I had a quick trip to my Knee Surgeon today, one of those things that could really be done on the phone but they chose not to despite me getting the sense he is fed up with seeing me these days. Amazing what modern medicine can do – we looked at scans of my knee having been injected with Nuclear material (all quite strange) which then heads to the part of the bone most affected. Results were not great but maybe not as bad as it could have been. And that was a similar story to the CPI, because n…

We’ve started of this shortened week in fairly orderly fashion with the Stoxx 600 closing up 60bps on the day but the themes remain quiet dealing desks, low volumes and holiday mode still engaged for many. I stuffed my face full of Chocolate and Lamb so a four day break was very much needed and it is really just good for the soul isn’t it? The sun is rising earlier in the morning and everyone seemed to have a little bit more skip in their steps and maybe that was enough to cause a halt in the ‘…

I hope everyone’s got some nice plans for the weekend because the quiet week has turned not-so-quiet over the past 24 hours. The only real time of the year where all developed markets in Europe celebrate a bank holiday together and a chance for a (much needed) break for everyone involved. The out of office replies to this week Snapshot’s a gentle reminder that a lot of people have taken this week off and I imagine there will be similar amounts next week. That created quite a messy tape where th…

The market failed to get out of second gear today, and some would argue it was stuck in first as the culmination of a very tough Q1 and a 4 day easter break on the horizon took its toll on enthusiasm, volumes, moves and everything that this Equity market usually gives us in spades. The Stoxx 600 limped to a small loss on the day despite the Euro Stoxx 50, CAC and DAX all hitting intraday 12mo highs though it was hard to read anything into it as the volumes just weren’t there to back it up. I ev…

Quite an emotional weekend in the Morrison household as my daughter turned 1. The advice given to us in the lead up was this is a celebration for you, not her and I took that quite literally. 25 friends and babies were invited into my small flat to celebrate…Put the babies in the ball pit, make sure there are plenty of drinks and you can’t go wrong…can you? Luckily this is a shortened week as I’m definitely too old for Sunday celebrations but its always good to make the most of these moments an…

Dear oh dear that was a tricky day. We didn’t get the sense that desks were overly busy but the Equity markets decided it would move in serious fashion with some pockets faring better than others. With Month and Quarter end tomorrow things sometimes have a knack of looking a bit strange and Easter holidays have already begun for some lucky people so it did feel like there were a few more absentees than normal. Always a good time to reflect and look back on what has been a broadly good quarter f…

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…

Today is Fed policy day, and whilst it seems every Fed meeting is more important than the last, this one REALLY IS given the recent banking failures & divisive views on future Fed policy. Its apt that it falls on the 100th birthday of the ‘master of silence’ himself mime artist Marcel Marceau given that when Fed Chair Powell speaks in a couple of hours, markets will hang on his every word, particularly the ‘dot plot’ guidance of expected future rate direction.

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…