The potential of a full-blown commerce battle erupting between the US and seemingly each different nation has made for a nasty begin to the month for markets. However since I at all times like to benefit from short-term jitters, I’m giving lots of thought to purchasing a couple of FTSE 250 shares if the promoting stress continues.

One instance is an previous favorite.

Fortunate escape

It’s uncommon for me to promote a successful funding. That mentioned, I jettisoned my place in Greggs (LSE: GRG) final autumn. On the time, the valuation simply felt somewhat too wealthy for my liking.

Because it occurred, this turned out to be one in all my higher strikes. The inventory is down roughly a 3rd since then.

This enormous drop isn’t utterly unwarranted. Gross sales progress started to gradual in Q3. Unhealthy climate was blamed, as was financial uncertainty within the run-up to Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s first Funds. After all, we’ve since discovered that UK companies — together with Greggs — face an enormous improve in Nationwide Insurance coverage Contributions from April.

A less-than-tasty buying and selling replace in January (and indicators that 2025 will likely be difficult) compounded buyers’ ache.

On sale?

On a extra constructive word, this has left the valuation wanting way more palatable.

Earlier than markets opened at the moment (3 February), the corporate was buying and selling at a forecast price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15. That’s roughly the common amongst UK shares. And Greggs is much from a mean enterprise, in my opinion. Margins and returns on capital have lengthy been stellar. The model loyalty it has amongst workplace staff and buyers can’t be ignored as effectively.

This may clarify why analysts at HSBC are taking a contrarian view. They’ve a goal price of two,500p, believing that ‘peak Greggs’ continues to be a way off.

The query is when the inventory will cease falling. I’m tempted to attend till full-year numbers arrive in March earlier than making a transfer.

However my ‘trigger finger’ is already twitching.

Dangerous wager

One other FTSE 250 member I’m contemplating is Allianz Expertise Belief (LSE: ATT). Its shares are presently closely down on the day, little doubt in anticipation of volatility within the US market.

As its title would counsel, the belief is super-concentrated in most of the US tech titans. On the finish of final 12 months, over 10% of belongings had been invested in chip maker Nvidia, for instance. A passive fund monitoring international equities would have round half this publicity.

The Expertise Belief’s portfolio is filled with high quality shares. However being overly-invested any sector requires requires cautious consideration. What if the ‘story’ adjustments, even when solely quickly? DeepSeek, anybody?

Lengthy-term winner

Naturally, judging the Allianz belief on something apart from a fairly lengthy timeline can be extremely harsh. The shares are nonetheless up 124% within the final 5 years. Against this, the FTSE 250 index is down nearly 5% over the identical time interval.

Can this momentum proceed for many years to return, regardless of the odd wobble? I feel it will possibly. For higher or worse, I wrestle to fathom how expertise gained’t proceed to be a key theme for buyers going ahead, even when the the ‘main players’ change.

Proudly owning a managed fund means greater charges. However this belief’s outperformance so far suggests it’s price the fee.