Merryn Talks Money

Emerging markets have had a strong year, but much of that performance has been driven by a handful of AI-linked stocks. Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Neuberger portfolio managers Vera German and Juan Torres about where they’re finding value away from the crowded trade — from China and Brazil to Mexico, Kenya and Uzbekistan — and why they think some of the best opportunities are hiding far from the index.

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In this episode of Markets Wrap, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek discuss the Bank of England’s latest rate hike, a record high for the FTSE 250 and the shrinking UK small-cap market. Plus, they look at the fallout from the US midterms and what it could mean for AI, data centres and markets.

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In the final episode of The Portfolio Reset, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek answer listeners’ questions. They address when to rebalance, whether ready-made funds are really diversified, how to avoid investment regret, and whether the lessons of Warren Buffett, Ben Graham and Peter Lynch still hold up today.

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Merryn Somerset Webb sits down with Chris Clothier, co-chief investment officer at CG Asset Management, to discuss the fragile economics of the AI boom and what could bring the spending spree to an end. They also explore the case for inflation-linked bonds, the growing fiscal risks facing governments, where investors can find safe havens in stretched markets and why, despite his concerns about inflation, Clothier’s firm doesn’t own any gold.

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Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek are joined by Hargreaves Lansdown’s Anna Macdonald to unpack the UK Budget, from fiscal drag and tax complexity to what it means for investors and small businesses. Plus, they ask whether the market's drastic reaction to a mild disappointment from Alphabet is a sign that AI exuberance is nearing an end.

Clarifying note: In this episode Merryn said if the 40% tax threshold had gone up with inflation, it would closer to 100k than 50k. She meant if the threshold had gone in the same ratio as minimum wage. 

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No investor can know exactly what markets will do next. So instead of trying to predict the next winner, the goal is to build a portfolio that can hold up across a range of scenarios — one that reflects your appetite for risk, your financial goals and how long you have to invest.

In the third and final episode of the series, Merryn Somerset Webb, John Stepek and Bloomberg experts break down the building blocks of a diversified portfolio and explore how different assets perform as economic conditions change. They explain how to combine those assets and where diversification can fall short. Because investing isn't about knowing what comes next. It's about building a portfolio resilient enough for an uncertain future.  

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In this episode of Merryn Talks Money, Merryn Somerset Webb and Steve Hou, head of research at Silicon Data, delve into an emerging issue in the economics of artificial intelligence: token prices are falling while the cost of compute needed to produce them is rising. They discuss what this mismatch could mean for the valuations of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, whether demand can justify the enormous sums being invested in AI infrastructure and what happens when everyone has armies of AI agents working on our behalf.

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Are we heading for another eurozone panic? This week, John Stepek and Bloomberg’s Sam Unsted discuss why political uncertainty in France is pushing up the country's borrowing costs, why the UK
has (perhaps surprisingly) managed to avoid similar pressure, and where the first signs of strain are emerging in the AI boom. They also explore what slowing AI investment could mean for the
investors, governments and industries banking on its growth.

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Passive investing was designed to track the market, not shape it. But as Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek explore in the second episode of The Portfolio Reset, the enormous growth of passive investing has changed the market it was built to follow, just as some of the world’s most valuable companies are staying private for longer.

Using SpaceX as an example, they examine the changing relationship between public and private markets and why no investment is truly passive — someone is always making a decision somewhere in the process. As passive flows grow powerful enough to move markets, Merryn and John explain why investors should make sure they’re making active decisions in pursuit of their own financial goals, rather than leaving those decisions in the hands of strangers. 

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After years of being overshadowed by US megacaps and the artificial intelligence boom, could smaller companies finally be ready for a comeback? Merryn Somerset Webb speaks with Downing fund manager Simon Evan-Cook and Odyssean Capital’s Stuart Widdowson about why small caps remain unusually cheap, what could bring investors back — and whether small-cap value could become the ultimate anti-AI trade.

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