Brandon our Consumer spec sales is a Canadian, naturally full of optimism, especially about Luxury names, ON Running trainers, Watches and his upcoming trip to Japan. Lucky him. However he was commenting on the AG Barr (-6%) results having never tried a can of Irn-Bru and that just didn’t sit right with me! The statement flagged ‘weaker performance in Scotland’ which was the key, I mean if Irn-Bru isn’t selling in Scotland the world is really turning faster than I can keep up. Well we had to ch…

A quiet start to proceedings this week as a mixture of School holidays, a lack of big developments over the weekend and a bit of recovery after we left on Friday meant that we moved higher but with no real conviction with the Stoxx 600 closing +1% but on very low volumes vs recent history. That gave me time to read a what was a broadly positive note from our Economics team. There is no doubt that recent banking sector woes have increased downside risks to growth but Michael Taylor argues we are…

There have been plenty of successful combinations in the food and beverage sector – Chocolate and Orange, Elderflower and Gin, Pimms and Fruit. But I have no time for whoever decided that Whisky needed Peanut butter. Skrewball, which Pernod bought today, sold 500k cases in 2022 (I mean who is buying that) and claims to be ‘unlike anything you’ve ever tasted before’ which is almost certainly true and a ‘perfect celebration of the unexpected, wild, and wonderful in all of us’ which most likely i…

Happy belated Mothers’ day to all those mothers out there – you all are amazing! It did mean a little bit more admin for me this year as Marlowe wasn’t quite up to sorting out her present for her mum just yet. Flowers always a winner no matter the occasion and for anyone looking for a nice restaurant we went to Manteca, which was delicious and importantly didn’t break the bank. The breaking of the banks something the market has been focussing on and is now a theme that has been playing out over…

A tumultuous few days in both the markets and the Morrison household as train and tube strikes caused significant Childcare disruption. So safe to say I was very pleased with a few of the snippets in the UK Budget, especially the 30 hours Childcare support a week for 1 and 2 year olds and also hopes that more strikes may be avoided with potential pay deals on the horizon. The moves have been substantial and swift this week and at times it’s hard to catch your breath though I would say there is…

Well I think we were due a day of relative calm having had 3 of the livelier sessions of recent memory and though there were certainly early wobbles we managed to see those off and rally into the afternoon. The Stoxx 600 closed up +1.5%, reversing some of the losses from the past two days but the move certainly looked more like a rebound than anything with serious conviction. I’m not sure the market is any closer to working out whether the fallout from the SVB saga could spread to other parts,…

No way of getting away from it there is a lot going on right now isn’t there? It would be a lie to say we’re on top of it all, we try of course, but there are new angles, stories and moves popping up everywhere and things are moving at such an aggressive pace I have no doubt the Snapshot will be out of date by the time it is read/deleted. Cracks in system have been appearing and growing over the past 3 days and it felt like today was a day when risk managers, unaware of where this could lead, a…

I can’t remember exactly what I was doing on January 18th but I think it was something quite boring with it being in the middle of dry January. The Stoxx 600 had raced away to an 8% rise on the year, the mood was bullish and we were well ahead of other indices around the world. Fast forward 7 weeks, 36 trading sessions and you get to today and we are trading at virtually the same level. In that time we’ve had earnings season come and go, central banks raise rates and chime in wherever possible,…

Greggs results today and a new tradition of mandatory Greggs’ breakfast Bacon Rolls/Sausage Rolls/Vegan Sausage rolls every quarter just to get a real ‘I-know-what-this-company-is-all-about’ feel for the shares ahead of them opening. The desks reaction to their food a lot better than the -2% share price move today as cost pressures were blamed for the weakness but the good news for all is an additional 150 still in the plans to open! Slightly different format to today’s Snapshot as there was on…

Sat between an Arsenal fan and a Man United fan made for quite an interesting morning. One’s aspirations for a Premier League title saved by a 7th minute added time winner, the other’s recent ascent firmly halted in quite embarrassing style and the side arguably saved by the final whistle. Not a huge amount to shout about today and there was a sense, with the upcoming highlights on the macro calendar, that today’s session was somewhat saved by the final whistle, not wanting to move a great deal…