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
Texas, USA The third largest citrus state in the USA after California and Florida is Texas. Currently the citrus crop is under threat in Texas due to chronic water shortages owing to a long running dispute with Mexico over delivery under a 1944 treaty whereby Mexico is supposed to deliver “1.75 million acre feet of […]
Parity As we brought to you earlier this week, there is an increasing chatter in the market about whether EURUSD has the momentum to challenge parity once again. At face value, of course, this would create a meaningful value change in the world’s foremost currency pair which has already seen a significant exodus of value […]
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