European Interest Rates
More momentum on rate cuts in the Eurozone as expectations grew for cuts starting in March and totalling 140bps in 2024. Equally in the UK cuts of 130bps starting in June are being pencilled in to market calendars. What this means is that GBP/EUR is looking more than especially good value at 1.1685 at the moment- just in time for Christmas market shopping on the Continent.
Smart Meters
UK readers will be familiar with their energy provider offering if not pressuring them to install smart meters. A truly illuminating statistic is that of the 33 million smart meters installed to date….2.7 million are either not working at all or transmitting incorrect data. Writing as someone who has refused on numerous occasions to take a smart meter, I mistakenly thought that my own heating provider Communal Energy Partners would be able to install a simple non smart meter to measure consumption: wrong. After 9 months we have a green light but the meter is unable to communicate with the central hub that is laughingly named, Guru. That did not stop CEP billing me for a month’s consumption in October of £1060 despite the heating not yet being switched on.
GBP/USD 1.2605.
Global Real Estate
Undeterred by the weak Yen , Japanese buyers of global real estate are out in force and are buying up three times as much property as the average of the past 15 years in the last year. Seeking yield and that old chestnut diversification, Japanese buyers have been buying up real estate in particular in the USA, India and Australia.
USD/JPY 147.15.
Knockin on Heavens Door
This day in 2013 an electric guitar played by Bob Dylan at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival made USD 965,000 at auction. In those days playing an electric guitar at a folk festival would have been derided by acoustic purists, but for the finder of that Fender Stratocaster that Dylan left on a plane, the auction was a windfall 48 years later.
EUR/USD 1.0790.
Mama, take this badge off of me
I can’t use it anymore
It’s gettin’ dark, too dark to see
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Knock, knock, knockin’ on heaven’s door
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Related Insights
Daily Brief – Fujairah
Humphrey Percy
Fri 22 May 2026
Fujairah For those readers who are less familiar with the Emirate states that make up the UAE, Fujairah, and Ras Al Khaimah are the less glamorous relations of Dubai and Abu Dhabi with low-cost housing, largely immigrant labour accommodation and heavy industry rather than swanky lifestyle and up market shopping malls. With the new oil […]
Daily Brief – Mariannes
Humphrey Percy
Wed 27 May 2026
Mariannes In addition to gold coins such as South African Krugerrands, Canadian Maple Leafs, and American Gold Eagles, from June 16 you will once again be able to buy French Mariannes. The last time France minted gold coins was mostly in the Napoleonic era and appropriately they were called Napoleons and were issued between 1803 […]
Daily Brief – EU capital markets
Humphrey Percy
Mon 1 Jun 2026
EU capital markets As we have written before, for the EUR to become a global reserve currency requires a number of pre-conditions which largely stem from the establishment of an integrated EU Capital Market. Brussels is accused of dragging its feet if not actually being obstructive so the 6 largest countries have banded together to […]
