Rock bottom

An interesting start to the day for City Slickers, aka the financial masters of the universe. First big story is the news that Apple topped a valuation of $3 trillion at one point yesterday, worth more than all the FTSE 100 companies combined. This led to a look at the value of the FTSE 100, which it appears is massively underperforming against other stock markets—this according to an expert on the BBC’s Today programme is because FTSE100 investors seek quick dividend returns rather than long term growth. ‘Economic illiterates’ he called them. Then on to my favourite peddler of myths, the Daily Express, whose headline read “Brexit triumph as City tips FTSE 100 to smash record high - major vote of confidence in UK” Their story bore no relation whatsoever to any consequence of Brexit but was based purely on a handful of projections by investment analysts who thought that the market would end up higher at the end of 2022 than it was at the beginning of the year. Other analysts weren’t so sure. (This unwarranted Brexit triumphalism is stalking the land. Yesterday, former Tory minister Edwina Currie was quoted saying that one of Brexit’s triumphs was that we could now ‘show two fingers to Brussels.’ And that was it.) This is all heartening news. Even after a year of Brexit the FTSE 100 is performing at a 30% discount against continental markets. If it does even a bit of catching up, it’s unlikely to have anything to do with Brexit—more a case of buying at rock bottom prices.