Zak Mir

  • Palladium set to power well beyond $1,000 on death of diesel

    The cliché of the perfect storm currently fits the fate of palladium perfectly, with its predecessor “an ill wind doing nobody any good” also in play. Ironically, the precious metal has been a major beneficiary of both storms in the U.S. as well as the emissions scandal brought to the world via VW. This was a benefit to palladium off the back of the death of diesel where platinum containing catalytic converters rule, to the now more fashionable petrol engines where palladium features.

  • Consumer debt: A price worth paying?

    What was interesting about the global financial crisis and the subsequent implosion of the banking sector, is that it happened at a time of historically low interest rates. RBS, HBOS, Northern Rock and many more succumbed to a disastrous domino effect. The answer was to bail out the banks (apart from Lehman Brothers) and help them and consumers by lowering interest rates to near zero.

  • How to profit from rip-off Britain after Brexit

    You can profit, and with relatively little cash, from the companies who provide us with the goods and services we cannot be without.

  • Why the time is right for a takeover of Vodafone's UK operations

    Advisers to US media giant Liberty Global are reported to be mulling over a potential takeover of Vodafone‘s UK arm, especially in the wake of chronic share price underperformance. Who is Liberty Global? Liberty Global is a £21.5 billion market cap international telecoms and media giant, and the largest international TV and broadband group in the world.

  • Trading on company results and bid rumours: What to look out for

    Shire Pharmaceuticals is the company to watch in the run up to its results next week, says Zak Mir.

  • Amazon primed for Macy's? Whole Foods is just the start of Bezos's plan for market domination

    People familiar with the matter are suggesting that not only is iconic US retailer Macy's in the sights of Amazon, but it has already turned down an offer of $38 a share.

  • Is the US stock market about to crash?

    Analyst Zak Mir analyses whether there is any sense in the many stock market sayings uttered by traders.

  • How to profit from a record FTSE 100

    The FTSE 100 has hit record highs of late. The question to ask though, is whether this is a rally worthy of champagne or merely sparkling wine?

  • Macron's Momentum Trade: Blip or buying opportunity?

    The financial markets have served up a Macron relief rally The question now is whether investors need to curb their enthusiasm?

  • Making Money: SpareRoom's Rupert Hunt

    From saving up for his first Beatles' album to launching his first business intoLondon, Rupert Hunt, founder of flat and house share business SpareRoom tells Yahoo Finance UK where it all began.

  • 'Focus on the consumer', says easyProperty's CEO Rob Ellice

    easyProperty's CEO Rob Ellice discusses how this online estate agency can challenge the traditional estate agent

  • Are the financial markets back from the brink? asks Zak Mir

    The financial markets are caught between a traditionally weak time of year for the stock market, political uncertainty in the UK and France, as well as serious military threats over North Korea.

  • James Rickards discusses whether the UK will be better off post-Brexit

    Currency specialist James G Rickards talks to Zak Mir about whether the UK is doomed post-Brexit

  • Investors are still buying into the possibility of World War III

    The real surprise since the latest leader of the free world arrived in the White House has been the ongoing strength of financial markets.

  • Stock markets have 'a hard act to follow' in Q2

    Although the phrase “A hard act to follow” is literally derived from the world of the theatre, it also holds true of where stock market lies at the moment, says Zak Mir, technical analyst and author of chart-topping books, 101 Charts For Trading Success and 49 Golden Rules of Technical Analysis. Q1 was such an outstanding period, even with the problem of President Trump being shot down on almost every policy he tried to deliver, we now have the challenge of how to allocate assets successfully over the next quarter. Furthermore, the end of the financial year and a late Easter combined with thoughts of the summer holidays generally tends to see the stock market revert to a holding pattern. Whether the first session of the new quarter saw moderate losses for leading indices, against the idea that fund managers would boost the market with new cash from their clients.

  • Is a stock market correction painfully overdue? Zak Mir

    It would appear that with the demise of President Trump’s attempt to kill off ‘Obamacare’ – largely on the basis of the first five letters of the healthcare programme, more than a wheel has come off the wagon of the new US President. The question, now is whether the US stock market is due for a correction? Ironically, that was the last time when it appeared that stocks Stateside could revert to “bear market” mode.

  • How high does UK inflation need to go? asks Zak Mir

    Part of this have clearly been jealousy issues associated with his “matinee idol looks” and the £1 million package, as well as him clearly being friends with former Chancellor and now “journalist” George Osborne. It took much longer for the economy to recover from the nightmares of the global financial crisis, especially the key banking sector. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) still has not recovered.

  • How 'Trumponomics' has really affected Europe

    It would appear that put a rather simply, for many how ‘Trumponomics’ will affect Europe very much depends on how they view US President Donald Trump. As far as the European Union (EU) is concerned, especially in the form of its President Donald Tusk, the relationship with the US is not expected to go well. Indeed, just days after the inauguration of Trump, Tusk described Trump as one of the continent’s existential threats, along with things like Russian aggression or Middle East inspired terror threats.

  • Will investors revisit small caps? asks analyst Zak Mir

    Given that I am a “wise old head”, or at least someone who has been involved with the stock market for nearly 30 years, the cycles that shares go through, is something I take note of. In living memory, the early 1970s, the mid-1980s and then the late 1990s were the real boom times, with the last “bull run” going into the global financial crisis of 2007-8. Now in the wake of the election of President Trump we have seen the “bump” take the Dow to 21,000 and many other indices follow to record levels, even the FTSE 100.

  • M&A heaven can wait says analyst Zak Mir

    It would appear that those looking for “M&A heaven” may have to wait. The Kraft Heinz/Unilever tie-up faded out almost as soon as it was announced. Now we see the London Stock Exchange/Deutsche Borse merger apparently on the brink of biting the dust.