Global markets were mostly higher overnight as results from Berkshire Hathaway boosted optimism about a strong earnings season, while gains for Facebook on a report that it was planning to offer new services lifted the tech-heavy Nasdaq index.
The S&P 500 (major US market index) is within a percentage point of its all-time high for the first time since the current correction began. Investors have focused on robust corporate earnings recently and shrugged off worries about US tensions with countries including China and Iran. Of the 413 S&P 500 companies that have reported second-quarter results so far, 79.2% have topped earnings estimates, according to Thomson Reuters data – compared with the 72% average for the past four quarters.
Our longer-term readers will know one of our key investment themes is that a “dining boom” driven by a growing middle class in Asia will see multi-year demand growth for higher quality food and is set to be a multi-year tailwind fo...
