Sometimes it’s hard to keep up. For weeks and weeks, everything was locked down, it was easy to know what was going on: baking, Netflix and yoga. Now, it’s all change, hence revved up economists talking about the intoxicating cocktail of monetary and fiscal stimulus and the unlikely post-recession starting point of surging consumer net… Read More Valuation

“There is a bubble” he tutted; valuations are “crazy”, assets “too scarce”. It could be any analyst or investor talking about everything from cryptocurrency, to software companies, to loss making IPOs; but it was in fact the CEO of oil super major Total, Patrick Pouyanne, talking to a wide-eyed FT analyst about the frenzied buying… Read More Cans

A photo popped up on Twitter last week of Cancun airport. Now maybe Subway had a special two-for-one deal that caught the mood, but the sight of a crammed concourse is likely to send a shiver down the spine of bond holders sitting on yields of next to nothing. The much vaunted ‘pent up demand’… Read More Conferences

Big name economists continue to scramble to upgrade their GDP forecasts citing soon-to-be-arriving job gains, ‘monster’ savings, pent-up demand and – coming to a state near you – another package of massive fiscal stimulus complete with a Biden bow. Albeit, perhaps, it being less about stimulus and more about getting everyone through the endless winter… Read More Inflation

The reaction to the results of Electronic Arts, the second largest gaming company in America, were somewhat perplexing for those who read the full release. The results were good, with some significant developments, and yet, the shares fell; a function, perhaps, of near-term expectations getting a little too hot under the collar. Bar the souped-up… Read More Gaming

It’s amazing how quickly the narrative changes. The sell-off last week was accompanied by cat calls in the media as the sharp suits of Wall Street got their pips squeezed. Cue many articles about the rising influence of stay-at-home day traders throwing down chips into a casino-like market. It all got a little Wild West.… Read More Earnings

Whilst emojis appear to be the new pitchforks, the mob is after the shorts, feeding a frenzy in stock activity that has made front page headlines the world over. GameStop, once a forlorn bricks-and-mortar video game retailer, is now the talk of the town, and breaking the P&Ls of hedge funds who levered up the… Read More Neglected growth

With the Federal Reserve now lining up next to Janet Yellen, a lady au fait with the policies of monetary largesse, there should be no surprise to see the stock market being stretched to all-time highs – albeit where headline valuations are only deemed palatable when compared to bond prices long manipulated by the long,… Read More ADP

With the price of container shipping, wheat, lumber and host of other commodities tearing higher, there is no escaping the baked in readings of higher inflation that are coming down the pipe. Oil went negative last year, today it’s comfortably north of $50. The market might read the numbers as transitory but that won’t stop… Read More Willscot

If 2020 was strange, the start of 2021 with Washington locked down as Capitol Hill was all but looted takes it to another level. No wonder the Queen, via Twitter, officially cancelled the year after just one week. That said, for active managers, the performance clock is reset, which means ideas. New ideas. Preferably ideas… Read More Vertiv