Progressive's George O'Connor and Ian Robertson take comfort from FY25 trading updates but look forward to a year in which reality may bite back.

Trading updates from Raspberry Pi, and news flow from Intel and Samsung, remind us that things rarely happen as smoothly or as predictably in real-world tech as is hoped, particularly in semiconductors.

Computacenter’s update has confirmed George’s view on hardware sales and serves as another illustration that cash flow matters and should not be taken for granted.

Looking to the US, the traditional SaaS stocks are underperforming, dragged down by the question of what AI does to them and, importantly, software pricing. No sign of the market asking these fundamental questions of the UK stocks just yet.

The Market Call returns to analyse market volatility, geopolitical tensions, and the impact of the Trump administration on the global economy and markets.

Jeremy and Gareth explore U.S. GDP hitting 4.4%, and a historic precious metals boom with gold nearing $5,000 and silver approaching $100 an ounce. Discover key insights on the U.S. real economy, bond yields, and six critical investment themes for the year ahead, including the Space Economy, Robotics, and the "Great Rotation" of capital.

Key Topics & Highlights:

• Geopolitics & Trump 2.0: Analysis of the Trump administration's aggressive stances toward NATO and Europe, and its impact on global relations.
• Market Volatility: How the "Davos circus" and recent fears have driven investors into a risk-off mode, with strategies for navigating the uncertainty.
• The Commodities Boom: Discussion on the dramatic ascent of precious metals, driven by a weakening dollar and rising geopolitical insurance premiums.
• The Inflation vs. Growth Debate: An exploration of a hot U.S. economy (near 5% growth) versus moderating Western consumer price inflation, and its bond market implications.
• Six Themes for ’26: A breakdown of top investment themes for the year:
  • Robotics and Autonomous Driving.
  • The Space Economy.
  • The Rise of the Chinese Consumer.
  • Healthcare Catch-up.
  • Energy will join the Commodities Party.
  • The Ongoing "Great Rotation" (Capital moving from Dollar assets/Treasuries to gold and other geographies).

Is silver's price spike a bubble, or an early warning of government confiscation for AI data centres and military needs? Craig Tindale, Australian investor and essayist, argues the West has lost touch with the physical economy — and national capitalism is our only path back.

In this episode:

• Why Craig sees silver regulation or confiscation coming, or where we rip out solar panels for their silver content.
• How Western policy has detached from real-world physics
• Lessons from 40 years of upgrading Asian manufacturing, banks & central banks
• Why “national capitalism” is the West’s last hope
• The real economic operating system we’ve forgotten

Progressive's Jeremy McKeown recently caught up with Erik@YWR, a widely experienced investment professional and popular Substacker.

Erik discusses his experience investing in Africa in the 20'teens and his involvement in what he calls Project Zimbabwe; don't think that we, in the West, are immune from our own versions of Project Zimbabwe. In Erik's view, we are, and counterintuitively, it partially explains Erik's current bullish stance on equities, with his framing of S&P 10,000 and how we can get there.

He also shares how his investing process identifies sectors and markets at inflexion points, and he currently sees energy (specifically oil and gas) as poised to join the commodity rally underway in metals and rare earths.

He also discusses how AI and robo-advisors might challenge the impact of passive investing on equity markets.

In the last episode of 2025, Progressive's Gareth Evans and Jeremy McKeown discuss the significant events of the week, including volatile equities, what precious metals prices are telling us, and the ups and downs of oil prices, with the US Navy on patrol offshore of Venezuela. 

There has been a data dump of macro numbers and rate decisions, and an important decision by Europe's leaders not to seize frozen Russian assets.

Overall, the critical question for investors in 2026 is whether central banks have done enough to tame inflation and pave the way for lower rates. Jeremy again highlights Japan as a source of risk to the bullish scenario.

Next week will be quiet, but always worth noting who might be sneaking out RNS's last thing on Christmas Eve.

Progressive's Jeremy McKeown and Gareth Evans discuss the main events of the last week in financial markets.

The primary focus is on the mixed messaging from the Federal Reserve with its interest rate decision described as a hawkish cut. Jeremy describes how we might interpret this move, which is now signalling only one further rate cut in 2026.

Kevin "The Real Asset" Hassett is widely expected to be announced as Jay Powell's successor in January. Further, this has also been widely interpreted as allowing inflation expectations to run wild, thereby impacting the prices of gold and silver.

