SGM-FX insights

Australia   A country that has a small population for its size-26 million at present-Australia has just pared back its forecasts for both economic and population growth. By 2061, so in 40 years time, the population is forecast to grow to 38 million. The economy had been slated to grow by 3% a year, but […]

Germany   Was it the fact that the national team clawed back to draw with Hungary on Wednesday night that cheered them up? No matter, German business morale rose more than expected in June as companies’ assessment of conditions improved and optimism was up according to the Ifo Institute. The Bundesbank is forecasting German growth […]

VW   Despite the global chip shortage affecting not just VW but all car manufacturers, VW is sticking to its 2021 profit forecast. Despite lower production, VW will be able to make up the deficit by selling off inventory and still produce 800,000 vehicles which will deliver an operating profit margin of between 5.5% and […]

Dubai Airport   For 2021 Dubai Airport is targeting 28 million passengers. Capacity is 100 million and normally services flights to 260 destinations worldwide. 18 months ago pre Pandemic the discussion was about the damage to the environment of so many passengers flying. Now economic reality is regaining some attention as the jobs, revenues and […]

Fed-up?   It appears the Fed may indeed have decided that enough is enough with respect to the constant questioning and criticism it has received about falling behind the market. After the CPI inflation measure was observed at 5% and the Fed’s preferred PCE measure came in close behind it, yesterday’s decision was always going […]

European Government Bond Yields   Which is the only Eurozone country that does not expect bond buyers to pay them to lend for 5 years? The answer is Italy which pays just 0.04%. Even Greece charges 0.01% to bond investors to lend them for 5 years. The European Central Bank has convinced markets that the […]

Global Shipping   The disruption caused by the pandemic and also the Suez Canal blockage 2 months ago continues with Guandong Province in China seeing a fraction of the throughput of goods that would be normal. The Yantian International Container Terminal is just one of the ports that is affected with goods queued and early signs […]

Record Books being dusted off in the UK Statisticians and practitioners of the dismal science known as economics put their slide rules aside yesterday and came up with the following from the UK record books: April saw an increase in economic output of 27.6% from April 2020; last month saw the Bank Of England raise […]

Record Books being dusted off in the UK   Statisticians and practitioners of the dismal science known as economics put their slide rules aside yesterday and came up with the following from the UK record books: April saw an increase in economic output of 27.6% from April 2020; last month saw the Bank Of England […]

US Dollar and markets   The dollar enjoyed a stronger session yesterday with world stock markets at almost record highs and volatility indices offering reassurance of a lack of volatility. GBP was under pressure as the UK government began the process of managing expectations for a delay in the lifting of LockDown. With both the […]

UK Job Market   With the fastest hiring rate for 23 years and job vacancies advertised at the highest rate for 3 years, market watchers might draw all sorts of conclusions, but before they do, they should remember where we started from at the low point of the pandemic and lock down one. It’s not […]

UK House Prices   With house prices reported as being up by an annual 10.9% and enjoying the fastest growth for 7 years with a month on month increase of 1.8% in May, what could possibly go wrong? While those in the South might be surprised that the average house price in the UK is […]