SGM-FX insights

  Don’t just book it: Thomas Cook it….   Will have a new meaning for the 600,000 customers abroad as at last night of which approximately one third are British and need to be repatriated. The venerable company founded in 1841 has no national significance so will not be saved by the UK Government. Chinese […]

China: The Growth Story   Bizarre really that market analysts are wringing their collective hands because China’s growth for this quarter may dip below 6% after 6.2% in the last reported March to June period. In Europe’s anaemic world, we can only dream about such a figure. Needless to say the headlines will all reflect […]

Top Trumps   As eagle eyed purveyors of the foreign exchange market I’m sure each of you reading this would have been keeping a watchful eye over the actions of the Federal Reserve Bank in the United States and UK inflation yesterday. In fact, both events seem like they might go down as the two most important […]

Windfall or the Economics of the Madhouse   To most of us including the Cambridge English Dictionary a windfall is an amount of money that you win or receive unexpectedly. The managers of Eurozone economics view a windfall as being money that they have saved due to lower global interest rates. Now this may seem […]

Crude Responses: Oil and Brexit   The attacks over the weekend on Saudi Aramco’s eastern facilities have moved foreign exchange markets. Unlike a lot of financial headlines at the moment, this serious threat to the provision of global energy looks as though it could have an enduring impact upon global FX. Throughout yesterday’s European trading […]

All eyes on Oil Price Today   The market is expected to send WTI oil up by $5-10 in the wake of the Houthi rebels disrupting Saudi oil supplies amounting to approximately 5% of global oil supplies. What is rattling traders more is the US assertion that the attack in the early hours of Saturday […]

European Central Bank stimulus   As expected a fresh stimulus package was approved by the ECB yesterday which saw the deposit rate cut to -0.5% and the restart of EUR 20 Billion bond purchases per month starting November and with no announced end date. Analysts are still sifting through the tea leaves of outgoing Governor […]

How much?!   Outside my window in Johannesburg there is an electronic billboard that, when not tempting me with the nation’s latest trendy tipple, displays an advert claiming South Africa’s best savings rate. On a 60-month fixed term the investment promises returns in excess of 13%. I haven’t been fortunate enough to catch the fine […]

WeWork: Nice work if you can get it- they can’t as it turns out…   Goldman Sachs had previously advised a pre IPO valuation of $65Billion for the trendy hipster office sharing business. Smaller businesses have been struggling to find office space in all major cities worldwide as WeWork have relentlessly mopped up multi occupancy […]

Volfefe   The President of the United States of America needn’t exercise all of his 280-character quota (including spaces) to upset financial markets. In fact deploying the full arsenal of a tweet might be too crass for the reserved and presidential billionaire. However, his contentious Twitter account “@realDonaldTrump” moves interest rate; currency and equity markets […]

Markets, GBP and Brexit   So much to write about so many different aspects of the political maelstrom in which UK plc is currently being buffeted, but in the end it comes down to just three potential outcomes:  1. NoDeal Exit. 2. Exit with a Deal. 3. No Exit.  Such is the frustration caused by […]

GBP   This week unkind wags have renamed the Great British Pound the Great British Peso in a reference to the gyrations of GBP which are more akin to an emerging market currency than a mainstream one. Those of us with longer memories view the current 1-2 cent moves on the day with less trepidation, […]