SGM-FX insights

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 […]

Cool, but how?   If you want the simplest of summaries to yesterday’s budget speech in South Africa then read no further than the title. Tito Mboweni mostly said the right things as he laid the budget before the nation yesterday. The one thing he missed out was how!? What the review promised was more parsimonious […]

Goodbye and good riddance!   If you hadn’t noticed, the United Kingdom has left the European Union. You could be forgiven for not having noticed because by design of the Withdrawal Agreement, nothing changes until the transition period is concluded. However, at the formal and legal level the departure has taken place: the UK’s flag […]

Judging by appearances   Not necessarily the right approach: look at penguins when they are on land (which is after all where we see them) whether it be Yellow eyed(New Zealand), Galapagos(Galapagos), Humboldt(Peru) or Fairy(Australia); all these species have adapted to different climates and environments which is quite something given that they are built like […]

Who are you?   0.7% in one day is a pretty decent rally for the Pound. Sterling currently sits at 2 week highs against the US Dollar and yesterday GBP reached 2020 highs against the Euro. But what brought us here might surprise you: Confederation of British Industry survey data! This piece of soft data […]

Cheaper Rates – Cheaper Sterling   At December’s monetary policy decision the Bank of England chose to hold interest rates steady at 0.75%. But the decision was not without dissent and division within the authority’s core, the Monetary Policy Committee. At this meeting two members, Haskell and Saunders echoed their previous dovish warnings that borrowing […]

Where does GBP go in 2020?   According to a poll of 65 FX Strategists the answer is that it will appreciate 3% versus the USD. Having spent a lifetime in currency markets, I have to tell you that this is going to be wrong. The 3% number is the average of what those FX […]

10, 9, 8…   11 hours ahead of the London time zone is that of Sydney’s. That means that shortly after we conclude our shortened trading day this New Years Eve, the impressive fireworks display on the other side of the world will be underway. 16 hours (presumably less 10 seconds) from the start of […]

One step forward..   Two steps back. The Pound at least is on track to follow this frustrating course. Having rallied after the general election result became clear, a combination of profit taking and renewed exit uncertainty has caused the Pound to have lost a lot of value. Despite the election result and immediate reaction, […]