SGM-FX insights

Medupi   Taking to Twitter in his weekly Presidential address, Cyril Ramaphosa discussed the tale of grandeur and shortcomings that has engulfed South Africa’s newest and largest power stations. The President went on to criticise the building of Medupi power station and its twin Kusile, a project which Zuma’s successor blames for much of the […]

What If: UK Equities Market post General Election   The main theme of your questions in the past two weeks has been what might happen in the Equity market after the election. So with four days until we get the result, we are going to have a go which is based on what the markets […]

GBP   Finishing the week at its best levels for some time with the market anticipating a clear Conservative majority. Fully priced for where we are with 6 days to the Election and 7 until we get the result.     Macron and Pension Reform   Not unreasonably President Macron is attempting to introduce economic […]

The bigger they are, the harder they fall   9/10. Today’s Britishism above isn’t half bad. Whether subject to a physical, empirical examination of the pure mass of an object and the Newtonian force with which it falls or a more normative evaluation of how a highly regarded truth or person loses their status, it […]

OPEC and budgeting for energy prices in 2020   This Thursday and Friday OPEC producers and their allies will be talking about adding to the existing curbs on production. What that means and Goldman Sachs concurs, is that the oil price will firm to over $60 per barrel in 2020 from the current level of […]

Turbulence   As Air Force One landed in London Stansted Airport yesterday a swathe of helicopters and vehicles greeted it. Strategically posted around the runway, the imposing presence wasn’t protestors and news agencies finding out more about the tariffs that Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had been surprising markets with back across the Atlantic. Instead they […]

Average Global Property Prices   Leading the pack with an average US$2091 per sq foot is Hong Kong. A long way behind are Singapore with $1063 and Paris with $985. London $776, Shanghai $714 and Shenzhen $726 follow with New York $526 and Los Angeles $466 at the rear of the leading pack. Remembering that these […]

Eurozone Sentiment   Not just a feeling but an index compiled from key services and industry and consumers by the European Commission in yesterday’s November release shows better sentiment well actually less negative sentiment in most cases, across the board. This is against the backdrop of almost flat-either small negative or positive- economic growth across […]

Losers   It’s a sad state of affairs for the G9 currencies versus the behemoth of their group, the US Dollar. So far this week, the US Dollar has continued its advance to supremacy over its highly liquid, yet less heavily traded, 9 colleagues. Between the 13th and 19th of November, the US Dollar was […]

Turkey: Interest Rates   In July interest rates in Turkey stood at 24% and today they have fallen to 14% with President Erdogan urging the Central Bank to get them down below 10% as soon as possible. The Lira is down 8.5% after depreciating 30% in 2018. Inflation having been 16.5% in July is down […]

German bottom?   Germany narrowly avoided recession thanks to data last week that showed third quarter growth at 0.1%. Congratulations are in order then; the driver of Eurozone growth and manufacturing export champion is back up and running! Hold on, perhaps we should wait a moment before putting the Riesling on ice.    If you […]

Breakfast @Tiffany’s?   Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) announced the acquisition of Tiffany for $16.2 Billion at about the time that you are reading this. This will complement the A to Z of brands that LVMH already own that includes Acqua di Parma, Berluti, Bulgari, Celine, Christian Dior, Dom Pérignon, Fendi, Krug and alphabetically all […]