Member Info for giantsquid

More bad news for airlines?

https://newspaper.mailplus.co.uk/data/5184/reader/reader.html?#!preferred/0/package/5184/pub/17433/page/13/content/874417

The only hope for ending the Ukraine war is if Trump wins the presidency. If Harris wins, the policy of arming Ukraine will continue and hostilities between NATO countries and Russia will continue to escalate. And what then? There is no chance Russia will be defeated - it ain't gonna happen. It will either end by peaceful negotiation (the Trump way) or somewhere down the road we're looking at possible direct military conflict with the world's biggest nuclear superpower - a terrifying prospect where there will be no winners. The left is hellbent on inflaming tensions with Russia and pushing us all into another world war - Trump represents the last chance we have of putting an end to this madness before it's too late.

I remember the good old days when Debenhams was open and you could walk in, browse through a huge selection of clothing - and crucially, you could TRY THINGS ON in something called A CHANGING ROOM. How i miss those days. Because now we have to blind buy and guess our sizes and guess how things will fit and guess how things might look on us. In short, it's CRAP. I can't honestly remember the last time i bought new clothes because there aren't any shops any more and i simply can't be done with the ordeal of trying to guess if clothes online are going to fit me and look how I'm assuming they might look. So a former regular Debenhams customer no longer bothers - and I suspect I'm not alone.

What Boohoo should do, in my opinion, is open one store in each large town and city - start with just the one if necessary. They need a physical presence where people can shop, try things on, and perhaps also be able to use it for click and collect. Many things can be bought online but clothes need trying on and for that you need physical stores. It's a model that might work for some, but it certainly doesn't work for the rest of us.

Whatever next? A fart ban perhaps?

Good results considering how much shoplifting goes on these days. In all honesty, the retail sector should sue the police and/or the government for the spineless levels of support they receive in combatting theft. There should be avenues for retailers to sue and reclaim their losses.

When Trump gets elected in November, his highest priority will be to end the Ukraine war - if he achieves that, we'll see the mother of all bounces. Optimism will return to the markets "the likes of which we've never seen"

As long as the company can prove they followed all the required processes and procedures, any fine imposed could be legally challenged and overturned. There's no evidence of any wrongdoings here. If Iran have attempted to infiltrate and exploit, they're going to be extremely effective at that certainly on a par with Russia. There's very little the banks can do to detect the deliberately undetectable.

I disagree Gazzle. The banks can only follow standard procedures and do the usual due diligence checks. If Iran wanted to use UK banks, they would be extremely effective at concealing themselves. They would make absolutely certain the companies and peoples they use raise no suspicions.

Lloyds and Santander can't be expected to know who may or may not be linked to particular companies. Especially when they are deliberately trying to hide behind a front company with a different name in order to avoid detection. I see this as a bit of a non story - the banks aren't the villains here, they merely provide a service.

Jeff says he has 650,000 shares, then sets about telling everyone not to invest here! Yep, Jeff really does think we're that stupid

Well it's not quite the gloomy morning certain posters were suggesting it was going to be - let's not forget the dow is extremely toppy, it's at an all-time high. The slightest disappointment was always going to result in a sharp drop. The FTSE hasn't even started rising yet, we've got all that to come just as soon as rates start coming down in a few months time.

We all know inflation is likely to fall as the year wears on and rates will be cut. And when that happens, most shares will begin to move higher, including Lloyds. So investors know better days are on the way - traditionally shares begin moving higher in anticipation of rate cuts, so any rally we see is likely to begin early. In short, this year starts off slow but most would agree it should be an improving picture over the coming months.

https://www.fool.co.uk/2023/12/18/could-interest-rate-cuts-push-the-lloyds-share-price-higher-in-2024/

Bank of England could 'lay the groundwork' for interest rate cuts this week

https://www.standard.co.uk/business/bank-of-england-interest-rates-borrowing-boe-andrew-bailey-mortgage-prices-inflation-costs-b1135509.html

The EU recently threatened Elon Musk over his free speech platform 'x' saying it had to abide by THEIR rules around what's acceptable free speech and what isn't. Communist countries like China, Russia and North Korea also control very tightly what the population is and isn't allowed to read and talk about.

