SGM-FX insights

UK Productivity The OBR or Office for Budget Responsibility has likely downgraded its forecast for UK Productivity by the time that you are reading this. Despite taking a leaf out of her boss’s PM playbook and jetting off on an overseas business trip when unwelcome economic news is in the offing, for Chancellor Reeves there […]

UK Non Doms An excellent suggestion from the previous CEO of Rolls Royce, Sir John Rose in a letter that he had published in Saturday’s Financial Times: before it’s too late, offer a flat tax amount to non doms of GBP 500,000. At a stroke that would more than compensate for the disastrous treatment of […]

Autumn Statement Trailing some prospective budget measures ahead of the UK Budget is as old as well, the UK Budget. Chancellor Reeves would do well to look up the TB/GB(Tony Blair/Gordon Brown) playbook from 1997-2008 which was a masterclass in the dangle, the tease and the test. Chancellor Reeves a good 5 weeks ahead of her […]

UK Government Borrowing Borrowing for September was reported yesterday by the Office of national Statistics or ONS to be GBP 20.2 billion, up by GBP 1.6 billion from the same month in 2024. What that means is that public spending exceeded tax income by that amount. That takes borrowing for the first 6 months of […]

World’s wealthiest non USA person That title belongs of course to the suave 76 year old Frenchman Bernard Arnault whose LVMH shares have suffered of late on the back of France’s economic and political woes combined with POTUS’ tariffs that had walloped the outlook for French luxury goods in the US market. On Wednesday of […]

UK Growth To refresh your memories, UK Growth fell 0.1% in July and the hope or more accurately the expectation was that July was an aberration which would be rectified when the men with the clipboards reported on UK Growth for August. In the case of Chancellor Reeves, that expectation was rather more of a prayer […]

China and the USA What prompted POTUS to escalate the trade war last week? Before answering that, it is worth a refresh on the current state of play: US tariffs on China average 58% and China on the US 33%, and the next cliffhanger date is November 10, after which the current threat is for […]

Friday night US Markets There was an element of the US stock market temporarily running out of oxygen at the heady heights that it had reached and looking for an excuse to take profits/sell. That excuse was provided in spades by POTUS who pronounced that he would implement much higher tariffs against China. That was […]

US Dollar A further lurch upwards for USD yesterday morning as French politics affected the EUR and the prospect of Japan’s first female Prime Minister as well as the accompanying uncertainty weaken JPY. GBP also feeling the effects of that strong USD. The USD/JPY at 152.80 also in uncomfortable territory for Japan. EUR/JPY 177.41. China Youth […]

US Dollar For differing reasons USD is having a strong week both against the Japanese Yen and the EUR. Both currencies are weakened by political headwinds but that is where the similarities end. France is rather more influencing the EUR due to worries over its debt and its resistance to getting it under control. Japan […]

US Government Shutdown In the past 50 years the US Government has shut down 21 times the longest of which was in 2018 which was for 5 weeks – and that to remind you was during Trump 1. Why might this time be different? This time POTUS has stated his determination to take the opportunity […]

Reparation Loan 3.5 years in, and the EU is gradually reaching agreement on how to assist Ukraine financially – well almost. Admittedly, the principle of seizing a countries’ frozen assets is ground-breaking, but so was the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the seizing of land and assets. In case you are unaware, the proposal […]