SGM-FX insights

Fake News – Old News?   In the early hours of this morning it became clear that Donald Trump, serving US President since 2017, had been impeached. From this side of the Atlantic the term “impeachment” seems daunting and we might assume that those who fall victim to it must surely be condemned to an […]

UK Markets and the practice of Setting Price Objectives   Concern that a hard exit from Europe might be worse than a soft exit hit GBP despite the release that the number in employment rose by 24,000 in the quarter to 31/10 taking the employed to 32.8 million and a rate of 76.2% which is […]

US-China   End of the beginning or beginning of the end? Markets took heart on Friday with news that the two sides have reached agreement in the nick of time ahead of the imposition of those increased tariffs yesterday December 15. Japan’s Nikkei surged 2.5% to a new 14 month high and the Shanghai Blue […]

Markets   When the UK Election exit poll came out at 10pm ,there was a flurry of activity and the phones lit up across the room at SGM-FX headquarters. GBP rallied sharply across the board before drifting back in the hour or so afterwards. Since then, GBP has given up further ground but remains significantly […]

Rough in the Diamond   The day of Johnson and Corbyn’s reckoning is upon us. As the polls opened at 7AM this morning Sterling sat atop an 8-month high against the US Dollar having gained almost 1% in the final week of the general election campaign. However, as voters head to the polls today, the […]

US, Mexico, Canada trade pact   News in last night that a deal has been done and it will be signed on Tuesday next week. Glossing over last week’s NATO spat, POTUS spoke to Canada’s Justin Trudeau and neatly just as the increased tariffs are due to be imposed next week, a rabbit has been […]

Medupi   Taking to Twitter in his weekly Presidential address, Cyril Ramaphosa discussed the tale of grandeur and shortcomings that has engulfed South Africa’s newest and largest power stations. The President went on to criticise the building of Medupi power station and its twin Kusile, a project which Zuma’s successor blames for much of the […]

What If: UK Equities Market post General Election   The main theme of your questions in the past two weeks has been what might happen in the Equity market after the election. So with four days until we get the result, we are going to have a go which is based on what the markets […]

GBP   Finishing the week at its best levels for some time with the market anticipating a clear Conservative majority. Fully priced for where we are with 6 days to the Election and 7 until we get the result.     Macron and Pension Reform   Not unreasonably President Macron is attempting to introduce economic […]

The bigger they are, the harder they fall   9/10. Today’s Britishism above isn’t half bad. Whether subject to a physical, empirical examination of the pure mass of an object and the Newtonian force with which it falls or a more normative evaluation of how a highly regarded truth or person loses their status, it […]

OPEC and budgeting for energy prices in 2020   This Thursday and Friday OPEC producers and their allies will be talking about adding to the existing curbs on production. What that means and Goldman Sachs concurs, is that the oil price will firm to over $60 per barrel in 2020 from the current level of […]

Turbulence   As Air Force One landed in London Stansted Airport yesterday a swathe of helicopters and vehicles greeted it. Strategically posted around the runway, the imposing presence wasn’t protestors and news agencies finding out more about the tariffs that Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had been surprising markets with back across the Atlantic. Instead they […]