Northern Foods Share Discussion Threads

[freddie ferret] 20/10/2017 17:42

Make what you will of it.

[aleman] 20/10/2017 17:38

My lot did the usual. They opened slightly up and drifted - a bit more than I'd like, though. I finished -0.4%. YTD +2.4%.

Mostly grey. An odd bright spell but no sun. At least it remained dry after a bit more rain overnight. 15.4C after 10.8C.

Brian should make football interesting tomorrow. 60mph winds should make 13C feel chilly. Keep warm and have a good weekend.

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 16:59

Not such a great week for my lot, SIPP -0.25%, pot -0.66%, Virgin ISA -0.29% taking the YTD figures down to +5.26%, +9.22% & +7.20%

That's me done for a week, keep an eye on things whilst I battle the wind & rain up some mountains!

Enjoy your weekends

MrP

[aleman] 20/10/2017 16:43

Oh, dear. GE cuts 2017 cashflow forecast in half and says 2018 to be a "reset" year.



It' s okay, though. The Dow Jones is still going up.

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 16:15

Skinny, thereby hangs a tale! I bought them in Halfords with a mate of mine that managed to get himself a Trade Card (not sure how he pulled that off) so we got a big discount. I felt I couldn't really then ask them to fit them as my mate is supposed to be in the motor trade if he has a card!

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 16:13

Thanks Aleman. I tried to follow that last suggestion yesterday but the XF doesn't have a key type ignition, it just has a Start/Stop button. I'm assuming you are supposed to press it without your foot on the brake so everything comes on but the car doesn't start, but the wiper still parks itself even if you try turning it off half way through! I think I'll have a go with the wiper just lifting slightly but may end up driving to Halfords to persuade them to fit them!

[skinny] 20/10/2017 16:08

I'd go and watch what he does for next time :-)

[aleman] 20/10/2017 15:58

That video looks like a standard type wiper clip. MrP's might be like this:



And this tip for older jags might still be relevant:




To get the wiper to park itself half way thru the cycle, turn the ignition switch to on but not all the way to start the engine and pull the wiper stalk towards you (like a single wipe) and it parks itself.

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 15:55

Another site helpfully offers this advice:-

Prepare your Jaguar XF for an easier wiper change
Turn ON your wipers then turn off your Jaguar XF when the wipers are at their mid-way point on your windshield

Only one problem with that, when you "turn off" the car, the wipers carry on to the park position!

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 15:51

Just had another look, and that isn't even an XF. On the XF the bonnet carries on up and overlaps the bottom of the blades which is why you can't lift the arm very much when in the "parked" position.

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 15:48

Skinny, thanks for that although I did watch that and it doesn't look the same, aside from the fact that's a US spec car and the wipers park the other side. Did notice he doesn't bother getting the wipers vertical so the arm locks "open" but it seemed a lot more awkward than he makes it look, maybe as the springs don't look very strong on his car.

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 14:33

Will do Shadowside. Mine are actually working fine but I noticed they looked a bit green when I washed the car last week so thought I ought to get new ones ready for our trip up to The Lakes, but I might just clean the old ones with washer fluid and take the new ones with me.

Lovely in the sunshine outside at lunchtime but only 13.7°C

Government borrowing down then

[aleman] 20/10/2017 14:02

Global economy picking up steam? Underlying sales were a whole 1.0% below forecasts.

[aleman] 20/10/2017 13:34

Net interest $3.9bn up 11%. Total Assets $92.5bn up 6%. Allowance for loan losses $5.4bn up 30%.



Credit Quality

Loans 30+ days past due as a percentage of total period-end loan receivables were 4.80% compared to 4.26% last year.

Net charge-offs as a percentage of total average loan receivables were 4.95% compared to 4.39% last year.

The allowance for loan losses as a percentage of total period-end loan receivables was 6.97% compared to 5.82% last year.

You know they are in trouble when credit quality going from ok to mediocre is called "normalisation".

Provision for loan losses increased $324 million to $1.3 billion driven by credit normalization and loan receivables growth.



When will markets start reacting to this slow-motion train wreck? To recover margins after higher losses, interest rates are rising - regardless of what central banks do.

