Commodities: Gold at $1318, WTI Oil at $59.83, Both up more than 1%
Currencies: GBP weaker following the PM writing to Eurozone applying for an extension yesterday. A rally in GBP only likely if the PM gets her deal through; right now with the PM’s late night speech, a NoDeal is back on the table as being a possibility and GBP reflects that. USD weaker.
Equities: FTSE 7291, Dow 25,745. Both down 0.5%.
I0 year Govt Yields: US 2.53, Germany 0.08, UK 1.16, France 0.46, Italy 2.53, Japan -0.04
Fed Chairman now sees NO rate rises in 2019 and Treasury yields fell to the lowest in the past year.
(But at a cost-see below) In case you missed this statistic: last Saturday was the EIGHTEENTH consecutive Saturday that Les Gilets Jaunes demonstrated in Paris marking this by burning down a restaurant, causing much damage by rioting in the Champs Elysees and not showing much sign of changing their plans for this coming Saturday. All this within a couple of hundred metres of the Elysees Palace, home to Le President himself, Emanuel Macron-surely just a little embarrassed by his ineffectualness to stem the hurt to the capital and its inhabitants? Still at least Eurostar is working….uh oh …..!
The 10 Most expensive Cities in the World
If you are an ex pat living in one of the world’s ten most expensive cities, you probably know how expensive your chosen city is already. Interesting though to see how those cities stack up. Here is the list and of course as with all statistics, when the list says the top 10, there are of course 11!
1= Singapore, Paris, Hong Kong
4= Zurich
5= Geneva, Osaka
7= Seoul, Copenhagen, New York
10= Tel Aviv, Los Angeles
Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

A short lived short squeeze? Sterling is undoubtedly benefitting from a short squeeze. Traders on net had increased positions that benefit from Sterling’s demise leading into the budget. Depending upon the participant’s persuasion, that could have meant gaining an outright short exposure to the currency or, in a more mild form, trimming any or all […]
Sterling slides Sterling took a leg lower ahead of the European open yesterday. Despite some tentative signs of recovery, GBP was still unable to claw back losses incurred during yesterday’s session. Before we cover the cause and implications of yesterday’s stumble amongst GBP crosses, let’s look at why the Pound was set up for a […]
But does it mean anything for FX? The story of the week also therefore makes it the story of the year so far. The United States’ capture of Venezuelan President Maduro is the hot topic, but does it hold any material impact to markets? Well, there was certainly some significant moves in FX during yesterday’s […]