I pity every EU member, knowing they have to live under that kind of communism. I'm glad we got out. Epven if it meant i was worse off financially because certain food and drink items have become more expensive - that's a small price to pay for freedom from oppressive, communistic rule.

STP - why would much needed professionals such as nurses, doctors, surgeons etc be paying traffickers to smuggle them in on boats? What's wrong with them applying for a visa like legal migrants? I think we all know these people don't have a professional qualification between them. The difference between the left and right is those on the right care about matters of national security - about ensuring dangerous individuals such as murderers, terrorists, rapists etc don't use the asylum system to gain access into our country and put our citizens at risk. Their safety comes FIRST. Not filling some damn vacancy on a fruit picking farm.

Barring serious escalation with the Ukraine situation, the FTSE should be in a full blown bull market this year, gathering pace as the year wears on. If Trump wins in November, there'll be serious hope at last that we finally have someone in the Whitehouse determined to end the war imminently, as opposed to a blithering old fool who is constantly pouring fuel on the situation along with his equally war hungry NATO allies. It's in all of our interests to get talking to Russia and focus on a peaceful end to this nonsense before it spirals out of control and ends up in all out confrontation between NATO and Russia - an outcome that doesn't bear thinking about. And yet incredibly NATO commanders are talking about just that possibility and warning western citizens of the possibility they'll be called up to support the armed forces - absolute insanity. Trump is the only one even talking about ending this conflict - the world can't afford another 4 years of Joe Biden. Whilst stocks is perhaps the least of our concerns, an end to the conflict along with a reduction in interest rates and inflation will undoubtedly have a huge positive effect on the stock market. Curry's remains a great business - we use it all the time. Apart from a handful of online only retailers, there really isn't anywhere else like it. Our local Currys superstore is always busy.

Thanks, I'll still be voting reform

# Trades 8,660

Vol. Sold 16,015,542

Sold Value £6.67m

Vol. Bought 37,146,730

Bought Value £15.46m

Apparently it's the company's fault the share price isn't higher?! The company has delivered a huge increase in profits and bought back £billions of shares. What more do you expect them to do? The share price is dictated by the market - buyers and sellers. It's completely out of their hands what the share price is doing! Market cap is whatever the market decides - the company has zero control over it. And market cap can, and often does, become massively out of kilter with the true underlying value. In the case of ocado years ago, the company wasn't even making a profit and yet it's market cap was in the £multi billions! Lloyds is at the other end of the spectrum - huge buy back, massive increase in profits and market cap has actually gone down! All this says, or should be saying to investors is just how undervalued the stock is right now. Sentiment plays a heavy part in share price movement - rather than blaming the company, I do think sentiment is the main culprit as to why the price isn't much higher. Maybe it's Brexit, possibly the long recovery from COVID, interest rates, inflation, worries over Ukraine and the middle east - none of these things the company can do anything about, but all of them affect sentiment. Warren Buffet once said you don't buy a farm then check the valuation every day - similarly with a house, valuations go up and down all the time but you don't worry about it. Odd then that when you buy a company your main concern is the valuation rather than seeing your investment as a long term asset, just like the farm or house. All i would say is there's a lot of gloom in the world right now and I do think it's all too easy to point the finger of blame at the company when the share price isn't perhaps doing what you hoped it would. If the war in Ukraine was suddenly over, if inflation came down, interest rates came down and positivity really started to return to the markets i think we all know Lloyds would move significantly higher along with the rest of the FTSE.

Pessimists see the current share price as reason to feel depressed. Optimists see it as an opportunity to acquire cheap shares. It's all about looking further ahead than the end of your nose. Those who don't have the patience to acquire when the price is down and hold for x number of months or years, perhaps shouldn't be in the investment game in the first place? The tide will turn at some point and you have to be invested ahead of that happening to really capitalise on any re-rate. The fact Lloyds is making a lot of profit makes this a near certainty for a decent re-rate just as soon as the economic outlook improves, which it will at some point relatively soon. We're in a much better place now than the dark days of covid, things are already far better than they were. I would also say it's about not over investing in any one stock - ie invest only that which you can afford to have tied up for a period of time without missing it too much. That way you don't get so emotionally affected by lagging price action or dips.