Strong global; wobbly local

A strong week in global markets as the preliminary peace agreement between the US and Iran was signed and the Strait of Hormuz starts to re-open.
As the moon dust settles on the SpaceX IPO, the share price is volatile. It closed last night at around $185 – up from launch at $135 but down from a mid-day high of $225. If your investments include Nasdaq100 trackers, FTSE Russell-based products or MSCI World funds, they will include SpaceX shares within weeks. I expect the musical chairs volatility to continue as these indices buy in and other investors take profits.

With 2 further massive IPOs anticipated this year (Anthropic and OpenAI), I’d really love to hear what you think. Did you and will you participate? Where did you buy? Do you favour one over another? And why? Please do share an opinion – as a thank you, 4 participants will get £50 in GiftPay vouchers and I’ll feedback the consensus next week.

The money raising is not over. Musk is reportedly looking to raise another $20 billion in a bond sale. This recent activity is a really good way of understanding shares versus bonds. They are both ways for people like Musk to raise money. Shares are swapping a tiny slice of his business in exchange for our cash. Bonds are an IOU we make to the company. Reports suggest these bonds will have a 10-year timeframe and pay interest of about 1.5% over the US Government rate

Bonds typically feel a bit safer AND if SpaceX goes belly up, bond holders would be first in any queue to get repaid, ahead of shareholders. But they don’t have the same returns potential as shares.

Enough about flipping Musk already!

OK! I hear you! Moving on, this week the team published an excellent piece tracking the best-selling funds, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and Trusts on major retail platforms since January 2025. In a nutshell, it’s been global trackers, income-paying Investment Trusts, tech plays, AI, and silver. Well worth a read and has some credible products in here for every need.

The UK’s favourites? Fidelity Index World (big, cheap, US-heavy global), City of London Investment Trust (solid dividend

paying old-fashioned British stuff) and iShares Physical Gold (the shiny stuff) have appeared in every platform’s bestseller lists for 15 out of the 17 months in this period.

More investment-savvy readers will have so-called ‘Active ETFs

’ on their radar. The asset management world is hugely excited by these and they’re officially ‘a thing’. This week’s blog sponsor is JP Morgan, a leading active ETF player. One key point of difference is that they typically publish the full list of holdings, not just the top 10, which I know will interest some. I had a pleasing little nerdy fossick around one fund this morning and downloaded the full list of 245 shares into Excel. This is the future direction of travel for funds.

And back in Blighty

This morning, bond markets are a little spooked by Burnham’s win in Makerfield on his route to Number 10. Public borrowing in the UK is around £23.3 billion, stoked by high interest payments. Yields

on Government bonds rose today – this means that bond investors are demanding more interest to make these loans to the Government. When we think people are a bit dodgy, we ask for more interest to lend to them. People think that Burnham will want to go on a spending spree and the bond traders don’t think he’ll be great at sticking to the money rules and limits.

Over to the Bank of England and it was relief for mortgage-holders yesterday as interest rates were held at 3.75%. De-escalation in Iran has led to easing oil prices and – hopefully – lower inflationary pressures moving forward.

We can’t control interest rates or inflation, but we can control how much tax we pay. I’m hosting a webinar with financial planning firm Ascot Lloyd next week on the confusing and hated topic of Inheritance Tax. Join us live or on catch-up for a look at what it is and for tips and strategies on how to manage it.

This afternoon, I will be dodging Russian frigates in the Solent and heading over to the Isle of Wight in my rib. Festival-bound with my sis and very excited to see The Cure on Sunday. Is it sad to wonder if Robert Smith has sorted his pension out? He doesn’t look quite as good in red lippie as he did in 1989, but then again, neither do I!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Holly