Snap – political risks return – or do they?

It appeared very opportunistic of Theresa May to call a snap election on June 8, after the latest polls showed the Tory party with the biggest lead ahead of Labour for probably 3 decades.
Predictably, most of the media have focused on the short-term potential for the Conservatives to significantly increase their parliamentary majority. Much has also been commented on how a strengthened and specific mandate for May’s government will vastly improve her negotiating position with the EU, as well as her own Eurosceptic firebrands, in the Brexit negotiations.

May calls snap election

In seven weeks’ time, Britain will head to the polling stations again. Prime Minister May has called a snap election on June 8, just two weeks before the anniversary of the nation’s vote to leave the European Union. Less than a year after the EU membership referendum which left the country close to evenly split (and unleashed a hell-storm of upheaval across the party-political landscape in the process), the UK’s political future will once more be in the hands of its public.

Q1 Corporate earnings – more crucial this time?

Carrying on from our piece last week, we are picking up the topic of the corporate earnings announcement season again. We do so because there is a far greater focus on the numbers now than we have observed for several years.

Chinese authorities relax capital controls – sign of confidence?

At the start of the week, China reported a raft of better than expected economic data points for both March and Q1. The data revealed the first consecutive acceleration in GDP growth in nearly seven years, but also a solid pick-up in investment, retail sales and factory output on the back of strong credit growth and a rebound in the domestic property market.

AIM stock insight: Budget cuts and healthcare companies

After a year of political upheaval, the outlook for the healthcare industry remains volatile, with pricing and US politics the key concerns. Here we focus on the alarming National Institute of Health (NIH) spending cut proposals in the US and summarise the stock-specific impacts below.

To read the full commentary: Tatton’s Weekly 21 April 2017