Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
In respect of covid, shipping costs, supply problems, inflation fears, interest rate rises, consumer sentiment - are all the things that has been dragging the share price down over the past 9-10 months and holding the share price back in my view. If it was identified that covid was coming to an end, and that had a knock on effect on the shipping costs/supply problems then I would envisage a strong rebound in the share price as has been seen in the past - good that the covid figures were lower today so lets hope the next couple of weeks brings an end to things and everyone will be able to start looking forward again.
Were just summarising the UK market close and covered the fact that retail got hammered today - apparently all to do with inflation concerns - increasing interest rates, utility bills etc, but also reflecting on both Next and Greggs statements today where they have both stated that they will be increasing prices this year so the concern is will customers be able to afford the increases - also labour concerns - shortage of staff and increased salaries were mentioned. To my mind, if inflation is rising, and people are going to have higher pay rises then that should all balance out.
According to the World Container Index data up to 23/12 the price for a 40ft container peaked at just over $10,000 towards the end of September and dropped to around $9000 during December - admittedly only a 10% drop so far but the signs are there that things are starting to ease.
Figures out tomorrow - I think they've already signalled to the markets what the figures are likely to be but what will be interesting is whether they make any comment on supply chain issues. I was watching Bloomberg earlier and one of their regular analysts/contributors was saying that there are signs that these are easing and when you look at the World Container Index the increase in prices started the same time that the decline in the share price of both BOO and ASC started. If it is the case that there is light at the end of the tunnel with the supply chains then hopefully the share prices will start to rise to reflect the lower shipping costs and the fact that uncertainty to a degree will have been removed.
Results out tomorrow - I think they've already signalled to the market what the figures are likely to be but what will be interesting is if there's any comment about supply chain issues - according to Bloomberg these are starting to ease and to my mind if that is the case then I can see the uncertainty being removed and the share price can start its upward climb again. It was interesting - I looked at the World Container Index earlier on - the climb in the shipping costs mirrored the decline in the share price here so let's hope the reverse happens now.
Big Blue - I'm sure that NHS staff would disagree with you about the NHS not being overwhelmed.
I am not blindly following what is being said in the MSM, I do my own research and at the moment do not feel that the NHS will be overwhelmed by the current moronic variant - as I said earlier, the fear mongering about it has, in my view, been engineered to keep news of the parties off the front pages and as soon as the press get hold of another picture Boris decides to do another press conference - it seems to be a game between him and the press at the moment - you find a picture, I'll do a press conferenceto try and frighten the living daylights out of the population.
I don't agree with what's going on at the minute, but it doesn't mean I didn't agree with measures last or this year when there was a clear need for lockdowns/restrictions and the virus was much more severe - I don't think it was a lot to have asked of the population to give things up for a short time to enable the situation with the NHS to have eased.
We could go round and round in circles on this topic - you'll say black, I'll say white so as I tried to say earlier, it's not that I'm giving up the argument, its just that I've got better things to do with my time.
Jtan - I'm afraid again that's where we have to agree to differ - yes the elderly have been shielded during the pandemic but I think the mistake that's made is its all been about the elderly whereas its been about controlling the virus, not overloading the NHS and again, a question I posed to Big Blue earlier - turning things on its head, if it was initially a virus that targeted the younger generation what would you expect to have been done?
Big Blue - I wasn't talking about A&E - I was talking about people being ill on actual wards and as those wards are being utilised by covid it leaves hardly any room spare for other treatments - I'm sure people wouldn't just have a snuffle to be admitted to a ward.
As its clear from the comments being made there are varying views on covid but what saddens me is the opinions that the older generations shouldn't be looked after or taken care of - as someone said earlier its about compassion and decency and I'll leave it there for now.
Big Blue - firstly, thank god Trump didn't win because we probably would have been seeing civil war in the States and possibly frictions between the US and China - the guy is unhinged and only looking after his own interests - he couldn't give a flying fig about anyone else just "how it makes him look".
