Small Cap Value Report (Mon 18 Jan 2021) - BEG, W7L, AUG, CPP

Good morning, it’s Paul here with the SCVR for Monday. Timing - I'm hoping to be finished by the official end time of 1pm today. There's not much in the way of small cap news. Today's report is now finished. Lockdown restrictions Weekend press reports suggest that the Government is aiming to start lifting restrictions in a phased manner as early as March. Dominic Raab is quoted as saying that we’ll probably be heading back to a tiered system, with partial releasing of restrictions in regions which are seeing covid subside, and vaccinations progress well. Another vaccine is apparently in the pipeline, from Johnson amp; Johnson, which is a single shot apparently, rather than two. Good news. Overall then, the news seems supportive of my current portfolio view, that retail/leisure/hospitality/travel could be getting somewhere near back to normal in April/May. After that, my view is the “roaring twenties” view, that I think we could see a big surge in consumer spending, especially amongst the middle class, who have hoarded cash in 2020, being unable to spend on the usual things like eating out, holidays, etc. Which brings me on to… Inflation amp; interest rates We all probably think we’re...