Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Neil Shah of Edison Group says that Greggs' shares are off almost 40% over the past couple of years. Like other fast food companies, weight loss jabs are having an effect on their business. But the recent Q4 update confirmed that the company will meet their profit expectations and the management team has a great track record of executing growth. Although they could simply farm their estate, further growth is worth pursuing and the price fall gives investors an entry opportunity. BP was the second best-performing oil major last year and now has a clear strategy of returning to its roots which appears to be bearing fruit. The numbers are encouraging and it should make new ground this year.
Guests: Neil Shah
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin returns to Las Vegas's Consumer Electronics Show, marvelling at AI lawnmowers, air conditioners, saunas, showers and even an AI robot triceratops for the lawn, though it's rather a small one. We are promised a single-seat eVTOL for around £30,000 very soon from China, whose BYD EV car company has now overtaken Tesla for sales volume. Amazon has entered the TV business with a set resembling a framed artwork. Matthew McConaughey has trademarked himself to prevent AI cloning him. Apple is to use Google Gemini to power Siri and Nike have taken a decade to develop shoes that apparently stimulate the wearer's feet.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
Musing on President Trump's interest in Venezuela, Russ Mould of A J Bell believes that second-guessing geopolitics is brutally difficult, although he can see why defence stocks are back in vogue. While Venezuela's oil has been much discussed, the United States doesn't really need more oil, thanks to shale. However, China does, which might make the country seem more interesting to Trump. However, there are plenty of other commodities there too. In the markets, gold, silver and now copper are at new highs. The latter has plenty of practical applications, including being needed for EVs. But it takes 10 years to bring a mine onstream. It's interesting that the commodity indices have remained so depressed despite these gains, but the indices are weighed down heavily by oil and gas. If markets are right to expect decent economic growth, then it's not a bad environment for commodities and cyclicals.
Guests: Russ Mould
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Original Broadcast: The Bigger Picture
Political commentator Mike Indian says that President Trump's abduction of Nicolás Maduro sets a new and dangerous precedent in international relations. It's a spectacular gesture but a "gesture" is all that it is and it could further destabilise an already unstable country. Trump's stated aims for Greenland risk undermining NATO and relations between the US and Europe. Mike believes he is acting to create a legacy, exerting power in the most direct way he can. However, even the US could overextend itself and then find that it does, after all, need other countries. In the meantime, Trump's actions will simply embolden the world's autocrats. 2026 could be a very volatile year. In the UK, Keir Starmer looks to be in a stronger position than he was before Christmas. There does not seem to be a credible challenge to his leadership. To some extent, his unpopularity is now almost a boon, as it is out of the way.
Guests: Mike Indian
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Original Broadcast: Gadgets and Gizmos
Steve Caplin highlights the first week of the Consumer Electronics Show, salivating over Lego's new smart bricks, packed full of features but currently only available to those buying two Star Wars models. There's also a ridiculously large TV, a rapid icemaker, a trifold Samsung phone, a clever charging smart lock, a robot vacuum that can climb stairs and lollipops that play music via bone conduction while you're devouring them. Kawasaki are to make the robot horse that before was only a CGI video. AI art creators are complaining about their work being stolen, ironic since they stole it in the first place. Video business cards are looking for crowdfunding. And very precise 3D printing is going to be possible thanks to the use of mosquito proboscises.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
James Cameron-Wilson reports that 2025 was the best box office year for movies since the pandemic. With the new Avatar still #1, #2 is The Housemaid, a psychological thriller with Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried which is thoroughly entertaining, as long as you don't think too carefully about the plot. #3 is Marty Supreme, loosely based on a true story. Timothée Chalamet is a supremely-confident hustler turned table tennis player in a movie that, despite being two and a half hours long, flies by, helped by a great supporting cast of non-actors. Not so #6, Anaconda, in which Paul Rudd and Jack Black want to remake the forgettable 1997 monster movie of the same name. It's hard to combine comedy and horror successfully. This film fails. #7 is Song Sung Blue, based on a documentary, with Hugh Jackman as an unsympathetic Neil Diamond interpreter. In a film about second chances, Kate Hudson has never been better.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Professor Tim Evans of Middlesex University rounds off 2025 with his countdown of the 10 most significant issues. 10: Trade frictions and international relations are moving away from blockification and becoming messier. 9: Net Zero is on the wane and nuclear power is on the rise. Hydrocarbons could be around for longer than expected. 8: Productivity problems in Britain continue to bedevil the economy. 7: The lack of success in welfare reform, with inflation continuing to exacerbate poverty. 6: The housing crisis and the rise in homelessness. Red tape and bureaucracy continue to hold housebuilding back. 5: Fiscal strategy and stealth taxes. The policy of borrowing now and paying later is very dicey. 4: The NHS. It is still in crisis, despite tens of billions of pounds poured in. 3: The cost of living crisis. Inflation is a hidden tax and most people have not seen their wages increase significantly for 20 years. 2: Immigration, which is fuelling anxiety and division, not just in Britain but throughout Europe. 1: Stagnating economic growth. We could now be in a recession. People are down and depressed and expect things to get worse. The Government is injecting misery and pessimism without understanding the consequence of their actions.
Guests: Professor Tim Evans
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Steve Caplin rounds up his favourite gadgety stories of the year. Learn how best to let oral meds work, to grow your own teeth, to hear in a noisy room, write a detective story, stop cows falling in the river and what to do if a velociraptor is chasing you. He explains why it can be cheaper to go from Cornwall to Manchester via Malaga, the over-complicated scientific way to boil eggs, the eyebrowing-raising slip-up on those old DVD piracy warnings and Google London's problems with foxes and rats. Among the inventions highlights are a giant hamster wheel for skiers, a remote-controlled coffee table with 12 legs, the WalkCar Segway and an electric skateboard that will do 45mph. All this and more in the round-up of the stories on Gadgets and Gizmos in 2025.
Guests: Steve Caplin
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Original Broadcast: The Business Of Film
After a quick rundown of what's leading the UK box office in the run-up to Christmas, James Cameron-Wilson takes Simon Rose through the films that made the most at the country's cinemas in 2025. A Minecraft Movie topped the chart, followed by Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Wicked For Good, Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World Rebirth. Very different was James's own top ten. 1: Ocean. 2: Flow. 3: Superman. 4: Christy. 5: Materialists. 6: I Swear. 7: Alpha. 8: The Ballad of Wallis Island. 9: Brides. 10: We Live in Time. James explains why you'd want to catch up with each every one of these.
Guests: James Cameron-Wilson
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Original Broadcast: The Financial Outlook for Personal Investors
The big stories of 2025 – Trump and AI – are likely to feature heavily in 2026, says Fergus Caheny of Evelyn Partners. Will the eye-watering expenditure we have seen produce enough profitability to justify the high ratings? He does not feel prices are yet in bubble territory but thinks the baton will change to concentrate on those companies that supply this year's AI winners. With the American mid-term elections coming up, investors will also be keen to know who will be the new Chair of the Federal Reserve. The UK economy has had a chequered year but, while UK markets offer some benefits, investors should look to diversify not just among sectors, but geographically too. Fergus believes that growth in India and the Asian subcontinent will become a big theme.
Guests: Fergus Caheny
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