News of the theft of 82 bottles of wine worth GBP67,000 last week. Presumably the insurance company will fork out for the replacement cost of these bottles at an average GBP 817 cost per bottle. Incidentally at a normal restaurant mark up of 3 times that equates to GBP 201,000 of wine for diners or the cost of each bottle a stonking GBP 2451. So by any definition definitely high end wine which since it was stolen in a very short time suggests prior specialist knowledge. Maybe a case of cherchez la femme for M Poirot and the boys in blue, but it seems to us amateurs that it would be more fruitful to cherchez le sommelier!
Friday saw more demonstrations and the closure of the tunnel connecting Hong Kong Island to Kowloon and the mainland. This weekend students and demonstrators have taken over the Polytechnic University which they have turned into a fortress in anticipation of a much tougher crackdown by the police with the now 6 month old unrest degenerating into urban warfare at increasingly more frequent times. Additional police have been drafted in from Western China and there is an increasingly tough message coming out of China. Poor Hong Kong: our thoughts are with everyone there.
Soon it will be possible for food processors and food manufacturers to hedge the price of cheddar cheese on Chicago’s Mercantile Exchange with the introduction of cheddar futures and options contracts early next year. Each contract represents 20,000 pounds of block cheddar. This will trade alongside the existing barrel cheese contract which is normally used in processed brands which are becoming less popular as tastes change. With the change in consumption towards more healthy and specialist brands, there is a need to be able to hedge block cheese. So coming soon: the possibility to trade two types of cheese-block and barrel: cheese spreads!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Japan Some of the market’s Great Minds spent yesterday afternoon debating whether Japan could get away with raising interest rates at the same time as the Central Banks from the other major markets are starting to cut their interest rates. In short, Japan can and probably will, since its monetary policy has been effectively in […]
Rather you than me, Christine As we and the market alike have been speaking about recently, Eurozone rates are all the rage. As we highlighted yesterday, the path for rate cuts next year has already captivated the market with easing being forecasted as early as Q1 2024. As we approach the Christmas period, we must […]
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 […]