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Contents Click on the links below to get to the stuff you really really want. USA – Vaccine hopes and M&A activity lifted stock prices (#USA) UK – Pound up as Bojo’s Brexit re-write brings rebellion; IAG plummets on technicality (#UK) Continental Europe – Similar situation; Tech and financials up, oil and car makers down (#Europe) Elsewhere – China’s recovery gained momentum; Stocks up (#Elsewhere) WTF – No place like home (#WTF) Links (#Useful) Numbers (#Numbers) Ts & Cs (#Ts+Cs)
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USA
Vaccine hopes and merger-and-acquisition (M&A) activity lifted the mood across most markets yesterday. That was certainly the case in the US where Oracle has beaten Microsoft in negotiations to takeover the US operations of that essential piece of human fabric, TikTok. At the same time, Gilead Sciences has agreed to buy Immunomedics for $21 billion (I refuse to call it “a cool…[insert large amount of money]” because I’ve never understood what the temperature has to do with, or why writers insist on using that phrase.
Anyway, the S&P 500 rose a cool 1.3% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added chilly 1.9% as folk piled back into tech and pharmaceutical stocks on the hopes that they’d catch something that was about to be taken over and, therefore, would require that cliche-ridden writers would be writing something cool about them.
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UK
Stocks were up more modestly in the UK where the ghost of Brexit just will not be exorcised. Bojo is facing a rebellion from within his own ranks. Various politicians and key advisers are keen to distance themselves from a leader who has not covered himself in glory so far.
The value of the pound relative to other currencies rose as the pressure grew to avoid a no-deal Brexit, but that impeded gains in the export-focused FTSE 100 index which closed the day just 0.1% higher.
Oil prices were down as folk weigh supply and demand (with the former tending to outweigh the latter at the moment, hence the low prices). Tech stocks were up though, as were a range of stocks that would benefit from a successful vaccine putting an end to the lockdown situation.
The big mover on the day was a bit of an illusion. IAG, the owner of British Airways, slumped by 30.8% after the effects of a recent rights issue went out-of-date as far as selling the stocks was concerned. In other words, if you hold IAG stocks, don’t panic about the sudden drop in its share price, it’s a technical thing and will come out in the wash.
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Continental Europe
As is so often the case, it was much the same sort of picture across the continent. Tech and financial stocks were up on hopes of a vaccine and M&A activity, while oil companies and car makers were down.
The Euro Stoxx 50 and German DAX closed very close to the prices at which they’d started the day.
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Elsewhere
The latest data indicated that China’s economic recovery sped up in August. This combined with the other stuff I’ve mentioned above helped to lift most national stock benchmark indices. The Taiwan 50 had a much bigger rise as it followed tech stocks up.
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WTF (What’s The Fact?)
No place like home
There was a rumour that the former mayor of a small Belgian town had his heart buried under a fountain that they built in his honour. (They waited until he died before completing this task). Apparently the family had been consulted and agreed.
They’ve just done a bunch of work on said fountain and, sure enough, his heart was indeed under the fountain in a container full of preserving fluid.
In a remarkable coincidence, workers have also found other leaders’ essential organs in various places. From this they have discerned that Boris Johnson is a Scarecrow, Donald Trump is a Tin Man, and Xi Jinping is an utter
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Links
Investopedia (www.investopedia.com/dictionary/) – Loads of free explanations of financial terms including some helpful videos. Not 100% accurate, but a good starting point Guffipedia (ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/) – Lucy Kellaway of the FT has collected some painful examples of corporate people disappearing up their own analogies Guardian (www.theguardian.com) – Free to access website with a couple of decent columnists (e.g. Nils Pratley and Larry Elliott) Times of India (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) – Why use five words when 37 will do? Daily Mail (www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/the-war-on-stupid-people/485618) – Click it. I dare you.
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———————————————————— IMPORTANT This is my opinion. Yes I read a lot and share what I’ve read with you, but this content remains my opinion. It’s NOT advice. If you take my advice – don’t take my advice. Any decisions you make about investments, your hairstyle or whether or not to eat marzipan are entirely at your own behest. If you are too stupid to recognise the devil’s ear wax when you see it, then you’re on your own.
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