Innehållsförteckning för 1204 från MoneyWeek

It certainly wasn’t a case of “buy on the sound of cannons”. But markets’ reaction to Iran’s first direct attack on Israel, which raised the spectre of “the first full-scale regional war in the Middle East in decades”, according to Tina Fordham of Fordham Global Foresight, was relatively sanguine. America’s S&P 500 sold off sharply last Friday in anticipation of the strike, losing around 2%, and slid marginally on Monday after an uptick; oil prices, a gauge of geopolitical trouble, fell slightly. Markets have learnt to deal with political jitters. A Deutsche Bank note out this week examined the S&P 500’s reaction to previous political shocks, starting with Germany’s annexation of Czechoslovakia in 1939. Subsequent flare-ups included the Cuban missile crisis; the Arab-Israeli war of 1973; the 9/11 attacks; the…

“‘Buy low, sell high’ is… generally… good advice. But with gold still holding near its historic all-time highs… central banks, led by China, are bucking the classic adage and… buying the top to fortify themselves against a global monetary and financial blow-up… Last month marked the 17th in a row that the People’s Bank of China… continued stacking gold… Russia is also doubling its reserves of gold and foreign currencies… as it reacts to wartime sanctions from the US and EU… With the overstretched and over-indebted American empire… in a state of potentially terminal decline, Brics [Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa] countries are stacking hard assets with the hopes of overtaking the West as the next economic superpowers… Buying the top even as gold continues upward tells a…

Shares in energy giant BP jumped by 4% last week on the news that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) had considered buying the British blue chip, says Emma Powell in The Times. While talks “did not progress beyond preliminary discussions”, Adnoc, which has had joint ventures with BP for over 50 years, went as far as to take advice from investment bankers on a potential deal before deciding that BP “would not be the right fit for its strategy”. The news comes at a time when BP has been trading at a discount to its global peers because investors “have penalised it for embracing greener types of energy more keenly than other oil companies”. Adnoc may have decided against a move, but news of its interest looks likely…

The EU is to invest €2trn in public transport systems between 2021 and 2027 and raise subsidies in the sector significantly. That bodes well for Germany’s Init Innovation in Traffic Systems, says WirtschaftsWoche. It has supplied more than 220,000 buses and trains with IT systems that help operate networks, sell tickets, or count passengers. The shifts towards electrification and artificial intelligence (AI) will raise demand for control software. The group has just received major orders from London and Atlanta. A record order book should ensure a rise in sales of more than 10% to €250m this year, while the bottom line is expected to climb from €15.2m to €25m over the next few years.…

Politics & economics The tide of the war in Ukraine may turn “decisively” in Russia’s favour if Vladimir Putin continues to display more staying power than the West, say James Marson and Daniel Michaels in The Wall Street Journal. Without fresh manpower and ammunition, Ukraine could face “further losses of its land and best troops, dimming any hope of taking back the nearly 20% of its territory already occupied”. President Volodymyr Zelensky is pinning his hopes on a $60bn US aid package, which remains uncertain. On Monday, Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, announced a convoluted plan that unlinks the bill for Ukrainian aid – which many Republicans oppose – from the one for Israel, which is more popular, but it could take several weeks before…

With the local elections a fortnight away, both punters and bookmakers alike remain convinced that Sadiq Khan is a near certainty to be re-elected as London’s mayor. With £530,683 matched on Betfair, Khan is at 1.03 (97%) to win, with the Conservative Susan Hall at 28 (3.6%) to pull off a shock upset, and Reform’s Howard Cox at 380 (0.02%). Similarly, the best odds that you can get on Khan is 1/25 (96.1%) on Bet 365. I can’t see how Sadiq Khan can lose, but I’ve made it a rule not to tip bets at odds that are shorter than 1/10, so if you didn’t take my earlier advice to bet on the current mayor, it’s sadly too late. The good news is that Ladbrokes has also put up several…

