The iShares Nasdaq US Biotechnology UCITS ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of biotechnology and pharmaceutical equities listed on the NASDAQ.
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Cordiant Digital Infrastructure is the first UK-listed investment company to provide investors with dedicated exposure to the core infrastructure of the digital economy.
Verizon job cuts are equal to 20% of non-union employee wage costs
Wireless company to convert 179 company-owned retail stores to franchise operations
Verizon to create $20 million fund to assist laid off employees with job search, skills in AI era
WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) – U.S. wireless carrier Verizon (VZ.N) on Thursday said it will cut more than 13,000 jobs in its largest single layoff as it works to shrink costs and restructure operations.
Tomorrow the Chancellor of the Exchequer will announced the long awaited budget. For weeks we have seen the bond market reacting to ill timed and ill advised leaks, undermining confidence in the UK Gilt market. Lenders to UK Government have to have confidence in the UK able to pay on the debts outstanding, and also lenders need to have confidence in the UK to lend new money.
When the government spends more than it receives in tax and other revenues it borrows to cover the difference. This borrowing is known as ‘public sector net borrowing’ but is often referred to as the deficit.
Total public sector net debt in the United Kingdom from 2010/11 to 2024/25
One can see each year the HM Government has been spending more than it earns in taxation over the last 15 years. This is NOT sustainable. Consequently, debt interest payments are now above £100 billion a year, and the OBR has warned that, without action, debt could rise to 270 per cent of GDP by the early 2070s. Note, £100 billion interests is money that can NOT be paid finance our brave armed forces, or build new schools.
In 2024-25, it is expected public spending to amount to £1,278.6 billion, and thus out of that £1278 billion, £100 billion is on debt interest.
Also we are seeing huge media speculation on whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer will break the election promise in the party manifesto of not increase taxes, and this speculation has now become normalised on social media with arm chair political economists saying the Chancellor of the Exchequer will break an election pledge, these ‘experts’ have zero knowledge of the importance of the bond market or a decent grasp of economics.
However in the interests of fairness and equality it was David Cameron who maintained his promiseand manifesto pledge to ask the UK population for the referendum on the UK continued membership the European Union, and he kept his promise:-
Courtesy of John Major
As shown above, keeping manifesto pledges is NOT a holy or sacred act.
The UK needs to raise taxes to be able to fund the annual budget deficit, if not, the UK Government can not actually fund day to day operations. It needs that funding to finance public services, and if we do NOT, we face a Liz Truss / Kwasi Kwarteng moment, where the UK struggles to raise money, with borrowing costs surge, as lenders get worried over economic competence and stewardship of the UK economy. Sadly, taxes will have to rise, and breaking that manifesto pledge is the right things to do for the UK Government to be able borrow from on the Bond Market and fund public services.
Why is the National Debt so high? America’s growing debt is the result of simple math — each year, there is a mismatch between spending and revenues. When the federal government spends more than it takes in, it has to borrow money to cover that annual deficit. And each year’s deficit adds to the USA’s growing national debt.
Historically, the largest deficits were caused by increased spending around national emergencies like major wars or the Great Depression. Today, deficits are caused mainly by predictable structural factors: our aging baby-boom generation, rising healthcare costs, higher interest rates, and a tax system that does not bring in enough money to pay for what the government has promised its citizens. Moving forward, it will be critical for America’s leaders to address our rising debt, and its structural factors, which are described below.
In the beginning, there is basically no difference between making a choice that is 1 percent better or 1 percent worse. (In other words, it won’t impact you very much today.) But as time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you suddenly find a very big gap between people who make slightly better decisions on a daily basis and those who don’t.
Here’s the punchline:
If you get one percent better each day for one year, you’ll end up thirty-seven times better by the time you’re done.
The L&G Multi-Strategy Enhanced Commodities ex-Agriculture & Livestock UCITS ETF is a London Listed ETF that aims to track the performance of the Barclays Backwardation Tilt Multi-Strategy Ex-Agriculture & Livestock Capped Total Return Index.
Fund size $88.4m
The fund provides broad-based exposure to commodities via a diversified basket of commodity futures with different expiry dates of up to 1 year.
The upside point of this fund:-
-Diversification Commodities are a distinct asset class with returns that are largely uncorrelated with stock and bond returns -Inflation hedge Commodity indices tend to benefit from rising inflation -Broad commodities exposure Basket of commodity futures, excluding Agriculture and Livestock, with dynamically determined expiry dates
Courtesy of Legal and General Investment Management
“The public sector employs 5.9 million people in the UK, at an annual cost of £270 billion in 2023–24 (including salaries, employer pension contributions and employer National Insurance contributions) – 10% of national income and 22% of total UK government spending. The employment, pay and productivity of these employees are therefore an important determinant of the material standard of living of millions of families, as well as a crucial input into the provision of public services. Public sector pay growth is an important pressure on public spending.”
