Daily Snapshot

It’s one of the biggest betting weeks of the year for the UK as Cheltenham kicks of tomorrow. Whilst I’ll stay clear of some of the 4-legged chances this week here are some of my odds for the week in markets: A Ukraine/Russia ceasefire (10-1); Trump to table Tariffs on Europe (5-1), More stimulus from China to end their Two-Sessions meeting (6-4). U.S. Headline inflation to come in hotter than expected (Evens)….a volatile week ahead….well that one has already paid out as a winner! The going t…

Given that us Irish aren’t exactly known for our ability to tolerate the sun, I can’t quite tell if the dizziness I felt earlier was from the five minutes spent basking in the 15-degree heat here in London or my brain finally short-circuiting after what’s been a wild week in equity markets…. Today was no different, with a blast of earnings to get through (are we done yet!?) and equities slipping from early highs as euphoria over Trump dialling back tariffs on autos was outweighed by a rather si…

If you’d told me either on Monday or Tuesday that by Wednesday’s close of play we’d be virtually flat on the week for the Stoxx 600 I’d have laughed for different reasons but 3 days into the week that’s where we are….As if it was at Friday’s close and the prevailing 3 days hadn’t happened. Something poetic about all this flipping going on around pancake day (none of mine hit the floor this year) but one thing for certain these are NOT easy markets. Economic growth on investors’ minds today as q…

It is now officially the time of year where you wear a jacket into the office, then its too warm to wear it back home and you end up with all your warm clothes in the office. I don’t know if there is a word for it (there really should be) but I’m definitely running out of room on the back of my chair. Few people might have been hiding behind chairs on a day like today which was the worst of the year in Europe across a wide variety of indices and the Stoxx 600 ended it down -2.1%. It maybe shoul…

What a weekend that was; sun shining, blue skies and even with a crisp feel to proceedings it was a lot better than we’ve been used to so far this year. Naturally, I decided it was a weekend to redecorate and do some housework and ended up spending too much of it indoors! After all, DIY is slightly uncharted territory for me. We’re close to (or in some cases in) uncharted territory here in Europe too. The Stoxx 600 has been up the last 10 weeks and is heading (although early) for its 11th which…

The absence of rain forecasted in London for the next week or so has definitely put me in good spirits and with Saturday marking the first of March, it does feel like we are on the up from here which is hard not to get excited about given that it has felt like winter has dragged on a bit too long for my liking! On the other hand, it was hard for EU bulls to be too upbeat ahead of today’s session, with appetite for risk relatively subdued from the get-go after results overnight from Nvidia came…

“Get married or your labour contract will be terminated” is a pretty no-nonsense approach from a Chinese corporate in an effort to abide with government pushes to tackle declining birth rates and something which did catch me off guard earlier. Certainly not your typical HR policy and I’m not entirely sure how well that would fly here in the UK! Moving on to a different type of pressure, all eyes will be results from Nvidia (currently +4% with options pricing in a 10% move) later tonight which f…

A Tuesday night kick-about has become a bit of a ritual for some of us here and something I very much look forward to once a week, so you’ll forgive me for breezing through today’s session to make the most of the extra sliver of daylight which we’ve been blessed with as of late. A tricky start earlier saw equities on the backfoot, with haven assets bid for following the latest tariff rhetoric out of Washington which included news that the Trump administration is looking to toughen semiconductor…

Losing your wallet is bad enough, but having a winning lottery ticket purchased with your stolen credit card? Sounds like the kind of absurd headline you’d expect from a cartoon plot, but this is an actual story out of France over the weekend and has to be right up there with some of the worst luck I’ve heard in a while! Elsewhere in Europe, it was Germany which had much of today’s spotlight following yesterday’s election, with the DAX and MDAX rising 62bps and 1.5% to outperform broader Europe…

I met an avid reader of the Snapshot today who confirmed what I sort of already knew; it’s the first couple of sentences that make all the difference in the Snapshot. I know I’ve been slacking in that department but It’s hard; I’m getting far more boring as I get older, can’t remember the last time I wasn’t tired and have the social life of mealworm. Either way its always nice to hear it’s a go to – and naturally thanks to everyone here who contributes. A nothing day in Europe so to speak, a to…