You Might Also Like: The Art of Investing

Rich (0:00)

Cracking show coming up. We've got Stewie Thompson, our resident strategist, questioning what is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back in the bond market. And then Chris CJ Fellingham, he's sitting on the fence. Will we, won't we see a decision on the portfolio from the chairman? And what about this man? What is it gonna take to see him reduce some exposure to equities? Is today the day with the bond market explosion in the last 24 hours?

Yes, we're back for another episode of your favorite podcast, The Art of Investing, brought to you by IG, the global investment platform. Joining me as always, we got Mark Spice Holden.

Chris CJ Fellingham (0:46)

Hi, Rich.

Rich (0:47)

Chris CJ Fellingham.

Chris CJ Fellingham (0:48)

Hey, Rich.

Rich (0:48)

And our resident strategist is back. Yes, it's Stewie Thompson.

Chris CJ Fellingham (0:53)

Hi, Rich.

Rich (0:54)

So let's take a quick look at the model portfolio performance then. As a reminder, the three of us run this to put our money where our mouths are each week. And it's looking good. Up 2.2% on the week. That leaves us up 25.5% since inception and up 13% on the year. Slightly flattered because we're recording this on the Thursday. We snap it on a Wednesday evening, but the bond market erupted yesterday, which is going to be our main discussion on the show. The macro implications of what is going on right now. With interest rates, three big decisions last week. We're going to cover all of that and what are the implications for your portfolio at home.

Without further ado, let's get into the Spice Market update.

Mark Spice Holden (1:43)

Well, thanks, Rich. Just a reminder, it's been nine days since we last updated you, so there's a lot to pack in. I'll try and run through it very quickly. The main events really that we've had is, Rich mentioned, three of the major central banks have had their meetings and their press conferences and their interest rate decisions, and that's now behind us.

The oil prices had a big fall, down about 8 percent, although overnight it's had a bit of a rally. That's because Trump and the Iranian president have had a bit of a conversation, apparently, that was very productive, in his words. But then straight after that, Iran came out and said, well, we're not so sure about that. But that's why the oil price went up again overnight. But it's still nevertheless hanging around just below $100. And the last time we updated, it was $108 at Brent, that is. So with the oil price down about 8%, there's been some all-time highs, believe it or not. I haven't been able to report those for a while.

Nasdaq 100 takes out its all-time high. It took a while coming. From June, that took the last time. So yeah, there's a decent move.

Rich (2:41)

It was by about three points and then collapsed.

Mark Spice Holden (2:43)

Yeah, but every little counts.

Rich (2:45)

The high is the high.

Chris CJ Fellingham (2:47)

It's getting in the way of a good story.

Mark Spice Holden (2:51)

And part of that Nasdaq rally was led by the magnificent 7 But also, copper also took out its high. And we've talked about that now. The last month has been sort of up a lot and down a lot and up and up. But it's taking almost one step backwards and two step forward. So that's more positive. And you'll see that's the major contributor to our portfolio later. In the background, the chip sector has been leading the sort of markets higher, particularly Nasdaq and the Magnificent 7 That was led by Nvidia. Their shares are up about 7% over the week.

Very near their all time high, not quite there. And they said they were basically going to sell twice as many chips next year as they are this year. And that was a small positive that wasn't expected. So Intel shares went up 23%. Micron shares went up 17%.

Micron have got results this week on the 30th of September. So we'll see what they've got to say. Let's hope they keep the positive momentum. Apple nearly hit an all-time high as well. Basically, if you try and buy the new iPhone 18 in the UK, they're pretty much sold out. But the biggest news really was probably from Meta, who obviously owned Facebook. They launched a new app called Muse, which is basically like an AI concierge, an agent in your pocket. It goes around price checking for you, things like insurance, your banking rates, savings rates, et cetera. And actually that really hurt the banks and insurance companies. And the travel companies as well, because obviously competing for lower costs of hotels and a bit like you would do on booking.com, whatever MSP. But at the end of the day, so over the week, the technology sector was the best all around the world, up about 7%.