Morning Brief – 34 Days

34 Days

That is the average time it takes between putting a UK home on the market and agreeing a sale. In London it takes 40 days which is the longest in the UK while at the other end of the time scale in Scotland the average is a mere 20 days. 
GBP/USD 1.2600.

UK Retail Sales

The 3.4% increase in UK retail sales reported on Friday was more than double the 1.4% forecast . What that says apart from that the art of economic forecasting being more of an art than a science whatever economists claim, is that after a dismal December the UK experienced a much stronger January. This has been explained by those same economists as being due to motorists spending more on filling up their cars at lower fuel prices. Talk about economists doubling down- that explanation stretches the credibility gap!
GBP/EUR 1.1690.

Dubai

Golden Visas has lured the world’s rootless and those ex pats apart from bringing money and investment has brought new businesses while at the same time propping up office occupancy and supporting the housing market. That is 2024 Dubai which has put the pandemic behind it economically and where businesses are booming.
EUR/USD 1.0775.

Destination Dupes

In case you don’t know, this is the latest holiday destination trend: find an alternative cheaper destination with fewer crowds. So for example instead of Rome, try Lecce or Palermo. Instead of Berlin pick Munich. Those sort of make sense, but try this one that really pushes the envelope when it comes to stretching one’s imagination: forget Hawaii and go to ……Albania!
EUR/JPY 161.80.

Blinded by the Light

This day in 1977 this number stormed to the top of the charts for English group Manfred Mann’s Earth Band which had been a thing in the Swinging Sixties and continued to be a thing right through the Seventies. This song was written by Bruce Springsteen and flopped when he released it-not that that held him up much. Bruce Springsteen continues to fill stadiums while Manfred Mann after a couple of further band composition iterations, ended up writing advertising jingles.
 
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night

Madman, drummers, bummers
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps
As the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin’ kinda older
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin’, sneezin’ and wheezin’
The calliope crashed to the ground

The calliope crashed to the ground!

But she was blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
Revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night

Some silicone sister with a manager mister
Told me I got what it takes
She said, “I’ll turn you on sonny to something strong
Play the song with the funky break”
And go-kart Mozart was checkin’ out the weather chart
To see if it was safe outside
And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly
And asked me if I needed a ride
Asked me if I needed a ride!…

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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