In case you feared that the lack of a daily column from Malcolm means that our 158 year old anchorman had gone to a better place. Fear not. He has but it is not that Heaven...

On Friday Redde (REDD) ‘fessed up that it had lost its largest contract. The yield on the shares by c.o.p Friday was more than 11%, screaming out that this company was now certain to slash the dividend. But as the stock collapsed from 130p to 104p (it is now 98p) one 'savvy' investor thought that, once again, he knew better...

Anglo Asian Mining (AAZ) “is pleased to announce… the company will declare a minimum final dividend for the year ended 31 December 2018 of US$3 cents per share and a minimum total dividend for the year ending 31 December 2019 of US$6 cents per share” and that it “now publishes Mineral Resources and an Ore Reserve Estimate for its Gadir Underground mine”…

“Xaar plc (XAR), a world leader in industrial inkjet technology, provides an update in advance of its forthcoming preliminary results”. This including “the integration issues experienced leading to the delays are now behind us and sell-through is expected to increase. Furthermore, the minimum volume commitments from our supplier have now been met. The company will announce its preliminary results on 21 March 2019 at which time it will also provide an update on its review of strategic options for more extensive partnering in the Printhead business unit”. Having also provided a trading update on 28th December, why a current 6% share price fall today though, to below 130?...

In today's bearcast I look at Widecells (WDC), RM2 (RM2), Kier (KIE), Tomco (TOM), Northern Bear (NTBR), Driver (DRV) and Regency Mines (RGM). If you enjoyed this bearcast, follow Jim Mellon and support the Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE.

December-announced results from professional services consultancy to the construction and engineering industries, Driver Group (DRV) emphasised “significant improvement on all fronts… Awarded Large Company Turnaround of the Year at the national 2018 Institute for Turnaround Awards… The transformative turnaround in Driver Group's fortunes reflects a job carefully judged and executed” and a “positive start to the new financial year”. But pride comes before a fall…

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Just when Neil Woodford might have thought it couldn’t get any worse (at least for a day or two), up pops fully-listed Kier Group (KIE) – whose rights issue refinancing saw the humiliation of being bailed out by the underwriters last December -  which seems to have found an extra £50  million of debt since its trading statement of just seven weeks ago……and capped  that with the announcement of a £25 million provision with regard to a redevelopment project at Broadmoor Hospital. As I write, the shares are at session lows of 412p  a drop of 85p, or 17%. Neil sure can pick’em.

You might just remember Maria Miller MP being forced to resign from Government in utter disgrace after bogus expense claims of up to £90,000 were exposed. The Parliamentary Standards Commissioner said the old trougher should pay back £45,000. Her fellow MPs helped reduce that to just £8,500. Sleazy Maria has today tweeted a remark of such mind numbing idiocy that I wonder if you is the dimmest MP tod

The S&P 500 bottomed at 666 (intra day) ten years ago last Wednesday...

There has been a lot of talk on social media recently about a petition to ban the short selling of AIM listed stocks - although it currently only has a little over 3,200 signatures, including a few CEOs, and is well short of the 10,000 needed to even get the government to respond – 100,000 are needed for a Parliamentary debate...

Hello, Share Mates. As a schoolboy, I attended probably one of Britain’s first ever trade events. It featured that great material, Formica, as well as other home products, and it was then I became fascinated by the concept of a trade show. Perhaps, it was all the free samples. In my case, lots of little tablets of bright shininess, which we swapped and gambled in the playground. Grand commercial events have come a long way since the late ‘fifties. Especially the Global Group UK Investor Show at Westminster on Saturday March 30th...

I start with the utterly shite journalism of Jeff Presstrip in the Mail on Sunday which disgraces our profession as I explain HERE. Then it is onto Neil Woodford and two issues. First why HL just cannot tell its dumb clients to sell and, secondly, why the yield on the flasgship EIF will plunge from 4.1% today to something starting with a 2 within a year, if the fund still exists. That is by no means a given. If you enjoyed this bearcast, follow Jim Mellon and support the Rogue Bloggers for Woodlarks HERE.

I wrote recently about Telit Communications (TCM), suggesting that the shares were worth selling whether or not it received $105 million from TUS for the sale of its automotive division.

I believe a good buying opportunity is currently presenting itself in the shares of Avesoro Resources (ASO) and although it may go lower in the short term, I can see decent risk versus reward here for at least a medium term trade.

By far the most interesting story on the business pages of today's deadwood press is the veiled attack on the co-founder (Mahmud Kamani) of Boohoo (BOO) and the allegation he has failed to move with the times on matters of corporate governance in appointing 'an associate' (i.e. a friend) as the company's new CEO, whilst going upstairs as a very hands-on executive chairman. 

The Mail on Sunday and its freebie loving Personal Finance Editor Jeff Prestridge are promoting a new innovative company in telematics and insurance where the virtue signalling crisp salesman Gary Lineker is a brand ambassador and shareholder. Among Ticker’s named clients is Ingenie.. hang on does that ring a bell?

Is there anything better than sitting back and reading a well-written article on a lazy Sunday? Every week ShareProphets features some long form journalism that you'll find of interest. Grab your cuppa and enjoy these five articles.

Normally when I see a damaging (to shareholders) death spiral in play it is with reference to company trading on the AIM Casino. We’ve had a few: Tern (TERN), Advanced Oncotherapy (AVO) VAST (VAST) to name just three. But Widecells (WDC) is listed on the main market – well, sort of: it was unleashed onto the Standard List in July 2016. But this death spiral really does take some beating!

Nigel and Tom's steady dissection of Neil Woodford's empire is clearly the driver of traffic on the site this week. But I think the story Tom Winnifrith is an irrelevant dinosaur says cheapskate "guru" on Twitter is the most quintessential.

Economist David Rosenberg says that assessing commodity valuations is far more difficult than evaluating the bond or equity markets. Sentiment is important, but commodities each respond to different factors. For example, precious metals respond differently from industrial commodities which rely on global growth.