Daily Brief – British Pound

British Pound

The sudden unanimity of support for the beleaguered PM and cessation of anti PM Starmer briefing by members of his cabinet can only mean one thing: PM Starmer threatened a John Major moment (back me or else) and said he would call a General Election unless they offered a unilateral show of support. Unsurprisingly, given the Government’s dismal poll ratings, his colleagues swiftly fell into line. Obviously, that’s all conjecture but with his back to the wall, PM Starmer will have had no alternative but to go nuclear. How long that rapprochement lasts given his lack of any semblance of political skill is another matter. Meanwhile, the markets did not like all this and punished Sterling yesterday on a day that saw USD falling back.

GBP/USD 1.3669.

Mass Affluent

That is NatWest’s new strategic target client base and in case you are wondering what that means it encompasses those who have GBP 50,000 to invest. To bolster NatWest’s existing wealth management offering a knockout (literally) bid of GBP 2.7 billion secured the prize of the Evelyn Partnership for NatWest which works out at an eye watering GBP 17,000 per client for Evelyn’s 155,000 clients 

Evelyn brings GBP 69 billion of Assets Under management which with

NatWest’s AUM takes the combination to GBP 127 billion. To put it in perspective global US behemoth Blackrock has USD 14 trillion or GBP 10.3 trillion of AUM. While the strategic direction of travel is clear and unarguable for NatWest, it will take a long time and will require patience for both the bank and its shareholders.

EUR/GBP 0.8716.

Top Global Energy Producers

An even split for the Number One power position between the USA and China with the USA as the top producer of Natural Gas with 25% of global production, the top producer of Biofuels with 37%, top producer of Crude Oil with 21%, and the top producer of Nuclear power with 30%. When it comes to China all in Number One positions for Coal China has 52%, 39% for Solar, 30% for Hydro, and 40% for Wind-despite POTUS’ assertions to the contrary.

EUR/USD 1.1910.

Getting Away from It All

For the price of what is now the average cost of a home in the UK, one could snap up a 17-acre island complete with a stone farmhouse near Portmeirion, Gwynned Wales. Ynys Gifftan, Is up for sale and the minor inconvenience of having to wade across an estuary to reach it could be overcome if solitude and overseeing one’s surroundings are priorities.

EUR/JPY 183.73.

All I Wanna Do

Happy Birthday to Sheryl Crow who celebrates her 64^th birthday today and will doubtless look back on her long and successful pop career which includes this 1994 number from her wildly popular album Tuesday Night Music Club.

Hit it
This ain’t no disco
It ain’t no country club either
This is LA

“All I wanna do is have a little fun before I die”
Says the man next to me out of nowhere
It’s apropos of nothing, he says his name is William
I’m sure he’s Bill or Billy or Mac or Buddy
And he’s plain ugly to me
And I wonder if he’s ever had a day of fun in his whole life

We are drinking beer at noon on Tuesday
In a bar that faces a giant car wash
The good people of the world
Are washing their cars on their lunch break
Hosing and scrubbing as best they can in skirts in suits

They drive their shiny Datsuns and Buicks
Back to the phone company, the record store too
Well, they’re nothing like Billy and me

‘Cause all I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I’m not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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