The case that UK equities trade at unjustified discounts to global peers, and that patient, contrarian investors are rewarded for owning what the market has written off.
In the middle of the August lull, bids for UK-listed companies keep coming and the premia keep getting bigger. The explanation is structural, two decades in the making, and almost nobody in government appears to have noticed.
The Bank held at 3.75%, as I expected. What I did not expect was three votes for a rise, justified by second-round effects the committee itself has conceded are not there.
Missiles in the Red Sea, missed numbers from the Mag7 and a maxed-out credit card in Downing Street – yet the week's most telling data were a blowout UK retail sales number and a stock market busy buying itself.
Missiles over the Gulf, the AI darlings of 2026 in sharp reverse, a $5.5bn bid nobody noticed – and a tax burden heading somewhere Britain has never been in peacetime
UK stocks are being taken private at a record pace: this year, takeover bids for London-listed companies have run at roughly £60bn against under £600m raised in new IPOs, and Neil Woodford argues that this wave of M&A is the clearest sign in years that UK equities are undervalued. In this episode, Woodford and Jon Adair break down why the FTSE and London stock market trade at such a deep discount to the US, what a 75% takeover premium reveals about UK share prices, whether British stocks are cheap or a value trap, and where Woodford sees value across UK banks, oil and housebuilders.
This week, a single American memory chip company became worth more than AstraZeneca, HSBC and Shell combined. So why has Britain never built one of its own?
The oil market saw through the Iran ceasefire noise before the headline writers did. But it's BP's third chairman in three years that prompts Neil Woodford's bigger question: why UK corporate governance may be the reason Britain doesn't build companies like Nvidia.
Foreign bidders are picking off UK-listed companies at a decade-high pace, drawn by a valuation discount manufactured by FRS17 and MIFID 2. The consequences for the UK economy are more serious than policymakers seem to grasp.
The UAE's exit from OPEC may matter more than the war itself for the future of energy prices. Meanwhile, Q1 results from UK banks and housebuilders are quietly demolishing the bearish consensus.
UK banks were the best-performing sector on the London Stock Exchange last year. Housebuilders had been climbing since September. Then the rate cut trade reversed in less than two weeks.
UK unemployment just hit a five-year high. But hidden in the data is a £1.3 trillion consumer story that the Bank of England, the MPC and consensus economics are completely ignoring. Here's why it matters if you invest in UK stocks.
This week, Google raised $32 billion in debt in under 24 hours — including a billion-pound, 100-year sterling bond that was nearly ten times oversubscribed. The main buyers? UK pension funds and insurance companies.
Ray Dalio warns the monetary order is breaking down. Gold hits all-time highs. ASML & SK Hynix post record earnings. This week on Noise Cancelling, Neil Woodford breaks down what it means for your strategy.
A calm political week, but not a quiet one for markets: UK house prices stabilising, US profit margins at sixty-year highs, AI already adding a full percentage point to US growth, and global equities — led quietly by the much-maligned FTSE 100 — pushing back towards all-time highs.
The headlines painted this Budget as a turning point. I don’t think it is. This piece looks past the political theatre to what the Budget actually means for UK growth, gilts and equities over the next few years.
Rachel Reeves' second UK Budget as Chancellor might have been the most leaked Budget in history, but will her economic policy and change to taxes actually work? Neil Woodford and I discuss what she actually did, what she could have done and what the impact of her changes will be on the UK economy and the UK stockmarket.
Nvidia just became the world’s first $5 trillion company, but can that kind of dominance really last? In this week’s conversation, Neil Woodford explains why he believes valuation is the financial law of gravity—and why even the strongest markets eventually have to obey it.
Is Brexit really dragging down Britain’s economy and the stock market, or is there more to the story? Valuations in the UK stock market are low so is now the right time to invest?
Markets have settled, inflation is easing, and the data continues to confound the pessimists. This week saw better-than-expected figures from the UK, an imminent Fed rate cut in the US, and solid results from the major UK banks. Meanwhile, the media’s obsession with fiscal “black holes” rolls on — but the evidence still doesn’t support it.
The US shutdown rattles politics but not markets, while the UK’s economic revisions expose staggering ONS failings. Company highlights include Card Factory’s dividend hike and Paypoint’s breakthrough deal with Royal Mail.
