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bald eagle.... I recently re read the IPCC 1990/92 report .
see
https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/2018/05/ipcc_90_92_assessments_far_full_report.pdf
I found this recommendation particularly laughable
"Uninterrupted travel assistance to the developing countries
for attendance at the meetings of IPCC and follow-up activities should be ensured.", but there are more jokes in there than at the Edinburgh fringe.

It underlines my view that the climate hysteria industry , with us now for almost forty years, has so far proved wildly pessimistic, the Seychelles and Maldives should be well under water now according to early projections- they are n't.

The climate change lobby really doesn't get that with half of the world's population (reasonably) still aspiring to a "Western" lifestyle, energy requirements aren't going to fall any time soon . Given that renewables etc fail to meet even half of current needs they cannot posssibly meet ever rising needs over the next few decades. Fossil fuels , hopefully non-coal will be with us for decades, or the lights will have to go out.A sensible strategy is to seek to minimise the effects of fossil fuel use, by carbon capture, efficiency gains, better planned environments......while developing the newer technologies of energy production (fusion,biofuels etc..)which can come onstream in the later decades of this century. In todays hysterical climate I fear such a rational approach is unlikely.
As an aside It always stuns me when people talk of an emergency thirty years from now , can you remember the state of technology thirty years ago? no mobiles, no internet (pretty much) no electric cars, no online shopping , no streaming,...NO ONE can predict what the next thirty years will bring, to do so is beyond arrogance.

As always I spend some time evaluating the info presented in the RNS (remembering of course that it is written by the company and is in that sense, not unbiased)and as a recent buyer I am of course also biased!. That said here are, for me the significant elements of the RNS.
Sales growth both in the quarter and the year , but better in the major markets which comprise 70% of revenue, ie Asia and the Americas.Revenues up between 1-2% in all geographies despite price rises, so it seems probable that consumers are not too price sensitive.
As an aside some of my previous research suggests that ULVR products are " aspirational" in the emerging economies and hence unlikely to be affected by single digit price rises.
Ecommerce up 38% to 12% of total sales.
Given that ULVR is a behemoth theslow but steady progress seems fine to me and I expect a return to the medium term SP range of £40-45 and a divi flow of 3-4% .
That meets my investment criteria.

The market sees to be as cynical as I am..... no surprise.

if you are a large scale provider of consumer goods.If inflation reamins high for an extended period of time it will add to ULVR's bottom line, consumers will be conditioned to pay more and retailers will pass through higher supplier costs and a fixed margin on a growing revenue stream is positive here. Todays bump is probably due to the latest consumer goods inflation figures , this quote from the DT
"Consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser is also up 1.3pc after the inflation data showed a rise in prices for household goods."
also applies to ULVR and is likely to persist for some time.

Duff benchmark trade now reversed.

??????

The unnamed organisation which committed to buying SAE shares at a heavy discount has clearly realised that SAE is in terminal decline and has adopted a policy of exercising its rights to buy (at about 20-30%below market price)and drip-feeding the market to extract a small profit on each tranche. The net effect of this is to drive the SP down and to hasten the financial collapse of SAE. As I have said before, tidal's time will come but not now and not here.

I've watched ULVR for a couple of years now as a potential addition to my boring long term folio and as a move to consumer stcoks which I have shunned for years.Given that ULVR has traded below £40 for only very short periods in the last five years I have now bought a tranche and will add if it goes lower (or probably if it stays at present levels)
I see no reason to expect it to remain this low as the world gradually recovers from Covid and normality returns and buying patterns recover as they will eventually .I always aim to hold for a period of years and am confident that I can do so here with a minimum 10% pa return.

Interesting piece suggesting that oil price rise will lift all indices......
ttps://mailchi.mp/verdadcap/understanding-the-spike-in-oil-prices?e=46e8066dd8

Even if the current spike in oil prices is temporary ,and IMV it isn't, it will have very significant medium/long term positive infuences on RDSB's profitability. As I mentioned in a post some while ago , much of Shell's output is at fixed "wellhead " prices, ie deals at a fixed price for a fixed period. Any such deals negotiated recently , currently or in the near- term future will reflect the current spike price.Hence Shell will be locking in prices in(or near to) the $70/80 price range. I know that the next two quarters will reflect today's price, in fact IIRC the latest quarterly resutls showed a sensitivity to a $10 rise in Brent of $3bill pa . My own view is that Shell's fixed price deals will be positive for maybe most of the next four quarters.

