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
Opportunity for a weaker Dollar The passing of month-end allows markets an opportunity to reassess currency valuations. Despite a cooling off within the Dollar as forecasted following the agreement between the White House and Kevin McCarthy, month end flows yesterday showed favourable conditions for a short-term Dollar resurgence. The beginning of June coincided with headlines […]
Turkish Lira While President Erdogan removed the uncertainty overhanging the Turkish market by winning the election in the run off over the weekend, the news served to cement the certainty that nothing much was likely to change with respect to Turkish economic policy or indeed the subservient role of the Central Bank of Turkey to […]
Did EURUSD miss the news? Over the weekend, the President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives reached a much-awaited deal on the US debt ceiling. The impending constraint on debt could have forced the shutdown of government departments and precluded the US government from servicing costs and existing debts, triggering a default. The […]