Where to begin? Tariffs – they were coming, they were worse than expected – and they hurt. Everything was down: Sweden dropped -4%, The Stoxx 600 fell -2% and the FTSE 100, a relative outperformer, ended down just the -1.5%. The U.S fared worse, and with the recession/stagflation fears that Tariffs bring, it is clear that the U.S equity market does not like tariffs…and Trump doesn’t really mind. The macro picture deteriorated quite quickly; with U.S. 10yr yields approaching 4%, Atlanta GDP now…

Well, it certainly wasn’t an electric start to the quarter what with Trump limbering up for his big (‘very big, the biggest ever’) sweeping announcements tomorrow evening and investors still licking some wounds from the end of Q1 I think everyone will be quite satisfied with the 1% gain by broader Europe today. It wasn’t anything special but importantly it stopped what had been quite a consistent move lower the past week or so positives to be taken despite the two-day move still looking fairly…

That wasn’t exactly the ‘If Carlsberg did’ ends to the quarter that it might have looked like being for European equities just a few weeks ago as the Stoxx 600 had one of its worst days of the year ending it down 1.5% and now down 7 of the last 8 sessions. March actually included 4x more than -1% down days for the Stoxx 600 and the last time that happened was October 2023! The good news is it’s still been a good quarter of both performance and maybe more importantly outperformance. This was a b…

Having spent the best part of 8 hours in a car yesterday across M25, M1, M6, M54, M42 and M40 as I got myself to Oswestry for a 20minute knee appointment and back, I couldn’t help thinking there was an argument for it being a tad more exciting/livelier than today. It feels with Tarriff day/Liberation day or whatever you want to call April 2nd fixed in investors’ minds that the few days left of Q1 are all but written off, apart from the odd wobble like today. Volumes continue to fall off a cliff…

My father paid a quick (but not too quick..) visit last week, which meant that I spent most of the weekend eating like it was a competitive sport and although I certainly could not be considered a foodie, I’m rarely one to miss out on a good feed so you can imagine my delight earlier in discovering that there’s a spot in Shoreditch selling lasandwhiches. Sounds like something that may require a 2-3 hour nap afterwards but definitely one that’s on the lunch radar for now! Given the amount of tim…

I hate writing off days before they begin but with the pop in volumes on quarterly options expiry Friday and a relatively quiet weekend news-slate it did feel as if it was going to be fairly subdued start to the week….and that was indeed the case. The Stoxx 600 ending the day broadly flat and it had a strange feeling like it was always going to do just that. Moves today might have some people concerned that the great rotation into Europe was over before it has even really got going with the U.S…

There was quite a significant part of me that thought yesterday’s Snapshot might have been my last. Loading up on what I thought was a dead cert, alas did not win the £130m odd Euromillions but not all is lost – it rolled over to Friday so tomorrow’s Snapshot may well be it – here’s hoping. There is always another day and that is the feeling of this week as we trudge our way through it and the Stoxx 600 did manage a 19bp gain and its fourth up day in a row. Volatility isn’t dropping in harmony…

My daughter is nearly 3 and has discovered that some things we do are now ‘boring her.’ I’m sure it’s a very common thing but I did think I had a few more years until that occurred. It ranges from things she’s watching on the TV, bedtime stories she’s heard, dinners we’ve cooked or maybe reading my Snapshots right now might be up there too! That’s because it was another day where we did not learn a huge amount: It’s certainly a positive that we’re at least back ascending in Europe but still the…

Lá Fhéile Pádraig to all Snapshot readers! An important day to celebrate St. Parick, Ireland’s patron saint, who is best known for driving snakes out of the Emerald Isle… Irish folklore at its finest really considering that we never had any snakes to begin with, and Patrick himself wasn’t even Irish! Jokes aside, March 17th has delivered plenty of good memories over the years, so there are certainly no complaints here and European markets got in the spirit today with all major indices finishing…

Well, that felt like quite a strange day.. sunny one minute, umbrellas out the next, and it didn’t really feel like much happened. Volumes were much lower than what we’ve seen in recent times but with all that being said, the pad was stacked from the get-go so no complaints here and with tomorrow marking the end of the week – things are looking up! Sentiment was tainted slightly by political uncertainty, as Senate Democrats ruled out supporting a Republican stop-gap funding bill that was aimed…