Morning Brief – Markets

Markets

With global equity markets having had a bad day on Friday with losses across the board, as well as oil having dropped $10 and now trading at $68 on NYMEX, the question is does it stop there? Conventional wisdom is that due to last Friday being a day off if not an official holiday for many in the USA, volumes were thin anyway so that selling pressure had a disproportionate effect. The trouble with that argument is that COVID cases are steadily increasing in all countries and at present the science is still to be able to determine whether the new Omicron strain can be suppressed by available vaccines. Add to that uncertainty with both acres of newsprint and also with hours of soundbites, and the market is understandably reluctant to take a wait and see attitude. It is unlikely to be much clearer for another week or two as to whether this is a squall or the beginning of a rather larger storm. And that’s what markets dislike: uncertainty with potential bad news. Meanwhile the go to global protection asset classes, 10 Year US Treasury Bonds at 1.48% and USD with EUR/USD at 1.1295 in early trading in Asia.

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Those readers with access to BBC iPlayer might well enjoy the well-made 2015 film of the true story of a Hindu clerk named, Srinivasa Ramanujan who journeys to Cambridge from his home in Madras, India to study and publish his ground breaking mathematical work. Starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons and featuring Stephen Fry, it is definitely worth a watch if you are a numbers nut, and also if you are not. USD/INR at 74.50.

New Zealand

The great post pandemic unwind goes on: one of our readers planned a trip to New Zealand in those far off days of 2019 when it seemed sensible to lock in hotel, flight and car rental bookings. At that time GBP/NZD stood at 1.92 so very close to where it stands now at 1.95. Initially there were no NZD refunds offered to him, just credit notes, but now at the end of 2021 and with little prospect of unrestricted access to NZ any time soon, refunds are starting but only via the banks. Oh dear. That luckless reader is (sort of) pleased to get refunds but is not enjoying the exchange rate from his bank(RBS if you are wondering). His point is that he would be very happy to buy NZD v GBP at 2.01 against future travel plans which is the rate applied by RBS- and would have preferred a refund in NZD rather than a reduced amount of GBP courtesy of RBS.

Something

It was this day in 1969 that the Beatles had a hit with Something which promptly went to Number One. Written by George Harrison, it marked a sea change from the Lennon/ McCartney writing partnership that had dominated the group’s output.

Here it is 52 years later and timeless:

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don’t need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

You’re asking me will my love grow
I don’t know, I don’t know
You stick around, now it may show
I don’t know, I don’t know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me
I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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