They do things differently up north, tha’ knows. David Cowell of Myddleton Croft Investment Managers delivers a seasonal dose of common sense. Happy Christmas, all.
A major emergency occurred in Wigan yesterday as the annual pie-eating contest had to be abandoned. Officials discovered that the pies were not of regulation size. Mark Thomas’s record lives on.
The Christmas rally has started. The Footsie, having gone below 6200 is, as I write, above 6500 and rising: that makes 5% in three trading days. Buy, buy, buy!
The Bank of England’s stress testing gives most major UK banks a clean bill of health, although the Co-Op Bank was asked to raise more capital. RBS and Lloyds were deemed to have passed, just, and don’t need to raise any more at this point. The stress tests were designed to assess whether the banks could survive a spike in unemployment to 12%, a house price crash of 35%, and an interest rate rise.
Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party has retained its House of Representatives majority following the recent snap election. The LDP will govern with the Buddhist-backed Komeito party after the parties won a reported 325 seats out of 475 in the lower house.
Russia’s central bank has taken drastic action to halt the rouble’s free-fall on the foreign exchanges by raising interest rates by 6.5 percentage points to 17%. Vlad has told his subjects that it’s all the fault of those nasty westerners.
Lastminute.com, the firm which came to fame at the height of the dot.com boom in 20
00, has been sold to Swiss travel firm
Bravofly Rumbo for $120m (£76m). Rambling Sid?
Does anyone still fancy their chances in the bond markets?
German labour costs rose by 2.3% in the third quarter of the year compared to the same period last year – the sharpest rise since early 2013 and much quicker than many other Eurozone states. Inflation by default?
An IFA has launched a petition calling on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to ban unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS) outright. Oh dear. Isn’t this starting from the wrong end? Most UCIS are just unregulated, not rip-offs. Finish this well-known phrase or saying…..”If it looks too good to be true……..”
A North Yorkshire farmer is walking across one of his fields one day and sees a walker drinking from the stream running through the field. At this point I should explain to the ‘unblessed’ that a stream in North Yorkshire is called a beck. The farmer walks over to the walker and says, “Aye-up lad, tha dun’t want ta be drinkin’ fra yon beck, t’ cows an ‘osses do all sorts i’ thar.” The walker looks up and says, “I’m from London and I’m afraid I can’t comprehend what you said.”
The farmer slowly and deliberately replies, ”If – tha- uses – two -‘ands – tha – won’t – spill – owt.”
The next Rant will be 9th January, d.v., so in the interim I trust that you all enjoy Christmas and have a happy, peaceful and profitable New Year.
David Cowell
Director
For and on behalf of Myddleton Croft Investment Managers
1 Woodside Mews
Clayton Wood Close
Leeds
LS16 6QE
Tel: 0113 274 7700
Fax: 0113 274 7711
