SGM-FX insights

China and USA: It’s not just trade…   With the so called Phase One of the Trade Deal in place since the end of 2019, negotiators on both sides are turning their attention to the financial war between the two nations. For those who have not appreciated this, there are 172 Chinese companies listed on […]

How to trade a problem like Soleimani?   Since the drone strike in Baghdad that killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani last week, markets have reacted with a flight towards defensive assets and classic hedging trades against middle eastern tensions. The winning candidate at yesterday morning’s open was oil, with Brent Crude up as much […]

Currency Feature this morning   USD stronger across the board.     Eastern Mediterranean   With full scale gas production due to come on stream in Q1 in the Eastern Mediterranean, it was not surprising that Greece, Cyprus and Israel broke cover yesterday with the announcement of the construction of a new Eastern Mediterranean pipeline […]

  Last Christmas Cracker Joke for 2019 (honest) : Why didn’t the lobster share his Christmas treats? Because he was shellfish!   Markets   The main feature in the past few days has been the firm oil price of $61.31 for WTI as a result of firstly reduced inventories(that old adage of more demand than […]

OPEC and budgeting for energy prices in 2020   This Thursday and Friday OPEC producers and their allies will be talking about adding to the existing curbs on production. What that means and Goldman Sachs concurs, is that the oil price will firm to over $60 per barrel in 2020 from the current level of […]

Turbulence   As Air Force One landed in London Stansted Airport yesterday a swathe of helicopters and vehicles greeted it. Strategically posted around the runway, the imposing presence wasn’t protestors and news agencies finding out more about the tariffs that Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had been surprising markets with back across the Atlantic. Instead they […]

Average Global Property Prices   Leading the pack with an average US$2091 per sq foot is Hong Kong. A long way behind are Singapore with $1063 and Paris with $985. London $776, Shanghai $714 and Shenzhen $726 follow with New York $526 and Los Angeles $466 at the rear of the leading pack. Remembering that these […]

Losers   It’s a sad state of affairs for the G9 currencies versus the behemoth of their group, the US Dollar. So far this week, the US Dollar has continued its advance to supremacy over its highly liquid, yet less heavily traded, 9 colleagues. Between the 13th and 19th of November, the US Dollar was […]

Breakfast @Tiffany’s?   Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) announced the acquisition of Tiffany for $16.2 Billion at about the time that you are reading this. This will complement the A to Z of brands that LVMH already own that includes Acqua di Parma, Berluti, Bulgari, Celine, Christian Dior, Dom Pérignon, Fendi, Krug and alphabetically all […]

Thirty Years Ago: The Fall of the Berlin Wall   Since that seismic event in Europe and the ensuing wave of globalization that the world has experienced, it is interesting to see which economies have benefitted most: the answer is of course the USA, Brazil, Russia, India and China. In Europe the biggest winner has […]

Currency Markets   Lots going on in international currency markets largely due to the perception(note the word perception) that the talks and recent activity between USA and China are leading towards the signing of a trade deal later this month. Consequently trade orientated currencies led by the Yuan(CNY) and the Aussie Dollar (AUD) have benefitted […]

No seriously, this is the last one   I hope the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of America Jay Powell doesn’t have a sweet tooth. If he does, he’s in trouble as it appears, he simply can’t stop at one. Much like a child set loose with a biscuit tin, he couldn’t resist just […]