The Vanguard Sterling Short-Term Money Market Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to provide stability in the value of investments, liquidity and exposure to a variety of investments that typically perform differently from one another while maximising income earned from distributions such as interest
The Fund’s investment objective is to preserve capital and provide an income over rolling 12-month periods by predominantly investing (at least 80% of its assets) in cash and cash equivalents. The Fund’s comparator benchmark is the Bank of England Sterling Overnight Interbank Average (SONIA).
The iShares MSCI World ex-USA UCITS ETF is a London listed fund aims to achieve a total return, taking into account both capital and income returns, which reflects the return of the MSCI World ex USA Index, the Fund’s benchmark index.
The abrdn Future Raw Materials Fund is an ETF that invests in the global raw materials.
Investment objective is to generate growth over the long term (five years or more) by investing primarily in companies aligned with the future raw materials theme.
WisdomTree Energy Transition Metals is a fully collateralised, UCITS eligible Exchange-Traded Commodity (ETC) designed to provide investors with a total return exposure to a basket of Thematic Metals Baskets futures contracts. The Index is designed to track the performance of a diversified basket of metal commodities that are associated with the energy transition theme, which include, but are not limited to Electric Vehicles, Transmission, Charging, Energy Storage, Solar, Wind, and Hydrogen production.
However lets look at the rising national debt in the UK and see how it rose over the past 15 years.
Number are in UK £Pounds: Trillion.
Courtesy of Statista
Government debt in the United Kingdom reached over 2.81 Trillion British pounds in 2024/25, compared with 2.69 trillion pounds in the previous financial year. Although debt has been increasing throughout this period, there is a noticeable jump between 2019/20, and 2020/21, when debt increased from 1.82 trillion pounds, to 2.15 trillion. The UK’s government debt was the equivalent of 95.8 percent of GDP in 2024/25, and is expected to increase slightly in coming years, and not start falling until the end of this decade
Now, the big issue is looking at the total debt of £2810 Billion = £2.81 Trillion. Thus when carrying this level of debt, there is huge public sector expenditure on public sector debt interest in the United Kingdom from 2010/11 to 2024/25, see below:-
Courtesy of Statista
As you can see above, in 2024/25, total interest payments on HM Government debt was £124.7 Billion, money that is paid to the creditors of the UK (the lenders), which means, money that can NOT be used on the UK, e.g. not able to use £124.7 Billion on new hospitals or new schools or better roads. Servicing the debt is now a large part of HM Government expenditure.
“Renewable energy overtook coal as the world’s leading source of electricity in the first half of this year – a historic first, according to new data from the global energy think tank Ember.
Electricity demand is growing around the world but the growth in solar and wind was so strong it met 100% of the extra electricity demand, even helping drive a slight decline in coal and gas use”
The 3 companies of Nvidia, Microsoft & Apple account for overONE THIRD of the index that is made up of 106 companies. 3 companies account for 34.5% of the value of the entire fund.
The iShares Fallen Angels High Yield Corp Bond UCITS ETF is a collective investment fund that seeks to track the performance of an index composed of high yield corporate bonds from issuers in developed markets, which have been downgraded to sub-investment grade at some point in their trading history.
The iShares Global Aerospace & Defence UCITS ETF is a fund that aims to achieve a total return, through a combination of capital and income returns, which reflects the return of the S&P Developed BMI Select Aerospace & Defence 35/20 Capped Index, the Fund’s benchmark index (“Index”).
It has exposure to developed market equity securities of companies within the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) industry of Aerospace and Defence, its investments includes manufacturers of civil or military aerospace and defence equipment, parts or products, defence electronics and space equipment. The Benchmark Index caps the weights of the largest companies on a monthly basis to help ensure index diversification.
The total number of shares issued by Lloyds Banking Group plc with rights to vote which are exercisable in all circumstances at general meetings is 59,602,243,740
Thus:-
59,602,243,740 x £0.0122 = £727,147,373.628
That is £727 million paid to shareholders in Lloyds Banking Group PLC
In the past few days, Oracle has been making the headlines with its incredible database software, its data centres and its move into AI. The world runs on Oracle.
“Shares in Oracle soared more than 40% after the database software company gave investors a surprisingly rosy outlook for its cloud infrastructure business and artificial intelligence (AI) deals.” Lets look at the numbers:-
The market value is now $922 Billion
The
See below, a snapshot of some of the bonds that Oracle has outstanding. Currently money owed to the bondholders of Oracle
We can see above the different interest levels on each “debt bundle”, approximately an average of about 2.8%.