Over the last few weeks, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner has been under intense scrutiny over the tax due on the sale of a property in Manchester. It turns out that Rayner bought a semi-detached council home in 2007, with a discount under the right-to-buy scheme, and then sold it eight years later for a profit reported at around £48,000. The argument is about whether she should have paid capital-gains tax (CGT) on the money she made, which depends on whether she was actually living in that house with her husband, or had registered somewhere else as her main property. The actual amount is fairly trivial. Rayner would have owed less than £4,000 in CGT, even if the property had been liable for the tax. The police have looked into…

There are many concepts in investing that sound far more complicated than they are. Pound-cost averaging – also known as drip feeding – is no exception. It simply means investing a sum of money into the market at regular intervals rather than in one go. So if you have £1,200 to invest this year, you might invest £100 per month. If you have £12,000, you invest £1,000 per month. The advantage of investing this way is that it may reduce the risk (and pain) of buying just before the market drops. If you put all your money in UK shares this month and the FTSE 100 drops steadily over the next year to end up down 30%, your portfolio is also down 30%. If you invest equal amounts monthly, you…

“The top 1% earn on average £270,000 a year, and… they give [less than] £600 to charity. And that’s with Gift Aid! I was brought up in the town of Adam Smith, and next to the town of Andrew Carnegie. Where are the modern British philanthropists?” Former chancellor and prime minister Gordon Brown (pictured), quoted in the Financial Times “They took too much cash out so deserve no sympathy… this is capitalism.” Jacob Rees-Mogg on Thames Water’s shareholders, quoted in The Times “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.” Former US president Herbert Hoover, quoted in The Lock Haven Express “Experience is a good teacher, but she sends in terrific bills.” US writer Minna Antrim, quoted on Forbes “You have allowed a once-great institution to be…

wsj.com When I convinced my bosses to give me a four-month break from the office, I started making a list of all the worthy things I would do, says Rachel Feintzeig. “Worried I’d squander the privilege, I decided simply to do everything. I purged closets, deep-cleaned the pantry, and embarked on every errand I’d put off since having children.” It was all “relentlessly scheduled”, with back-to-back drink dates and parties and plans. At some point I realised that all this was just more work and decided to relax instead. I stayed in bed for longer, watched films, ate biscuits and took naps. “I hadn’t even realised how tired I’d been.” I felt different, calmer and more capable, and had the energy to enjoy playing with the kids. I wandered round…

“Venture capitalists are pouring huge sums into mRNA biotech start-ups” It’s easy to forget the relief we all felt at the results showing that the Covid vaccine was effective, followed by the rollout of the jabs. Barely three years later, we are experiencing “vaccine fatigue”, with demand for jabs hitting an “all-time low” last autumn as the pandemic “moves into the endemic phase”, says Andy Acker, a portfolio manager at Janus Henderson. The scramble for Covid jabs is now behind us. But the lesson to take from the experience is “how transforming” the mRNA biotechnology that underpinned many of the jabs was, says Kate Leaman, chief market analyst at AvaTrade. Indeed, that technology is set to shake up how we treat everything from the flu to severe respiratory infections, and…

If you think your taxes haven’t risen in recent years, think again. While the headline tax rates may have stayed the same – or even fallen in some cases – the long-term freeze on tax thresholds mean you are likely to be paying far more now than a few years ago. Research by accountancy firm Tax Bite has found that the average worker will pay nearly £50,000 more income tax over their career now compared with three years ago. The average salary rose from £30,472 in 2020 to £35,448 in the 2023-2024 tax year. That’s a 16% jump. “However, the income tax an average earner in England would have to pay the exchequer over 48 years has increased from £172,531 to £219,633 – a £47,102 rise, or 27%,” says Mattie…

Are you supplementing your income by trading items on eBay, say, or selling old clothes on platforms such as Vinted? If so, you need to keep track of your activity because HM Revenue & Customs may want a slice of the cake. New rules requiring the platforms to disclose more information about their users came into force earlier this year. Importantly, anyone genuinely selling their own possessions – a pair of jeans you never wear anymore, for example, or your old CDs – is unlikely to owe tax on the proceeds. However, if you’re buying things in the hope of selling them at a profit – an increasingly popular “side hustle” – HMRC regards you as a trading business. Each year, you can sell up to £1,000 of items without…

