Président Charles de Gaulle: Hard cheese.
Was he right? He blocked the UK’s first attempt to join the European Community in 1963. “Too maritime, too insular, too original in its traditions and too tied to its distant markets to become good Europeans.” Just to remind you he also explained his own domestic difficulties as follows: “How does one govern a country with 246 types of cheese?”
Commodities: Gold at $1318, WTI Oil at $59.04.
Currencies: GBP confused: NoDeal Brexit looming but GBP rallied late Friday and firmer especially against AUD and ZAR. Expect fluctuations this week. Already weaker this morning. EUR weaker at the end of last week on economic growth picture. USD stronger.
Equities: Bad day Friday: FTSE 7202, Dow 25,502
I0 year Govt Yields: US 2.44, Germany 0.015, UK 1.01, France 0.35, Italy 2.45, Japan -0.07. Last week’s Fed dovish stance has fed through to all global bond markets.
China set to lead the world in scientific research
In 2014, China awarded 34,000 PhDs in the natural sciences and engineering, as compared to 40,000 in the United States. Notably China awarded 1.4 million undergraduate degrees in the natural sciences and engineering, almost four times as many as the 377,000 awarded in the United States. In ten years, PhDs awarded in China have increased by 146 percent as compared to 55 percent in the United States. Extrapolating these numbers results in the conclusion that China will overtake the USA as the world’s leading country for scientific research and development-and soon.
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Germany The German business climate was slated to rise in July but instead it fell in terms of both current and also future expected business conditions as reflected in the IFO Index made up of manufacturing, services, trade and construction sectors as submitted by 9000 firms. Germans wishing doubtlessly that they could be as strongly […]
UK Energy Apart from announcing that there will be no further North Sea drilling licences issued, newly minted Uk Energy Minister Ed Miliband has wasted no time in greenlighting three huge new solar farms in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. Sufficient to power 400,000 homes with an output of 1.4 GW the solar farms will cover […]
British Pound GBP is currently in fashion: with a record number of long positions and currently at the top of the G7 currency performance charts and after a period of being deeply unfashionable GBP is wanted-in a good way. The reasons for this are diverse: first off is the Bank of England’s caution on cutting […]