Investors are feeling more chipper as the week comes towards its close after latest economic data left US markets largely happy with the macro outlook.Crashing recession avoided, interest rate cuts coming - it might not be quite the Goldilocks outcome hoped for but good enough. Thursday?s S&P 500 move higher left the crucial US index to close above the 5,200 level for the first time in a month and

London?s FTSE 100 registered a bullish start to the holiday shortened week on Tuesday, with US interest rate optimism sending equities into the green.Financial markets in London were closed on Monday for the May Day bank holiday.Missing out on the confident trade were budget carriers, as the likes of easyJet and Wizz Air fell after a summer pricing warning from peer Ryanair.The FTSE 100 index clos

Walt Disney (DIS: NYSE) is due to report second quarter earnings on 7 May. Analysts expect the House of Mouse to deliver revenue of revenue to come in at $22.11 billion for the quarter and EPS (earnings per share) of $1.09.Disney reported stronger-than-expected first quarter earnings back in February boosted by cost cutting and revenue from the entertainment giant?s theme parks.Revenues for Disne

Nelson Peltz?s failure to get a seat on the board of directors at Disney (DIS:NYSE) has raised the question: are activist investors losing their touch?Peltz might have enjoyed success with earlier campaigns at Kraft Heinz (KHC:NASDAQ) and Wendy?s (WEN:NASDAQ), yet he sits alongside big names such as Pershing Square?s (PSH) Bill Ackman where campaigns have not gone their way.Peltz wanted to shake u

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

Our 2023 picks have smashed it - achieving an average return excluding dividends of 20.6%, more than four times the return of the FTSE All-Share and better even than the MSCI World which is up 17.9% this year.This is all the more satisfying as the MSCI World index has been powered by the US 'Magnificent Seven' tech stocks, whereas the Shares portfolio benefited from the inclusion of just one of th

It's action stations at entertainment giant Walt Disney (DIS:NYSE), where despite fourth-quarter results beating analysts' expectations activist investors Nelson Peltz and ex-Marvel executive Ike Perlmutter are not happy bunnies.In collaboration with Perlmutter, Peltz and his firm Trian Fund Management recently launched a 'proxy fight' for multiple seats on the House of Mouse's board piling on the

Until Thursday's sell-off, US stocks had been enjoying their best run for several years, with more than a week of back-to-back gains for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, leading commentators to predict a 'Santa rally' into the end of the year.At the same time, investors seem to be betting the US economy is back in 'Goldilocks' territory, where growth, employment and inflation are 'just right', meaning

Walt Disney (DIS:NYSE) used to be one of those stocks that even cautious investors could rely on. For the past 40-odd years the share price has steadily chugged higher, and investors have been repaid for their faith with a reliable stream of dividends year after year.Yes, there have been stumbles along the way, even the most dependable stocks falter now and then. Disney floundered during the inter

The medium of news and entertainment is constantly evolving, and its evolution brings both opportunity and misfortune to entrepreneurs and investors alike.The advent of TV programming in the 1940s and 50s created an advertising bonanza but impacted cinema attendance while the arrival of streaming services and social media platforms created new opportunities but has taken a good bite out of broadca

Shares up over 2% in after-hours tradingRevenue up 4% to $22.3 billion'On track' with cost cutting goal of $5.5 billionShares in Walt Disney (DIS:NYSE) were up over 2% at $87 in after-hours trading despite third quarter earnings missing analysts' expectations.For the third quarter ending 1 July 2023, the entertainment giant reported a 4% increase in revenue to $22.3 billion compared to $21.5 billi

Entertainment giant Walt Disney (DIS:NYSE) is scheduled to report third quarter earnings on 9 August with analysts forecasting $22.49 billion revenue (Q3 2022: $21.5 billion) and $0.99 earnings per share (Q3 2022: $1.09).The $158 billion group, which combines content production, streaming services, theme parks and licencing, reported a 13% increase in revenue to $21.8 billion in the second quarter

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

US markets put in a positive performance over the past week despite building worries over the US debt ceiling after headline consumer price inflation and factory gate prices slowed as expected.The S&P 500 gained more than 1% while the technology-focused Nasdaq 100 jumped 1.7%, as growth stocks benefited from falling bond yields.The US Bureau of Labor Statistics said consumer prices fell to 4.9% ye

Can embattled retailer ASOS bounce back into fashion with investors?The online fast-fashion retailer is wrestling with weak consumer demand and cash flow pressuresHalf-year results on 10 May from ASOS (ASC) will give investors a read into how 20-something fashionistas are coping with the cost-of-living crisis, as well as an update on progress against new CEO Jose Antonio Ramos Calamonte's 'Driving

Helped by a positive first quarter for stocks our top selections for 2023 have made a superb start to the year.At the time of writing the share price return on the portfolio of 10 names is 18.5%, substantially outpacing the FTSE All-Share which is up just 3.8% and with not a single name in negative territory. We have also significantly outperformed the MSCI World's 4.6% advance in sterling.The key

Walt Disney $108.10Gain to date: 26%We chose Walt Disney (DIS:NYSE) last December as one of Shares' 2023 picks of the year. We highlighted the 45% share price decline during 2022 as an 'outstanding' opportunity to buy into one of the world's best loved brands.We expected the return of Bob Iger as CEO in November 2022 to reinvigorate the creative side of Disney and give the 'House of Mouse' its moj

This year's rebound in US asset prices suggests that investor sentiment is shifting to risk-on after a year of playing defence. Trying to divine the future for pricing is always precarious, especially in the near term, but stocks were lifted early in the week as investors digested comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell about how long the central bank may need to tame inflation.Powell sa

It was a mixed close for London stocks on Thursday, with large caps outperforming their smaller counterparts, while Walt Disney proved a favourite as equities in New York were on the up.London's FTSE 100 retreated from its fresh intraday high of 7,949.57 points, though it did achieve a new closing record. There was little joy elsewhere in London, however, as mid and small-cap measures ended lower.

Watches of Switzerland Watches investors are looking for another robust update from the specialist retailerA third quarter update (9 February) from Watches of Switzerland (WOSG) provides a window to see if the luxury watch retailer continued to trade positively over Christmas and New Year. On 14 December the Rolex-to-Breitling purveyor, which benefits from pricing power and longstanding brand part