With WTI lower at $88.90 a barrel, the question is whether the price returns to what the oil market has described as the floor of $100 post the recent wobble on the global economy or whether that wobble turns into further weakening of the oil price predicated by the need for further tough medicine against inflation leading to a (deeper) recession. OPEC are unshaken in their view on this and have said that demand will increase strongly in the next year due to consumers switching from expensive natural gas to oil fired heating.
The new UK Health Secretary called on the NHS to abandon the use of the Oxford comma. Because I did not go to Oxford and being ignorant of this grammatical geegaw, I looked it up. It is a comma before the “and” in the following sentence: Where are the USD,GBP, and EUR going in the next 6 months? Somehow at SGM-FX we have managed to soldier on in the global FX markets without the Oxford comma for the past few years. In answer to the question posed in the sentence: USD remains strong although currently taking a breath at EUR/USD 0.9980, GBP is becalmed in what some fear is the eye of the storm. Anything to do with EUR is overshadowed by the EU wide energy crisis. As for Therese Coffey’s call to her colleagues: it has gone down as badly as it possibly could, and has been described as “patronising.” GBP/USD 1.1490
Normally when Glaswegians are reported seeing shooting stars at 10 at night from their front rooms, it is put down as over indulgence In Scotland’s national drink. However no less an authority than the International Meteor Organization apart from confirming 800 different reports from Northern Ireland and Western Scotland has advised that given the speed that the bright light was moving on Wednesday night, it was likely to be part of a satellite that was streaking across the night sky before burning itself out.
GBP/EUR unmoved at 1.1505.
This day in 2015, Sothebys announced that they were auctioning Janis Joplin’s pearl white 1965 Porsche 365 c 1600 Cabriolet painted with a flower power mural which she drove until her death in October 1970. Her devotion to the Porsche marque did not prevent her singing what is arguably her most famous song:
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
So, oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
Dialing For Dollars is trying to find me
I wait for delivery each day until three
So, oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV?
Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
I’m counting on you Lord, please don’t let me down
Prove that you love me and buy the next round
Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a night on the town?
Everybody
Oh, Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends
So, oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
That’s it
Have a Great Weekend!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Data Day Despite salient data already having been published in China and France so far this morning, we are far from finished with the deluge of data due to reach the market today. The most important of which will be those that we have signposted in earlier briefings: Eurozone and US inflation figures. Given just […]
Eurozone That was a surprise: yesterday the EU announced that inflation had fallen to 2.4% which was considerably better than the 2.7% that markets had expected. Despite the ECB saying it was far too early to cut rates, the market has pencilled in the first cut for April. Before getting carried away it should be […]
UK Labour market The Bank of England yesterday broke cover to drive the message home that due to the UK’s labour market remaining tight, it was premature to start talking interest rate cuts and it was not just Governor Bailey who was calling for higher for longer interest rates but also his MEPC colleague Jonathan […]