US Non-farm payroll data due (01/09/17) The outlook for US  inflation remains uncertain but US employment data continues to improve. Data released in the US later today will be closely watched by investors. I’ll come back to this post later.

Wall Street up on US tax reform agenda The DOW Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) picked its way through the trading day to close up at: 21952. The revision of GDP figures up and the renewal of election tax reform promises pushed the DOW ever closer to 2200o again. The S&P …

FTSE 100 closed up FTSE 100 closed up today (31/08/17) at 7430 a gain of 65 points. The best performer was: Mediclinic International PLC (MDC) at: 764.5p – up 2.9% There were seven companies in the top 10 risers that gained more than 2% At the other end of the …

Voice activated shopping partnership between Amazon and Ocado Hot on the heels of Google and Walmart voice activated shopping partnership, Amazon and Ocado also announce their partnership. Ocado has launched an app using the artificial-intelligent Alexa voice assistant. Ocado is the first UK supermarket to partner with Amazon to offer …

Wall Street lifts on GDP uplift Wall Street got a surprise boost yesterday (30/08/17) when Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures were revised up. US annual growth rate for the second quarter was revised to 3% citing higher consumer spending and strong business investment as the reasons. The Dow Jones Industrial …

Warren Buffett bargain hunt The billionaire investor said that he is finding it harder now to get a stock market bargain. The share price rally has made stocks less attractive. Is this comment from Warren Buffett a significant sign that prices are now too high? As the worlds greatest investor …

UK consumer credit Latest figures from the Bank of England (BoE) show UK consumer credit rose by 9.8% and is now at £201.5 billion. This figure excludes mortgage lending. That’s high, even though it was the lowest since April 2016. Debt in the UK and globally is unsustainably high! Is …

FTSE 100 companies going ex dividend on 31/08/17… G4S PLC (GFS) Croda International PLC InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (IHG) Hammerson PLC (HMSO) St James’s Place PLC (STJ)

Profit warnings this week. Should we be more concerned about the profit warnings issued this week? Is it just individual company performance or a more wider concern? I don’t know. Dixons Carphone PLC (DG.), WPP Group PLC (WPP) and Provident Financial PLC  (PFG) fired profit warnings at us for varying …

Dixons Carphone shares plunge After a surprise profit warning announced Thursday morning (24/08/17) Dixons Carphone shares took a dive. At 12:30 the share price was down by 22% – it had been lower. The company warned pre-tax profits would fall below the previous year. Lower sales of mobile handsets is cited …