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
Will they, won’t they It’s one week to the day until the next Bank of England decision. It will prove critical to the value of GBP and perhaps prove to be a defining feature of the currency market for at least the first quarter of this calendar year. Bank rate in the UK currently sits […]
Inflation With markets as ever getting ahead of themselves by many having decided that the inflation peak is a yesterday thing, there is a dawning realisation that with the current levels of USA 6.5%, 9.2% UK and 10.4% EU as at Dec 2022, inflation is not only well above target of 2% but is still […]
UK Government Borrowing By Numbers Many people have a disconnect when it comes to linking government finances with their own-bring on the idea of teaching finance as part of the school curriculum-however, yesterday’s release showing the government borrowing figures fall into the category of both attention grabbing but so eye watering that many will likely […]