With the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia topping up its holdings in US stocks, the market will take note and be of cheer especially as those stocks include Boeing, Citigroup, Bank of America and Facebook. PIF now holds $10 Billion in US stocks versus $2 Billion at the beginning of the year. Saudi Arabia is taking advantage of lower prices to diversify the nation’s wealth from an over dependence on oil. In case you are wondering PIF has total holdings of $300 Billion.
Having announced that they will lay off most of their workers, it does not look good for Air Canada despite Canada’s President Justin Trudeau making noises that he will look at ways to help the beleaguered Canadian aviation industry. The Canadian Dollar has weakened by a net 5% in the past 3 months versus the USD having at one point been as much as 10% worse. Natural resources rich Canada represents good value if one is prepared to be patient and in these times of social distancing has plenty of space with a population density of just 4 people per square kilometer versus 259 in the UK. If you can get there of course!
Portugal-the dustbin of Europe
This would be a grossly unjust description of our old ally and friend and of such an attractive country, but their reputation as such has been created by the industry that they have built in processing other European countries’ waste. The cost of processing a tone of waste in Europe is on average EUR 80 but Portugal charges just EUR 11. Portugal has called a halt to further deliveries and this is causing somewhat of a backlog with 246,000 tonnes being turned away so far this year.
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Related Insights
Daily Brief – UK Borrowing
Humphrey Percy
Wed 21 May 2025
UK Borrowing Another one for the pub quiz in case it comes up: UK government borrowing stands at £2.8 trillion or £2800 billion. While you digest that number over the chicken in the basket if indeed you are already in the pub, it will have increased by the time you get to the end of this […]
Daily Brief – USD 2 Trillion Trade Deals
Humphrey Percy
Fri 23 May 2025
USD 2 Trillion Trade Deals That is the total trade deal bag that POTUS Trump is credited admittedly by himself with snagging in his whirlwind Gulf trip this week. Many are puzzled and a few have attempted to tot up the value of the Saudi, UAE and Qatari deals, but no-one has succeeded in getting […]
Daily Brief – POTUS in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Humphrey Percy
Wed 14 May 2025
POTUS in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia As one of POTUS’ travelling companions on this week’s visit, Larry Fink of Blackrock represents everything that a US President might want to burnish his credentials in the desert kingdom: head of the largest asset manager on the planet, hugely influential and totally credible. Just a shame that he […]
