Table of contents for Issue 1280 in MoneyWeek

Copper futures jumped 5% in September as shutdowns at major mines constrain supply. Prices are up 20% this year. The rise follows a mudslide that claimed several lives at the massive Grasberg mine in Indonesia, says Giulia Petroni in The Wall Street Journal. The open-pit site is the world’s second-largest copper mine. Freeport-McMoRan, the mine’s US owner, says that it may take until 2027 to restore the site to pre-incident operating levels. Global copper supply was already under pressure following a spate of incidents at major sites, including a deadly tunnel collapse in Chile, and major disruptions at the Kakula mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The percentage of global copper production affected by unplanned disruption is expected to surpass 6% this year, a big hit in such a…

The British economy has never really recovered from the financial crisis. During the early 2000s the City of London boomed, while America picked up the pieces from the dotcom crash. In 2007, UK GDP per capita narrowly surpassed that of the US, but the triumph wasn’t to last. US bank bailouts were better planned and structured than those in Europe, while the subsequent technology boom favoured a sector that is concentrated in northern California. Meanwhile, the British economy has effectively “flatlined”, with a mere $2,600 increase in GDP per person over nearly two decades, says Oliver Wright in The Times. The result has been a colossal income gap: last year, UK GDP per capita was just 61% of the US level.…

Videogame company Electronic Arts has agreed to sell itself to a group of investors that includes Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, says Bloomberg. The deal marks the largest leveraged buyout on record. It involves a cash payment of $210 a share – 25% more than the level at which EA’s shares traded before news of the talks broke on Friday – which values the company at $55bn. The deal also represents the latest efforts by Saudi Arabia to diversify its economy from oil into sports and gaming, sectors that are “increasingly at the heart of youth culture around the planet”. While such investment would normally invite government scrutiny, the involvement of Affinity Partners, founded by President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, could help smooth the deal’s passage. In theory, private ownership “could…

Congress “blew past” a midnight deadline on Wednesday, triggering the US government’s “first shutdown in nearly seven years”, says Erik Wasson in The Wall Street Journal. With Republicans and Democrats “locked in a stalemate” over healthcare subsidies and using it to “frame” the 2026 midterm elections, the effects of the shutdown, which will lead to the temporary furlough of around 750,000 “nonessential” government employees on leave, could be “prolonged”. The shutdown has happened because the two parties could not agree on a spending bill, say Anthony Zurcher and James FitzGerald on the BBC. Although the Republicans control both chambers of Congress, in the Senate they are short of the 60 votes they need to pass a spending bill, giving the opposition “leverage”. Democrats say it will make it harder for…

It has always been tough to get your first job. But this year, it is proving tougher than ever. According to jobs website Indeed, graduates are facing the worst labour market since 2018. In September, consultancy giant PWC, traditionally a major recruiter, said it was hiring 200 fewer university leavers this year. In the UK, it doesn’t help that the economy has stagnated. But even in the booming US a similar story is unfolding. According to the research firm Cengage, just 30% of this year’s graduates have found a job in their field. There are different local factors in each economy, but right across the developed world it is clear that something else is going on: entry-level graduate jobs are disappearing. It is not hard to work out why that…

jacobin.com David Bowie launched the Bowie Bond in 1997, which was “celebrated by a credulous press as a market ‘innovation’”, says David Moscrop. The bonds were designed to extract investment returns from the singer’s back catalogue by “securitising” future royalties. What was an innovation then is commonplace now and such packaged securities are treated as a mainstream option by major investment firms. Just about anything with a revenue stream can be “wrapped up, sliced and sold” – housing debt being the most infamous example. You can’t blame musicians for trying to secure the rights to their own work, but what it tells us about society is revealing – that global finance will colonise and securitise absolutely everything, from your favourite works of art to digital Beanie Babies – “nothing is…

Many of MoneyWeek’s favourite investment trusts will be speaking at the Investment Company Showcase in central London on Friday 10 October. Now in its fourth year, this event is a valuable day out for any investor who wants to hear updates from many top trusts in one session. More than 30 managers will be presenting on a wide range of sectors and strategies – from UK equity to emerging markets, real estate to renewable energy, and income to private equity. All sessions are streamed online for investors who can’t make it to London. Several MoneyWeek contributors will be in the audience – say hello if you see us! Go to theaic.co.uk/the-investment-company-showcase-2025 and use the code MW25 for free entry.…

