SGM-FX insights

Hats off, Masks on   In March this year, the pandemic unmasked the fragility of European risk sharing (pardon the pun). Not only did the Union not have adequate risk sharing procedures in place on the fiscal and monetary front but it also felt like every man for himself. Cross border state aid and the […]

What’s safer than a Swiss Bank?   The answer turns out to be a Swiss rock vault carved out of a mountain. Bruega Mega Safe are offering clients ready to spring a minimum of $500,000 for a space in the vault that will be the size of 10 football pitches and will house gold, art, […]

US Dollar   Pretty much across the board yesterday the greenback saw declines including against the Chinese Yuan up 2.5% since its low two months ago, the Euro, GBP, Swedish Kronor, Norwegian Kronor and NZ Dollar. Some of this was prompted by a further rise in Chinese equities ( CSI300 Index on a 5 year […]

Bonus Season   Yesterday afternoon’s charismatic speech by Chancellor Rishi Sunak in the House of Commons was peppered with bellows of “hear hear” from PM Johnson from the front bench. The Chancellor had built up a bit of a reputation for under promising and over delivering in the past few months of his trial-by-fire ministerial […]

US Airlines   Chicago USA based United saw a sharp decline in both bookings and also by 5.5% in its share price yesterday. Having revived until a couple of weeks ago, following the imposition of a 14 day quarantine rule in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, United led the way with all US airlines […]

Another Round?   As ‘Super Saturday’ subsided into crapulent Sunday, the UK’s hospitality industry received a welcome boost. Opening their doors for the first time in more than 100 days, pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and more welcomed customers back (from 1+ metres away). Of those of you that did frequent the pub or eat out in […]

Central Bank Economic Optimism   The Bank of England has now been joined by the Banque de France with the assertion that the French economy too is performing more strongly than expected and is pulling out of the economic trough more quickly than anticipated. The markets are totting up the increase in savings as more […]

USA   POTUS understandably given his current polling, lost no time in hailing the increase of 4.8 Million jobs in June announced yesterday afternoon as a further example of why he should be returned in November as the architect of bringing the USA out of the Covid lockdown and resultant economic trough. As seasoned market […]

Another Round?   One of the more noble of public surveys carried out recently came from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). They asked UK adults whether they will be heading to the pub in the near future as they open their doors to the public for the first time in 103 days (not that […]

H2 2020 Starts Here!   Last night at the end of Q2 and H1 Gold inched over the $1800 line on Comex- the highest it has reached since 2011 which was the highest it has achieved in the past 20 years. Oil WTI up at $39. 10 year German Bonds yield -47bp or you will […]

Where do we go now?   Sterling has weighed heavy into the start of this weak. Economic data has been revised down for the first quarter of 2020 to -2.2% from a figure of -2.0% previously estimated. The reason for the revision was a deterioration in the current account showing that ahead of the pandemic […]

UK Markets   GBP caught up in both its own domestic challenges as well as the competing currents of a fluctuating USD and what has been a strong EUR in past weeks has rather quietly been slipping versus most currencies. Fortunately, few Brits are watching the exchange rate due to travels restrictions, but come Wednesday […]