Courteney Morrison

Not much good on TV of late so in the past couple of weeks I’ve started re-watching Suits which depicts the slightly unrealistic and glamourized life of a U.S. law firm. Everyone would rather be a Harvey Specter than a Louis Litt and we all would benefit from Mike Ross’s mind. Either way Harvey doesn’t like to lose and he famously said ‘You don’t go to trial if you’re not going to win”. Scrubbing up on Suits felt like the best prep this weekend as the day’s major news came over the weekend fro…

Following on from the recent low volume, low volatility, grind higher it feels we’re in a low volume, slightly higher vol slide into month end. SX5E tested and headed below the 50d average of 5011 early on and will worry some but really 4884 the big level which has been the bottom end of the recent range. Well shorted name leading the declines today (having led gains yesterday) but there is no let up with the well held Longs under pressure at various times today. Heavy today and for no real obv…

May has been one the most disjointed months in recent memory so it’s only fitting that the last week has a similar feel to the rest of the month. Hard to get a real sense of things as investors and market watchers are in and out, themes are harder to pick up and earnings season on the whole in the rear view mirror – nothing feels that aligned! The major theme being the lack of one but maybe a bit of pain as the day went on today. We’re at or near all-time highs across a raft of key global indi…

If a Snapshot comparing UK midcaps to unloved goats doesn’t get a reply I am not quite sure what will! It was probably a indication of just how quiet things were yesterday and the sad news was there was only a very small pick up today. Another ‘goat’ getting some attention? XP Power (+48%) the next UK midcap which received a proposal from Advanced Energy though unlike yesterday the company have since rejected. Outside of that our early direction was dictated by Asia with the Hang Seng lower wei…

A trip to London Zoo on Saturday for the Morrison household. My first time there and I have to say I was mightily impressed. Avoid the queues, sort the food and plan the route – responsibilities I felt up to. The big names always the focus and we managed to see the lions, tigers and gorillas (with their new baby!). But my daughter was more drawn to the little goats that you could get up close to and pet. Echoes of the market in there as the focus for many remains on the big names with Nvidia re…

We’re fully transatlantic and whilst there was a lot of interesting snippets from a vast number of corporates in Europe this morning, possibly the most interesting snippet came from Walmart (+6%). The excellent Daniella (Buy rated) flagging that on the call they said “consumer conditions have been relatively consistent through the year so far” and further noted this to be the case across income groups, including at the low end. All eyes currently firmly focussed on the consumer and their behavi…

Slightly hurts me to say that the only real buzz around these markets right now seems to be about Meme stocks that are seemingly doubling on a daily basis. I think that shows just how little interest there is right now in the bigger themes as we await important data tomorrow yet are very close to the recent highs. The Stoxx 600 closed the day up small but relatively flat once again and minus some funnies around the PPI traded once again within a tight range which has been 40bps now on the week…

Sell in May and go away? Well at or near all-time highs it feels a bit like just go away as the one thing consistently missing for the last few sessions is volumes. Terrible in the U.S. towards the end of last week with various stats indicating things dying a death and Friday was the lowest volume day YTD and sadly today doesn’t look any better. Things no better here in Europe with a lack of any notable weekend news and with some important data on the horizon today was broadly one to forget as…

Is June now in play for both the UK and the ECB was the question raised today as the Bank Of England kept rates on hold but said a June rate cut was not ruled out though also wasn’t planned. There were two voters for a cut (we had predicted one) and based on current market interest rate expectations (4.79% by Q4 2024) the MPC forecasts CPI inflation will be below 2% in two years’ time (1.9%). This suggests two 25bp rate cuts are likely this year (and we still see August and November) but the qu…

Everyone feels better when the sun is shining and Equities are making new highs….right? Or maybe that was just me after a cheeky long weekend in Cornwall which was amazing but quite why it is so far away and tricky to get too I will never understand. A very summery feeling within the City of London greeting us today – The days are lighter, pubs are busier but importantly corporates are dealing fairly well with high expectations and higher interest rates and we’re still close to or at all-time h…