We begin this article with the cautionary tale of former high-flying cloud telephony and conferencing firm LoopUp (LOOP:AIM).At the beginning of March, the firm dropped a bombshell on investors by announcing the board had unanimously decided that canceling its listing on AIM and raising money from a handful of private backers was ?in the best interests of the group and our shareholders?.The stock

One of the chocolate industry?s seasonal peaks, Easter is upon us with eggs from the world?s major brands adorning retailer?s shelves.Chocolates are tough for consumers to resist at this time of year, but is this an opportune time to put money to work with purveyors of one of the world?s most popular little luxuries?SWEET CONSUMER CATEGORYAccording to MarkNtel Advisors, the global chocolate market

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

US stocks continued their journey skyward ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday night only to return to earth with a bump on Thursday on a combination of hawkish comments from the central bank and uninspiring tech earnings.While no-one expected interest rates to be cut from their current level of 5.25% to 5.5%, the monetary policy statement was less conciliatory than expected with Fed

Swashbuckling gains were clocked up in November as investors bet that falling inflation, a firm jobs market, and mostly better than expected corporate earnings bode well for the US economy into 2024.The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1.8% over the past week, and while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose more modestly, it?s still been a hell of a month for US stocks. The Dow Jones Industrial

Revenue beat for 28th consecutive quarterEnthusiasm dampened by lightly soft guidanceAI has helped stock rally 50% in 2023Chip technology reporting season kicked off overnight with robust third-quarter earnings from Cadence Design Systems (CDNS:NASDAQ). The San Jose-based company provides electronic design automation software which helps chip designers and manufacturers develop next-generation sys

Obesity is one of the fastest growing public health issues facing the world. The World Health Organisation estimates there are two billion overweight adults, of which around 650 million are technically obese.Having a body mass index over 30 means someone is obese, while anyone with a score over 25 is classified under this system as being overweight. Experts predict almost half of US adults will be

Investors excited by return to equity markets for UK tech championChip design giant aiming for $60 billion to $70 billion valuationIPOs this year suggest a much lower price tagGiant UK microchips designer ARM has filed its highly anticipated Wall Street IPO (initial public offering), marking a return to equity markets for the Cambridge-based company having been owned by Japan's Softbank (9984:TYO)

The FTSE 100 had another tepid session on Wednesday, succumbing to Bank of England interest rate worries, and with growth concerns from China still keeping a lid on mining shares and HSBC.A robust UK core inflation reading means a Bank of England rate hike pause could be a distant prospect. The data, which showed the annual inflation rate excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, remained at 6.

Given how hard it has been to pick winning stocks this year, due to the outsized gains enjoyed by a narrow collection of stocks in the US in particular, we are delighted with the performance of our 2023 Tips of The Year.Against a FTSE All-Share index which has basically gone nowhere, eking out just a 0.5% positive return at this stage, our basket of 10 stocks has returned an average of 23.3% on an

The US version of pizza delivery outfit Domino's Pizza (DPZ:NYSE) spooked investors in April when it warned of pressure on sales as hard-pressed consumers were cooking at home rather than splashing out on takeaways.Investors will be looking to see if that trend has continued when the company reports its second quarter results on 24 July or if the relative resilience of the US economy has helped ma

Nick Train, who co-founded asset manager Lindsell Train with Michael Lindsell, is one of the UK's most-followed fund managers. His insights in commentaries for the Finsbury Growth & Income (FGT) and Lindsell Train (LTI) investment trusts are pored over by fellow stock pickers and media alike.Train and Lindsell remain actively involved in fund management and running their company until at least 202

MONDELEZ INTERNATIONAL (MDLZ:NASDAQ) $77.86Gain to date: 23.2%Shares in snacking giant Mondelez International (MDLZ:NASDAQ) are up more than 23% since we urged readers to buy at $63.22 on 10 November last year, with the stock testing fresh all-time highs. Investors evidently have a strong appetite for exposure to the earnings and cash flows generated by Mondelez's iconic portfolio of brands includ

For years, Cadbury's has tempted chocolate fans with its Creme Egg adverts asking, 'how do you eat yours?'. While Shares readers may have enjoyed their fill of the gooey stuff at Easter, Cadbury's marketing technique has led me to think about how investors find stocks for their portfolio.'How do you pick yours?' is an interesting question for investors and one that can probably be put into six buc

- Shareholder group calls for board changes- Letter expresses 'deep concerns' over management- Statements over Samsung settlement called 'misleading'A group of shareholders at Manchester-based materials technology company Nanoco (NANO) are making public a letter they sent to the board on 10 March expressing deep concerns over 'certain actions and activities'.The group of shareholders is led by Tar

- Peltz offloads Unilever shares- IHG's Edgecliffe-Johnson offloads £2 million of stock- Coca Cola HBC directors exercise options before they expire, and sellActivist investor Nelson Peltz has sold £70.8 million worth of Unilever (ULVR) shares held by his Trian investment vehicle, implying his work is done with trying to drive change at the consumer goods company.Peltz has been one of several bi

Moneysupermarket could be in demandConsumers are increasingly looking to switch products and economise where they canGiven there has been no sign of a let-up in the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, we suspect price comparison website operator Moneysupermarket.com (MONY) would have had a strong final quarter in 2022.At the nine-month stage, growth was already ahead of expectations, especially in its

Stock prices in London finished mostly higher on Monday, with investors upbeat on the re-opening of the world's second largest economy and hopes that the US central bank may soon slow the pace of its interest rate hikes.The FTSE 100 index closed up 25.45 points, or 0.3%, at 7,724.94. The FTSE 250 ended down 25.33 points, or 0.1%, at 19,479.39, and the AIM All-Share closed up 2.58 points, or 0.3%,

- 2023 profits seen materially below expectations- 2024 revenue growth forecast slashed to 5%- Third-party publishing arm under reviewVideo gaming developer and publisher Frontier Developments (FDEV:AIM) warned on earnings for the full year to May 2023 after seeing lower than expected sales over the festive season, which it said was 'potentially due in part to increased player price sensitivity re