SGM-FX insights

Brexit status and timetable as at Friday 08-03-19: the next week.   In the slow motion car crash saga of cliff hangers and deadlines, the UK Parliament has decided that today is the last day for a deal to be done ahead of the vote on the Prime Minister’s deal which has now been confirmed […]

Global Markets   Dow sold off down to 25,673 and FTSE flat at 7196. Oil WTI at $56. Gold unchanged at $1303. GBP slipping lower every day on increasingly likely chance of NoDeal Brexit. USD marginally weaker. Today it’s ECB watch day- watch out for them moving growth forecasts lower. OECD is now forecasting global growth […]

Global Markets   GBP weaker following increased speculation that UK Attorney General Geoffrey Cox has not achieved much in the way of success on his trip yesterday to Brussels. No marked impact from Governor Mark Carney’s testimony to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.FTSE up 49 at 7183, Dow pretty much flat at 25,806. […]

  Oil WTI easier at $56.32, FTSE at 7134 and Dow at 25,819. GBP has given up the gains made last week and is now back to previous levels against USD and EUR as markets weigh the likely path towards 29-03-19 and more immediately to 12-03-19.   With just over a week to go until […]

Global Markets   With stock markets ending the week in a positive frame of mind following more encouraging economic data from China and the perceived likelihood of a trade deal, the USD strengthened across the board for the third day in succession. This has outweighed the negativity of the India-Pakistan tensions and the failure of […]

Markets   Stock markets globally fell on the news that the Trump-Kim summit at the Hotel Metropole in Hanoi- made famous notably by “Hanoi Jane” Fonda during the Vietnam war in the early 1970’s- had produced no outcome other than Trump explaining that the deal on offer from North Korea to decommission some of its […]

UK Pensions Claimants living in Europe   There are approximately 400,000 pensioners living in Europe and all of them are wondering what a No Deal Brexit means for them and what it will mean with or without a Deal for GBP. SGM-FX have a growing number of pensioners who fall into this category and to […]

Focus on Asia driving equity markets   More news about President Trump meeting North Korea’s President Kim in Vietnam yesterday and depending on how things develop with China, he is contemplating inviting President Xi to his Mar a Lago Estate in Florida for a summit. There Is plenty of gold there to make the Chinese […]

Global Markets   Good news from Asia with reports on substantial progress on negotiations between the US and China on trade. Chinese stocks rose 5.6%-the most since 2015- accompanied to a much lesser extent by all other Asian indices.    GBP remains firm against EUR and USD which weakened slightly against the EUR. Now with […]

Purchasing Power Parity and the Big Mac Index   More about Purchasing Power Parity or PPP which we wrote about last week: the old benchmark which best describes this measurement was started by the Economist newspaper in 1986 and monitors a basket of shopping containing just one item: the cost of a Big Mac in […]

Taking stock at the end of the last full week in February 2019   The U.S. equity market has returned to its previous high over the past 3 months at 25,850 but will have to add a further 1000 points to reach its high of 6 months ago and highest to date. FTSE steady at […]

Global Economic Ranking over the years 2000 to 2023   While we are all clear as to the size of the two largest economies ranked by their Purchasing Power Parity, once we get beyond them let’s be honest while we can normally hazard a guess at the largest of the next largest world economies, we […]