● As the world has gone digital so too has our paperwork, and that can create problems. We now receive our payslips, health records, bills and statements digitally, “but unless you have a system for keeping on top of all of this you risk losing control”, says Claer Barrett in the Financial Times. Not only is it easy to miss a payment or lose track of your savings balances, but when everything arrives in different email accounts or apps it creates an inheritance problem too. When you die, “your descendants... may be unable to unpick your financial affairs”. What to do? Barrett has a four-step guide. Start by getting a digital filing system. Apps such as DoqIt and FYIO allow you to store and categorise digital documents so you can…

My long tips have experienced mixed fortunes over the past fortnight. Drinks company AG Barr fell from 707p to 678p, while vending-machine firm ME Group declined from 191p to 185p. Furniture retailer Dunelm Group dropped from 1,106p to 1,087p. However, telecoms firm Airtel Africa increased from 216p to 232p, while video-games company Electronic Arts (EA) appreciated from $168 to $202, a result of the agreed deal to take it private. Food-distribution company Sysco also went up, from $81.55 to $81.84, while renewable-energy firm First Solar climbed from $209 to $223. Overall, the gains outweighed the losses, with the profits on my long tips jumping from £380 to £1733. Unfortunately, two out of my three short tips moved against me. Drone company Red Cat appreciated from $8.87 to $10.16. At the…

When Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, said recently that investors were inflating a speculative bubble in AI, it looked like “damage control” following the underwhelming release of a new version of its key product, ChatGTP, says Bloomberg. But what does it say about the prospects for the AI “golden age” so many are predicting when those who were just yesterday the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for the technology are now having to “tamp down expectations”? The Cassandra in this debate is the British-born “hobbyist blogger” Ed Zitron (pictured), says the Financial Times. More than 75,000 people subscribe to his posts and podcasts, and the number is growing. His podcast is owned by iHeartRadio, the largest radio broadcaster in the US. And like news anchor Howard Beale in the 1976 film…

Last week, I featured a sensational English sparkling wine, 2019 Langham Pinot Noir, which I noted was truly world-class and also epic value for money. I am acutely aware that £58 is not an everyday amount of cash to drop willy-nilly on a bottle of wine, so to try to demonstrate that we have wines within our shores that represent extraordinary value at a much more achievable price, I am thrilled to introduce you to my featured red, as well as 2024 Giffords Hall Bacchus (£16.95) and 2024 Giffords Hall Rosé (£14.95). This indelibly English trio show that compelling, refreshing, uniquely engaging and delicious wines are out there. St Edmundsbury is a bramble, blueberry, plum and cinnamon concoction, with a whisper of fresh herbs bringing drama to the light and…

When is steel more valuable than gold? When it is used to make the case of a Patek Philippe Ref. 1518 Perpetual Calendar Chronograph wristwatch (pictured).These watches, launched in 1941, are rare regardless of the metal used. Only 281 were made. But these were overwhelmingly produced using precious metals for the cases – all except four, which were made with more durable stainless steel. Much of what makes all 281 watches so valuable is the intricacy of their mechanisms. The design created the blueprint for every perpetual calendar chronograph wristwatch that has followed. (“Perpetual calendar” refers to the mechanism that automatically displays the date and a “chronograph” is a watch with a stopwatch function.) “Take any triple calendar or perpetual calendar chronograph today, this is the Adam and Eve…

“British gilts are the most undervalued financial asset on the planet,” says Ambrose-Evans Pritchard in The Telegraph. The UK ten-year gilt yields a decent 4.7%. Yet investors prefer to pile into bitcoin – an asset with “no revenue stream or productive function” – while irrationally shunning “safe-haven sovereign bonds with zero default risk as if they spelled the plague”. Going for gilts Lending money to Rachel Reeves is a more compelling prospect than you might think. While investors pay tax on gilt interest, any increase in the price of the bond (which moves inversely to the yield) is exempt from capital gains tax (CGT). Investment platforms report booming interest in gilts, says Imogen Tew in The Times. Hargreaves Lansdown and AJ Bell have seen increases of between 50% and 60%…

