Daily Brief – German Parliamentary Elections

German Parliamentary Elections

Maybe not something to set the readers’ pulses racing but as an indication of the way that the tide is turning when it comes to German opinion on immigration, Sunday’s elections in Saxony and Thuringia in Eastern Germany will likely see the Alternative for Germany, hard right party top the polls. Chancellor Scholz is making a last minute pitch for his Social democrats but is unlikely to make much headway given the recent murders in Solingen by a Syrian asylum seeker of three people.

EUR/GBP 0.8410.

US Elections

The Ipsos poll now puts Harris at 45 to Trump’s 41 on the back of Kamala Harris garnering support from both women and Hispanics. The TV debate between Harris and Trump on September 10 assumes greater significance in the race for the White House as each day passes.

EUR/USD 1.1095.

EUR Interest Rates

Spanish inflation is not historically a bellwether indicator for the EU and its likely path of interest rate policy management, but with Germany’s economy flatlining as we wrote earlier in the week and now Spain’s harmonised annual inflation at 2.4%, the market is gaining in confidence that EUR interest rate cuts are all but nailed on as a certainty.

EUR/JPY 160.40.

Childcare

The story that has gone viral in China is the case of a 1 year old girl travelling between Guiyang and Shanghai, China on a Juneyao Airlines plane with her grandmother. So far so simple but she started crying to the extent that passengers were stuffing tissues in their ears. Two female passengers offered the grandmother to take the screaming infant to the toilet where one of them Ms Gou Tingting locked the luckless child inside and in order to “educate her” refused to release her until she ceased crying. So much here since the airline claimed that the grandmother was on board for the education program for the child. Ms Gou is unrepentant, the airline is absolving itself of blame and the toddler being unable yet to talk is not quoted. There are only two airlines that offer child free zones: Singapore based Scoot and Turkish-Dutch airline Corendon. Having recently suffered a 7 hour Qatar Airlines flight full of screaming infants, those airlines are definitely on to something.

GBP/USD 1.3195.

Shetland Islands, Scotland

Apart from exporting TV crime series in industrial quantities, the Shetland Islands are renowned for being very windy. The new Viking 103 turbine wind farm in the Shetlands that is due to come on stream shortly is now connected to the GB electricity grid. Output will be 443 megawatts sufficient to power 500,000 homes.

USD/JPY 144.58.

Sailing

This day in 1980 Sailing sung by falsetto voiced rocker Christopher Cross stood at the summit of the charts. Despite sounding somewhat shrill CC is  a scion of the world of San Antonio Texas and sold over 10 million records during a career that has spanned more than 40 years since his growing up as an “army brat”.

Well, it’s not far down to paradise
At least it’s not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find tranquility
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, believe me

It’s not far to never never land
No reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy
Of innocence again
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, believe me

Sailing
Takes me away to where I’ve always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
Soon I will be free

Fantasy
It gets the best of me
When I’m sailing

All caught up in the reverie
Every word is a symphony
Won’t you believe me?

Sailing
Takes me away to where I’ve always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free

Have A Great Weekend!

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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