The Blind Date
But we trod grapes and paddled on,
Through a neap tide of Sauvignon,
Drowning our disappointment in drink,
Above a pale octopus poached in its own ink.
It must be Friday….
Crime busting Devon UK police have arrested a man for suspected drug driving after he swerved off the road and crashed having avoided ……an octopus….small problem was that he was 5kms from the coast and there was of course no sign of an octopus or any other sea monster! Devon police are not pursuing further enquiries!
However on the same theme, we have all heard of FAANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) and the phenomenal rise of those stocks in the past 10 years. In Sep 2008 out of the world’s top 5 companies only 1 was a tech company and that was Microsoft. Scroll forward to the end of 2018 and out of the world’s top 5 companies only 1 was NOT a tech company and that was Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway!
So what is the new acronym which will shape the markets for the next 10 years? The answer is: CRAABs (Cryptocurrency, Robotics, AI or artificial intelligence, Automation and Biotech)
While we are naturally very cautious of some Crypto businesses and their deserved reputation for illiquidity, pick some or all of those themes and you will be on to a winner-think driverless cars slated to be with us in the next year, the internet of things, increasing use of robotics in manufacturing etc etc.
The million dollar question is of course how to choose the right stocks. You will remember in the next months and years that you heard about CRAABs at SGM-FX and you will be the one in the bar to be able to talk about the new investment frontier! The theme which will not change is that the world’s largest companies will continue to be US Dollar denominated and quoted stocks which will also require both foreign exchange and also the right currency view. SGM-FX are ready with both.
Ahead of the weekend: the market is sifting through the tea leaves from the Bank of England’s press conference yesterday: no real surprises rather confirmation of what we wrote in the past few Daily Briefings: growth forecast down to 1.2%, rates on hold with bank rate at 0.75%, inflationary pressure will derive from wage growth.
FTSE ended up down 1% at 7093 last night. GBP is flat ahead of the weekend. EUR remains unchanged against the USD. Oil is down 1% with WTI at 52.17. In President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech which he made after market hours, South Africa learnt that a Presidential election will be held on May 8th and that in 2019 Parliament will focus on 5 key areas: increasing growth, education improvements, improving the lives of the poor, tackling corruption and strengthening the state. ZAR was pretty much unchanged against the USD which means that the speech was judged to be a success.
Have a great weekend!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
A revised 2024 The Dollar opens stronger this morning following the Federal Reserve’s decision last night. The decision confirmed interest rates were to stay on hold following this meeting. As we have highlighted following previous decisions, the forward guidance offered by the Chair Jay Powell was once again underwhelming. However, the Dollar’s bid this morning […]
OECD Those fun loving folk at the Organisation for Economic and Cultural Development are at it again by forecasting that the UK will in 2023 stand at the very top of the G7 for….our rate of inflation at 7.2% which is a great deal more than the promised rate by the UK Government for the […]
GBP While the Bank of England’s decision to pause on raising rates by the narrowest of margins with voting 5-4, that resulted in GBP being sold sharply which reflects the market’s view that while inflation at 6.7% looked better than expected yesterday, the effect of higher oil prices and petrol and diesel at the pumps […]