The Bottom Line: Apple becomes first US company to have a market cap of $3 trillion

This month’s iSportConnect Business Index sees big wins among betting brands, broadcasters and gaming business. Twice CityAM Analyst of the Year, Ian Whittaker gives his views on what has happened over the last month.

We have started into the Q2 results season and sentiment in the markets has turned more positive as inflation continues to come down on both sides of the Atlantic and market perceptions of the chances of a soft landing increase off the back of hopes of still robust jobs data and consumer data. One factor that has boosted the markers is the expectations that future interest rates are likely to peak soon, and that helps the Tech sector in particular. Nasdaq had its strongest 1H in its history and that is reflected in the performance of the Tech names in our index such as Apple, Microsoft and Netflix. 

Elsewhere, more sector or industry specific factors had a major impact amongst several names. In apparel, Puma has had a strong run after.a long time in the doldrums as analysts and the market start to believe that the company is on the road to recovery. Madison Square Garden and LiveNation both benefited from general positive sentiment off the back of continued resilient consumer demand. The (ex-China) Games names also saw a 9-10% increase as surging optimism the Microsoft takeover of Activision would go through led investors to buy the names in the hope of future M&A activity. However, perhaps the strongest sector-wide rise was in the Betting space, where several of the names we look at also benefited off the back of expectations of improving earnings. 

We will have a clearer picture once results season is over but so far, economic sentiment seems to be improving and that bodes well for the names in our index.