Daily Brief – EV Sales

EV Sales

Electric Vehicle sales figures are showing extraordinary volatility in 2025. In April alone US EV sales fell 5.6% from a year previously, while rising 35% in Europe, 32% in China and 51% in the rest of the world. Is it because the US has had its fill of EVs or is this more of a reflection of the world turning its back on Elon Musk’s Tesla? Although it may be argued that this is just one month, the same pattern applies for the first four months of the year so there is something more than a one month blip going on.

EUR/USD 1.1203.

UK Growth

Yesterday UK growth came in at 0.2% for March which the market welcomed and marked Sterling up. It is thin gruel and a long way from the growth picture promised by the newly minted Chancellor Reeves 10 months ago when she moved into Downing Street.

GBP/USD 1.3290.

Sovereign Wealth Funds

One would naturally expect that SVFs would do pretty well given the innate advantage of being state backed with all that brings in terms of state assists. The top performers for 5 year annualised returns are Mubadala of Abu Dhabi and Samruk of Kazakhstan, both with 10% and New Zealand just under at 9.5%. At the back of the class are Azerbaijan with 2.9%, Panama with 3.5% and Ireland with 4.3%.

EUR/GBP 0.8430.

US Federal Reserve

When a financial institution spends an inordinate amount on a new HQ it is called hubris. The respected financial journalist Christopher Fildes laid down this law of finance in the early 1990s when Barclays spent such a sum on their new Lombard Street HQ despite a set of less than sparkling banking results. The Fed is likewise spending $2.5 billion in revamping its offices and is already $600 million over budget. Calls for an immediate cut in interest rates are growing. Not least for the reason of cutting the cost of servicing the gargantuan US debt mountain. An interesting development is the increasing need to bolster the validity of US Treasury bonds and were there to be new issuance backed by gold that would certainly meet with market approval.

Gold $3,167

Deja Vu

This album released by CSNY or Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was a smash back in 1970 and was the quartet’s first Number One album. A clutch of big hits on this album and this one Teach Your Children was perhaps the biggest:

You, who are on the road
Must have a code
That you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a goodbye

Teach your children well
Their father’s hell
Did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by

Don’t you ever ask them, “Why?”
If they told you, you would cry
So, just look at them and sigh
And know they love you

And you, of tender years (can you hear and do you care)
Can’t know the fears (and can’t you see)
That your elders grew by (we must be free)
And, so, please help them with your youth (to teach your children what you believe in)
They seek the truth (make a world that we can live in)
Before they can die

Teach your parents well
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick’s the one you’ll know by

Have a Great Weekend! 

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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