You effectively say "so what if people get it" - the so what is the impact it has on the NHS - people with other illnesses have had to take a back seat because of having "to deal with covid". If people had been doing what they were being asked of, and I appreciate that the majority of people have done "the right thing" through the pandemic, those that decided to ignore everything and carry on as was potentially passed the virus on to others which put even more pressure on the hospitals.
Hopefully we are nearing the end of the pandemic and the omicron wave will end up being the mild variant to finish off the disease once and for all, but let me ask you this - if you had a really close relative/dear friend that either had a life threatening illness or was involved in a serious accident but couldn't get treatment because there was not hospital bed for them would your view still be the same?
And back to my original point about selfishness - because of the nature of the virus and how it transmits its not just individual responsibility but collective responsibility that's needed - covid has been tough on everyone and especially those that need treatment for other conditions rather than covid.
I can't believe how naive you're being Jtan - viruses by their nature mutate - they go for the weakest target to begin with and when those hosts are either dead or protected, it will mutate and find another host - as is happening now. It's not the "elderly" that are suffering the most with the omicron variant at the moment, in a lot of the countries its the 20-40 age group - vaccinations have protected people from possibly dying from the disease, but they won't stop people getting it - as the the 30-40 odd year old guy that was interviewed on Sky last night that had been in ITU for a month even though he had been double jabbed would testify to. It's the younger people and those unvaccinated that are being targeted now.
Exactly - I think the whole country are spitting feathers about how they have behaved - and all the scaremongering in respect of the moronic variant is disgraceful - all distraction tactics to keep the "parties" off the front pages without giving a damn about the impact all this scare mongering has had on peoples mental health let alone the economy - you just have to feel for the hospitality/leisure sector because they are just getting hit constantly.
Sadly Fordm with your comments its the sign of our society - selfish. I agree about personal responsibility, but sometimes to get this dreadful disease under control it has been a necessary evil for things to be closed to break the chain - unfortunately during lockdown there were selfish individuals that only thought of the impact on themselves and not the wider community and carried on doing "what they wanted to do".
Thank god those that went to war for the benefit of the country during the 1940's didn't have such a selfish, narrow minded attitude - god only knows where that would have left us if they had!
Out of South Africa this morning - they think they've hit their peak with Omicron both in terms of cases and hospitalisations - if that is the case, and if we mirror them, then we should see our spike by the end of this month and if it turns out to be the case that this ends the pandemic then 2022 should start with a bang for the airlines.
Well we know that is political so no news there really. What do you think about the report out today that says the Omicron variant is less severe as Delta because the disease doesn't enter the lungs - and the fact that if that is the case, it may actually see the beginning of the end of covid - wouldn't that just be amazing!
And the share price dropping to £10 is only one of the "drastic drops" as I've previously mentioned - what's worse at the moment is the drip down in price because when there's a sharp drop/reason for the drop you can trade like this morning and the shorters start closing which rises the price - in other words, in those circumstances, all the bad news is out - I'm not sure of the situation at the moment.
I'm not trying to run the company/share price down - I'm just trying to give an honest assessment of the history of the share price and the "headwinds" I think the company still face so that people aren't caught up with the "its cheap as chips/can't get any cheaper/hit the bottom" when in all reality nobody knows - look at BOO today.
It's actually dropped intra day to £10 odd last year when they did their fund raise, and at least twice to as low as £17 - the first one at £17 was from a high of £40 odd following a factory fire about 5 or 6 years ago, and the second time was a few Xmas' ago following a profit warning so £22 isn't the lowest its been.
If anyone was watching the Aviation Committee Hearing in the House of Commons yesterday they discussed the colour coded travel zones that were previously in force - heavy questioning about why France was put on the amber plus list when they had something like 0.8% cases against Spain who were on the green list with something like 13.8% cases was made, as was the fact that India wasn't put on the red list when they had high levels of the Delta variant was all because the PM was hoping to get some trade deals.
It was clear from the evidence given that the moves against France was political so I daresay today they are playing "pay back" - I can't see anyone else doing the same as the moronic strain is everywhere now and it may actually be a blessing in disguise if it turns out it is less severe and the sooner everyone gets it the better as it brings about the end of the pandemic according to some reports - fingers crossed that is the case.