Daily Brief – FTSE100

FTSE100

With all eyes on the Westminster PM – Chancellor drama recently, or alternatively the saga of POTUS tariffs, it is easy to overlook the positive in that the FTSE is up 10% this year and has just notched up a new “big figure” and an all time high of 9000+. All too often the UK is described as the Cinderella of stock markets so it is a welcome change to achieve such a milestone. Gloomsters will point to the 7,544 level in early April this year which means that if one had been nimble and canny a 20% gain might have been booked in just 3 months.

GBP/USD 1.3462.

Happy Germans 

The ZEW Indicator of German economic sentiment which we have written about before is up from 47.5 in June to 52.7 in July buoyed by removal of the debt brake, hope for a EU-US resolution on trade and a consequential stimulus to the German economy. Sentiment was particularly bubbly in the German mechanical engineering, metal production, and the electrical engineering sectors doubtless propelled by Chancellor Merz’s pledge to up arms spending.

EUR/GBP 0.8681.

Conde Nast

Apart from impressing nearly new wife Lauren Sanchez with a suitable post wedding gift, the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos might well want to acquire Conde Nast. Why? Very likely the fit of its consumer base with that of Amazon: 72 million print customers, 394 million digital and a whopping 454 million customers across its social media platforms. Titles include Vogue, the New Yorker, Conde Nast Traveller, GQ, Glamour, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Pitchfork, Wired, Bon Appetit, Ars Technica and many more. And why would recently stepped down Editor in Chief but still Conde Nast’s Chief Content Officer and Global Editorial Director, Anna Wintour, be amenable to such a sale? Not just amenable, Anna Wintour is understood to be promoting the sale by being fully involved in the talks for two reasons: firstly anno domini (she is 75 years old ), and secondly, she owns a lot of Conde Nast stock having notched up 37 years as Editor In Chief.

EUR/USD 1.1681.

Shire Hoses – not a typo

It’s only a proper summer when a water company imposes a hosepipe ban and Thames Water has duly delivered effective July 22 in Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. Lots of guff in the press about the sweltering summer of 1976 and more senior readers will recall with appropriately misty eyes that was when the then Labour Government appointed Denis Howell as Minister for the Drought which prompted the end of that summer and flash floods all within a week. The more cynical among you will wonder if Thames Water would be in the position of having to impose a hosepipe ban if they had only invested more in their infrastructure and sorted out the multiple long running leaks that are the best known feature of Thames Water. That and the consequent fast rising bills for their customers.

 EUR/JPY 172.70.

Yellow

This day 25 years ago in 2000, Coldplay had their first chart topping album. Given a bad press for being boring, then firstly and more excitingly marrying actress Gwynneth Paltrow with her non mainstream wellness remedies followed by a subsequent well publicised equally riveting(sic) conscious decoupling, lead singer Chris Martin has coped manfully without denting his bank balance much. Apart from a further string of chart topping albums, sell out concerts and commercial success Chris Martin has shown himself to be no slouch in the romancing stakes.

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called, “Yellow”

So then I took my turn
Oh, what a thing to have done
And it was all yellow

Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know, you know I love you so
You know I love you so

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh, what a thing to do
‘Cause you were all yellow

I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh, what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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