The past few years have been gruelling for the hospitality industry. The entire sector was put on life support during Covid due to lockdowns, and since then it has been forced to grapple with rising inflation, staff shortages and cash-strapped consumers cutting back. No wonder, then, that data from the one of the main trade bodies suggests that 6,000 pubs, restaurants and bars closed their doors for good in 2023. Yet just because the overall sector is doing badly doesn’t mean that individual firms can’t do well. One company that continues to prosper despite the tough environment is Hollywood Bowl (LSE: BOWL). Despite what its name suggests, Hollywood Bowl is actually a British company, the UK’s largest ten-pin bowling operator, with 71 centres around Britain (as well as 11 in…

“Mike Ashley, founder of Sports Direct, is the Warren Buffett of retail” Imagine a company that earns a 15% return on the capital it uses to generate profits – a real 15% in cash after tax and all necessary capital expenditures, and 15% on the capital retained for growth. If you can buy it near the level of its capital, and hold it for the very long term, then your returns will also be approximately 15%. Understanding a business well enough to make such judgements requires many years of work, and firms like these rarely trade at such levels. So you need to do the work and be willing to wait so that you are ready when, very occasionally, they are available at such prices. For that, you need investors…

“We commemorate the triumph of our nation. Long live the Republic of Mauritius!” As the speech draws to a close, cheers break out among hotel guests and staff, the vivid multi-coloured flag is raised, and the Sega music starts up. Welcome to Mauritius, the so-called paradise island and one of the most successful economies in Africa. This is my first visit to the country, coinciding with National Day, when Mauritius celebrates gaining independence from the British on 12 March 1968. I’m at Trou aux Biches Beachcomber Golf Resort & Spa, watching a pool-side ceremony with dancers decked out in the flag’s colours – red, blue, yellow and green – swirling around me. There’s a party atmosphere, coconut-milk cocktails are passed around, and the energetic beat from the Sega band fills…

US golfer Scottie Scheffler won the Masters for a second time at Augusta National in Georgia on Sunday. But the equipment top golfers use can grab almost as much attention as the players themselves – none more so than the humble putter. A putter can stay with the golfer for a lifetime and its record of successes and failures over the years on the putting green “becomes part of its weight”, says Chris Almeida on Bloomberg. For that reason, putters are regarded by collectors as deeply personal items. And those designed by the brand Scotty Cameron and sold by Titleist are particularly sought after, selling for at least $400 new. Professional golfers Tiger Woods (pictured), Brooks Koepka and Hideki Matsuyama all use custom-made Camerons. The “true prize” for collectors, however,…

World Athletics, headed by Sebastian Coe (pictured), has become the first international sports federation to offer a financial reward for Olympic gold medals – $50,000 bonus for track and field winners at the Paris Games this summer. The move has reignited debates about the yawning financial gap between Olympic athletes and top professionals in sports such as tennis and golf, say Samuel Agini and Cathy Chen in the Financial Times. Some argue that prize money is long overdue, but others are concerned about the impact on the Games’ spirit of amateurism and the potential race for even bigger rewards. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t award prize money and redistributes 90% of its income to national Olympic committees, sports federations, and hosts. Paying prize money could lead to further division…

The pound has hit a five-month low against the US dollar. Sterling was trading at $1.24 this week after data showed that the UK’s unemployment rate has risen to 4.2%, says Anna Pruchnicka on Reuters. A cooling labour market eases the way for interest-rate cuts. In turn, the prospect of lower yields on sterling-based assets prompts currency traders to sell the pound. It has been on shaky ground since the 2022 mini-budget sent it to a record low of $1.035 against the greenback, says Shreyas Gopal of Deutsche Bank. But the “bond vigilantes” who toppled Liz Truss are unlikely to return this year. The 2022 crisis was triggered by external vulnerabilities. In August 2022 Britain was spending a staggering 4% of GDP on net energy imports, compounded by expensive, open-ended…

