SGM-FX insights

Australia: A window on the future of print   Newscorp the owner of print and on line publications across the world has called time on more than 100 local and regional printed papers in Australia. All 110 will from now on only be available on line. This is part of a widespread review of the […]

Here we go again   As the China-US trade war progressed and the Hong Kong protests continued last year, there was increasing chatter of the implications to the USDHKD peg. 2019 saw bets against the Hong Kong Dollar reach record levels as investors positioned themselves for a potential organised devaluation. We cautioned at the time […]

Valuation Check   As the second trading day of this week begins it is apparent that the market is enjoying a wave of optimism. Due to the distress in financial markets throughout the lockdown we have seen the cyclical price action of meandering sentiment feed through to the foreign exchange markets more strongly than ever. […]

The World’s largest fresh produce market: Rungis Market   234 hectares, EUR 9 billion turnover, 1200 companies. Where is it? The answer is just 7kms from the centre of Paris, France. Whether it is meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables, flowers, seafood, horticulture or logistics it’s all here under one roof. But….with restaurants and airlines among […]

National Technology Day   Today May 11 is indeed National Technology Day in India and it is not only appropriate to celebrate that but also somewhat topical in these Locked Down days when the whole world not just India has recently undertaken crash courses in online technology such as Zoom, Team and other connectivity. Also […]

VE Day: UK Bank Holiday today   Today is a holiday in the London market, but SGM-FX is working a full day and is ready to provide a full service for our clients despite all banks being shut.     Fashion   We are now seeing fashion sales beginning to pick up again -but online […]

Andy’s Outlook   The Bank of England had an earlier than usual monetary policy decision this morning. The decision to move the announcement forward to 7am, apart from demanding that the market gets up earlier to monitor how the decision unfolded, also indicated unofficially that the decision was unlikely to introduce policy measures of any […]

Five-eyes   An exogenous threat always has the capacity to make us reconsider what really matters. In lockdown the things that frustrated us as individuals may now seem to no longer matter or, on the contrary, they may have grown in importance. Whatever the issue and no matter the change in importance, the important thing […]

Airlines: Winner and Losers   It is fair to say that the losers currently outnumber the likely winners with Norwegian, South African and Virgin looking especially vulnerable. However news that Lufthansa is close to clinching a EUR 10 Billion lifeline in exchange for 21.5% of their equity shows that if a government wishes to support […]

Powell; and the virus is gone   Yesterday evening is was the opportunity for the Federal Reserve to share its latest reflections on the US and the global economy in its delivery of its latest monetary policy decision. Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell met the expectation for rates to remain on hold at 0.00-0.25% but […]

Twin Deficits   Until recently the “Twin Deficits” theory was seen as a rather bland and mundane economic theory that had good basis but limited physical evidence. However, the post-millennial explosion of national debt brought with it an appreciation of the importance of the theory to the value of a currency. In particular, the theory […]

Marginal Cost of Oil Production   It does sound dull and a bit dry(no pun) but while all the furore continues about what it really means for the oil price falling to barrel production below $USD20 or lower, it is worth understanding what the marginal cost of oil production is ie what it costs per […]