Our Daily Brief provides insights into the news and views driving today’s foreign currency exchange rates.
Singapore and I.T. Population 5.6 million: Covid19 cases 28,000 or 0.5%. Deaths 22-a shining example of a successful virus fighting strategy. However the new Singapore contact and trace App with only a take up by 25% of the population has got off to a shaky start: 357 people were texted informing them they had […]
Valuation Check As the second trading day of this week begins it is apparent that the market is enjoying a wave of optimism. Due to the distress in financial markets throughout the lockdown we have seen the cyclical price action of meandering sentiment feed through to the foreign exchange markets more strongly than ever. […]
America Inc With the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia topping up its holdings in US stocks, the market will take note and be of cheer especially as those stocks include Boeing, Citigroup, Bank of America and Facebook. PIF now holds $10 Billion in US stocks versus $2 Billion at the beginning of […]
The World’s largest fresh produce market: Rungis Market 234 hectares, EUR 9 billion turnover, 1200 companies. Where is it? The answer is just 7kms from the centre of Paris, France. Whether it is meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables, flowers, seafood, horticulture or logistics it’s all here under one roof. But….with restaurants and airlines among […]
Positively not negative In a press conference yesterday Jay Powell distanced himself and his central Bank from the possibility of negative interest rates. It might sound a little dry and with hundreds of thousands of people having already lost their lives to Coronavirus, a little misplaced. However, to the foreign exchange market this news […]
USA Real Estate Reassuring to see that there is still some very very expensive real estate available in these times in the USA. So if any of you fancy a 20 bed mansion with 23 bathrooms in Beverley Hills and are looking for a home for USD 165M, look no further. Likewise and relatively(?) […]
National Technology Day Today May 11 is indeed National Technology Day in India and it is not only appropriate to celebrate that but also somewhat topical in these Locked Down days when the whole world not just India has recently undertaken crash courses in online technology such as Zoom, Team and other connectivity. Also […]
VE Day: UK Bank Holiday today Today is a holiday in the London market, but SGM-FX is working a full day and is ready to provide a full service for our clients despite all banks being shut. Fashion We are now seeing fashion sales beginning to pick up again -but online […]
Andy’s Outlook The Bank of England had an earlier than usual monetary policy decision this morning. The decision to move the announcement forward to 7am, apart from demanding that the market gets up earlier to monitor how the decision unfolded, also indicated unofficially that the decision was unlikely to introduce policy measures of any […]
Auto Sector: how the future looks(today)by numbers Ferrari announced better than expected revenues at $1.02 billion, makes less than 10,000 cars a year priced between $215K and $1 M and here’s the key point, enjoys a profit margin of 24%. Ferrari has a market cap of $ 30 Billion ahead of General Motors at […]
Five-eyes An exogenous threat always has the capacity to make us reconsider what really matters. In lockdown the things that frustrated us as individuals may now seem to no longer matter or, on the contrary, they may have grown in importance. Whatever the issue and no matter the change in importance, the important thing […]
Airlines: Winner and Losers It is fair to say that the losers currently outnumber the likely winners with Norwegian, South African and Virgin looking especially vulnerable. However news that Lufthansa is close to clinching a EUR 10 Billion lifeline in exchange for 21.5% of their equity shows that if a government wishes to support […]
May 1 and the Markets Here we are on Day 122 with 244 Days to go in 2020 so exactly one third of the way through the year. On February 17 a mere 74 days ago WTI Oil traded at $53. And now it is $17. Gold at present just over $1700. The Dow […]