Morning Brief – Markets

Markets

With WTI Oil at $88 and 10 Year US Treasury Bond yields at 1.83%, rates worldwide have moved in lockstep with 10 Year German Bunds now at -0.03% and 10 Year Gilts at 1.25%. Not surprisingly USD has hardened and GBP/USD is now at 1.3365 and EUR/USD 1.1140.

The Milky Way

Not the chocolate bar but once again the constellation is back in the news on the back of an Australian honours student spotting a “spinning object” that releases a burst of radio for a full minute every 18 minutes. It is all happening 4,000 light years from earth and the spinning object is very bright and has a very strong magnetic field. Anoraks among our readers may already know that objects emitting pulse energy are, if not a dime a dozen, certainly not unusual, but this object emitting such strong and regular radio waves which distinguishes it from most “transients” is enough to get the astronomy fraternity glued to their telescopes. USD/AUD 1.4115.

Captagon

Manufactured in Syria and frequently smuggled into Jordan, Captagon is a popular recreational drug among the affluent youth in the Gulf-it is also used in combat zones since it removes the fear impulse. For the Syrian smugglers the route into Jordan now represents more risk and fear than can be dealt with by ingesting their product: the Jordanian army has issued a shoot to kill policy for drug smugglers. Yesterday Jordan announced that they had removed 27 Syrian drug smugglers from the field of play-permanently.

Champagne

More positively, partly due to over stocking at Christmas, there are some compelling supermarket offers for wine and spirits if you are planning to re-stock after dry January. For example Waitrose are offering 25% off on Bollinger Rose down from GBP52 to GBP39. The Bollinger Special Cuve Brut is down by the same amount from GBP 49 to GBP36.75. GBP/EUR at 1.1990 helping keep a lid on Bolly.

“Relax”

Thanks to the BBC banning this record, it went straight to number one in the UK this day in 1984 for Frankie Goes to Hollywood and also on this day “Owner of a Lonely Heart” went to number one for Yes in the USA. Funnily enough they were both produced by legendary producer Trevor Horne. Here is FGTH and Relax which sounds a great deal better than the lyrics might suggest:

Mi-i-n-e
Give it to me one time now
Well, whoa, well

Relax, don’t do it
When you wanna go do it
Relax, don’t do it
When you wanna come
Relax, don’t do it
When you wanna suck, chew it
Relax, don’t do it
When you wanna come
When you wanna come

Relax, don’t do it
When you wana go to it
Relax, don’t do it
When you want to come
Relax, don’t do it
When you want to suck, chew it
Relax, don’t do it
When you want to come
Come
Whoa-oh-oh

But shoot it in the right direction
Make making it your intention
Live those dreams
Scheme those schemes
Got to hit me (hit me)
Hit me (hit me)
Hit me with those laser beams
Laser beam

Relax
Don’t do it
Relax

Have a Great Weekend! (Relax)

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter