I am sure there are lots of people thinking about the pound today, but hopefully you are much more of a global investor than your UK-centred cost base will need. As even the Americans will learn over the next generation or so, it is about so much more than apple pie, the right to bear arms and the dollar. Anyhow, onto other matters. Shall we talk about job changes again?

I hope you enjoyed a nice start to the week because - if you are an investment markets follower - it is going to get really busy. All good usual late July fun then. I guess I should start with easyJet (EZJ), a company I have become royally hacked off with ever since the cancellation of my flight back home with it in early July.

I honestly do learn something about the markets every day. I am not a Unilever (ULVR) shareholder but Domestos, Lipton, Hellmann’s and Magnum are far from disastrous brands. The attempt to buy the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) consumer business a few months ago failed miserably though and has helped dump the Unilever share price about 18% over the last year at the close yesterday. But why is the stock up 6% today?

Last October I observed that Reckitt Benckiser (RKT) ‘without working hard offers the scope for a £60-70 share price plus picking up a dividend’. In short a holding in the ‘home to the world’s best loved and trusted hygiene, health and nutrition brands’ group theoretically for FY22 is probably over ten times more interesting than government bonds or money in the bank. How many times a month do you – or someone in your household – use Finish, Dettol, Air Wick, Nurofen, Vanish, Harpic, Calgon or Durex products? My guess is more than once. So what about the shares today post the group’s full year numbers publication?

It has been another busy week and – despite the fact it is half term holiday time for some – it will be another  hectic seven days for a bunch of corporate news, macroeconomic matters and geopolitical discussions.  If you want a quiet life in the investment world then wait for Christmas.  One stock that reported over the last week but which I have not had an opportunity yet to comment on is PZ Cusson (PZC) which ‘builds brands to serve consumers better with Hygiene, Baby and Beauty at our core’ in brands such as Carex, St. Tropez, Cussons Baby, Sanctuary Spa, Morning Fresh (depending on which part of the world you live in). 

It was a busy last week and it is going to be a busy next week too.  Such is this time of the year.  It’s all good fun.  Particularly entertaining – no doubt – will be the conference calls after full year updates from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Unilever (ULVR).  Sensibly the former is splitting up its business, whilst the latter really should be considering it a bit more.  It will be enjoyable to listen to and react to (after all I own a bunch of shares in GlaxoSmithKline).  But today I wanted to talk about Rio Tinto (RIO)…

I guess you are (finally) excited today if you are a Unilever (ULVR) shareholder. I almost bored myself talking about the company (again!) last week but, given the news that Nelson Peltz’s activist fund has bought a stake, Unilever has gone from being the (potential) hunter to being the (potential) hunted.

Hello Share Shovers. You’ll either love this possible takeover – or hate it. The owner of Marmite is rumoured to very much want to snaffle the giant consumer arm of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). And Unilever (ULVR) actually made a £50 billion approach. This was turned down as being too low. As an owner of GSK shares, I agree that it wasn’t an enticing proposition and I expect a bigger one to come.

I start with the suggestion that I am ramping gold and de-ramping Bitcoin. I discuss this nonsense although I am vaguely flattered that anybody thinks me so omnipotent. Then onto Unilever (ULVR). Finally a related discussion on the wretched Sunday Times coverage of the laughable Black Pound Report.  I refer to the LadBible piece HERE

I was already excited about the upcoming week, predominately because a bunch of interesting companies are giving us an update on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  So maybe an existing holding does well or maybe I get an opportunity to consider a new angle.  One stock I am going to be watching closely on Monday morning is GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as I read that ‘Unilever(ULVR) makes £50 billion bid for GSK’s consumer business’. 

If you are a big follower of the global investment markets, then it has been a busy last couple of weeks.  Such is the nature of the timing of the quarterly earnings season in the US or Europe.  UK listed stocks on average tend to report a little bit less frequently, although as many companies are now global players there are more and more detailed quarterly updates nowadays.  Even with my typical larger cap focus, expect some fascinating disclosures from well-known UK listed names over the next five days in a bunch of different sectors.  It is all good fun from my perspective. 

Back in October here I wrote positively about the health and hygiene giant Reckitt Benckiser (RB.), noting that an £80+ share price target was not crazy. Back then the shares were just over £70 each but today they are about sixty quid. So what has gone on and has the story changed or not?

After being a fool who bought some Rolls-Royce (RR) stock a year and change ago and then again when it raised money at a significant discount in the early Autumn to make sure it would survive, I will write a longer piece about its full-year numbers in March when the reality about making and looking after plane engines will be a little more straightforward.  Instead, today it is time to revisit my old pal PZ Cussons (PZC) which I last wrote up here in September when the shares were about 210p. 

Okay, this is only one store in a medium sized Welsh village. The one I live in. Perhaps, unbeknown to me, absolutely all of my fellow villagers spend their nights re-reading the works of Ayn Rand, brushing up on Austrian economics or on the greatest 100 quotes of Ronald Reagan and we are somehow atypical. My instincts are that this is not an unusually enlightened place. And thus in light of my article earlier in the week on #BoycottBenandJerrys and the woke hypocrisy of Unilever (ULVR) I bring you a photo from the village store.

Yesterday, I noted how the woke revolution sweeping listed companies was making the 1% richer at the expense of we plebs who just own shares. But big corporate is not only alienating shareholders with such antics but, in many cases, its customers too. Nowhere is the stench of this virtue signalling more apparent than at Ben and Jerry’s. But this saga is far worse.

I have not been a fan of consumer staples behemoth Unilever (ULVR) for a long time, most recently in December noting 'still a sell...and wake me up at/around 40 quid a share'. Funnily enough, a quid or so below this mooted share price level was the price at which Unilever shares bottomed at a month or so ago. Anyhow I’ve been thinking about the company today following the publication of its first quarter initiatives...

Too much to write about and too little time at the moment – it is always this way during the peak weeks of the global corporate earnings season. So time for some stocks speed dating…

The next couple of weeks or so is peak earnings season for people such as myself who busy themselves with looking for opportunities across global equity markets.  Whilst many UK corporate names issue only a couple of meaty earnings updates a year, the average American, European or Asian company has a quarterly earnings cycle.  Thanks to the passage of time, I am less than two years away from racking up my one hundredth quarterly reporting period in what passes for my professional life and - during the last twenty three odd years - I have learnt that the key is how you react to numbers and not to focus on what they might say or even nominally if they have 'beaten' or 'missed'. 

Merry Christmas Share Smirkers, but I’m not really overjoyed at the prospects of the massive household goods supplier Unilever (ULVR). The company is truly huge and should withstand any big shocks, but sales are not rocketing...

I have not been a fan of consumer staples giant Unilever (ULVR) for a while, including noting a month ago that 'there is better value in other parts of the market'. Well too right judging by today's trading update…

There are a lot of numbers out today but the regulatory disclosure that struck me the most was the comment from consumer staple behemoth Unilever (ULVR) that 'Marijn Dekkers has decided to step down as Chairman of the Board with immediate effect. Nils Andersen, Non-Executive Director, has been appointed by the Board to succeed Marijn as Chairman of Unilever'. Now at face value this appears rather boring but let us dig a little bit deeper…

I am not the biggest fans of the large accountancy and consultancy companies but it was quite striking that a new report from EY observed that there 'were more profit warnings from listed companies in the first nine months of 2019 than in any year since 2008'.  And you guessed it - as one of the deadwood press notes - 'the report cites concerns over the economy and delays or cancellations of contracts as the two main causes for companies to miss their forecasts. Brexit was highlighted as the reason for 22% of profit warnings in the three months to September — up from 10% in the first quarter'. 

Hello, Share Rascals. For a change, let me steer away from my topical suggestions on which shares to buy and sell in the run-up to Christmas. Because there are still big companies which are not really affected by any Yule rush to buy. One of them is Unilever (ULVR).

Back in the dim and distant past, when the issue of the prevailing weather and the stock market came up the stock that would be uppermost in the minds of institutional fund managers was that consumer behemoth Unilever (ULVR) and its significant - and volatile - ice cream division. Unilever still does ice creams (Carte D'Or, Cornetto, Magnum, Solero, Twister, Choc Ice, Super Split, Fat Frog, Feast, Brunch, Viennetta...take your pick) and no doubt it is coining it in today on the hottest day of the year so far, but that is not as influential as it used to be.

If I mention the names Vodafone (VOD), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSB) and Unilever (ULVR) to you, what is your first reaction? Stalwarts of the FTSE-100? Dividend-heavy behemoths that will never let you down? Holdings in my company pension fund? You could also add three names that reported earlier today and collectively add up to a very decent chunk of the UK's leading index.

I expect shares in Cloudtag (CTAG) to resume trading on Monday and then to tank. I explain why. I look at the issue of portfolio allocation something too many folks ignore at their peril. Then I look at executive pay at RBS, Unilever *(ULVR) and elsewhere. I wonder if Theresa May means it about looking after ordinary working people. Surely RBS is an easy test for her. As a capitalist I find blue chip executive greed distasteful and worrying.

Hello Share Trouncers. We’ve already discussed the likelihood of take-overs of big British firms now that we have a low pound following the Brexit vote. An example is Unilever (ULVR) and Kraft Heinz. So now let’s look at the Unilever situation more closely.

Hello Share Takers. You’ve probably noticed that there has been a shortage of good take-over stories recently. This might put you off your guard. You might decide it is not worth holding onto a share which has long been in the rumour mill, just  because this sort of deal is becoming as rare as budgie teeth.

I start with the bust up over marmite and other matters between Tesco (TSCO) and Unilever (ULVR). Naturally the democracy denying liberal establishment bastards at the BBC blame Brexit for sterling's slide and this - I explained here why this was wrong. I explain what this battle is really about. I then look at DiamondCorp (DCP), Iofina (IOF), Goldstone Resources (GRL) and Magnolia Petroleum (MAGP). I end with a look at the AIM awards. I get really angry at this point and when the anarcho capitalist revolution arrives the 2,500 crony capitalists spending £750,000 of YOUR cash tonight merit a meeting with piano wire. 

Last business day of the month.  Last day of a departing CEO’s corporate reign.  Last chance to ‘kitchen sink’ the corporate earnings guidance numbers in the UK’s largest food retailer? A share price back to the level of a decade ago and a 75% cut in the interim dividend does not make pretty headlines.