Hello, Share Folks. As I write, the oil price has reached the giddy height of $75 a barrel. Last November it was only about $20. The current high level is a main cause of inflation in Blighty. And inflation is the enemy of share prices everywhere. However, there is one sector which benefits most from a lofty oil price. And that of course is the one comprising big oil producers like BP (BP.) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA). So why have the share values of these giants only been treading water for the last few months?

Today was Joshua’s birthday party so I am pretty whacked. In the podcast I look at how we fail to tackle financial crime – just 67 arrests by the dedicated unit responsible in H1. Then to ShareSoc. Will it on Wednesday blow off Jeff Prestridge as he blew off Neil Woodford? Or will it face him down and put one of the main enablers of what went on via his yellow journalism on the spot? I suggest some questions that Cliff Weight needs to put to Mr Presstrip. Or what abut listener Steve, would such an online showdown cheer you up?

The fraud Supply@ME Capital (SYME) held its AGM on 3 July and it took until 16 September to provide responses to the questions raised by the morons who own its shares.  Admittedly there were 182 questions but there was a large degree of overlap in the questions and Supply resorted to standard answers for many of the questions.  For instance, 22 questions related to trading (numbers Q27, Q40, Q44, Q69, Q73, Q77, Q87, Q118, Q121, Q122, Q123, Q124, Q135, Q140, Q141, Q146, Q156, Q166, Q168, Q169, Q174, Q178) were answered with a one sentence reply essentially stating refer to revenue guidance.  Similarly, 12 questions on Negma convertible loan note (Q67, Q82, Q83, Q95, Q96, Q97, Q112, Q120, Q125, Q126, Q161, Q172 were answered with the statement “The Company recently updated the market regarding the termination of the Negma arrangement.”

I cannot help notice that John Zorbas’ AIM-listed URU Metals (URU) continues to slide. At the end of July I noted that the shares, then at 405p, seemed to represent over-valuation to the point of madness. By the end of August the shine had started to come off with the stock at 390p. Now they are 320p – and still monstrously overvalued.

It is your money that is being pissed away by the State and with the tax burden at record highs the Taxpayers’ Alliance served up two examples of rank hypocrisy and incompetence that will leave you fuming.  First up is the greed and hypocrisy of TUC leaders and, yes you are paying to support this rotten system for these days most Union bosses represent workers in the public sector.  Next up is the shocking amount local councils have recklessly speculated on commercial property as they “knew better” than Mr. Market as prices tumbled. Of course they did.

Sit back, get your tea and post your scores in the comments for bouquets and brickbats. No prizes and no Googling!

It is going to be a busy next week in the markets.  I look forward to that but first a couple of bits of Sunday musing. Five weeks ago here I was thinking about Prudential (PRU) ‘which might have been founded in London in May 1848, but today (post the spin-off of M&G (MNG)) is all about its US and Asian insurance and related business focus’.  Well, as you might have read in the last week, the company’s US division Jackson Financial has formally split and the company is an independent organisation listed on the New York Stock Exchange and technically ‘Prudential shareholders are entitled to receive one share of Jackson’s Class A common stock for every 40 Prudential shares they hold’.

Here are five long reads that have nothing to do with shares. Put the kettle on, find a comfy chair. You have the time, don’t you? 
 

This is getting boring! Gold fails at $1800 and slips, recovers, shows signs of another attack at $1830 resistance and then fails again. Repeat ad nauseam. As can be seen from the chart below, it has been going on for some time now – indeed, since mid-June.

The top non-Tom article this week is My Gold Stocks, and Time To Revisit One I Let Go? by Nigel Somerville at number 4 or number 9 if you include the Bearcast.

Sports, leisure and mobility equipment group Tandem (TND) has announced its results for the first half of calendar 2021 and said that “the outlook for the remainder of 2021 remains positive”.

Ariana Resources (AAU) is pleased to announce recent resource drilling results obtained from the Kepez North area of Kiziltepe, 23.5% owned by the company – emphasising that the area will provide Kiziltepe with a source of high-grade ore for blending with its current processing plant feedstock.

This weekend’s short letter on the N50 website will look at a company whose shares you can trade. Today, I am feeling pretty proud of my take-down of Standard Listed Umuthi (UHS) whose March 4 IPO was to have valued it at £368 million. A series of articles HERE has seen its sole NED resign and nobody now seems to doubt that this is a complete fraud with no business and that the revelations are truly shocking. Sadly, as it is an obvious zero, its shares are suspended but there are lessons. Here are 10 signs that this was a fraud:

Forgive the late bearcast but I was cooking amazing grub for relatives today including long lost cousin C. On the subject of families, congratulations to listeners Matthew & his dog who frequently request more swearing as Matthew has got engaged. In the podcast I discuss two no-one is watching O’clock statements yesterday from MyHealthChecked (MHC) and from Union Jack Oil (UJO). I do not mince my words on either. 

Hello, Share Scrumpers. As Uncle Tom kindly reminds you from time to time, I’m of a great age. This leaves me prone to a few minor health issues that require small-time surgery. But I have to endure discomfort until the covid-ravaged waiting lists at my local hospital push me to the top. But what has this to do with buying and selling shares?

I am a bit of a sweaty wreck as I prepare for a weekend of hell. I explain why. In the podcast I deal with Unon Jack Oil (UJO)  and my article of earlier and of the issue of who CEO’s should do interviews with. In the end of course the share price is driven not by how much time is spent ramping the stock but by whether a company generates cash and how much.

European hostels company Safestay (SSTY) has today emphasised “confidence of returning to pre-Covid levels of trading” but also stated “this is a natural point… to undertake a strategic review”, including a formal sale process. Hmmm.

AIM-listed Gold and Silver producer in Turkey, Ariana Resources plc (AAU), announced another round of drilling results from the Kepez North area at Kiziltepe yesterday and the numbers look very promising.

I commented yesterday on AIM-listed Rurelec’s (RUR) after-hours FY results which were slipped out at no-one-is-watching o’clock on Wednesday whilst Boris was announcing his cabinet reshuffle (a good time to bury bad news). But there are some details worth looking at – for a start, the involvement of former boss Peter Earl, who ran the company into the ground before he was shown the door.

Investment adviser Axel Merk warns that across the West there are growing reasons why tens of millions of folks will opt not to work but to such at the nipple of the State instead.