SGM-FX insights

GBP   With the UK Prime Minister warning his ministers that there is a strong chance of NoDeal and an hour later the German Ambassador to the EU announcing that there is the chance of a EU-UK trade deal by the end of the week (this week for the avoidance of doubt) it is hardly […]

Extra Mile: EU-UK   With no sense of discernible irony, Ursula Von der Leyden and Boris Johnson issued a joint statement on Sunday morning saying that while there was a long way to go, they felt it right to continue the Brexit trade terms talks and go “the extra mile.” While the British PM is […]

GBP   With a range v USD of more than 1.5 cents, GBP was skittish on the back of hopes and fears with little in the way of encouragement on progress with the ongoing Brexit negotiations. The end of the weekend ie before trading starts in Asian markets on Sunday night is now the new […]

GBP   Expect GBP to have a difficult day as markets absorb the latest in the saga of 4 years plus of negotiations which increasingly looks like no deal being struck. With negotiations being moved to Brussels it does not bode well for the result that markets had not only been hoping for but expecting […]

Global Economy   Wide variations in different countries but overall the OECD has a clear picture in its latest Economic Outlook of the global economy: 2020 -4.2%; 2021 +4.2%; 2022 +3.7%. That means that the world will return to pre pandemic levels at the end of 2021. The engine that is going to pull the […]

Buoy oh buoy   After progress has been made on the other sticking points to a Brexit trade deal one issue still remains: fishing. Initially it seemed that fishing was scattered into the other end-game obstacles of the role of the European Court of Justice and the level playing field (state aid) in order to […]

Is this week(finally) the decisive week for Brexit?   Markets have been here before -hence GBP having given up ground in the past week- but on the grounds of time elapsed alone, both stale Bulls and Bears as to the outcome of the Brexit negotiations look as if their Christmases may come early this week, […]

EUR, AUD, NZD stronger against USD   While the market likes the appointment of Janet Yellen as Joe Biden’s Treasury Secretary, the onward march of the risk currencies against USD continues. NZD strengthened 0.9% and AUD 0.4%. NZD is now on a 2 year high versus USD at $0.6985.   Dow   With the Dow […]

Germany   Another tale of one of the world’s leading economies borrowing much more to do what it takes: this time it is Germany and the announcement that the Finance Minister plans to take on more than EUR 160 billion or USD 190 billion in debt in 2021 to counter Covid. The German government expects […]

Playground Pharmaceuticals   Not wanting to be outbid, Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine partners returned to the numbers to check the efficacy of their vaccine. Their headline of 90% published only last week was bettered by Moderna’s vaccine. Not only could Moderna’s vaccine be stored and transported more easily despite relying on similar fundamentals, but they claimed a […]

Lufthansa   The German airline and its subsidiaries Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines have announced that as of next year Economy passengers will no longer be offered free meals and snacks but will have to pay for them like for example Ryanair, Easyjet and BA. Lufthansa and Swiss will however offer Economy passengers a […]

Brexit Mood Music on a Trade Deal   Plenty of noise from top UK ministers yesterday on both the desire and the likelihood of a UK trade deal with the EU. The market has already discounted the further slippage of the deadline and despite the warm words emanating from Westminster, GBP has remained unimpressed, on […]