Image source: Getty Images One big trend in the stock market over the past decade has been private companies choosing to stay unlisted for longer. Before that, less mature firms would list on the London Stock Exchange or in New York to raise the necessary capital to scale up. However, there’s now an abundance of venture capital, private equity, and sovereign wealth fund investment. Consequently, top growth firms can raise billions privately without dealing with the regulatory hassle and short-termism of public markets. Some unlisted companies that have grown enormously in recent years include SpaceX and TikTok owner ByteDance. When…
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(Bloomberg) — China’s economy surprised with signs of improvement even as deflationary pressures persisted and employment weakened, throwing fresh doubt over the likelihood of further monetary stimulus by Beijing in the face of higher US tariffs. Most Read from Bloomberg Factory activity and construction had their strongest month of the second quarter in June, according to China’s official purchasing managers’ indexes released on Monday. The official manufacturing PMI remained in contraction but reached 49.7 from 49.5 in May — exceeding forecasts along with a measure of construction and services. Yet behind the headline figures was a more mixed picture of…
Image source: Getty Images. Throughout 2024, I watched my AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) stock lose almost 50% of its value, slipping from a high of $227 to almost $120 by year-end. Profitability lagged expectations — particularly regarding artificial intelligence (AI) — and macro factors like high interest rates and trade restrictions didn’t help. Combined with an already high valuation, even small disappointments triggered notable share price declines. Those losses continued until April, but it’s since made a spectacular recovery, climbing 25% in June alone. I decided to find out what’s driving the recovery — and if it’s sustainable. A tech-driven market…
Image source: Getty Images Most FTSE shares have had a solid run in the first half of 2025. Many of the UK’s largest companies have delivered share price gains of more than 50%, helped by stabilising interest rates, easing inflation and recovering confidence in the UK market. As a result, some of the most popular dividend stocks on the FTSE 100 have seen their yields drop as prices have surged. But small-cap FTSE shares often lag during early bull markets. Investors tend to favour established blue-chips first, leaving smaller companies trailing. This slower recovery can sometimes create opportunities to pick…
What costs can the revenue from transition credits cover? We need a solution that meets the needs of all of the stakeholders in a power plant – from shareholders to the local community, to the workforce and bill payers – and leaves them the same, or ideally better off. So part of the transition credit needs to go to buying out existing contracts. Renewables are cost-competitive with coal power in many markets. However, if you want that clean power to provide the same grid services, you will need some subsidy for the storage element. The final element is the just-transition…
Image source: Getty Images In the space of just a few short years, Glencore (LSE: GLEN) shares have gone from being one of the FTSE 100 best performers, to its worst. Year to date, the share price is down a fifth, and in the last year its shed over a third of its value. As a long-term investor, my patience is being sorely tested, that’s for sure. Coal assets The primary driver for the stock’s weakness is depressed thermal (energy) coal prices. In 2024, adjusted earnings before income tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for its coal assets declined $3.1bn, to…
Image source: Getty Images As far as I can tell, Frasers Group (LSE:FRAS), the FTSE 250 owner of Sports Direct, doesn’t sell replica Millwall Football Club kits. But despite this, I wonder if the two institutions do have one thing in common. Since the 1970s, supporters of the South London club have sung “No one likes us, we don’t care” to the tune of Sailing by Rod Stewart. And it wouldn’t surprise me if Mike Ashley, the majority shareholder in the retail empire, has something similar written on his office wall. A powerful force Although he’s not a director of…
As the final Monday of June arrives, customers across India are wondering whether banks will remain open or closed today. According to the official holiday calendar issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for 2025, banks in select regions will observe a holiday on Monday, June 30, due to Remna Ni, a state-level public holiday. Remna Ni marks the signing of the historic Mizoram Peace Accord and is observed annually on June 30 in remembrance of this significant event. The accord, signed between the Indian government and the Mizo National Front (MNF), ended nearly 20 years of insurgency in…
Mid adult man using a smart phone to monitor his cryptocurrency and stock trading. He is in his small jewellery workshop. I had some spare cash in my Self-Invested Pension (SIPP) last month after receiving some juicy tax relief from the government. Here’s what I decided to invest it in. HANetf Future of Defence ETF Defence stocks have risen sharply in recent years as geopolitical threats have increased. Yet buying individual shares like BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce comes with higher risk than a basket of stocks with an exchange-traded fund (ETF). ,This is why I plumped for HANetf Future of…
Image source: Getty Images Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) stock’s up 9% over the past year. However, the pound’s also up around 9% versus the dollar over the period. And as Salesforce shares are listed in dollars on the US exchange, that means a £10,000 investment a year ago would be worth pretty much the same today. Agentic AI leader Salesforce is a leading global cloud software provider. It’s also uniquely positioned at the forefront of the agentic artificial intelligence (AI) revolution in enterprise technology. In recent months, Salesforce’s leadership in agentic AI — systems that can autonomously execute complex workflows and enhance…