What a weekend that was; sun shining, blue skies and even with a crisp feel to proceedings it was a lot better than we’ve been used to so far this year. Naturally, I decided it was a weekend to redecorate and do some housework and ended up spending too much of it indoors! After all, DIY is slightly uncharted territory for me. We’re close to (or in some cases in) uncharted territory here in Europe too. The Stoxx 600 has been up the last 10 weeks and is heading (although early) for its 11th which…

The absence of rain forecasted in London for the next week or so has definitely put me in good spirits and with Saturday marking the first of March, it does feel like we are on the up from here which is hard not to get excited about given that it has felt like winter has dragged on a bit too long for my liking! On the other hand, it was hard for EU bulls to be too upbeat ahead of today’s session, with appetite for risk relatively subdued from the get-go after results overnight from Nvidia came…

“Get married or your labour contract will be terminated” is a pretty no-nonsense approach from a Chinese corporate in an effort to abide with government pushes to tackle declining birth rates and something which did catch me off guard earlier. Certainly not your typical HR policy and I’m not entirely sure how well that would fly here in the UK! Moving on to a different type of pressure, all eyes will be results from Nvidia (currently +4% with options pricing in a 10% move) later tonight which f…

A Tuesday night kick-about has become a bit of a ritual for some of us here and something I very much look forward to once a week, so you’ll forgive me for breezing through today’s session to make the most of the extra sliver of daylight which we’ve been blessed with as of late. A tricky start earlier saw equities on the backfoot, with haven assets bid for following the latest tariff rhetoric out of Washington which included news that the Trump administration is looking to toughen semiconductor…

Losing your wallet is bad enough, but having a winning lottery ticket purchased with your stolen credit card? Sounds like the kind of absurd headline you’d expect from a cartoon plot, but this is an actual story out of France over the weekend and has to be right up there with some of the worst luck I’ve heard in a while! Elsewhere in Europe, it was Germany which had much of today’s spotlight following yesterday’s election, with the DAX and MDAX rising 62bps and 1.5% to outperform broader Europe…

I met an avid reader of the Snapshot today who confirmed what I sort of already knew; it’s the first couple of sentences that make all the difference in the Snapshot. I know I’ve been slacking in that department but It’s hard; I’m getting far more boring as I get older, can’t remember the last time I wasn’t tired and have the social life of mealworm. Either way its always nice to hear it’s a go to – and naturally thanks to everyone here who contributes. A nothing day in Europe so to speak, a to…

I saw on my desktop today that the weather gave the signal of ‘High Pollen’. It didn’t exactly feel like it with my beanie and puffa jacket on this morning but combined with the small window of daylight that now greets us on the way out the office it is a sign that we’re getting close to the promised land of Spring….nothing really beats it in my books. No such spring in the European equity market step as we had a pause and the Stoxx 600 fell 91bps. It was our first pause for a while, so I don’t…

There was a lot of ‘out of office’ replies to yesterday’s Snapshot, no one laughed at my NII is the new AI (admittedly awful) joke and there have been multiple reports of half term being spent up one of the many snow-covered European mountains and I’m only just a little bit jealous of that. Today felt quite half-term-week-esq in plenty of ways too. European Equity markets sort of did what they have been used to doing of late in as such as Banks led the way (and feel unstoppable), Industrials so…

Lots of adulting from me this weekend with the highlight (it’s not really a highlight) getting a bunch of posters and pictures to the framing shop (I found one that wasn’t outrageously expensive too!) Up there with one of the most impossible tasks I’ve had in a while but having stared at me for a number of weeks (months) it was time for action. That sort of feels appropriate to the current situation within markets as having had Trump at the helm for nearly a month, we’re getting to what feels l…

“Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now!” did spring to mind earlier this morning, with European markets off to a blistering start as sentiment surrounding a possible Russia-Ukraine ceasefire picked-up on reports that Pres. Putin agreed in a phone call with Pres. Trump to begin negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. If that weren’t enough, a packed corporate earnings schedule gave us little time to breathe, and outsized moves from heavyweights Adyen +14% and Siemens +6% added further momentum behind today’s…