Industrial production Cumulative change since December 2018 Germany was one of the few Western economies to benefit from the flood of cheap Chinese goods in the 2000s, says Jon Sindreu in The Wall Street Journal. Its advanced engineering products were in strong demand as the Middle Kingdom industrialised. But now a second “China shock” is coming for Germany’s large manufacturing base, too. The German Economic Institute reports that in 2022, 13% of the EU’s “sophisticated manufactures” (items such as pharmaceuticals and car parts) came from China, compared with just 2.5% in 2000. Germany’s industrial downswing predates Covid, with production dropping by 10% in the past five years, even as the US has flatlined and Chinese industry has boomed.…

Shares in investment bank Goldman Sachs bounced on Monday after a rebound in global mergers and acquisitions helped its first-quarter profits exceed expectations, says Charles Gorrivan in The Times. Investment banking revenue jumped by 32% to $2.1bn thanks to higher fees for underwriting debt or stock offerings and advising on deals. Goldman Sachs’s investment bank recorded its best quarter in two years. Revenue from trading in fixed income, currencies and commodities climbed by 10% to $4.3bn amid record financing revenue in mortgages and structured lending. Only a year ago Goldman Sachs was struggling “after attempting to build a Main Street franchise”, says Rob Copeland in The New York Times. Now large profits in its trading and corporate advisory franchises seem to be underlining “the benefits of sticking to what it…

Private-equity giant CVC Capital Partners is going ahead with an initial public offering (IPO) on the Amsterdam stock exchange, having twice delayed listing after markets were rocked by geopolitical tensions, says the Financial Times. Despite renewed turmoil in the Middle East, CVC’s IPO suggests that there is increasing momentum across European markets for new listings, of which there have been several in recent weeks. CVC, which manages €186bn in assets, is seeking a valuation of between €13bn and €15bn. It is looking to raise more than €1.25bn to pursue acquisitions. The group has diversified into credit and infrastructure in recent years.…

● “First lose other people’s money, then lose your marbles,” says Alistair Osborne in The Times. Fallen stockpicker Neil Woodford (pictured) claims that his fund’s collapse has nothing to do with him. “[How] delusional can you get?” The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) named him and his firm, Woodford Investment Management, and the fund’s administrator, Link Fund Solutions, as the key culprits. But it takes “chutzpah” to claim the FCA’s “only criticisms” relate to the fund’s liquidity, which was the responsibility of Link, the fund’s depositary, and the regulator. Link did fail to act, “but whose fault was it that an investment sold as an equity-income fund got filled with so much illiquid, unlisted exotica?” “Woodford knew he was bending the rules.” He tried to circumvent the 10% limit on unquoted…

Savita Subramanian, head of US equity strategy, Bank of America “I think we’re in an environment where allocation to stocks is just starting to increase,” says Savita Subramanian, one of Wall Street’s top-ranked strategists. “Bullishness is just starting to percolate a bit.” Investors worry about the risk of the US Federal Reserve keeping rates high, but the prospect of monetary policy staying tight because the American economy is “running too hot” doesn’t have to be a bad environment for stocks. Over the past couple of years we’ve seen high inflation alongside a rapid upward move in rates, and yet this hasn’t derailed the rally, she tells Bloomberg. “It’s certainly derailed parts of the spectrum… commercial real estate… parts of the private markets and the less liquid areas. But we haven’t…

edconway.substack.com Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, was once hailed as the Henry Ford of electric cars, says Ed Conway. He isn’t. But China is. Musk’s aim was always to progress from high-end models towards a genuinely mass-market option with a price similar to that of the original Ford Model T. Electric cars, so like the Model T they would become so cheap they could be adopted by more or less everyone. Tesla still hasn’t got there, but China has, and it looks set to flood world markets with cheap cars. China has raced ahead, partly because it is dominant in batteries and the chemicals that go into them, but also thanks to president Xi Jinping’s industrial strategy, which has subsidised the industry by “rather a lot”. One result of…

