Despite having one of the largest EU unemployment numbers at 3.3million, Spain is continuing to post the highest growth rate in the EU at 2.5%. Next year Spanish growth is forecast to be 2.2% far ahead of the rest of the other largest countries -France, Germany and Italy in the Eurozone. Ole ole! Olé, Olé, Olé!
Commodities: Gold at $1310, WTI Oil at $59.98,
Currencies: With global interest rates having moved sharply lower following the Fed’s announcement on no rate rises this week, expectations are now for lower interest rates in the next two years than previously envisaged. Currency markets calm this morning despite GBP volatility overnight. EUR flat , USD 0.2% lower and GBP up 0.3%.
Equities: FTSE 7355, Dow 25,962.
I0 year Govt Yields: US 2.52, Germany 0.04, UK 1.06, France 0.40, Italy 2.46, Japan -0.07. All 10yr Govt yields on lows.
Last week Mike Love of the Beach Boys celebrated his 78th birthday and here’s part of California Girls from 1965- honestly you had to be there…but if you were, the chances are that you will not remember!
California girls
We’re unforgettable
Daisy dukes
Bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin
So hot
We’ll melt your popsicle
Ooh oh ooh
Ooh oh ooh
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

Defiance Yesterday’s market was defying one of two things: logic or gravity. Come to think of it, perhaps both. Take cable, GBPUSD, yesterday. The key events beyond minor data releases centred around any chatter from either side of the Iranian conflict and Starmer singing for his supper. Sing he did and tweet the President did, […]
A technicality Markets appeared to be fatigued by Trump’s Iran war before a ceasefire had even been agreed. This was evident from pricing that would have been considered complacent should the conflict have dragged on longer than it ultimately did. Now, that saga is far from over – it’s inevitable, for example, that as the […]
Short-lived relief rally A tantrum in the bond market has continued to erode away at risk conditions in recent sessions. In the UK, the sell-off in gilts and corporate bonds has been particularly acute thanks to heightened political instability, the origins of which we have covered thoroughly in recent briefings. Yesterday, headlines delivered enough optimism […]