Drug giant GSK’s CEO Emma Walmsley is ending “an eight-year tenure in which she struggled to win investor confidence for her efforts to reinvigorate the UK drugmaker”, says Hannah Kuchler in the Financial Times. Walmsley will be replaced by her chief commercial officer Luke Miels. Emma Walmsley has been “a change agent”, says Alistair Osborne in The Times. She has divided the firm in two, spinning off the consumer-health wing, Haleon; doubled expenditure on research and development (R&D) to £6.4bn; rebuilt a drug pipeline whose test tubes were emptying out; and over-delivered on her sales targets”. Still, even though she is “leaving a better business than the one she joined”, she has failed in the task of “producing a healthier share price”, which is still lower than the £16.76 it…

Coventry Production stalled: Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), the Midlands-based carmaker, is preparing to restart “some sections” of its manufacturing operations that it was forced to shut down following a “crippling” cyber attack a month ago, says Chris Bryant on Bloomberg. That cannot come fast enough for its parent company, India’s Tata Motors. JLR accounts for 70% of its revenue. Fortunately, JLR had £5bn of available liquidity at the end of June and it has managed to secure £2bn in commercial loans, backstopped by the government to the tune of £1.5bn. Quite why the government needs to step in given JLR made £1.8bn in net profit in the last fiscal year has not been explained, but it will at least “help to cushion the massive cash burn” as assembly lines have…

Kuwait’s mysterious blackouts David Fickling Bloomberg Why, with all of its oil, does Kuwait suffer from rolling power outages, asks David Fickling. Its 101.5 billion barrels of reserve are equivalent to around 23,000 barrels (or $4.3m) per resident; 99.6% of its power comes from oil or gas. The main culprits are “political gridlock” and a refusal to embrace the energy transition. With 15 different energy ministers in the past decade, decisions on infrastructure upgrades have been delayed. Subsidies of $3,200 per head mean energy bills cover just 5% of grid costs. A full 60% of energy is used by air conditioners, partly because building in traditional narrow, shady streets is now effectively “illegal due to outdated building codes”. Despite being around 90% desert, it hasn’t been nearly ambitious enough…

capx.co Britain’s tax system is a “masterclass in bad design”, says Damian Pudner. “Thresholds and tapers defy common sense, clawbacks ambush families and frozen allowances quietly drag millions into higher rates each year.” The result is a system that “punishes effort, encourages avoidance and holds the economy back”. That is why the idea of a flat tax is floated every now and then, most recently by Tory leader Kemi Badenoch. The appeal of levying one uniform rate is not hard to see. It simplifies the system, making it “easier to understand, harder to game and cheaper to administer”, strengthens incentives and broadens the tax base. It might even boost growth, as it seemed to for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia when they introduced flat rates. But however attractive the idea,…

● Petershill Partners, the Goldman Sachsbacked trust that invests in private-market asset managers, plans to buy out its minority shareholders and delist from the London Stock Exchange. The trust will spend $921m to buy the 20.5% of its shares that are not owned by private funds run by Goldman Sachs, paying $4.15 per share. Petershill’s strategy of “general partner (GP) staking” – providing growth capital to smaller alternative-assets managers – has delivered strong portfolio returns since it listed in 2021, but has struggled to win over investors. The shares were down by 34% since listing and traded on a discount to NAV of 35% before the privatisation offer was announced. ● Saba Capital, the US activist targeting a large number of UK investment trusts, says it will launch an exchange-traded…

There are not many world-leading technology companies listed in London anymore, but one of those still remaining is Pinewood Technologies (LSE: PINE). Until 2024, the company was better known as Pendragon, one of the UK’s largest owners and operators of car dealerships under the Evans Halshaw and Stratstone brands. These divisions overshadowed what was a gem of a tech platform hidden under the bonnet. Pendragon sold the physical side of the business for nearly £400m at the beginning of 2024 to the US dealer group Lithia & Driveway. The deal made a lot of strategic sense, considering the platform’s profitability and potential. In the 13 months to the end of January 2024, just before the deal was completed, the discontinued operations generated £4.3bn in revenue and a profit before tax…