We can see Oracle owes about £77 billion. Total debt of £77bn at an average interest rate of 2.8%, meaning the interest costs for Oracle on £77bn is £2.156 billion.
So, lets keep things in context. Interest payments to bond holders of £2.156 billion…and in 2024 it sees just Cloud revenues of over $18bn which is only one of its revenue streams. It is firing on all cylinders.
So the debt interest payments are trivial, based on its huge reveunes.
“Oracle now sees $18 billion in cloud infrastructure revenue in fiscal 2026, with the company calling for the annual sum to reach $32 billion, $73 billion, $114 billion and $144 billion over the subsequent four years.”
Today, Wednesday 10th Sept 2025, the premier UK Telecommunications titan, BT PLC pays out its September 2025 dividend to its long standing shareholders. https://www.bt.com
BT Group plc confirms that on 29 August 2025 its capital consisted of 9,968,127,681 ordinary shares with voting rights. On that date, BT Group plc held 656,075 ordinary shares as treasury shares and therefore, the total number of voting rights in BT Group plc on that date was 9,967,471,606.
Thus:-
£0.0576 x 9,967,471,606 = £574,126,364.5056
£574 Million paid to the long term shareholders in British Telecommunications PLC.
At close of business on 31 July 2025, its investments were as follows:-
Company
% of total net assets
Greencoat UK Wind
7.0%
SSE
6.3%
Clearway Energy A Class
6.2%
RWE
6.1%
Northland Power
5.4%
Octopus Renewables Infrastructure Trust
4.6%
Grenergy Renovables
4.5%
NextEnergy Solar Fund
4.3%
Bonheur
4.0%
Foresight Solar Fund
3.7%
Drax Group
3.7%
National Grid
3.7%
Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital REIT
3.6%
SDCL Energy Efficiency Income Trust
3.2%
iShares UK Gilts 0-5y ETF
2.5%
Cadeler
2.5%
iShares GBP Ultrashort Bond UC
2.5%
The Renewables Infrastructure Group
2.4%
GCP Infrastructure Investments
2.1%
Greencoat Renewable
1.8%
Fastned
1.6%
Sequoia Economic Infrastructure Income
1.4%
Polaris Renewable Energy
1.2%
AES
1.2%
Vanguard UK Gilt UCITS ETF
1.2%
Orsted
1.1%
Gore Street Energy Storage Fund
1.1%
Serena Energia
1.0%
VH Global Sustainable Energy Opportunities
0.8%
Corporacion Acciona Energias Renovables
0.7%
MPC Energy Solutions
0.7%
Scatec Solar
0.6%
7C Solarparken
0.5%
Foresight Environmental Infrastructure
0.5%
Boralex
0.5%
US Solar Fund
0.3%
Westbridge Renewable Energy
0.2%
Cash/Net Current Assets
5.2%
At close of business on 31 July 2025, the total net assets of Premier Miton Global Renewables Trust PLC amounted to £40.9 million. The sector breakdown and geographical allocation were as follows:
The CT Private Equity Trust PLC, is a London listed investment company whose objective is to achieve long-term capital growth through investment in private equity assets, whilst providing shareholders with a predictable and above average level of dividend funded from a combination of the Company’s revenue and realised capital profits.
S&P 500 Covered Call UCITS ETF is an ETF that seeks to generate income by replicating a buy-write index via premiums received from selling covered calls.
A covered call strategy is an option-based income strategy that involves selling call options against owned stocks to generate income while mitigating downside risk. This strategy can also provide a variety of diversification benefits.
The Nasdaq 100 Covered Call UCITS ETF is an ETF that seeks to generate income by replicating a buy-write index via premiums received from selling covered calls.
A covered call strategy is an option-based income strategy that involves selling call options against owned stocks to generate income while mitigating downside risk. This strategy can also provide a variety of diversification benefits.
The covered call strategy has recently maintained a relatively higher yield. With a 12-month yield of 12.2%, QYLD LN outperforms global high-yield bonds (9.5%) and emerging market bonds (8%), as well as traditional asset classes such as 10-Year U.S. Treasuries (4.6%) and U.S. Equities (1.6%).
The M&G Global Themes Fund aims to provide a combination of capital growth and income to deliver a return that is higher, net of the ongoing charge figure, than that of the MSCI ACWI Index over any five-year period. It does this by investing at least 80% of the fund in the shares of companies the fund manager believes are positioned to benefit from structural trends in the global economy. These can be in any sector, of any market capitalisation and domiciled in any country, including emerging markets.