Many companies are trying to establish a foothold in mRNA technology, but few have yet to achieve the necessary scale, or the capabilities in research and development, of front-runners such as Moderna or BioNTech, says Andy Acker of Janus Henderson. Of the two, Moderna (Nasdaq: MRNA) is probably the purest play as it is actively developing treatments for everything from flu jabs and vaccines for RSV to cancer therapies and treatments for rare diseases. Covid jab fatigue has hit sales, plunging the company into losses, but Moderna’s profits during the pandemic mean that it has more than enough money to tide it over until its drugs are approved. Moderna’s main rival, BioNTech (Nasdaq: BNTX), has a slightly different model. Rather than just focusing on treatments that involve mRNA, it also…

● NS&I’s British Savings Bonds, trumpeted in the recent Budget, have launched. The bonds will help people “save for the longer term”, while their money is “100% protected”, according to NS&I; savings will also “be invested back into supporting the UK”. You can secure a guaranteed fixed interest-rate for three years, and can’t access the money in that time. That all sounds fine, but there is “nothing revolutionary about these accounts”, says Gavin Shepherd on MoneySavingExpert. All NS&I accounts are 100% guaranteed and support the UK. That’s because NS&I is a government bank. Your deposits are backed by the Treasury and what you deposit is used to fund state spending. What’s more, the interest rate of 4.15% is “disappointing, especially after the fanfare in the Budget, because it’s so far…

● Energy regulator Ofgem is to update its rules to allow the energy ombudsman to intervene in disputes between businesses and energy companies as the government seeks to crack down on unfair contracts and rip-off broker fees. In future, the ombudsman will be allowed to consider complaints made by firms with up to 50 employees, compared with only ten today. New rules will also require suppliers to disclose all fees and commissions paid to third-party brokers. The changes reflect concern that small businesses using brokers to arrange gas and energy contracts are unwittingly paying high charges. ● New fees on imports will come into effect later this month, the government has confirmed, potentially adding significant costs to businesses that bring plant and animal products into the country. The charges, payable…

Many traders have been pointing to the recent rise in copper prices as evidence that the outlook for global growth is positive. “Dr. Copper” has long been deemed a leading indicator of the global economy. The idea is that since copper is used for a wide range of industrial and consumer goods, as well as in the construction industry, rising prices suggest that firms are buying it in anticipation of increasing output. Studies indicate that there is a relationship between growth and copper consumption. A 2013 study found that between 1966 and 2010, there was a correlation between growth and copper consumption in 16 countries. Work by the Bank of England in 2018 also found a strong relationship between global economic growth and total worldwide growth in metal consumption between…

Fans of Donald Trump couldn’t get enough of the former US president’s range of trainers (or “sneakers” as they call them across the pond) at Sneaker Con in February. Literally. The $399 Never Surrender High-Tops have sold out and they are now appearing on eBay for six figures, according to GQ magazine. One fan, a luxury watch dealer, paid $9,000 after Trump showed up at the event brandishing a pair of the gaudy gold trainers. Not everyone was impressed, as The New York Times noted. Derek Guy, who writes on men’s wear, wrote on social media: “Having a presidential candidate release a sneaker is so embarrassing. Imagine Emmanuel Macron doing a limited drop and Rishi Sunak holding pop-up events”. It turns out, we don’t have to. Our prime minister felt…

Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel at the weekend has further “ratcheted up tensions in the oil-rich Middle East”, says Anna Cooban for CNN. Oil prices have risen more than 18% so far this year to $90 a barrel, though the latest strikes had already been priced in and had a “muted” impact in trading on Monday. The nightmare scenario for energy markets is one where conflict escalates and Iran targets shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that accounts for more than 25% of the world’s seaborne oil trade. Hormuz is “the main or only route” for the major Middle Eastern oil exporters, says Richard Bronze of Energy Aspects. “It is the most significant choke point in the global oil market.” For now, oil remains well below the…

