Courteney Morrison

Today reminded me of the moment I got on a train from Kings Cross to Edinburgh a couple of days before Christmas, always the busiest, and they announced that seat reservations were not in service. I had everything all in place and it was all calm 10 minutes before I turned up (bit like today), supplies for the journey in tow (Strong flat white), iPad charged and then amidst the chaos and confusion ended up standing all the way to Newcastle with an M&S bag full of goodies. We knew what companies…

I was in the Cotswold’s at the weekend and it really is a lovely place. It has the unique ability to convince me that I’d rather have a cup of tea at 3pm on a Saturday than a beer which has to be some kind of sorcery. Last week took its toll, Equity markets constantly moving lower with very little good news to report on and in good British fashion sometimes the best thing to do in these situations is have a cup of tea. By lunch time I was 3 down as the moves from last week seemed set to continu…

They say all good things come to an end and today sees the last day of an illustrious stockbroking career for Jeremy Evans who was one of a small group who founded Redburn almost exactly twenty years ago. Jezza’s aim in 2003 was to build up a business that brought unique research, sales and execution skills back to the forefront of equity markets. Those aspirations still firmly in our blood here at Redburn Atlantic and seemingly more important than ever as we help clients navigate ever more com…

Earnings season well and truly underway and tomorrow might provide the first day of ‘earnings overload’ where the first two hours of the day are undoubtedly going to be spent feverishly flicking through numbers and trying to work out what it all means. A small hint of it today but still only a handful whilst tomorrow provides an escalation to that with Schindler, Roche, Pernod, Nestle, Vivendi, EssilorLuxotica and LSE all updating. Sadly the increase in earnings doesn’t always lend itself to hi…

Goldman Sachs reported today (strong if a little messy) but I was more interested in the news/confirmation that DJ-D Sol (David Solomon) has officially hung up his decks after what had been quite a colourful hobby DJ’ing around the world. A shame that the public/media attention got in the way of a hobby but he did manage to play at Tomorrowland and Lollapalooza so ticked off a couple on the DJ bucket list alongside running one of the biggest banks in the world. The closest I’ve got is hogging t…

I’m not sure if ‘Rugby World Cup hangover’ was to blame for the quiet start to the week but it felt like it may have had a little impact. I’m a sports fan, watch pretty much everything, and that was simply an outstanding weekend of rugby which restored my faith in the sport providing enthralling, exhilarating games with all four games firmly in the balance with 5 minutes to go. Superb stuff but it is safe to say today’s tape was more like a tedious 5min TMO decision for a knock on than a drop g…

Maybe the most positive thing to take from today was that despite Fresenius Medical (-17%), Fresenius (-8%), LVMH (-6%), Richemont (-4%) all down fairly hard and a bunch of warnings across the UK (Travis Perkins, Page group, Forterra) we still managed to eke out a gain with the Stoxx 600 closing up 15bps. “Where would we be without Novo Nordisk?” a client asked me today and the answer undoubtedly is lower! It was arguably a bit of a nothing day all things considered with Fed minutes this eveni…

A week in France away from the screens a lovely break but I still managed to provide some humour for my family as I asked where the village of ‘Rappel’ actually was whilst driving along the French countryside and seeing multiple signs for it – clearly a little reminder that my limited French was indeed very limited. Today’s Equity rally took inspiration from a pop in Treasuries that have been battered of late once they reopened in Asian trading following some fairly dovish comments yesterday fr…

It seems there has been a dramatic step up in the trade wars between China and the U.S. this week as it has been reported that China is requesting back all their Panda’s from U.S. zoos and by next year there will be none left. I can’t help but imagine some sort of Madagascar remake in years to come to feature the Panda’s plotting their path back to China. If that isn’t a political play I don’t know what is. Aside from Panda diplomacy which we now have to navigate China are now on holiday for Go…

My day was saved by our analyst Ashton who came back from the AG Barr meeting post their pretty good numbers laden with gifts from the motherland. AG Barr are (in my opinion) most famous for creating Irn-Bru (out of Girders) though what was presented to me was their rival to Red Bull – PWR-BRU. Lacking a little bit of energy I put it to the test and its fair to say its got a bit of a kick to it but I guess that is the intention. The Snapshot could largely mirror yesterdays with Equities falling…