So there were 2 key events of the day and both dominated all of the discussion leading towards them. Firstly step up the ECB with what felt like the first 50:50 decision of the year. In the battle of a hawkish pause or a dovish hike it was the latter that prevailed. They have revised down inflation expectations ex-food and energy for 2025 which is quite interesting and the key phrase from the statement for the market seemed to be that rates were at levels contributing to timely return to 2%. Fr…

It’s September and that means (from my count) well over 40 European companies were at conferences today updating investors on a wide variety of topics as we approach the end of Q3. The overriding feedback that we’ve had in recent weeks is that most people don’t think this quarter is going to be great so it’s always an interesting for investors to hear from a wide range of companies and it’s probably fair to say some of the moves in the market today reflected this. The sheer overload of these co…

A sluggish start to the week it must be said made harder by the fact I was watching Scotland be completely outplayed by a sizeable South African rugby team sprinkled with stardust and skill. My first coach told me defence wins matches and attack by how much and it was certainly a case of that this weekend – Congrats to the Springboks, Les bleus, England, Wales, Japan, Italy, Australia and Ireland for kicking off in winning ways! Defence a theme of the day as the Cyclicals fought back a little v…

Hot, hot, hot the forecast for today and a September heatwave declared across parts of England does feel very British, having largely been absent through most of the summer. Plenty of members of the wider sales-trading/trading community over in Barcelona for the International Trader Forum where it will actually be a touch cooler than it is in London today. The Stoxx 600 closed down -60bps and European Equity markets, not for the first time this year were showing signs of creaking under some pr…

Maybe I am getting old, or boring (or both I hear you mutter) but I’ve got the house to myself tonight and buzzing to get home and defrost my freezer. A task that I find particularly satisfying, chiselling off some lumps of ice and invariably one of those tasks that I have put off most of the summer. Today feels like the day to rectify it. Definitely a sense that the start to the rest of the year started today – If there was anything that showed it was ‘back-to-school’ for markets was the sheer…

We have been in this 4200-4400 c5% range for the Euro Stoxx 50 since March 29th of this year. Broadly speaking 5 months (or c110 sessions) of sideways movements for what is considered the barometer for European large cap equities. This has drained enthusiasm, idea generation and trading volume amongst many other things throughout the already ordinarily quiet summer months. There are some exceptions given the likes of Europe’s newly crowned largest stock – Novo Nordisk which is Krone denominated…

August has been a month to forget for many investors/observers of European Equity markets. It has brought with it a slide in global Equity shares inline with what our charts team flagged as fairly neutral to negative seasonality (which sadly doesn’t improve much in September), the lowest volumes of the year, on almost every week consecutively and without any major Central bank decision, it has been a month of pondering what lies ahead, which never usually leads to too much excitement. The Stoxx…

“France is going to do what?!” I know I have mentioned before in the Snapshot as one of the things least exposed to inflation but news over the weekend that France is preparing to spend €200mn destroying a glut of wine that has built up as appetite for French wine fades did shock me. Falling demand among French drinkers, competition on the export market and weaker sales in China are being blamed but surely there has to be a better way of getting rid of French wine than destroying it!? I can thi…

National burger day and look no further than the Snapshot to guide you through where to go and what to swerve. All my own opinions of course and I am sure I’ll be getting some push back. I’ll start with my steer clear – Five Guys – absolutely no time for it, maybe it was a bad experience but I just found the whole thing very underwhelming from the taste to the greasy chip bag. Where would my vote go? Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Chicken Burger; tasty, sizeable and the best chips going – another pl…

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I’m all about second chances but it was slightly strange to see Fyre Festival – the disastrous luxury party that left hundreds stranded in the Bahamas in 2017 and famously made into one of the crazier Netflix documentaries is getting a second run. Tickets will likely set you back in the region of $8000 and that is a hell of a lot of money to go to a Festival devised from a solitary confinement cell in a U.S. prison. Especially if the U.S…