Progressive’s Gareth Evans is joined by tech analyst George O’Connor as they glance back at the week’s macro events and market themes and discuss the impact on investors and companies. They discuss selected UK company news and let us know what to look out for in the week ahead…

00:00 Introduction

01:12 Global Macro News

01:29 DeepSeek and its global impact

07:02 OpenAI’s Operator and AI agents

07:55 Recruitment in the tech sector

10:07 Computacenter (CCC) & Sage (SGE)

12:27 Global Market news

13:10 Progressive client news: Idox (IDOX) & Van Elle Holdings (VANL)

13:52 Upcoming Macro news:

• EU Inflation figures (Mon 3 Feb)
• US PMI data (Weds 5 Feb)
• Bank Of England Rate Decision (Thurs 6 Feb)
• US Employment Metrics (Fri 7 Feb)

Gareth Evans has 25 years’ research experience covering the Technology sector. An Oxford University graduate, Gareth qualified as an accountant before starting his research career covering the Pan European Chemicals sector at the American Investment Bank Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ), later acquired by Credit Suisse. He then moved to cover the Technology sector at ABN AMRO, Canaccord and at Investec for eleven years, where he was Joint Head of Research. Gareth has received numerous awards for his work, including being voted techMark Analyst of the Year.

George O’Connor has been a financial analyst covering London-listed Software & IT Services, e-comm and hardware companies for the past 25 years. George has worked for a variety of firms including Albert E. Sharp, Panmure Gordon and Stifel where he researched and communicated investment cases, conducted IPOs, secondary placings and the odd rescue rights. George started his career at IT industry analysts IDC where over nine years he rose to become Research Manager.