Revenue and earnings beat Street estimatesStrongest revenue growth in two yearsFirst ever dividend announcedShares in Alphabet (GOOG:NASDAQ) are set to open at a new all-time high after the Google parent reported strong double-digit first quarter revenue growth, and bested Wall Street profit estimates. The internet search giant also announced it would pay its first ever dividend.Pre-market data ha

After last week?s market spasm over hints from Fed officials that rates may need to rise rather than fall due to the resilience of the US economy, this week the focus moved on to earnings with around one third of S&P 500 companies posting first-quarter updates.So far most firms have beaten estimates, leading to slim gains for the indices, but an increasing number have tempered their guidance for t

Investors in London bought at the open on Thursday, looking ahead to US GDP data this afternoon, while Anglo American shares jumped after it confirmed that it was ?reviewing? a takeover bid from its larger Australian rival BHP Group.The FTSE 100 index opened up 33.81 points, 0.4%, at 8,074.19. The FTSE 250 was down 98.85 points, 0.5%, at 19,620.52, and the AIM All-Share was down 0.60 of a point, 0

Stock prices in London opened in the green on Thursday, with some positive corporate updates helping lift the FTSE 100, a far cry from the sell-off New York tech shares suffered overnight.The tech sector comes into focus again, with streaming service Netflix, traditionally one of the FAANG stocks alongside Facebook owner Meta, Amazon, Apple and Alphabet, reporting quarterly earnings later.The FTSE

If you had £10,000 to invest in a single fund, which would you choose ? one of the most popular with retail investors for more than a decade, or a relative new kid on the block with a similar asset allocation approach?In a manner of speaking, it is what billionaire City grandee Michael Spencer challenged formidable money man and Fundsmith Equity (B41YBW7) founder Terry Smith at the end of 2023, t

THIS IS AN ADVERTISING FEATURE US equities: time to diversifyFran Radano, Manager, The North American Income TrustThe ?Magnificent Seven? has dwindled to just two stocksInvestors need to ensure their US equity exposure is diversifiedThe new economic environment requires greater cautionInvestors may need to rethink their approach to the US stock market. After a decade where a handful of technolo

This year, Apple (AAPL:NASDAQ) shares have fallen nearly 9%. If that doesn?t sound like a big deal, consider that for the world?s second most valuable company it means the loss of something like $230 billion. That?s the equivalent of an entire PepsiCo (PEP:NASDAQ), or Shell (SHEL) ? the UK?s current largest company ? plus a British American Tobacco (BATS) thrown in.On a one-year view, the stock ha

Stocks in London were higher at midday on Wednesday, boosted by retailers ahead of a US consumer price inflation reading.Amongst individual stocks, Tesco led the charge, after unveiling a £1 billion share buyback programme. Other retailers also got a boost on the back of the results.The FTSE 100 index was up 47.65 points, 0.6%, at 7,982.44. The FTSE 250 was up 171.65 points, 0.9%, at 19,935.00, a

US stock markets took a turn for the worse after Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari threw a cat among the pigeons by introducing the possibility of zero rate cuts this year.?If we continue to see inflation moving sideways, then that would make me question whether we need to do those rate cuts at all?, Kashkari told journalists. ?There's a lot of momentum in the economy right now.?That was evi

London?s FTSE 100 underperformed European peers on Wednesday morning, with wider sentiment taking a hit as investors re-think the Federal Reserve interest rate outlook in the face of robust US data.The FTSE 100 index opened down 37.00 points, 0.5%, at 7,898.09. The FTSE 250 was down 72.68 points, 0.4%, at 19,641.21, and the AIM All-Share was down 0.83 of a point, 0.1%, at 741.57.The Cboe UK 100 wa

The FTSE 100 got a boost in London on Tuesday at midday, thanks to the UK manufacturing sector returning growth in March.The FTSE 100 index was up 23.76 points, 0.3%, at 7,976.38. The FTSE 250 was down 58.37 points, 0.3%, at 19,826.36, and the AIM All-Share was up 0.40 of a point at 743.66.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.2% at 797.51, the Cboe UK 250 was down 0.7% at 17,220.34, and the Cboe Small Compani

London?s FTSE 100 traded solidly higher at the start of the second quarter, boosted by oil majors and gold miners, ahead of UK data shortly.The FTSE 100 index opened up 48.35 points, 0.6%, at 8,000.97. The FTSE 250 was up 75.55 points, 0.4%, at 19,960.28, and the AIM All-Share was up 3.78 points, 0.5%, at 747.04.The Cboe UK 100 was up 0.5% at 800.00, the Cboe UK 250 was up 0.3% at 17,393.65, and t

Whenever there is a discussion about ?quality? UK industrial stocks, the name Spectris (SXS) is often thrown into the ring although we suspect many investors, while being familiar with the company in a general sense, have little idea what it actually does.Looking on Stockopedia, the company has a 99th percentile quality ranking, which backs up its reputation, but it is classified as a large-cap te

In a world of thousands of stocks, certain people just want to focus on ones that are doing well. If these stocks are part of a group with a snappy acronym or label, they must surely matter, right? That is the widespread view among the investment community.Investors love a narrative and what better way to hook people in than with a label that says, ?look at me?. The Magnificent Seven is the latest

If a management team is any good at running a public company then the numbers contained in a results statement should often be something of a non-event.It means those at the top have done a good job of setting expectations for revenue and earnings ahead of time ? both in the background through briefings with the financial community and in publicly-available trading updates ? and there is little fo

US telco stocks have outstripped the performance of tech this yearTelco earnings growth has averaged 10% a year over the past threeEntertainment sub-sector projected earnings growth of 25.9% in 2024Global equities have been on a relative tear so far this year led by Japan. Among major indices, the Nikkei 225 tops the lot, its 21.9% rise beating the rallies of US, Indian and European peers, and sma

THIS IS AN ADVERTISING FEATURE Stephen AnnessHead of Global Equities, Invesco The Magnificent Seven ? the group of supercharged stocks named after the classic Western movie ? that delivered such outstanding returns in 2023 generated so much attention you would think it impossible to have beaten the index without owning them all. The fact that some of us did should be hugely reassuring to investor

At a huge indoor concert venue in Silicon Valley on 18 March Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ) founder and chief executive Jensen Huang took the stage to a score composed entirely by AI (artificial intelligence) to introduce his company?s latest creation. Assembled at the developer conference were researchers and experts from just about every field which uses Nvidia?s chips to process large data sets, from cli

Stocks in London made muted progress on Monday, despite further tech gains in New York, in a lull ahead of a storm of central bank announcements this week.The FTSE 100 index closed down 4.87 points, 0.1%, at 7,722.55. The FTSE 250 ended down 26.38 points, 0.2%, at 19,486.53, and the AIM All-Share closed down 1.68 points, 0.2%, at 736.63.The Cboe UK 100 ended down 0.1% at 773.55, the Cboe UK 250 cl

Semiconductors are the bedrock of the digital economy, core enablers of the data revolution and at the forefront of technological innovation. The semiconductor industry could be set for exponential growth driven by the mega forces of AI (artificial intelligence) and digitalisation, as well as those of geopolitics and economic competition.Investors looking to gain semiconductor exposure have the op