Member Info for bald_eagle

"I think a lot of the uncertainty regarding Covid had already been priced into the FTSE (Perhaps not in the US), and Fridays drops were a bit of an over reaction."
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Two cases confirmed here...which is a set back but probably expected because we are an international travel hub.
Mask wearing but not in hospitality. At the moment the measures seem pretty light touch. Hopefully the markets will take this as a sign that the government is acting early & has a grip on things. Although I suspect it's the same as Boris saying. "Don't panic, there is no fuel crisis!!"

"However, I think inflation, on an economic outlook, is a bigger problem than the latest Covid outbreak."
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BladeRunner, You may be right. However we just don't know at the moment. If the current variant escapes the vaccine & this puts additional pressure on the NHS (which is already showing signs of buckling) then all bets are off. That is why politicians & scientists are taking Omicron seriously.
However, a scientist did say that people hospitalised in South Africa appear to be unvaccinated in general...which may suggest the current vaccines offer at least some protection to Omicron. It is the uncertainty that will upset markets until we know what we are dealing with...Inflation is something to look forward to!!

MrA, basically the heatmap shows what we already knew, it is a repeat of what happened in early 2020, albeit in condensed form.
Tech stocks (Zoom) & pharma (vaccines) will probably do well....followed by Supermarkets & delivery stocks. Travel stocks, hospitality & banks hit hard.

The question is how long will this continue and how far will things adjust given the dangers are as yet unquantified.
We have a short period before the new variant probably arrives here in force - given we have closed tavel to southern Africa. What will the UK do with that valuable time?....on past performance it will be 'almost' nothing.
Call me an eejit but re-introduction of mandatory face masks would be top on my list!!
I expect we will see the new variant popping up across Europe (as it has in Belgium) and we will have some prior indication of likely impact here....but we will rely on the English channel to shield us & the vaccines to keep working.

Have a good weekend.

Boyobach, good points as usual. Shell could 'do a deal' with the regulator (although I cannot imagine what that would be!), spend millions on integrating those Bulb customers, then spend many millions more subsidising them over the winter months (when they use the most energy...all at a loss), then when April comes & the standard tariff increases dramatically they jump ship to another provider (if there are any left by then). Seems a strange way to run a business....but these are strange times.

"Currently every customer is losing them money."
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Yep, there aren't many people that will renew on a fixed term contract, even USwitch is recommending people go onto the fixed standard tariff. Something has got to give. Not many companies have unlimited resources...apart from Shell apparently!!
Not sure how the Shell Energy CEO would get it passed by the board..."I'm going to take on 1.7 million new customers who are going to cost us at least £250m (my estimate!!) over the next 5 months....oh, by the way, can you approve my bonus payable immediately in cash....please!!"

MrA, good to have you back. I was beginning to think you had left us.

The news about the new variant has spooked the market somewhat. A bit of deja vu.
Hopefully the scientists will have some answers soon and the vaccines & treatments are still effective...but this bug has lots of mutations apparently.

Very difficult to judge what will happen next....for the markets or the new variant.

Just goes to show....nobody pays any credence to broker targets....especially Finncap by the look of it.

"- if they are not willing to expand their customer base, then why bother at all."
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Currently every customer that they add on price capped standard tariff will lose them money. The market is broken.
I am split. As a taxpayer I would like Shell to take on Bulb customers to stop me paying for them. As a Shell investor I would prefer dividends rather than subsiding the ex-Bulb clientele.
Perhaps things will look different next April when the fixed tariff is due a big increase.

The UK government have allocated £1.7bn (of taxpayers money) to handle the 1.7 million bulb customers that they have effectively become responsible for. I am sure taxpayers would be more than happy if Shell took on that responsibility.....I'm not sure it necessarily makes good business sense in the short term.

"Nobody ever got sacked for buying IBM"
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I remember the phrase. It was a brilliant bit of marketing.
However in hindsight it was 'probably' a sign of a company that believed its own hype...a behemoth that was argaubly unwilling or unable to adapt to new ways of doing business.

As I was trying to hit the barcode on my hermes parcel I said out loud "Left a bit, right a bit, fire!" . The young woman behind me just nodded politely and probably thought 'another crazy old man'....which I am.

Jotom, I'm not sure if you are talking about customers or investors...possibly both. I suppose there could be an impact on BARC's 'brand', "Jes Staley former CEO of Barclays has been found guilty of...!!"
But for a company that has a 'patchy' image historically (apartheid South Africa, Libor rigging, Saudi Money, etc etc) I don't anticipate the wrongdoings of a 'former' CEO will impact BARC share price much if at all.
Investors are more interested in the financial numbers and any news that has an influence on those numbers (IMO). I don't reckon Epstein is that sort of story.

"Except Barclays effectively took ownership of Staley's declaration to the FCA...."
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How can an organisation be held responsible for the dodgy behaviour of an employee? They took him at his word, when an investigation suggested his statements weren't entirely accurate he was asked to leave....hardly BARC's fault.

I struggled to recognise the ALtyngold I know in the article. I didn't know they had many 'subsidiaries'....definitely PR gumph!
Hopefully they are concentrating on getting high grade ore out the ground and processing it rather than waste time on such nonsense.

" I think there is an under-current as to what Staley might have in his closet re. Epstein that might do further Barclays damage..."
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It is difficult to imagine how any new Staley/Epstein/Maxwell revelations could impact BARC. Staley has gone, so the link has been broken.
A few weeks ago anything above 190p would have been seen as positive.

There was an investor presentation a few days ago, where Ofer kept repeating that 'performance was strong'..... 'confidence in the future' (etc etc)...so not exactly a covert statement. To be expected.
They ceased the buy back prior to the IPO...there might be a period post-IPO when buybacks aren't allowed for legal reasons. Just a thought!

"I think you all missed the covert trading update in the rns confirming press speculation."
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what?
Do you mean..."The Company's underlying performance remains strong along with the Board's confidence in the future performance of the business."

It is quite a complicated company structure. A company partly in Israel, with shares sold on AIM in UK and now AMerican ADR's. Lots of legal hoops to jump through.
We all thought an American listing would propel TRMR into a higher orbit....but doesn't seem to be working out that way at the moment.

"I await the future RNS that this has occurred."
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I reckon they will eventually have some sort of buyback. However imagine the reaction of investors who bought those IPO shares when the company buys them back at a significant discount....Americans love a lawsuit. The company have to be careful to follow any rules included in the IPO documentation.

"On this side of the Atlantic they are already well down the road to being renewable based businesses as the amount being invested shows."
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Gary, I presume you mean the European side of the pond!
I'm not sure the 'amount' being invested in the renewable side of the business is massively large...possibly fairly big in monetary terms but maybe not as a % of overall investment. The big test will be the % of revenue generated from green business, quite small at the moment I would imagine because they are growing from a small base. It will be difficult to replace the profits from oil & gas, possibly why oil companies may be slow to transition.

I would have thought you would sign an NDA before agreeing to any talks....trying to get someone to sign an NDA after having sensitive talks involving financial data is probably too late. So the Shroedar statement seems a little sensationalist.