by Anthony Platts

Why we should heed the advice of Corporal Jones
"Don't panic, don't panic", cried Jonesy, in Dad's Army, as he ran around like a headless chicken. That is the general message going around in financial circles.

Now is the time
The main driver of global markets is the US. As the largest economy by some way, what happens in the US and the global reach of its companies, affects the rest of the world. That does not mean, however, that the US market is an area where UK investors must have exposure. Indeed, over the past few years, other markets have outperformed.

Commodities may be gold mines for some time yet
I last wrote about the increase in commodity prices nearly nine months ago. That related to China's massive appetite for base metals and raw materials, which showed no signs of letting up.

Learn the lessons
New Year is celebrated in many forms around the world. The Chinese New Year, or Yuan Tan, began on January 29, as the Year of the Dog.

All that many of us will inherit is a headache
At this time of year, tax planning often takes precedence over outright investment ideas.

When the market falls, where does all the money go?
The seemingly relentless progress of the UK stock market came to a brief halt at the beginning of last week. Just as the FTSE 100 pushed through 5900, galloping towards 6000, it was stopped in its tracks. A fall of 84.9 points in 48 hours wiped over £21bn off share values.

Banks' soaring profits are to everyone's benefit
They may be pennies, but dividends per share equate to rather a lot if a shareholding contains a large number of shares. Dividends are an important part of investment at this time of year, as many companies announce their full year results.

The bubble burst, but we've never had it so good
Surely that can't be right - the FTSE 100 was at its highest at the peak of the technology bubble? Well, yes, but that doesn't paint the full picture.

Footsie offers investors many happy returns
Happy New Year. It's been a happy start to 2006 so far, with the stock market having increased by two per cent already.

Bold forecast built on firm foundations
It has been another good year for stock markets. The FTSE 100 has risen by more than 14 per cent and that, with dividends, takes the return for the year to more than 17 per cent.

Rudolph & Co get ready for a Christmas bonus
One of the great myths with investment markets is the so- called fact of post-Christmas rallies. In the past five years, the FTSE 100 has only risen in January twice, hardly a convincing statistic.

Ringing the changes in 3G phone market
We are talking telephone numbers. This is the appropriate term for describing Vodafone's first-half figures today. Turnover in the same six-month period last year was £16,800,000,000, and this is expected to have risen significantly this year. This is a company which reported free cash flow of £7,800,000,000, at the full-year stage in March.

Retailers set to feel the pinch this Christmas
Although you may have seen a number of scary looking characters lurking from door to door last night, this is nothing compared to the scare investors have had to endure over the past few weeks.

Christmas may be coming, but where are the shoppers?
SIXTY-EIGHT shopping days to Christmas. If you enjoy shopping, that is 68 days of thrills and excitement. But for some of us, the realistic figure is nearer 60 days until we have to go shopping. Which is a matter of some concern to stores. They are probably wondering if the customary year-on-year, ever-increasing Christmas buying binge is going to take place this year.

The world keeps turning as UK growth stalls
Britain's economy grew at its slowest annual rate for 12 years in the second quarter of the year, according to figures published last week.

Come a cropper by following
Six months ago, as we were entering May, I was surprised to read at least three articles that mentioned the old stock market adage "sell in May and go away". The second part of the adage, "and buy back after St Leger's Day" was not mentioned. As we know, Scorpion won the final classic of the English horse racing season ten days ago.

Persimmon beats the house market blues again
York-based Persimmon, the UK's largest homebuilder, confounded the pessimists last week, with a seven per cent increase in half-year pre-tax profits.

Governor pours cold water on further rate cuts
The Bank of England reduced interest rates to 4.5 per cent at the start of the month. The move was entirely anticipated, and would only have been a shock if it had not have happened.

China has the rest of the world over a barrel
When investing in the UK market, it sometimes seems as if the most important factor to consider is the phenomenal economic growth currently being produced by China.