Daily Brief – O Canada

O Canada

“If you are not at the table, you are on the menu” was a recent bon mot from Canada’s PM Mark Carney. This may or may not have something to do with Mark Carney’s upcoming attendance at the EU State of the Union address in Strasbourg from EU Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen in the middle of this month. This is not Carney’s first outing in the closer EU-Canada ties stakes since he attended the European Political Community meeting in May in Armenia, but this time he has been invited to give a speech. Could this in a great example of the law of unintended consequences of the tough love policy of POTUS towards Canada, be the first in a series of baby steps towards Canada joining the EU?

Brent Oil USD 96.09.

US Jobs Market

Later today the US employment release for August is due to be released and is expected to show an increase of 65,000 new jobs. While there is as always volatility and monthly anomalies, the US jobs market remains a low hire low fire environment. Overshadowing that are the spectres of an erratic set of US policy changes, the threat of AI and the increasing number of retirements of economically contributing baby boomers.

EUR/USD 1.1603.

Dutch Gold

The Dutch central bank holds 612 tonnes of gold worth EUR 72 billion and until now approx 30% and 20% was held in the USA and Canada respectively. Both holdings have now been trimmed to 18.5% by a mixture of physical transfer and sales. The reason cited is that the Dutch want to ensure that in case of need they can get their hands on their own gold and London is believed to be a better bet for that than the NY market with the subtext that the Dutch feel more comfortable reducing their exposure to the political climate of today’s USA. That means that 32% is now in London and 30% in the Netherlands with the balance in North America but only half of that in the USA.

GBP/USD 1.3508.

With or Without Conversation

Londoners should ensure they tick the conversation option box when booking an Uber from now on as yesterday the first autonomous i.e. driverless cars were released for hire. Initially each car will carry a “licensed operator” to monitor the car. Having nothing much else to do, those operators will likely feel impelled to offer soubriquets to their passengers on anything from politics to football.

EUR/GBP 0.8603.

My Generation

This day in 1965 in a demonstration that young rock stars can indeed take pragmatic decisions amidst the brouhaha of drink, drugs, groupies, and all the other perks of the trade, The Who having just bought new Vox amplifiers decided that they needed a guard dog to protect the expensive equipment. While Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, Keith Moon and Jon Entwistle were inside Battersea Dogs’ Home selecting a suitable mutt, thieves broke into their van which was parked outside and stole the equipment.

People try to put us d-down (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Just because we get around (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

Why don’t you all f-fade away (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
And don’t try to dig what we all s-s-say (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m not trying to cause a big s-s-sensation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
I’m just talkin’ ’bout my g-g-g-generation (Talkin’ ’bout my generation)
This is my generation
This is my generation, baby

My, my, my generation

Have a Great Weekend!

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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