Daily Brief – Berlin and Rome

Berlin and Rome

As we have written several times recently the German car industry is going through tough times as is the Italian car industry especially given the hard date of 2035 when the sales of diesel and petrol fuelled cars will no longer be permitted. Now their respective governments are indicating a softening of the hard stance on ecological targets for the auto industry. Prime Minister Meloni has described the strictures as “ideological madness”.

EUR/USD 1.1179.

European Central Banks

A raft of rate cuts across Europe yesterday in Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden and Hungary while Norway proclaimed its independence of approach by leaving their rates unchanged. Meanwhile the ECB has so far maintained silence on its stance on the Commerzbank takeover bid by Italy’s Unicredit.

Chancellor Scholz and most of the German political establishment are against it on nationalistic grounds while investors in the asset management industry are urging Commerzbank management to pursue the commercial considerations . Reading between the lines, investors believe a tie up with Unicredit will deliver better returns for them.

EUR/GBP 0.8332.

Austria

Sunday will see Austria’s parliamentary elections and for the first time Far Right party the FPO is in with a good chance of winning although they will need to find a coalition partner to form a government. The FPO or the Freedom Party was founded in 1956 and is therefore one of the oldest Far Right parties in Europe and has been out of fashion for most of the ensuing nearly 70 years. Much has been written and despite that it is unclear what the newer German Far Right stands for. The Austrian FPO is clear however: it stands against political Islam and also immigration and is decidedly Eurosceptic. 

EUR/JPY 161.75.

UK Passport Holders

The rules regarding UK passport holders and the EU are confusing but UK citizens need to make sure of two things in particular: first that before travelling to the EU they should not have spent more than 90 days in the EU in the preceding 180 days. Remember a day is a day unlike in the past when if one did not spend a night it did not count, so an overnight stay is 2 days. Clear so far!? The second thing to check is that before setting off make sure that your passport is valid for more than 3 months after your return date ; otherwise risk being refused permission to travel.

GBP/USD 1.3415.

Bat Out of Hell

Today would have been the artist’s known as Meat Loaf 77^th birthday had he not departed this world in January 2022. Meat or Mr Loaf was less interestingly named Michael Lee Aday but his life was anything but uninteresting as are the lyrics for Bat out of Hell:

The sirens are screaming, and the fires are howling
Way down in the valley tonight
There’s a man in the shadows with a gun in his eye
And a blade shining oh so bright
There’s evil in the air and there’s thunder in the sky
And a killer’s on the bloodshot streets
And down in the tunnels where the deadly are rising
Oh, I swear I saw a young boy down in the gutter
He was starting to foam in the heat

Oh, baby you’re the only thing in this whole world
That’s pure and good and right
And wherever you are and wherever you go
There’s always gonna be some light
But I gotta get out, I gotta break it out now
Before the final crack of dawn
So we gotta make the most of our one night together
When it’s over, you know
We’ll both be so alone

Like a bat out of hell, I’ll be gone when the morning comes
When the night is over, like a bat out of hell
I’ll be gone, gone, gone
Like a bat out of hell
I’ll be gone when the morning comes
But when the day is done
And the sun goes down
And the moonlight’s shining through
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven
I’ll come crawling on back to you

I’m gonna hit the highway like a battering ram
On a silver-black phantom bike.

Have a Great Weekend!

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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