Pimco joins me in forecasting lower UK inflation and rates, while Bailey signals easing ahead. Company updates highlighted Fluence, Kingfisher, Eli Lilly, Alibaba and Micron — from energy resilience and UK retail to drug pricing, AI and semiconductors.
This week, the finance world has been anything but calm. Neil Woodford takes us through a story of unexpected market moves and the ripple effects across sectors and continents. Find out what’s really going on and why it matters to you.
Bond yields spiked across major markets, UK gilt hysteria proved misplaced, and corporate updates showed strength in cloud services and biotech, weakness in electric vehicles, and progress in clinical diagnostics.
This week’s update spans a lot of ground — from Trump’s latest tariff salvo against India and the ongoing debate about their inflationary impact, to a pivotal UK Supreme Court ruling that lifted a cloud over the banking sector. We also look at rate cuts on both sides of the Atlantic, a bidding war for Spectris, a string of strong corporate results, and the extraordinary scale of hyperscaler AI capex plans. As ever, some sectors are buoyant, others are still in recovery — but in both cases, opportunities remain for those willing to look past the headlines.
A week packed with political and economic news, including a major US-EU trade deal struck at Trump’s Turnberry visit, more global tariff action, and signs of growing pressure on UK regulators. Meanwhile, markets welcomed dovish tones from the Fed and a raft of strong company results across banks, biotech, and brickmakers.
A round-up of the week’s key developments across politics, markets, and economics — from Trump’s global tariff deals and Germany’s pro-growth pact to updates from W4.0 portfolio companies like Lloyds, NatWest, STMicro, and Wickes. Plus: a view on UK inflation, US rate cuts, and what to expect next week.
Markets shrugged off political drama, but AstraZeneca’s possible US move reignited debate about the UK’s undervalued equity market.
UK banks remain structurally undervalued despite solid performance. I explain why I believe the discount persists—and why it might finally be about to close.
A week of surprises — from US airstrikes in Iran to a peace deal few expected. Markets took it in stride, oil fell, bond yields eased, and the S&P touched record highs. Meanwhile, UK valuations remain under pressure as yet another quality business gets snapped up.
AI demand is soaring. Inventories are clearing. Pricing power is returning. And that’s showing up in the numbers — not just in Nvidia, but in less obvious names like STMicro and TSMC.
Global trade steadies, UK data surprises on the upside, and two undervalued sectors (semiconductors and housebuilders) show clear signs of recovery.
UK housebuilders are out of favour. But that’s exactly when companies often offer the best long-term opportunities.
Neil shares why the headlines don’t tell the full story, what he got right and wrong back in January and where he’s seeing real investment potential right now.
After years of weak performance in the biotech sector, BioNTech has secured a landmark partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb, worth up to $11.1bn. This deal is a major validation of BioNTech’s cancer pipeline and supports Neil’s thesis: the market is undervaluing mature biotech firms. BioNTech was up 20% yesterday on the news.
UK markets have bounced back, the economy looks stronger than the headlines suggest, and the MPC has cut rates — but not by enough.
Most investors assume the UK stock market will continue to lag behind the US, but what if that assumption is wrong? With the FTSE 100 already ahead of the S&P 500 this year, could this be the start of a major shift?
I’ve been thinking about how much attention the US equity market gets. While its dominance in global indices is undeniable, could it be causing investors to miss out on other, less obvious opportunities? In this piece, I share my thoughts on what’s being overlooked and why it matters for investors.
Why is the UK’s tech sector missing in action on the equity market? Discover the challenges faced by tech companies, why UK innovations thrive abroad, and potential solutions to revitalise the sector.
There are reasons for optimism about the UK equity market's recovery. We look at the transition from Defined Benefit to Defined Contribution schemes, increased capital inflows from these pensions, and the potential for valuation adjustments to begin a mean reversion, suggesting that the historically low prices of UK equities might correct to higher, more typical levels.
Examining how regulatory reforms over the past 25 years have reshaped and challenged the UK equity market. A crucial read for understanding the deep and lasting effects on capital growth and economic vitality.
This post explores the reasons behind the UK stock market's underperformance over the last decade (or more) and challenges the common belief that economic performance is to blame. We examine deeper causes, such as regulatory and political influences, and show potential for a promising turnaround for UK equities.
