Teapot Triumphs and Space Shares Soar

Thrills on Thursday this week, as the generally unloved, ‘boring’ old FTSE 100 rallied to an all-time high. Yup. This week teapots were cooler than Bourbon Sours, as the UK gave its Yankee cousin an unusual run for its money.

However, as we woke up on Friday, short-term tannins have stained the FTSE teapot with news that the economy unexpectedly fell by 0.1% in May. Boo. And over the pond Trump is at it again, threatening Big Beautiful Tariffs of 35% on Canadian imports and blanket tariffs of 15% - 20% on other countries.

Globally, it’s a mixed — but slightly negative — bag. Hopes of more Chinese stimulus have buoyed markets over there, but Asian and Australian markets fell back today and I’d expect a mild tariff hangover as the US market opens. Despite this lingering uncertainty, we have to remember that American stock markets remain at record highs and Wall Street analysts are projecting yet more growth. The big bet in town is that Trump will not press "Go" on these tariff threats and it’s all just chest beating.

But something is not adding up. The bond markets are pricing in bets of modest rate cuts, which means they forecast feeble growth. And the share markets are pricing in bets of higher valuations, so good growth. It’s not just Joe Public who is confused!!!

Aim for the stars?

One stock which has had a blistering week is SpaceX, Musk’s privately-owned company which makes spacecraft, transports crew to the International Space Station and runs the satellite internet service Starlink.

Its valuation this week reached a blistering $400 billion, compared to a previous valuation of $350 billion in December, last year. Not a bad 6 months! The company is raising another $1 billion (spare change, really). In order to issue new shares to investors in exchange for the money it’s raising, it needs to set a price, hence the new valuation which makes it the most valuable privately-held company in the world.

Retail investors cannot buy the shares on an exchange, so you could either get on the phone to Elon OR buy shares in an Investment Trust which owns some. Edinburgh Worldwide Investment Trust currently has the largest amount of any Investment Trust portfolio (currently about 13%) allocated to Space X.

Not such a great week for the other Musk company Tesla, where shares fell by 7% on Monday. Why? Investors got royally cheesed off as Elon Musk talked about setting up a new political party and all his investors just shouted, “For God’s sakes, STAY IN YOUR LANE, stop d1cky-waggling and JUST MAKE CARS!”

Or just back every horse…?

At times of such global uncertainty, we know you like seeing what everyone else is up to. This week, we unveil the best-selling funds on DIY platforms in June.

Still hugely popular, there is the usual story of large, cheap global funds which effectively back every big horse in the shares race (known as ‘trackers’ or passive funds).

And over in Investment Trust Land, investors have been snapping up a less usual name – the SDCL Efficient Trust. This Trust invests in over 50 energy efficiency infrastructure projects. Green energy has generally bounced back as a sector, having been arguably punished too much by too many.

Not for the faint-hearted, this Trust is down about 50% over the last 3 years, is trading at a massive discount (means it’s a bit unloved), has an enormous dividend (11%), but buyer beware, has already risen over 20% in the last month, so treat with caution!

Finally, defense funds feature in the ‘Exchange-Traded Fund’ lists, as people bet that the uptick in defense spending will continue.

Have a brilliant weekend, everyone. I was pleased that Rachel Reeves read my blog last week and has now reportedly shelved immediate plans to announce cutting Cash ISA limits next week. Cheers Rach. I’ll give you a week off before I ask for my next thing.

Enjoy the sun!

Holly