SGM-FX insights

It is what it is   Yesterday, as virus fears closed in on London’s financial markets the value of the Pound Sterling, as well as UK equities, has stumbled. The sell-off in London’s FTSE 100 was echoed on Wall Street with major US indices closing in the red. Commodity prices also took a step lower […]

Botswana   You don’t need Alistair Mcall Smith’s Number One Ladies Detective Agency to figure out this one….   Home to the Jwneng open cast diamond mine, the world’s richest, Botswana is looking beyond diamond mining as to how it will support its population of 2.3 million once diamonds are exhausted-production is already down-production of […]

Italy   The EU Recovery Fund is a colossal EUR 750 Billion or USD 890 Million and a good slug-probably EUR 290 Million or USD 340 Million- is destined for Italy as being one of the hardest hit economies by Covid. The Italian optimists are excited at the prospect of spending on the crumbling transport […]

OPEC   Today is OPEC’s 60th birthday and on this day in 1960 it was founded in Baghdad, Iraq with 5 members. Today headquartered in Vienna since 1965, there are 15 members and the alliance is no less fractious than it was in its youth. WTI at the end of last week stood at $37 […]

Delphic words from ECB President Lagarde   For someone who espouses clear communication, Christine Lagarde gave a masterclass in opacity on the future path of the EUR exchange rate yesterday at the ECB press conference. Markets cautiously pushed EUR higher while CL was speaking to give the ECB the message that they would continue to […]

Currencies   As headlined here in the past weeks, currencies are seeing some big moves at present with GBP suffering Brexit and Covid nerves, EUR undergoing some pre-ECB meeting nerves ahead of tomorrow and USD seeing a correction. Definitely timely to put protection in place and the deployment of sage of Limit Orders. GBP seeing […]

US Presidential Election   With just over 2 months to go, it is worth understanding the importance of the Latino vote to the successful candidate. No Republican has won the Election without winning Florida since 1924 so Trump needs Florida as it represents 29 votes of the 270 electoral vote threshold that Trump needs to […]

European Inflation   For the first time since May 2016 Euro-Zone inflation entered negative territory last month which increased the chances of the European central Bank needing to inject further stimulus to generate price growth. Inflation in the 19 countries fell to minus 0.2% versus the ECB target of just under 2%. The implication is […]

Japan: Abe Resignation   Markets in Europe are opening to the confirmation of Japan PM Abe’s resignation on health grounds. USD/JPY was trading at 106.93 and rapidly fell to 106.07 as markets processed the news. While it was known that Abe was unwell, the fact that he has been PM since 2012 and he is […]

German Economy   Not just Germany but the rest of Europe are watching for signs of green shoots in Europe’s largest economy. The expectation is for Germany’s economy to grow by 7% in Q3 having contracted by 9.7% in Q2 although the recovery is still described as fragile. However with both manufacturing and services looking […]

Half Term Report for US-China Trade Deal   It all seems a long time ago but Phase 1 of the US-China trade deal was inked on January 15 and now the two sides plan to sit down to evaluate performance under the agreement on agricultural and manufactured goods and energy and services. Covid and the […]

Currencies and Hurricanes   The hurricane season officially starts each year on June 1 and lasts 5 months but normally is fiercest from the beginning of September until mid October. Currencies likewise tend to be more volatile in exactly the same period. True to form the USD traded at a 2 year low yesterday, GBP […]