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

So, the Federal Reserve remains ‘all in’, the taps remain on. Economists though were split, post Jay Powell’s latest communication that the Committee will continue to snaffle assets, and may do so for a bit longer than expected, but will refrain from buying more. At least not yet. Some observers thought this showed strong commitment,… Read More Online broking

When looking at the presentation released by Fiserv, the global fintech operator, this week, what is immediately striking is the slew of big numbers and the vast array of font sizes used. There is a lot going on. The numbers, though, are big for a reason. Fintech means many things, to many people, but when… Read More Fiserv

“We have the largest outsourced e-comm fulfilment platform in all of Europe, we’re very big in omnichannel, we’re huge in reverse logistics, and we have a big presence in cold chain,” so said Brad Jacobs, the CEO of XPO Logistics on Mad Jim Cramer’s CNBC Mad Money show this week. The point he was keen… Read More XPO Logistics

As central bankers keep telling us, leaning in close with glassy eyes and bourbon to hand, the Fed funds rate is not going up. They’re not even talking about rates going up, not even before the minute taker arrives and the meeting officially starts. Given mortgage debt is the main yoke around the neck of… Read More Intercontinental Exchange

Black is normally associated with negative events. Like the Panic of 1869 when a couple of ‘up-and-at-em’ financiers conspired to corner the gold market; or the white-lipped 1987 crash when the Dow got handed it, tumbling more than 20% one quiet Monday. Black Friday today though, is very different. A day to kow-tow to modern… Read More Retail

It’s game on for those value managers still in business, and the dance floor is quickly filling up as vaccine headlines spark talk of a sustained period of leadership for the down-trodden art. And yet the buy-it-cheap approach comes as Covid uncertainty persists, PMIs are near record territory, financial conditions are pretty much as-good-as-it-gets and… Read More NXP

It would seem the normal process of democratic elections, that being vote, count up votes, and announce winner, has found a sticky wicket in the Western world’s leading democracy. Days passed, then weeks and still no confirmation. Autocrats around the world must be enjoying the spectacle of a marginalised leader refusing to accept what looks… Read More Education

There have been many so-called lockdown winners. Flour was one. For those with a new-found taste to bake, the summer shelves were bare. Barren. Puppies also saw a surge in demand, with pukka labs trading on valuation multiples that would shock even a Crufts going regular. E-commerce was another, as we all know. Indeed, it’s… Read More eBay