits increased during the period following 2012?s cost-reduction restructuring drive, the fi