Over the past few years electric vehicles (EVs) have developed from being niche products to becoming a well-established subsector of the vehicle market. They are only a few years away from eclipsing cars running on petrol and diesel. EVs comprise a fifth of new cars sold in the UK; if you add in hybrid cars, they also make up a majority of sales in the EU. However, many of the companies attempting to bring products to market will ultimately sink without trace, as investors in firms such as Nikola and Fisker (both of which have filed for bankruptcy) found out the hard way. Another company highly likely to follow in their footsteps is the US car firm Faraday Future Intelligent Electric (Nasdaq: FFAI). Founded just over a decade ago, Faraday…

Emerging markets are full of opportunities – not just the mega-caps that dominate headlines, but also the lesser-known innovators quietly shaping the future. At the Mobius Investment Trust, we think these “under-the-radar” firms offer some of the most exciting potential for long-term investors. Our forward-looking, quality-driven approach is built on proprietary research, which should allow us to access promising opportunities overlooked by the mainstream. In Asia in particular, the opportunities are compelling. India is benefiting from very rapid digitisation, momentum behind government reforms and a young, middle-class population. Taiwan sits at the heart of supply chains for global technology ranging from semiconductors to next-generation AI infrastructure. South Korea, meanwhile, combines world-class innovation with ongoing improvements in corporate governance. Together, these markets provide fertile ground for finding companies with sustainable earnings,…

Summer is over and the all-important autumn auction sales are upon us. For auction house Sotheby’s, this season is even more important than usual. In July, it reported a pre-tax loss of $248m for the previous 12 months, double that in 2024. So, every sale counts – or does it? The trouble that Sotheby’s is facing, like all auction houses, is the triple threat from political uncertainty, relatively high interest rates and shrinking demand from art collectors in Asia. That means consignors have been “loath to part with their most prized artworks – unsure of being able to attract top prices”, says The New York Times. Fortunately, Sotheby’s has been able to get its hands on the $400m art collection of Leonard Lauder, the cosmetics tycoon who died in June.…

“There’s a slump in UK housebuilding that makes Labour’s promise of 1.5 million new homes within this parliament not just ‘stretching’, as the departed minister Angela Rayner called it, but a... fantasy of utopian suburbs that will never exist... In London, only 2,158 new homes... were started in the first half of the year. Skilled workers are in short supply and building cost inflation has been amplified by the hike in employers’ national insurance contributions. Builders face unworkable post-Grenfell safety laws for blocks of flats... According to Red Flag, Michael Ashcroft’s account of... Keir Starmer’s ‘uneasy’ Downing Street debut... Rayner knew she’d been stitched up with an impossible brief... Labour-watchers are betting she’ll make a comeback [when] Starmer falls... the next prime minister... should re-award her the housing portfolio as…

Online fast-fashion chain Asos continues to struggle. It has warned that its full-year earnings will come in at the lower end of expectations, says Bloomberg’s Katie Linsell. Both ebitda and sales will be unexpectedly low as it works on improving profitability. In an attempt to arrest a slump that has seen its share price fall by 90%, it has closed its US distribution centre and reduced stockpiles of unsold clothes, writing off an additional £100m of inventory in November. But analysts warn that re-engaging customers “may take longer than expected”. It’s not all doom and gloom, says Victoria Scholar on Interactive Investor. The outlook for 2026 is more encouraging. However, for the moment traders still seem more focused on the weak present. No wonder the shares have fallen by 40%…

Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan has been accepted by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while at the time of going to press Hamas had yet to issue an official response. Marking the anniversary of the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel with this deal would be the “beginnings of an enduring peace”, says The Times; one that would banish Hamas from Gaza forever, allow for reconstruction and guarantee “both Israel’s long-term security and the right of Palestinians to eventual self-determination”. Trump’s plan is “audacious”. It “demands huge concessions” and makes “huge promises” in return. Hamas must release all hostages and “disband and disarm”. Israel must end hostilities, release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and carry out a phased withdrawal. This would be accompanied by a “flood of aid” into…

What’s the issue? British democracy is falling apart. All too literally. Everyone agrees that the Palace of Westminster – which houses the House of Commons, the House of Lords, Westminster Hall and more than 1,100 other rooms, large and small – requires an urgent programme of restoration and renewal that probably will cost tens of billions and quite conceivably take decades. For years, parliamentarians have been trying to put off making a decision about what to do. And the moment when they have to vote on it is fast approaching. The parliamentary estate is vast – the basement alone has a mile of corridors covering an area the size of 16 football pitches, and they are rammed with a century’s worth of obsolete piping and electrical wires, in addition to…