AstraZeneca (AZ) has shrugged off a “significant... revolt”, says Ian Johnston in the Financial Times. Shareholders approved a potential £1.8m pay rise for CEO Pascal Soriot, but more than a third of them voted against a package advisers had called “excessive”. Critics had argued that Soriot was already one of the best-paid CEOs in the blue-chip index; he received £16.9m last year. His supporters insisted that he was “massively underpaid” given the performance of the business under his watch. AstraZeneca also argued that the raise was needed in order “to be competitive in the global market for talent”, especially in relation to the US. It’s hard to deny that Soriot is “underpaid”, especially given his “stupendous” success, says The Times. In 12 years on his watch, AstraZeneca’s share price has…

Five to buy BAE Systems The TelegraphA more dangerous world has pushed shares in this defence giant up by 169% over the past five years. Profits are forecast to rise by an annual 9% over the next two years, giving management scope to grow through takeovers or return more cash to shareholders. On a price/earnings (p/e) ratio of 20.2 and yielding a modest 2.4%, BAE is far from the value stock it once was. Yet “a sound financial position”, diversified growth opportunities and its role as a hedge against geopolitical risk mean the shares are still worth buying. 1,277p Cake Box Holdings Interactive InvestorShares in this egg-free cream-cakes seller have bounced recently thanks to improved trading. Many people do not eat eggs for religious or dietary reasons, so Cake Box…

Resistance forces seeking to oust Myanmar’s military regime have made “one of their most significant gains since the junta seized power in a coup more than three years ago”, says Richard Paddock in The New York Times. Myawaddy, a town in the southeast of the country, is now held by rebels belonging to the Karen ethnic group. The town is a “key hub” for imports and exports on the border with Thailand, and accounted for $1bn in trade last year. That is only the latest in a series of reversals for a regime that has lost dozens of towns and military outposts in recent months in border regions near China and Bangladesh. The defeats are humiliating for the generals of the ruling junta, says Rebecca Ratcliffe in The Guardian. Its…

Given the worsening state of the world, it seems jarring that markets are holding up as well as they are. Every month brings fresh evidence that we are in a far more dangerous era than we were for the last three decades, but stocks keep reaching fresh highs in the US and are not doing too badly elsewhere (certain pockets, mostly emerging markets, are an exception to this). Yet this shouldn’t be a surprise. Markets shrug off geopolitics more easily than we assume, as Robert Buckland, the former chief global equity strategist at Citigroup, notes in the Financial Times. “As an equity strategist, I learnt to be aware of geopolitical risks, but not over-obsess,” he writes. “That is because they usually make me depressed, and hence too bearish on markets……

Xi’s housing spree EditorialThe Economist More than three years into China’s property crisis, the difference between struggling private builders and flourishing state-owned firms is increasingly stark, says The Economist. While the biggest private firms are collapsing under huge debts, state-backed firms, which enjoy “tight links with banks”, are “buying more land, selling more homes” or being bailed out, with some continuing, “miraculously”, to make profits. This dynamic reflects a broader strategy by president Xi Jinping to turn the state into China’s “biggest homebuilder” over the next decade, constructing millions of social-housing units. Is this wise? State firms face “dangerous debts”; local government firms owe a collective 75trn yuan (£8.3trn), around 60% of GDP. Policymakers may think additional debts are a price worth paying for control of “China’s most important asset”…

project-syndicate.org Ever since Joseph Schumpeter articulated the idea, economists have celebrated “creative destruction”, where previously dominant industries and technologies are toppled and new innovations take over, says Daron Acemoglu. Silicon Valley “made the idea an explicit strategy from the start”, setting out to “move fast and break things”. The “allure of the theory” is that it transforms disruption from apparent cost into obvious benefit. But while Schumpeter recognised that the process is “painful and potentially dangerous”, today’s innovators see only “win-wins”. Resistance to creative destruction does lead to economic stagnation, but it doesn’t follow that destruction ought to be celebrated. Failing to recognise this carries especial dangers with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Policymakers must not make the same mistake they did with globalisation and see helping those adversely…

