Good morning from Paul & Graham!
Today's report is now finished, at 12:51.
We're planning on having a backlog clearing day today, so probably shorter sections in this report, to cover more ground.
I see US interest rates went up yet again yesterday. My view remains that this is reckless, and very damaging, plus there's no democratic accountability for this powerful role of central banker - and central banks are notoriously bad at setting rates anyway - far too low, for far too long, causing all sorts of distortions, and now overly rapid increases seemingly in a bid to crash the economy in order to remove inflation which is already falling. It doesn't make sense to a humble shares blogger here anyway, and isn't going to exactly help the pressures on the banking system either. Oh well, we'll just have to see what happens.
With "risk-free" interest of 5%, all of a sudden a 5% dividend yield from shares doesn't look enticing any more. So for the first time in c.15 years, equities are now competing for peoples' savings with decent returns on cash deposits (below inflation, but probably not for long, as US inflation is falling quite rapidly, and ours is set to follow suit from the summer, according to the Bank of England). This doesn't seem a positive backdrop for equities. Or, will this just be a short-lived spike in interest rates? If so, then equities could still be a good place to invest. It will be fascinating to see how all this pans out!
Explanatory notes -
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