Yesterday was a challenge for all market commentators who had had an easy summer being negative about all things UK EU: good news of a likely breakthrough in negotiations.
However not all was lost: the UK employment figures were released and showed a fall of 56K in employment versus an expected fall of 26K. Cue hand wringing. Never mind that the employment figures are still almost the best ever, yesterday the unemployment level went from 3.8% to 3.9%. Statistically irrelevant. GBP could not have cared less as it was focused on the drama being played out between Brussels and Westminster. GBP back at best levels in the past 6 months.
Another day and another partner pulls out: this time it’s the turn of the owner of Booking.com to withdraw from the Facebook currency platform. The comment from Dante Disparte the Libra spokesman that the technology is in place, it’s just the regulators that are the problem, says it all. Displacing the global payments system and substituting a new form of money was never going to be easy. Satisfying the guardians of the entire global monetary system is thankfully much harder.
Is the Greek name for Tel Meggido and is in fact the name of a real place in Israel which has been destroyed and rebuilt 25 times in its 4,400 history. Christian teaching informs us that Tel Meggido is where the final battle for the world will occur and is a key staging post on the route taken by trade caravans from Syria and Mesopotamia to Egypt. So next time you are in a pub quiz and the Armageddon question comes up, you can effortlessly, flaunt these facts. Meanwhile we live in hope that certain global leaders do not have the level of knowledge enjoyed by readers of the SGM-FX Daily Briefing!
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder
Click Here to Subscribe to the SGM-FX Newsletter
Related Insights
Morning Brief – European Interest Rates
Humphrey Percy
Wed 6 Dec 2023
European Interest Rates More momentum on rate cuts in the Eurozone as expectations grew for cuts starting in March and totalling 140bps in 2024. Equally in the UK cuts of 130bps starting in June are being pencilled in to market calendars. What this means is that GBP/EUR is looking more than especially good value at […]
Morning Brief – UK
Humphrey Percy
Mon 4 Dec 2023
UK With 2 year mortgage rates less than 4% and 5 years at 4.39%, the implication for the housing market which has responded by a modest 0.2% rise, is that rates are soon going to fall and that the UK economy is stabilising. While there will doubtless be setbacks to this rose tinted scenario, for […]
Morning Brief – UK Labour market
Humphrey Percy
Wed 29 Nov 2023
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 […]