[shadowside] 20/10/2017 13:04

Mr P, Funny you should say that. I have a brand new set of wiper blades sat on the shelf which I bought six months ago. Couldn't understand the instructions so they are sat there until the blades need changeing.As far as I know thew old blades are the origonal ones and am surprised they have lasted so long.Let me know if you figure it out!

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 12:06

Haven't really seen any snow here for a couple of years, but maybe this will be the year!

First sunshine for several days, looking very pleasant out there at the moment.

[aleman] 20/10/2017 12:04

Maybe they'll blame winter, instead of Brexit, when the economy stalls.



Cold and snow to start at end of the month as odds of coldest winter on record drop to 4/1.

[aleman] 20/10/2017 11:38

Cold snaps forecasted for US and Eastern Europe before the month end. Snow to reach Texas and Georgia in another of several early winter storms? In Eastern Europe, it's most of the rest of Russia and the Baltics expected to get snow. It's not very unsual for Europe but it's a bit early for all of Russia to get covered - but it's only a forecast for more than a week away.



UK white Christmas betting odds seem much shorter than normal (about halved) this year.

[mrphil] 20/10/2017 11:28

Trumpflation - ;-

Shadowside, welcome back and pleased to hear you survived your "interesting" landing! I see ZOO is having another little go! On another note, have you ever replaced the wiper blades on your XF yourself? I've bought new ones but I can't work out how you get the wipers off the screen to stay there, they only lift slightly. I found an article on a forum which talks about pulling the wiper lever towards the steering wheel with the start button pressed, but the lever doesn't go towards the wheel!

[skinny] 20/10/2017 10:29

I've been short on the FTSE in one shape or form since 6th Oct.

[aleman] 20/10/2017 09:59

Just been looking at PSBR numbers. Debt/GDP topped out at the end of 2015 and started improving. A few quarters ago it had improved 1.0 on 12 months earlier. The last three quarters are improved by 0.6, 0.5, 0.4. The trend is slowly deteriorating again. I noticed September, compared to year to date, showed marginal weakening trends in production taxes, VAT, corporation tax and fuel duty. Yesterday's retail sales also showed falling fuel sales for September compared to last September (-2.4%), the third consecutive falling month, though that could be down to the cool late summer.



I still think the economy is slowly weakening and can only imagine Q3 GDP being lower than Q2. Government numbers suggest probably just about positive. Corporate news suggests maybe not.

(Traffic home from the quiz has been very up and down of late - sometimes very busy - but last night was dead and the quietist for many years. All right, the weather was poor - but you do get occasional poor weather at this time of year. I tend to think having miles of motorway to myself in this day and age IS significant. I've even had a few easier runs to football of late and that is usually a terrible drive.)



It's worth remembering that all this slight slowdown being seen in different surveys and reports has been happening as credit card debt has continued to expand strongly. The latter can not continue inidefinitely, and housing debt's more modest growth looks like it is about to flatline.

[shadowside] 20/10/2017 09:46

Morning all, Back in circulation after a week in Palermo. Well worth a visit and nowhere near as frenetic and impoverished as we had been led to expect. Nice to be able to eat out in restaurants and cafes in the evening......with the tourists of course....the locals were wrapped up in fur coats inside. We went on an AddiosPizzo AntiMafia tour which felt a bit edgy but nowhere near as scary as the landing at Heathrow. The pilot pulled out of the landing just a few seconds before we touched down due to some "technical problem". I would have called it an "Aborted landing" but in BA captain speak it was a "Discontinued approach". In 50 years of fairly regular flying I have had the odd aborted takeoff but never experienced that skimming the runway sensation before. Was all fine second time around.

Shares have had there ups and downs whilst I have been away but nothing too unsettling. I share Alemans concerns about near term. Apparently Margin Calls in US are 3X level before last financial crisis. In addition to all the normal issues this will be the first crash since trading became so heavily automated and not sure how that will play out. Presumably it will be all over before one can react and online trading platforms will probably seize up anyway. I read an interesting article about Chinese property funding which I didnt fully understand but the gist of it was that much of the borrowing is very short term aka Northern Rock and off balance sheet through fancy foreign exchange swaps.I still think China will be the Black Swan.