“I’m petrified of not having any. Which makes me very, very mean.”Comedian Jenny Eclair (pictured) on her attitude to money, interviewed in The Sunday Times “People pay money to see others believe in themselves.”Rock bassist Kim Gordon, quoted in Lit Hub “Almost all great fortunes are based upon one cracking good idea and the guts to go with it.”Novelist Frederick Forsyth, quoted in The Knowledge “I think the things people don’t want to talk about – sex, religion, politics and money – are exactly the things we should be talking about.”Actress Miriam Margolyes quoted in The i Paper “My boat, you could say, is a luxury. But it isn’t really because I bought it for £20m [less] than it should have been.”British entrepreneur John Caudwell on his bargain £75m superyacht,…

hbr.org A puzzle has emerged for firms that have embraced AI, say Kate Niederhoffer and co-authors. Although workers are largely following mandates to embrace the technology, few companies are seeing it create any value. The number of companies with fully AI-led processes nearly doubled last year, for example, and AI use at work has doubled since 2023. Yet a recent report from the MIT Media Lab found that 95% of organisations see no measurable return on their investment in the technology. Why? One possible reason is that workers are using AI tools to “create low-effort, passable-looking work that ends up creating more work for their coworkers”. They are creating, in short, what has become known as “AI slop” – or, in the context of the office, “workslop”. The result is…

Why do two ostensibly similar real estate investment trusts (Reits) trade at such different valuations? AEW UK Reit (LSE: AEWU), with net assets of £174m, invests in “UK commercial property assets in strong locations” nearly all outside London. Its shares trade on a 4% discount to net asset value (NAV) and yield nearly 8%. Conversely, Regional Reit (LSE: RGL), with net assets of £362m, invests in “high quality commercial properties outside of the M25 motorway”. Its shares yield 7.3% but trade on a discount of 44% – even though, as the larger trust, its shares ought to be more liquid. Part of the answer is down to performance. AEW seeks to buy “mispriced assets” and to apply “active management” to “grow income, lengthen and improve tenant leases, add value using…

May 2026 will see elections to the Scottish Parliament as the legislature’s five-year term ends. While Labour and the SNP were neck-and-neck in the polls last summer, in the immediate aftermath of Labour’s landslide victory south of the border at the general election, the SNP are now clear favourites to get most seats. Ladbrokes have it at 1/12 (92.3%%) to secure most seats, with Labour at 7/1 (12.5%), Reform at 11/1 (8.3%), Liberal Democrats at 100/1 (1%) and Conservatives at 150/1 (0.06%). Labour can at least take some consolation from the fact that the bookies do not expect Reform to push them into third place, as they are favourites at 4/7 (63.6%) to come second. However, Reform’s odds are at 7/2 (28.6%), while the SNP’s are at 10/1 (9.1%), which…

Arksen is not your typical boat builder. It sells everything from £160 technical T-shirts to blinged-up Land Rovers and climbing expeditions to Everest. The only thing unifying them all is a thirst for adventure. Boats are a big part of that, and a personal passion of Arksen’s tech entrepreneur founder, Jasper Smith, but more as a means of delivering the ultimate off-grid adventure than as the end goal itself; none more so than this 85 Explorer, its flagship model and the foundations on which the entire brand was built. Constructed from 70% recycled aluminium by the Wight Shipyard on the Isle of Wight, its build has more in common with high-speed ferries and military patrol craft than a traditional leisure yacht. The superstructure windows, for example, are 25mm thick so…

Going… Around 400 puppets, props and pieces of original artwork from The Muppets, Sesame Street and The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance are heading for auction with Julien’s in Los Angeles on 25 November. The puppet of the character Naia Drenchen Gelfling from the 2019 award-winning series The Dark Crystal is the leading lot,with a pre-sale estimate of between $15,000 and $25,000. The artwork of Caroll Spinney, who is best known as the puppeteer behind Sesame Street characters Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch, is also appearing in the sale, the proceeds from which will go towards supporting the Jim Henson Company archives. Gone… The painting known as Man Ape (1966 – pictured), by Frank Frazetta, has become the latest of several works in recent years to set a new…