SGM-FX insights

A is for..     A LOT of Money. In an otherwise tranquil and unremarkable market environment yesterday, US technology stock Apple managed to secure a $2 Trillion Dollar valuation. The company known for making iPhones and other such sought after gadgets has one of the healthiest profit margins on the Nasdaq, routinely registering in […]

Currencies and Hurricanes   The hurricane season officially starts each year on June 1 and lasts 5 months but normally is fiercest from the beginning of September until mid October. Currencies likewise tend to be more volatile in exactly the same period. True to form the USD traded at a 2 year low yesterday, GBP […]

Explosion   The decline in the US Dollar has been caused by three things 1) the explosion in ‘money’ and debt 2) the collapse in real yields underlying the Dollar and 3) a lack of control over the virus in the United States. This trifecta of threats to the US Dollar has accommodated the appreciation […]

Thai Baht   With increasingly strident anti government demonstrations in Bangkok yesterday evening, concern is growing that Thailand is once again seeing unrest on a scale that matches the events in 2014 that resulted in a change of government and a coup. At the end of last year Thai Baht (THB) was trading around 30 […]

Order   The United States needed a fifth round of fiscal stimulus. Much like the very virus the economic support is in place to stave away; if you cut the course of antibiotics mid-way through the infection the virus will win and the patient will deteriorate. Unemployment benefits for American workers had expired last month, […]

Data Sharing: India   The Indian government plan to regulate non personal data which will cramp the plans of Facebook, Amazon and Google in particular as they all view India’s 1.4 Billion population as a very enticing and juicy market. In short this will tighten up the rules on data transfer and US big data […]

U.S. Labour market   A further 262,649 job cuts in July were announced by U.S. employers yesterday reflecting more heat going out of the pre Covid U.S. employment market. This represents an increase of 54% over June’s figure and brings the total cuts year to date to 1.85 million. The record was set in 2001 […]

Soothsayer   In the last few weeks there has been a prominent voice siding with more radical interpretations of the status and path that the global economy is on. Claiming the beginning of the Dollar’s debasement, it is the voice of Goldman Sachs that now brings the market a stark warning about government debt and […]

Turkey: Short and Caught?   Being short of Turkish Lira will cost 1050% to borrow overnight in the offshore market as the local market has been drained following heavy state intervention executed through the state banks in the past week-probably more than $2.5 Billion taking the state $ sales to over $65 Billion. That Lira […]

Pitter Patter   On the more eclectic scale of renewable energy concepts was to harness the power of walking. By not having a completely fixed pathway, a pavement could rest upon dampers that could harness the kinetic energy of the pathway generated by people walking up and down the street. If you don’t think the […]

Mexico   Like other countries with huge diaspora working overseas such as the Philippines, the amount of remittances or funds from those workers that are sent home each month is keenly watched in Mexico City. Despite evidence that suggests that casual workers have seen their earnings crater in most countries during LockDown, for Mexico at […]

  China Politburo   China’s monetary policy will be more flexible and its fiscal policy more proactive in H2 2020. While a long way from embracing Western human rights values as we know, China is demonstrating that its economic approach is completely different today to how it was when the First 5 year Plan focussing […]