Weekend Roundup - Including links to two fascinating interviews

#weekendroundup

The returns of selected markets over the last week, sorted by year-to-date, are included at the end of this post.

Market Overview

More bad news for the Chancellor. The deficit stood at £132bn at the end of February. Only in October, the OBR forecast the deficit will be £111bn for the year ending 5 April 2025. 20% wrong! What is the point of the OBR? Why not just take the median forecast of City economists and perhaps question the outliers as to why they are more optimistic/pessimistic? It would be a lot cheaper. Anyway, I digress. £132bn is £1885 for every single person (70m) in the UK. Something has got to give. The Chancellor’s March budget is on Wednesday.

Mid and small-cap in the UK continues to be moribund.

Gold hits new highs.

I listened to two interviews this week. Both were very interesting and gave great insight into the Trump administration's thinking and plans to eliminate the deficit and reduce taxes. One was with Scott Bessent, Treasury Secretary (HERE), and the other with Howard Lutnick, Commerce Secretary (HERE).

There is an interesting part by Bessent on his role in the famous Soros "break the Bank of England" trade.

I

Portfolio Performance

Another encouraging week from both Portfolios.

JIC Portfolio

• Weekly Performance: +1.4% (vs. +0.1% for the FTSE All-Share Total Return Index)

• Year-to-Date: -4.9% (vs. +5.3% for the FTSE All-Share TR)

• Five-Year Performance: +73.8% (vs. +90.1% for the FTSE All-Share TR) Work to be done!

Size Comparisons (Year-to-Date):

• AIM All-Share: -4.2%

• FTSE 250: -3.5%

• FTSE Small Cap (Ex Investment Co): -5.7%

JIC Funds’ Portfolio

• Weekly Performance: +0.6% (vs. 0.9% for the FTSE All-World Total Return Index, GBP)

• Year-to-Date: +1.9% (vs. -2.2% for the FTSE All-World)

  
  

Movers and Highlights

Top Movers over the week (Over 5%)

Positives:

• Niox +21%, Zegona Communications +18.5%, Ashoka India +7.6%.

Negatives:

• Fireweed Metals -5.7%.

New Highs

Twelve Month Highs: Fidelity China Special Situations, KraneShares China Internet ETF.

All-Time Highs:  Zegona, L&G Gold Mining ETF, International Petroleum Corp, iShares MSCI Europe Industrials, Temple Bar Investments, Niox, Halozyme, and Future of Defence ETF.

Key Developments

• Results/News:

  • Possible offer for Niox at 81p or more.

  • Serica's Triton field disappoints again.

  • Bloomsbury: robust trading update

• Trades:

o     None in either portfolio.

Coming up Next Week: Gamma Communications results on Tuesday.