However, the Fed decision makers are also looking at their responsibilities for employment and the functioning of financial markets. To this end, you might be mistaken that they have restarted QE. The move to inject liquidity into the short-term money markets might not be strictly QE, but it does expand the Fed's balance sheet, at least in the short term.

Jeremy points to Japan as the source of the market dysfunction that policymakers might be preempting via this (temporary) injection.

In US megacap land, news comes of a $1.5 trillion IPO for SpaceX, and a busy week for the Ellison family. Larry Ellison's Oracle highlighted the risks around the AI data centre build-out, but also his son and other high-profile backers were behind the $108bn hostile bid for Warner Bros.

Jeremy highlights the precedent for such giant hostile bids, and it is an interesting list! Surely nothing to see here.

Looking ahead, there will be further evidence next week of the weakening US jobs market.

The events in Venezuela and the Ukraine peace process will also be centre stage.

Cerillion CEO, Louis Hall and CFO, Andrew Dickson, present the company's results for the 12 months ended 30 September 2025, followed by Q&A.

Louis Hall, CEO
00:16 Introduction
00:32 About Cerillion
01:38 Product Delivery Model
03:04 BSS/OSS Market Size
04:07 FY2025 Highlights
11:20 Competitive Landscape

Andrew Dickson, CFO
12:45 2025 KPIs
17:13 2025 Financial Highlights
18:41 Cash Generation
20:10 Income Statement
20:56 Balance Sheet

Louis Hall, CEO
21:26 New Logo Sales Pipeline, New Orders and Back-Order
22:06 Summary & Outlook

22:30 Q&A

Cerillion has a 26-year track record in providing mission-critical software for billing, charging and customer relationship management ("CRM"), mainly to the telecommunications sector but also to other markets, including utilities and financial services. The Company has c.70 customer installations across c. 45 countries.

Headquartered in London, Cerillion also has operations in India and Bulgaria as well as a sales presence in the USA, Singapore and Australia.

The business was originally part of Logica plc before its management buyout, led by CEO, Louis Hall, in 1999. The Company joined AIM in March 2016. 

www.cerillion.com

This week Progressive's Jeremy McKeown and Gareth Evans discuss mainly the apparent confusion of bitcoin falling while other “inflation hedge” or “real asset” measures like gold and silver are at or close to all-time highs.  Jeremy has four or five reasons why this might be the case - all of which highlight the usefulness of bitcoin’s “always on” trading 24/7 as a barometer or investor opinion.

Macro markets have helped Rachel Reeves avoid short-term repercussions of the Budget. 

Next week’s Fed rate decision may be overshadowed by gyrations around the potential seizure of Russian monies - and what that means for the value of the dollar in the eyes of anyone who might one day upset the West.

IG Design Group Interim Executive Chair, Stewart Gilliland and CFO, Rohan Cummings, present the group's results for the six months ended 30 September 2025, followed by Q&A.

Stewart Gilliland, Interim Executive Chair
00:16 Introduction
01:18 HY2026 Summary

Rohan Cummings, CFO
02:22 Group Revenue
03:18 Adjusted Operating Profit
04:27 Segmental Performance
07:27 Financial Summary
09:25 Cash Flow

Stewart Gilliland, Interim Executive Chair
10:51 The Group Today
12:42 Design Group Europe
14:05 Design Group UK
15:49 Design Group Australia

Rohan Cummings, CFO
16:59 Guidance

Stewart Gilliland, Interim Executive Chair
17:50 Long-term Growth Drivers
19:32 Case Study
20:13 ESG
21:16 Outlook

22:00 Q&A

IG Design Group plc is a leading designer, innovator and manufacturer across various celebration and creative categories.

For further information please visit www.thedesigngroup.com.

This week Progressive's Jeremy McKeown and Gareth Evans discuss mainly the apparent confusion of bitcoin falling while other “inflation hedge” or “real asset” measures like gold and silver are at or close to all-time highs.  Jeremy has four or five reasons why this might be the case - all of which highlight the usefulness of bitcoin’s “always on” trading 24/7 as a barometer or investor opinion.

Macro markets have helped Rachel Reeves avoid short-term repercussions of the Budget. 

Next week’s Fed rate decision may be overshadowed by gyrations around the potential seizure of Russian monies - and what that means for the value of the dollar in the eyes of anyone who might one day upset the West.