Today Spring Bank Holiday in the UK
And also in the USA (Memorial Day) as well as the Middle East and other Muslim centres celebrating Eid Al Fitr and the end of Ramadan.
SGM-FX is working a full day today ready to support our clients and what is shaping up to be a busy time at the start of the last trading week in May.
The safe haven trades were piling on over the weekend following renewed tensions between China and the USA-this time due to China announcing it would impose a new security law on Hong Kong which will in the market’s view see a return to scenes of civil unrest in Hong Kong. The offshore Yuan traded at over 7.16 to the USD and the onshore Yuan was also markedly weaker. Other currencies that suffered in the light of the stronger USD were the Norwegian Kronor, GBP Pound, the Australian Dollar and the New Zealand Dollar.
Oil fell about 0.2% on fears of further economic disruption caused by those USA-China tensions. However WTI at $33.25 while not buoyant is still much better than it was a few short weeks ago.
86 years ago on May 23 1934 outlaws Bonnie and Clyde immortalized in the 1967 film by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were ambushed by a sheriff’s posse on a country road in Louisiana and were shot multiple times in their car which was found to be full of weapons and ammunition which were of no use to either Bonnie or Clyde.
Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot wrote and performed a romanticized song in 1968 of what was a much more humdrum story:
Vous avez lu l’histoire de Jesse James
Comment il vécut, comment il est mort
Ça vous a plu, hein, vous en d’mandez encore
Eh bien, écoutez l’histoire de Bonnie and Clyde
British singer Georgie Fame sang it in English and here is the last verse which sums up what turned out also in fact to be the last verse for Bonnie and Clyde:
Acting upon reliable information
A Federal Deputation laid a deadly ambush
When Bonnie and Clyde came walking in the sunshine
A half a dozen carbines opened up on them
Bonnie and Clyde
They lived a lot together
And finally together
They died
For those of you able to enjoy the sun and a day off today, have a great day!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

Gravity Defying If you remove yesterday’s price action and look at news flow alone it wouldn’t make for terribly appetising reading. In particular, there was seemingly no progress emanating from Pakistan from second round talks between the US and Iran. Markets may have been sanguine enough to take no news as good news, however, given […]
A gap lower Markets had been positioned defensively moving into the end of last week. This undoubtedly opened the door to a degree of short-covering moving into the Friday close. In order to sustain such a risk-rally markets certainly would have required more convincing headlines from events taking place over the weekend. Not least amongst […]
Missing haven At the start of the year, the Franc had performed well as a safehaven. As a result of political and economic developments in Japan, the Yen was not abiding by its usual safehaven form. Therefore, defensive plays within FX only had two credible places to go: the US Dollar or the Swiss Franc. […]