Spare? Not any more!!!
13 Jan, 2023
I am NOT going to mention THAT book in my blog this week. I am going to resist it. In other news….
The other Spare
One other British product which derives most of its revenue from global markets is the FTSE 100. The poor old FTSE has most definitely been the Spare since 2018, playing second fiddle to bigger brother the S&P 500, which had sexy tech stocks, less reliance on formerly-boring energy stocks, no Brexit, and no Budget-tastic mavericks in Government.
However, the FTSE has been quietly plugging away and today is teetering on the edge of an all-time high. Really, in financial terms, this is a bit like Mo Farah going for gold at the Olympics but no-one in the UK is watching. Where are all the tabloid headlines about the stock market BOOM and RECORD HIGHS and SHARES NOT SPARES!?!?
In May 2018, the highest level reached by the FTSE 100 index was 7,903. As I'm writing it’s 7,836….. #thrills
A lot of hot heir?
"But Holly", you say, "what is going on? Everything is broken. Everyone’s on strike. People are being laid off. We’re all feeling broke. And Ocado have run out of kale".
The key point here to remember is that the stock market dances to the beat of a different drum than the economy. And the stock market is usually ahead of the economy – if you can see a storm ahead, you do something about it today. So one school of thought is that all the bad news was factored in to the stock market last year – we had a shocker – but today we see a fall in wholesale gas prices, early signs that inflation might have peaked and with that, hopes for lower interest rates ahead than once feared. So markets are feeling perkier.
Technology stocks in the US had a better time and Tesla shares, for example, are up about 15% over one week. So although we’re not out of the woods yet and the mood music remains gloomy in many areas, it’s arguably not as bad as it once was.
Interest rates are falling about you know who…. but still rising in the City
Markets have priced in a 57% probability that the Bank of England will increase rates from 3.5% to 4% at the beginning of February. We know this because people can make money on effectively betting about any price move in anything. Pork bellies, orange juice, shares in Apple or interest rates. If it moves, you can make money on it, by buying a ‘derivative’. So we can see what people think by how they are ‘betting’ about future movements.
People with fixed rate mortgages coming to an end are of course feeling the pain. One common question we hear is – should I prioritise paying off my mortgage first and pause any savings elsewhere? We hosted a webinar this week and I asked my guest, the FT’s Claer Barrett, about this – you can listen to what she had to say here.
Other bestsellers and goodies…
Want to see what everyone else is buying? Check out the list of bestsellers – the most bought funds, ETFs, investment trusts and shares in the UK in December. Global ‘mixed bags’ and cash-type funds were top of the pops.
We ran our Get Money Fit webinar for women this week –with guests from the FT and Fidelity -and covered mortgages, investments and pensions. You can read the key takeouts, see video snippets, or watch on catch-up here. Thanks to Fidelity for sponsoring what was a hugely useful session. Ladies – you can sign up for the whole Get Money Fit course here and start 2023 with a bang.
We have 2 more specialist workshops designed for women coming up – one on Divorce and one on helping older parents (IHT, care home fees and more fun stuff!) hosted by financial advisers – brilliant small-group sessions to get you some answers.
Want to know more about how to save money and/or pay less tax as the cost of living bites? Join our free webinar next Tuesday at 6pm with Standard Life and financial coach Graham Wells – we’ll tackle budgeting, making the most of what you’ve got, tax hacks and more.
After much grumpy wibbling about the need for saccharine fake smiling and my inherent desire to be sick when I hear the word ‘influencer’, I am taking to Instagram, mostly because everything I post horrifies my children. I am learning to love it because I get Ab Fab clips, I do like cat videos and also I’m rising to the challenge of sharing helpful financial snippets! So give me a follow – I’m @boringmoneyholly.
I’ll leave you with two final thoughts. First, you could buy 2 shares in the iShares FTSE 100 ETF for the full price of a certain book. #justsaying
And finally we’re reaching frenzied levels of activity at Boring Money HQ reviewing all major platforms, ready to announce our 2023 Best Buys in February. Thanks so much to the 1000s of people who have left reviews – if any of our readers haven’t left a review of their provider and can take 1 minute to do so, I’d be really grateful. Gives us a great insight into who is doing a good job for customers.
Have a lovely weekend everyone!
Holly