The Vanguard Global Short-Term Corporate Bond Index Fund is a bond index fund where the index includes global corporate bonds with maturities of between 1 and 5 years. The Index is a multi-currency index that includes bonds from developed and emerging markets issuers within the industrial, utility and financial sectors.
The L&G Frontier Markets Equity Fund aims to track the performance of the Frontier Markets equity market as represented by the MSCI Frontier Markets 100 10/40 Index
“BP makes a broader socioeconomic contribution to countries in which we operate, in addition to the payments that are required to be reported under the Regulations. We make payments to governments in connection with parts of our business other than extractive activities – for example in relation to the transportation, trading, manufacture and marketing of oil and gas. As well as government payments, bp contributes to the economies of the countries in which we operate by providing jobs for employees and contractors, purchasing materials from local suppliers and undertaking social investment activities“
Total payments $24,842.30 Million = $24.842 Billion
The voting rights attaching to the Unilever Group Shares are not exercisable. Accordingly, as at 30 May 2025, there were 2,452,731,981 shares with voting rights
John Clifton “Jack” Bogle (May 8, 1929 – January 16, 2019) was an American investor, business magnate and philanthropist. He was the founder and chief executive of The Vanguard Group and is credited with popularizing the index fund. An avid investor and money manager himself, he preached investment over speculation, long-term patience over short-term action and reducing broker fees as much as possible. An ideal investment vehicle for Bogle was a low-cost index fund representing the entire US market, held over a lifetime with dividends reinvested.
Number of stocks as at the date 31 Mar 2025 :- of the fund
7,114 Stocks
Top Ten Holdings are:-
Apple Inc 3.70% of the fund Microsoft Corp 3.15% of the fund NVIDIA Corp 2.87% of the fund Amazon.com Inc 2.02% of the fund Meta Platforms Inc 1.43% of the fund Alphabet Inc 1.03% of the fund Broadcom Inc 0.87% of the fund Alphabet Inc 0.85% of the fund Tesla Inc 0.81% of the fund JPMorgan Chase & Co 0.77% of the fund
The L&G Climate Action Global Equity Fund whose objective of the Fund is to provide long-term capital growth.
The Fund is actively managed and seeks to achieve its objective by investing at least 80% of its assets in a broad range of equity securities from around the world, including Developing/Emerging Markets
The Fund will invest in companies that are not currently aligned to climate transition or companies taking steps towards climate transition alignment. Companies that are not aligned to climate transition are those that are not on track to meet net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 (“Net Zero CO2”). The Fund will also invest in companies that are already taking steps to meet Net Zero CO2, or contributing to the transition to Net Zero CO2.
“Choosing individual stocks without any idea of what you’re looking for is like running through a dynamite factory with a burning match. You may live, but you’re still an idiot.”
The Schroder Income Growth Fund plc is a London listed invesrment trust.
The Schroder Income Growth Fund aims to achieve income growth in excess of inflation and capital growth as a result of that rising income. SCF has grown its dividend for 29 consecutive years, since it was launched in 1995.
The CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management, the world’s biggest single owner of public equities, says a fund of its size needs to be widely diversified across asset classes, because tactical asset allocation would be “very, very tough.” Nicolai Tangen, who runs the $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth fund, also talks about his investment concerns and AI. Tangen speaks on “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.” This interview was recorded January 22 at the Bloomberg House in Davos.
The Standard Life Active Higher Interest Pension fund aims to provide higher returns than Money Market funds. It does this by investing not only in bank and building society deposits but also in a variety of other instruments including Certificates of Deposits (CDs), Commercial Paper, Covered Bonds, Fixed and Floating Rate Medium Term Notes (MTN), Asset Backed Securities (ABS) and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities (RMBS) where, when purchased, repayment is typically expected within 5 years
Top Holdings Fund (%)
SUMITOMO MITSUI TRUST BANK LTD (LONDON) 8.6% of the fund CREDIT AGRICOLE CORP INV BANK 8.5% of the fund DZ BANK 8.5% of the fund MUFG BANK LTD (TOKYO) 8.5% of the fund RABOBANK INTERNATIONAL 8.5% of the fund SMBC EUROPE LONDON 8.5% of the fund MIZUHO BANK 8.5% of the fund KBC BANK NV, LONDON BRANCH 5.4% of the fund THE TORONTO-DOMINION BANK 4.8% of the fund BARCLAYS BANK PLC 2.5% of the fund
ASML Holding N.V. (commonly shortened to ASML, originally standing for Advanced Semiconductor Materials Lithography) is a Dutch multinational corporation founded in 1984. ASML specializes in the development and manufacturing of photolithography machines which are used to produce computer chips.