Week Ending 31/01/2025 - DeepSeek rocks the AI boat, but maybe good for the rest of us...

With Jeremy enjoying sunnier climes, Gareth is joined by George O'Connor, the Progressive tech analyst.  The week has been dominated by DeepSeek's sudden unveiling of a low-cost Chinese-created competitor in the AI (large language model) world.  George provides some useful perspective on what this means more broadly.  If the Magnificent Seven US tech names lose some of their lustre, the much-vaunted dispersal trade might follow, as investors look to move capital elsewhere...maybe even as far as the UK market.  The pair discuss SThree, Manpower, FDM, Sage & Computacenter, and Progressive clients Idox and Van Elle (both with relatively upbeat updates).Next week we have the Bank of England rate decision on Thursday, sandwiched by US PMI data earlier in the week and employment (non-farm payrolls) due on Friday.  Unless China drops another (figurative) bombshell in the meantime... Brought to you by Progressive Equity.