SGM-FX insights

UK Pay With unemployment at its highest since last year with the Q1 rate at 4.3%, it would look safe to assume that the Bank of England would be encouraged to cut UK interest rates sooner rather than later; however with wage growth at 6% providing the counter argument to sooner, the first cut may […]

An inflation focussed week The name of the game in markets currently still revolves around deciding how the respective paths of monetary policy easing will look across the globe. The hot forecast is therefore how inflation should be expected to be recorded amongst nations and currency areas. Given the importance of inflation statistics in deciding […]

IAG The owner of British Airways reported higher than expected profits at €68m for Q1 up from €9m in the same period in 2023. Lower fuel costs, higher ticket sales and more efficient delivery were cited as the reasons. Long suffering loyal customers of BA know that higher prices, a reduction in routes and numbers […]

Bank of England Yesterday the BoE was closely watched for two forecasts and also for confirmation that interest rates would be left unchanged as was expected by the markets. In the event, interest rates were indeed left at 5.25% and the forecast for inflation is that it is set to fall from its current 3.2% […]

Onto June A slew of strong US economic data over recent weeks had boosted expectations for how the culmination of the Fed’s two-day meeting would be presented to the public last night. The story goes back further. The narrative dominant in late-2023 of a US economy in need of restrictive monetary policy was unavoidable. The […]

Germany and the EU The Germany Supply Chain Act came into force in 2023 as a result of Germans wanting to do something good for employees in other countries in particular with respect to human rights and environmental issues. So far so good. But a combination of cost and bureaucracy overlaid with the difficulty of […]

Emergency Stop In the early hours of trading on Monday morning, sudden and significant buying pressure within USDJPY has markets wondering: is this the signal that local authorities are taking another stab at active market intervention? In a critical week for FX, with central bank decisions and a slew of top-level economic data from across […]

US Dollar With the US Election just over 6 months away it is time to think about the implications for USD with a new President. In case you have missed it Trump plans In the event he wins to devalue USD to boost US exports as part of his MAGA philosophy. As we know ex […]

Japanese Yen With JPY at a new 34 year low versus EUR, the market is set for an ambush by the Bank of Japan if it acts today at the end of their Policy Meeting to support the Yen. The reason that the market is susceptible is because it has convinced itself that the BoJ […]

Too soon to call USD lower Those following the US Dollar’s performance in the markets would have noted a recent downturn accelerating as this week has progressed. There have been two factors driving this sell-off but it is far from certain that either may endure long enough to push the Dollar index back to its […]

Milan, Italy The City of Milan has a late night noise problem and so it has acted unilaterally to resolve it-Italian style. A ban on the sale of take away food including ice cream and pizza after midnight is being imposed to protect the “peace and health of residents.” Here in the UK late night […]

Coal tinted spectacles If you had to boil down the global economy into one category from the options of bad/fair/good, what would you choose? We all experience the economy vastly differently down to an infinite number of variables. But by and large the current phase we are in, characterised by strong global growth rates, record […]