If there is any truth in todays reports it illustrates several things. First that though my comments in June that "consumer" has carried GSK and sheltered it from the perennial failure of pharma to generate profits was true , it is clear that I most likely underestimated the share of profit that consumer contributes. I said ,maybe £1.5 - £2bill out of £7 bill, it could well be quite a bit more.Second that my asssumption that it is consumer that Bidders wish to get their hands on , a steady stream of reliable profits rather than the "moonshot" nature of vaccines seems to be borne out and finally the matter is progressing in a way that may be very rewarding for existing shareholders.
Sit tight!

Danf.. It's more relevant to measure RR by its Market cap(MC) over time as the SP is heavily affected by the RI (which means essentially 4x as many shares as before). RR 's MC has , over the last decade, varied from a high of ~£24bill in 2013 to a low of £6 bill last year, at the mo.it is ~£12bill so it (and my holding!) has effectively doubled in less than a year.On the last day of 2019 the MC was £13.15bill. ie about 8% above today or an SP of ~156p. It has already recovered to it's average over a ten year period, tho' I think there is still some way to go from here , but, following the last few weeks sharp run up , my inclination would be that it will slow down and that substantial further growth from here might take some time, and include some falls back. Nonetheless I am happy to hold for the long term.

I (and anumber of other much brighter and well-informed guys) got it wrong in assuming a final price of over £3, BUT as MRW's register holds several players with a large tranche of stock eg Silchester 13.6%,(who have frequently expressed the view that MRW is worth much more), Blackrock 10% and Threadneedle 9%, getting the 75% needed for approval is not a foregone conclusion.I will hold for few weeks to see what transpires, all holders have to judge whether to cash out now at below but pretty close to 287 or to wait a while, I am not sure this story is ended yet.

Confirmed ,CD&R at 287p per share , subject to 75% vote of shareholders in favour. I wonder whether in light of the vigorous nature of the bidding it might not be approved?

JP Morgan acting on behalf of CD&R have today announced a net long buy of 5 mill shares @296p, so a cost of ~£15mill. (tho' they have a battery of short and long swaps). At face value it suggests they are expecting at least one counter bid from Fortress above that level and are prepared to bid again , so I think we are in for at least one cycle of bid and counter bid tomorrow.

Takeover panel rules . The auction WILL take place unless either offerror makes a "no increase" statement before 5pm today and it will conclude on saturday . The takeover panel commits to making an announcement "as soon as practicable following completion" which in practise means sometime on saturday morning or early afternoon.That will be followed by a spate of RNS's from all the players on Monday morning at 7am.The minimum price is the 285p deal already in place ,but as the SP continues to trade above that, the market is assuming that it will be exceeded.

The focus of posters here on the Dow is based on some misunderstandings. First the Dow is an index of only 30 companies , most of which are old fashioned industrials , only Apple and Microsoft(maybe Cisco and Intel ) are modern tech stocks.
second the Dow is a price wieghted average, ie it is calculated by adding the stock prices together and dividing by thirty, so those stocks which rise very sharply distort the average .If you really want a US comparison the S&P 500 is a better bet . As it happens though both have roughly trebled since 2000(and surprisingly kept pace with the Nasdaq) versus the FTSE flat.The underlying reason is that the FTSE is an even more traditionally based index with lots of energy, mining, financials and industrials which are far from flavour of the month or any of the previous 240 months!

Boyo there is a growing body of evidence (admittedly from the US in the main) which shows that buybacks are perceived by many major companies as a way to drive the SP up and are, in fact a major contributor to market volume. See my post on 22 sep.Further research has shown me that almost all of my major US holdings run substantial buyback programmesand pay almost no divis!
The RDSB buyback programme has contributed around 15-20% of the volume for the last two months and has coincided with a sharp rise , tho' of course so has the oil and gas price story.

At first reading this looks like a big win for BT.The main players in the market are content and are essentially happy to support BT in squeezing out smaller fry. BT's terms encourage large volume take up and means they should supply a near monopoly service either directly or through their major customers. Assuming the prices reflect an adequate profit margin for BT we are in a ten year era of rapid FTTP rollout, near monopoly supply and adequate if not spectacular revenues and profits . BT may be back to being the boring, steady return(via both divis and capital appreciation)sort of company that I prefr to invest in, clearly there will be a lot of expenditure , the company is quite wll capitalised but new money is very cheap , though may get a little more expensive , usage will rise spectacularly though revenues won't follow at the same rate but I expect a slow but steady SP rise for perhaps several years. As usual I can only focus on the finance 'cos most of the techy stuff is beyond me , I would therefore welcome input or correction from those far better qualified than me in those areas.