Market Maker

Microsoft has announced a $69bln bid for Activision Blizzard in what will be the biggest tech deal in history. The move will give the tech giant access to Activision’s 390 million monthly users and headline franchises such as Call of Duty, Warcraft, and Candy Crush.

Gaming is likely to play a key role in the development of the Metaverse and the deal is likely to result in further consolidation in the sector. Direct competitors such as Sony dropped more than 10% on the news while shares in Square Enix and Capcom surged.

Find out why Microsoft has made this move, the terms of the deal, why they chose to strike now, the risk of regulator hurdles, and the bigger strategy that they are executing.

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As always, I'm joined by co-founder Piers Curran to discuss the major stories in markets this week, from a 39 year high in US CPI and earnings reports from J.P. Morgan and BlackRock, to Kim Kardashian being sued over promoting alt-coin EthereumMax as part of an alleged crypto scam.

We also catch up on what has been another horrendous week for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is under growing pressure from senior Tories to admit he attended the drinks party in the Number 10 garden on May 20, 2020, in defiance of England’s lockdown rules.

Will he resign? what would need to happen? will Rishi Sunak be the next PM? and what does this all mean for markets? we explain a few different angles to make sense of it all.

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Happy New Year! In this episode, I talk to co-founder Piers Curran, about what a surge in US yields means for the global financial markets. We discuss the catalyst behind the move, how this influences equity sector positioning and why even crypto traders should be monitoring this development.

We also touch on some of the trending stories of the week, from Apple briefly hitting a $3trl market cap and Boris Johnson stating the UK can whether a record wave of Covid-19 without tighter restrictions to the surge in GameStop shares and the new Sony electric vehicle.

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In this episode, I talk to Jayne Howson who is a Senior Vice President at Salesforce in their Global Sales Leader Excellence & Enablement team.

Having had limited interest in education growing up, Jayne started waiting on tables from the age of 9 and then went to secure her place at college by electing to work part-time at Barclays, arranging company-wide team building events from the age of 16. Fast forward to today, and she now leads a global team at Salesforce, the fastest-growing enterprise software company in history.

In this conversation, Jayne talks about why curiosity is the ultimate key to success and the importance of values. We cover tips on presenting, how to find your confidence, and overcoming life challenges.

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In this final episode of the year, I talk to co-founder Piers Curran about UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who faces a potential rebellion after announcing 'Plan B' measures amid discontent over his handling of Christmas parties last year when the nation was in lockdown. What is the government's strategy? what would Plan C look like? and what does this mean for the Bank of England and the timing of rate rises?.

We review the latest US CPI report for November, which came in at 6.8% Y/Y, the highest reading since 1982. The case is made why the Fed will now press ahead with an accelerated taper timeline despite the risk of Omicron.

We finish with a response to a question we put out to our community earlier this week. If you had to invest in just one company for 10 years out of Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, or Tesla which one would we pick?. You all went with Tesla, but we didn't. Find out who our 10 year buy and hold would be!

Huge thanks to our listeners and wishing you all an amazing Christmas break. Catch you in the New Year!

Anthony & Piers

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In this episode, I talk to co-founder Piers Curran about the three key areas to monitor to ascertain the impact of Omicron on the global economy. From transmissibility, to vaccine escape and lethality, we look at the timeline necessary to make a more accurate forecast.

We then discuss the latest US jobs report and the surprising pivot from the Federal Reserve to become much more hawkish ahead of their final FOMC meeting of the year. Why have they made this dramatic shift in strategy and will it work?

Our final conversation is a review of the OPEC+ meeting and why US President Joe Biden is having to make a u-turn on his election promises. We also look at the rationale behind why J.P. Morgan is looking for $125/bbl crude oil in 2022, whereas Deutsche Bank is predicting just $60/bbl. How can their views be so different, and more importantly, where do we think it will be by the end of next year!

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In this week's episode, I talk to Piers about a new variant of the coronavirus (B.1.1.529) which has been identified in South Africa. Although case rates are low, early signs suggest the new variant is out-competing others far faster than Beta and even Delta. We review how markets have reacted and what to look out for next.

The other big story of the week was that US President Joe Biden announced Monday that he is renominating Jerome Powell for a second term as Federal Reserve chair. We discuss what this means in the context of an improving labour market and heightened inflation after Goldman Sachs said they believe the Fed will now accelerate their taper programme to $30bln/mth come January.

A final comment is reserved for what the heck happened in Turkey this week after the Lira collapsed 15% on Tuesday! We explain the rationale behind Erdogan's unorthodox views and what it means for international and domestic investors.

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In this episode, I talk to Xiao about the dreaded stock pitch, the moment in an interview where the floor is yours and it's time to deliver!

We look at how to structure your pitch, the level of depth to go into, and the secret to coming across in the right way. To help bring the discussion to life there are also some real-life examples for good measure. Some good, some bad!

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In this week's episode, Piers and I kick off with a look at the explosion in electric vehicle (EV) pure plays such as Lucid and Rivian and discuss why we think this is a bubble and other strategic ways to play the EV long game.

We also touch on the increasing policy divergence emerging between Europe and the US/UK as COVID cases in the former continue to rise against rampant inflation in the latter. How do you identify these trends before they happen and ways and means to express your market view are explained.

To finish, we take a look at Netflix, which this week said they will begin regularly reporting viewership numbers for its top programmes and films, a major shift in strategy. Why have they done it and will it work? After all, you only fight the battles you can win!

Sign up for the Daily Market Maker newsletter www.amplifyme.com/market-maker.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.