Time is running out for small companies that have put third-party cookies at the centre of their marketing strategies. Google will cut off access to this information in the coming months, depriving many businesses of data they have been depending on for many years in order to acquire customers. That makes it essential to develop an alternative approach as soon as possible. Third-party cookies are text files placed on internet users’ computers, typically through advertisements, allowing firms to track their browsing history and behaviour – and therefore target them with highly specific advertisements of their own. They’re distinct from first-party cookies, often used to provide website users with a more frictionless experience on sites they have actively chosen to visit. Third-party cookies track back to advertisers with whom consumers may…

In Ed Conway’s fantastic book Material World: A Substantial Story of Our Past and Future, the author draws a clear line between the dematerialised and the materialised world. This is something few of us ever really think about in our dematerialised world. We rely on technology and services and tend to overlook the infrastructure behind them. That’s where the material world comes into play: the gigantic copper mines that produce the metal for the wires transporting electricity around the country, for instance; or the sand mines that produce the silicon for the microchips in our mobile phones and computers. Most of the jobs in the material world are dirty and hard work. Because these are raw materials in commoditised markets, value is only added further up the value chain, so…

It has not been a good fortnight for my eight long tips, with all but one declining. US building-materials supplier Builders FirstSource fell from $208 to $184. Kitchen-supplier Howden Joinery declined from 906p to 877p, while recruitment specialist SThree slipped from 430p to 427p. General Motors dropped down a gear from $45.35 to $42.69, budget airline easyJet descended from 570p to 540p, and SSP, which operates food and drink concessions in airports and train stations, slipped from 219p to 206p. Rolls-Royce Holdings slid from 428p to 406p. The only exception was investment and share-trading platform IG Group, which rose from 730p to 736p. My long tips are now making overall profits of £1,445, down from £2,178. Nevertheless, the good news is that my four short tips all moved in my…

The mathematics professor and hedge-fund manager Edward Thorp “rocketed to fame” in the early Sixties by showing readers of his book, Beat The Dealer, how it was possible to get one up on the casinos, say Richard Dewey and Aaron Brown on Bloomberg. His system involved card counting to beat the odds at blackjack. He also had guides on how to win at other games of chance, including roulette. His strategies might only give rough answers and a slight edge on the odds, but that can be good enough to beat the house and win large sums if you bet the right amounts smartly. Thorp (pictured) then took his skills to Wall Street, setting up a pioneering hedge fund at the age of 37. There he employed statistical techniques to…

£19.50, reduced to £17.50 each by the case, leaandsandeman.co.uk I can’t remember when I first started buying the wines from Visintini. However, I know that it was the Pinot Grigio Ramato that first caught my eye. Ramato means “copper” in Italian, which refers to the faint coppery colour that some pinot grigios pick up from their skins during winemaking. Visintini’s is exceptional because it is not a rosé nor a true white wine, but somewhere in between. The 2022 Pinot Grigio Ramato Visintini (£17.95, reduced to £16.50 each by the case) is about as classic an example of this style as I have ever tasted, and I highly recommend you taste this wine. But as I finished the Visintini line-up, I had one more wine to taste – an unusually…

Going… The scooter at the heart of a very French scandal is heading for sale with auction house Rouillac at a château on the Loire on 26 May, says Politico. Ten years ago, a photograph (right) of François Hollande, sitting astride a grey Piaggio three-wheeler, appeared on the cover of Closer magazine, showing the then-president of France on his way to a tryst with his then-lover (and now wife) Julie Gayet. Hollande had been in a relationship with Valérie Trierweiler at the time, and the French press relished every salacious detail of the affair. The starting bid for what is arguably the most famous scooter in France is €10,000, according to French media. Gone… The sole remaining iconic “Captain America” chopper motorcycle that appeared in the climactic finale of the…