It’s certainly not my favourite word in the dictionary… I struggle to spell it most of the time. Tarrif’s, Tarriff’s, Tariff’s the name of the game today as Trump delivered what had long been touted as his first moves in that nature against Mexico, Canada and China but it came with significant threats against Europe and, the fact the details of them weren’t known, possibly hurt the most today. Whether these are negotiation chips being played or more long-term tariffs we will only find out in ti…

Tonight is pretty much as close as it gets to Christmas eve for British and French rugby fans as the Six Nations kicks of tomorrow in Paris. As a Scotland supporter it also usually marks the high point of the Six Nations, level on points with our rivals and all to play for over the next 7 weeks. Optimism is sky high and as we know the famous saying goes…. ‘It’s the hope that kills you!’ As I touched on yesterday there is certainly more hope around that Europe could be in for a good year and def…

“We have begun to turn things around” ….That could have been plenty of people on a day like today. Was it ASML’s Christophe Fouquet after their superb orders beat or was it Bernard Arnaud on the call post their disappointing numbers? Well, it was neither actually and in fact Rachel Reeves who was delivering a well-reported speech today on levers of growth the UK has to pull. A 3rd runway at Heathrow, development of the Oxford-Cambridge Corridor to create UK’s Silicon Valley and redevelopment of…

It was very much a risk on day, fuelled by declining yields, a somewhat softer stance from Trump (so far), AI Infrastructure investment continuing and lifting all relevant (and some less relevant) ships and solid corporate updates from a wide range of sectors. That drove Equity markets to new highs with the Stoxx 600 hitting an all time (intraday) high in the process whilst the Euro Stoxx 50 made a 24yr high and the DAX made an all-time high! We also started to see some fairly consistent demand…

The classic Roast Chicken with a bit of a jazz up was on the cards this weekend and I cannot recommend it enough. First seen on Sunday Brunch a few weeks ago this recipe is simple, fairly healthy and all done in one pot – it’s what I call a January winner. January winners have been quite hard to find so far, it’s been an interesting if not spectacular month so far but now Martin Luther King Jnr day is out the way, Trump is in the White House, January could really get going….(well that’s the pla…

The closest I’ve been to being what they would call a ‘Luxury Player’ is snaffling up some Lurpak and a bottle of Filippo Berio in these inflationary times! But in circles higher, and then higher again the focus has been on if and when the demand for Luxury goods will come back, especially for European investors with such well known names as LVMH, Kering, Hermes and Richemont a staple in the Equity complex here. The latter today was the standout for Europe as a giant beat in the Americas and Eu…

With my new years resolutions mostly broken in week one (anyone else the same?) I’ve been on the look out for a new one (inevitably to break in the next week) and have settled on a chapter of a book per night! So far so good and just finished another Ben Macintyre thriller and he’s really the only author that gets me turning the page. With non-fiction I find I learn a bit too along the way which is crucial in all aspects of life. Another thing I’ve learnt along the way is that the first day of…

January is getting going bit by bit, slowly and steady (and I know I have missed most of it), but it does feel like we’re already approaching some big moments. Just like you can’t lose a football match in the first 10 minutes, you can’t lose the year in January, but the next few weeks could be fairly defining especially once we’ve got Martin Luther King day and Trump’s inauguration out the way on Monday. Despite the softer than expected U.S. PPI across the board nothing seemingly can keep U.S…

The Transcript’s weekly update sent today was titled “A good start to 2025” as it ran through a number of quotes last week from the likes of Fed’s Lisa Cook, The Blackstone President and Delta Air Lines CEO all sounding quite bullish though with today being my first proper day of 2025 it felt anything but that. The start of the year always tends to feel like a game of Chess where it takes a little while for patterns to emerge and moves to be made and this year does feel quite familiar in that s…

A bit of a farewell from the Snapshot team here (and I reiterate it’s a HUGE team effort) with this being my (pretty much) last day of 2024 and with the next couple of weeks looking like a disjointed last kilometre of what has been mountainous marathon of a year it’s probably worth kickstarting back on the 2nd Jan with a little recap of what we’ve all missed (knowing this year it’s probably a lot!). Fittingly even on the 19th of December there was plenty still to talk about after the Fed gave e…