The couple’s system of sharing money remained the same even when Max was made redundant last year and they had to rely on Hannah’s salary of between £40,000 and £60,000.

“There was shock and panic initially,” Hannah, who did not want to disclose her precise salary, says. “But we sat down and really looked through where we could cut things out.”

They cancelled gym memberships and Sky TV and went through their finances to make sure they could cover their mortgage and bills on a lower income.

Max had trained at culinary school instead of doing A-levels and university, but had moved away from hospitality because he felt it would not pay enough.

When he was made redundant he wanted to use the opportunity to create his own business in something he genuinely enjoyed – but Hannah had reservations.

“At first I told him to set this up alongside getting another job but we quickly realised the business would take a lot of time and energy,” she says.

“We ran the numbers and decided that this was the right moment to take the risk given we don’t have kids and no one else is depending on us.”

Max spent £20,000 from his redundancy package buying and converting a horsebox trailer into a pizza truck, which now caters for weddings, parties and pop-ups.

He says the money he invested was their agreed limit to make the business work and if it failed he would find another job rather than putting in more.

The business now brings in between £4,000 and £6,000 a month in revenue and Max pays himself a salary that covers the mortgage.

“It will be incredibly frustrating for borrowers to see rates rise back up to where they were a month ago. The positive progress over recent weeks now feels all but lost, but what the market needs is a period of stability,” said Rachel Springall, finance expert at Moneyfacts.

She said 100 deals had been pulled temporarily as lenders reconsider their pricing plans.

She suggested that anyone who needed to remortgage this year could lock in a new deal now with their existing lender ahead of time, but should also seek help from a broker to see whether there are better deals elsewhere.

“Brokers are an anchor during turbulent times as they can help borrowers keep abreast of changes and be there step by step when going through a mortgage application,” she said.

Borrowers had been heartened by the regular falls in mortgage rates during June and early July, but brokers say the latest changes are evidence of the uncertainty in the sector.

“Any borrower hoping for rate cuts to become an ongoing trend will need to rethink,” said David Hollingworth, of L&C Mortgages.

“Momentum has performed an about turn and now clearly shifted to fixed rates rising in the near term at least.”

Craig Brelsford

This is Craig Brelsford with RedChip Companies. Thank you for joining today’s event with Alliance Entertainment, which trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker AENT. With us today, we have Bruce Ogilvie, Executive Chairman of Alliance Entertainment; Jeff Walker, the CEO; and Amanda Gnecco, the CFO. We will begin with a brief presentation in a moment, and then we will answer your questions. [Operator Instructions].

Before we begin, please allow me to read the safe harbor statement. This call may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements pertaining to future financial and/or operating results, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical facts should also be considered forward-looking statements. Of course, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Alliance team, please go right ahead.

Bruce Ogilvie
Executive Chairman of the Board

Craig, thank you very much. Thank you, everybody, for joining us today and taking the time to learn about our company. Some of you may be new to us, I’ll give you, like, a little brief background where we are. I’m trying to explain everything, and then we’re going to have a Q&A session after about 22 minutes.

On my screen here, hopefully, you can see it. This is a picture of all the different types of products we carry, which consist of movies, music, video games, toys and collectibles. Music consists of LPs, CDs and yes, and cassettes. As far as movies go, it’s 4K Blue-ray

Wall ​Street indexes closed lower on Thursday with Nasdaq sinking more than 2% as the latest earnings updates from large technology companies revived concerns about heavy AI spending, while soaring oil prices amped up inflation worries, lifting bond yields.

Losses were broad-based after investors were unimpressed by second-quarter results from Alphabet and Tesla , the first of ‌the heavyweight “Magnificent Seven” companies ⁠to report ⁠results this season.

Stocks also came under additional pressure as Brent crude oil futures settled above$100 a barrelfor the first time since May, and U.S. oil futures rose above $90.

Middle ​East hostilities fanned worries about global oil supplies. The U.S. military launched another round of air strikes on Iran, and Iran fired at neighboring ​Arab countries that house U.S. bases. U.S. President Donald Trump vowed “major military punishment” for Iran and Houthis, after the Yemeni fighters struck two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea.

The resulting surge in oil prices prompted worries about inflation days before the next Federal Reserve policy ​meeting.

“Oil prices rising at this clip pose a meaningful macro and market risk,” said Matt ⁠Miskin, co-chief investment ‌strategist at Manulife John Hancock Investments. He added that low unemployment data would pressure the Fed to focus ​on fighting inflation.
And he ​also pointed to the lack of enthusiasm, even for strong earnings reports as investors struggle to justify ⁠high valuations.”The numbers in aggregate are great but many companies have had a story that’s ​caused the stock to fall,” said Miskin, pointing to worries about capital spending as one ​example. “Any chink in the armor and the stocks are being sold off.”

According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 lost 92.62 points, or 1.24%, to end at 7,408.53 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 552.33 points, or 2.15%, to 25,138.57. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 523.01 points, or 1.00%, to 51,695.57.

The S&P 500’s 11 major industry sectors were a mixed bag with strength in industrials where big gainers included Lockheed Martin. Shares in the defense giant rallied after it lifted 2026 sales and profit forecasts.

Shares of Google’s parent, Alphabet, sank after ‌it reported higher spending plans while it also burned cash.

The stock’s fall dragged the communication services sector down. Consumer discretionary was another big sector loser, with a hefty weight from Tesla, whose shares tumbled after it reported ​negative free cash flow ​in the second quarter for the ⁠first time in more than two years.

Wall Street’s fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index hit its highest level in nearly a month during the session.

With oil prices rising, inflation worries pushed U.S. 10-year yields to their highest levels since early 2025. However traders were still ​betting on a roughly 64% probability that the Fed would keep interest rates unchanged next week, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool.

The volatile Philadelphia semiconductor index was down during the session with results due after the bell from chip giant Intel. Shares in analog chip company Texas Instruments fell sharply despite forecasting quarterly revenue above estimates.

However, shares in Thermo Fisher Scientific rallied after the medical equipment maker raised its annual profit forecast and beat estimates for second-quarter results.