SGM-FX insights

Bonus Season   Yesterday afternoon’s charismatic speech by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the House of Commons was peppered with bellows of “hear hear” from PM Johnson from the front bench. The Chancellor had built up a bit of a reputation for under promising and over delivering in the past few months of his trial-by-fire ministerial […]

Another Round?   One of the more noble of public surveys carried out recently came from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). They asked UK adults whether they will be heading to the pub in the near future as they open their doors to the public for the first time in 103 days (not that […]

Cummings and Goings   The most divisive thing in the United Kingdom since Brexit seems to be the adherence of the Prime Minister’s Chief advisor, Dominic Cummings, to the lockdown rules. If you’ve somehow managed to ignore the story, it concerns allegations that the senior advisor travelled an agonisingly precise 264 miles to a family home […]

Positively not negative   In a press conference yesterday Jay Powell distanced himself and his central Bank from the possibility of negative interest rates. It might sound a little dry and with hundreds of thousands of people having already lost their lives to Coronavirus, a little misplaced. However, to the foreign exchange market this news […]

Bargain Hunt   You’ll be reassured that this morning’s daily brief is not a homage to the BBC One  day time television program. Whilst I’m sure the retired program has played a significant role in the furlough of many an individual across the UK, its relationship to the foreign exchange market is somewhat more tenuous. Instead I […]

Cat’s eyes   A useful perspective or model to employ for evaluating where the Pound is headed is by looking at where it is within its tight post-Brexit trading range. We produced a visual analysis previously that showed how Sterling was right at the top of that traded range on a trade-weighted basis and therefore, […]

Care   Yesterday evening the United Kingdom learned that its Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had been moved to the intensive care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital following a deterioration in his condition. We wish the Prime Minister a speedy and thorough recovery from the virus. Last night it was easy to see Twitter warriors condemning […]

Lekke to be lekke   An Afrikaans ish phrase meaning it’s nice to be nice.. or so I’m told. In the times we find ourselves in, there seems to be value in examining exactly how nice is nice enough. Take the UK government’s call for citizens to volunteer to support the NHS. As Boris Johnson […]

For UK Business Readers   Here is a useful summary of what the UK Government is offering UK businesses:     For those of you who submit self assessment returns, before you ignore the item above, do look at the final box above which does help.   Markets   Too early to heave a sigh of […]

Down, down, down, down, down   The chorus lyric of Flo Rida’s hit song echo the title of this market briefing. Two confessions: 1) yes I had to google the song to check 2) yes I spelled his name wrong. It might be erroneous to assume that just because the hit song was recorded in […]

Deep and sharp   Alarm bells are still ringing. Households are on lockdown. Authorities are seemingly powerless to overcome the Coronavirus pandemic. Yesterday the Fed’s almost unprecedented 1% weekend cut in the target rate and a $700bn ramp up in quantitative easing failed to placate markets. If you’re not sure what that means it’s the […]

Aussie Rules   F1 fans expected this weekend’s opening race in Melbourne to be officially postponed despite F1 fiercely resisting it given the costs of staging each race and the tight timetable between races in different countries. It all requires detailed and flawless planning and execution to move the F1 circus every week during the […]