Member Info for Mulder

Their decline has begun. ************************************************************************************** The combined market share of Aldi and Lidl was 9.7% for the period, however, a slight dip from the 10% the pair had reached in the last two Kantar reports

Well 5M more bought than sold today so even allowing for the usual inaccuracies that is quite a gap. LFL sales will be down for all of the Big 4 but the question is by how much. I still believe the market is over-hyping 'the threat' of Aldi and Lidl - they have been around for 20+ years and the actual market share of the Big 4 has not changed much at all. +/- 1% at most.

08-Jan-16 HSBC Buy 315.00 290.00 Reiteration 08-Jan-16 JP Morgan Cazenove Overweight 350.00 300.00 Reiteration

RNS today

Looks like the b******s are day trading this.

Yet SP down 12% Sums up todays rogue market

Who knows a business better than the CEO? Spent close to a Million pounds in November. 27-Nov-15 Buy Nick Hateley 212.08 GBX 46,820 4254198 27-Nov-15 Buy Jim McCarthy 212.08 GBX 331,751 10000000

I thought the update was fine and nothing new in there. Profits still within range albeit a the lower end. Full benefit of 99p stores still to be factored in. Slowing economy/possible recession will only be good news for the likes of Poundland. Oversold. Was £4 not so long ago. NO DEBT EITHER.

Well Jim McCarthy the CEO bought £700M worth of shares at ~ 212p so he must be confident of a recovery.

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Thursday 7th January 2016 Marks and Spencer Group PLC MKS.L UK Sales release Persimmon PLC PSN.L UK Sales release ***Poundland Group PLC PLND.L UK Sales release Gap Inc GPS.N US Sales release

Apparently he bought the stake in SBRY when Dalton was still in charge so old news really but just been leaked now.

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That's some difference even taking into account inaccuracies

BTW.

She has certainly not done well and no match for her father. Her first mistake was cutting the dividend - and by the amount she cut it. This was £9+ not so long ago.

The Saudis unlike Russia and the US are an OPEC-member and produce 3x more than the second highest OPEC members [UAE, Iraq] They have a responsibility to look after other OPEC members - it is part of the OPEC charter. Venezuela, Algeria, Nigeria and Iraq have been effectively bankrupted by this Saudi strategy - which has failed. US production is essentially the same today as it was a year ago. It has not risen further perhaps but at the same time has not fallen either. More than half the OPEC members asked for a cut today - as they have been for the past year. Pleading even. Even a small cut in production would cause a spike in oil prices and the overall difference in revenue would be negligible. Of course in an ideal world the US and Russia would also cut their production. The Saudis have had decades to make something out of their oil wealth (as Dubai has done) but instead have hoarded the cash. They are still heavily dependent on (i) oil revenue and (ii) income from the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. Both of these one could argue were given to them by God. They should have been a powerful figure and mediator in the Middle East but too often have sat back and done nothing even as their fellow Islamic countries have needed their help. Palestine for example. They had the means to be a technological super-power akin to the US, Russia and now China but the truth is they are decades behind. Take a walk around Saudi Arabia and you will see what I mean by being 'decades behind'. Forget about them mis-spending money it has all too often not been spent at all but in fact been hoarded hence the vast reserves. The average person is extremely poor. Oil prices will inevitably go up at some point and there will be nothing stopping new US companies from setting up. What then? 30M @ $55 or 31.5M @ $35? Should have been an easy decision. Unfortunately the Iran elephant and the Shia/Sunni conflict inevitably proved too big an obstacle again. Who are the Saudis to deny Iran reclaiming their own market share? The only solution is for the major producers including non-OPEC to agree to a shared reduction in production.

Saudi Arabia risks destroying Opec and feeding the Isil monster It can ignore desperate pleas from Venezuela, Ecuador and Algeria, among others, for concerted cuts in output in order to soak the world glut of 2m barrels a day, and lift prices to around $75. ***But to do so is to violate the Opec charter safeguarding the welfare of all member states.*** "Saudi Arabia is acting directly against the interests of half the cartel and is running Opec over a cliff. There could be a total blow-out in Vienna," said Helima Croft, a former oil analyst at the US Central Intelligence Agency and now at RBC Capital Markets. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11989469/Saudi-Arabia-risks-destroying-Opec-and-feeding-the-Isis-monster.html

Paralysed Opec pleads for allies as oil price crumbles The cartel is no longer able to steer prices and risks going the way of the Texas Railroad Commission. The oil market has become a jungle The Opec cartel is to continue flooding the world with crude oil despite a chronic glut and the desperate plight of its own members, demanding that Russia, Kazakhstan and other producers join forces before there can be output cuts. Brent prices tumbled almost $2 a barrel to $42.90 as traders tried to make sense of the fractious Opec gathering in Vienna, which ended with no production target and no guidance on policy. It reeked of paralysis. Prices are poised to test lows last seen at the depths of the financial crisis in early 2009. The shares of oil companies plummeted in London, and US shale drillers went into freefall on Wall Street. Bhushan Bahree, from HIS Energy, says there is no longer anything to distinguish Opec members from any other producer. The cartel is defunct. “Opec and non-Opec are irrelevant classifications,” he said. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12033696/Paralysed-Opec-pleads-for-allies-as-oil-price-crumbles.html

the world? ‘Stupidest business people in the world?’ At a meeting just over a year ago, OPEC left its output ceiling at 30 million barrels a day despite a plunge in oil prices, making it clear that it was willing to withstand lower oil prices to defend its market share, particularly against shale-oil producers in the United States. Since peaking in mid-2014, prices for West Texas Intermediate CLF6, -2.41% crude and Brent crude LCOF6, -1.30% have dropped by more than 60%. “Are Saudis the stupidest business people in the world?” said Byron King, editor of investment newsletter Outstanding Investments. By essentially sanctioning a higher level of output, the Saudis and OPEC “further undercut [their] economic case for higher oil prices across the board,” he said. “Instead of selling slightly less oil for higher prices, Saudis, OPEC members and oil producers everywhere can now look forward to selling more oil for lower prices.” Charles Perry, chief executive officer of energy-consulting firm Perry Management, said that increasing production is not the answer to balancing the market. “All that does is eliminate the weaker oil producers via bankruptcy and consolidation with the stronger companies,” he said. “OPEC has not figured out that the ‘survivors’ will be much stronger competitors.” http://www.marketwatch.com/story/opec-squeezing-shale-producers-but-also-feels-pain-of-oil-rout-2015-12-04