SGM-FX insights

South Korea   Known sometimes as “Delivery nation” and its citizens as “Delivery minjok” which means delivery race, even before Covid-19, the expectation is for everything to be available for delivery and often within hours. The delivery staff are often worked as hard if not harder than Amazon fulfilment centre workers- the difference being that […]

Care   Yesterday evening the United Kingdom learned that its Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, had been moved to the intensive care unit of St Thomas’ Hospital following a deterioration in his condition. We wish the Prime Minister a speedy and thorough recovery from the virus. Last night it was easy to see Twitter warriors condemning […]

Luckin Coffee   We have written previously about this Nasdaq quoted Chinese wannabe rival to Starbucks. It all seems a bit passé now in present circumstances with all cafe chains shut for drink in business, but Luckin’s shares having stood at $50 in January they fell to less than $10 on Friday night. It’s a […]

Market News   Oil firmer to $22 on the back of POTUS saying that he is expecting Russia and Saudi Arabia to reach agreement on both supplies and pricing soon. USD stronger. Equity markets remarkably stable on the back of horrible but expected US Unemployment figures with 6.65 million new claims. France is preparing a second stimulus […]

One Step Forward…   As avid observers of financial markets we spend a lot of our waking hours keeping up to date with market sensitive news. It is an important pursuit to stay on top of markets and the source of that news can come from (virtually) anywhere. Over the last couple of years I’ve […]

V or U?   Studying the various analyses issued throughout the day from the Far East through to Europe and on to North America on this topic, it is important to appreciate that the authors of these reports simply do not know whether the economic recession is going to be a sharp V or a […]

Tunnel vision   The coronavirus epicentre has migrated from Wuhan, Hubei province, through China, before migrating to Europe with Italy and Spain the best observable example of the exponential growth phase. The next epicentre of the coronavirus will be the United States having now recorded more confirmed cases than China. A fall in the number […]

OPEC+   The Russians have now said that if other countries agree to join them, Russia will be willing to re-open negotiations with OPEC. In reply-although it was definitively not a reply- the Saudis have said that they have not received any such overtures. It is in the rest of the world’s interests for OPEC+ […]

End of the Week Round Up   It is positive if not fully refreshing to be able to comment that at $22.88 WTI Oil has steadied, stock markets put in a second decent session yesterday after an early wobble in Europe, gold is at $1628 and GBP has clawed its way back to its best […]

Lekke to be lekke   An Afrikaans ish phrase meaning it’s nice to be nice.. or so I’m told. In the times we find ourselves in, there seems to be value in examining exactly how nice is nice enough. Take the UK government’s call for citizens to volunteer to support the NHS. As Boris Johnson […]

For UK Business Readers   Here is a useful summary of what the UK Government is offering UK businesses:     For those of you who submit self assessment returns, before you ignore the item above, do look at the final box above which does help.   Markets   Too early to heave a sigh of […]

There goes the kitchen sink   Markets have been talking about the ‘double punch’ that unsettled the benign and plain financial paradigm that we existed in for many years. The full-on right hook came from the Coronavirus that manifested as a simultaneous shock to supply and demand. The left hook came like some kind of bizarre […]