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)

Gold up equities down. The North Korean missile launch over Japan overnight has made investors nervous again. Gold and equities move in opposite directions as investors move to gold perceived as a safe haven during uncertain times.  

London Stock Exchange closed Monday. No markets open Monday 28th August 2017 due to UK bank holiday.

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 …

Much is being made by the media of the Jackson Hole meeting on Friday. I think after years of stimulus brought on by the global financial crisis it has to be time to move back to a more ‘normal’ environment – whatever ‘normal’ is now. Debt has been fuelled by …

Lower on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended lower yesterday (24/08/17) to close below 21800 at 21783. The S&P 500 closed at 2438. Investor uncertainty continues ahead of the central bankers gathering at Jackson Hole on Friday.  

Compound interest – investors best friend. I didn’t quite know where to start with this post. So I decided to go back to school. In particular to my school maths lessons and Friday afternoons. Yep, that’s right maths on a Friday. What kind of person would schedule two hours of …

Sterling one pound – a brief history. NOTE: this rambles a bit, but bear with me… I’ll come back to it and tidy it up at a later date – maybe. A pound coin originally weighed one troy pound of sterling silver. This gave the currency the name pound sterling …

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 …

WPP Group PLC reports slowing sales WPP Group PLC reported slowing sales yesterday and warned about future growth. WPP is seen as bellwether for the advertising industry. It is suggested that clients are bypassing more traditional advertising methods in favour of digital platforms such as google and Facebook. How will …