SGM-FX insights

China and Hong Kong: enigma   The incredibly successful statistics from China throw out a big question of which more below. Between 1952 and 2018 GDP averaged 8.1%. Life expectancy has risen from 35 in 1949 to 77 today. 770M people have been taken out of poverty since 1978. More than $2 trillion has entered […]

Largest Risk Facing Global Economy   This is the lack of policy instruments at the disposal of central banks in the event of a financial crisis: with interest rates on historic lows and the ability to provide any fiscal stimulus heavily curtailed, the options available are limited. Nothing obvious in the way of a solution […]

Gladiators, are you ready?   I’m sure BBC Parliament has never had quite so many viewers as it enjoyed yesterday. Markets were fixated as usual with the political developments of the day in their pursuit to value domestic equity, currency and fixed income assets, but this time the population also turned to the Commons. Johnson, […]

NoDeal Brexit: What the bookies say: And Over the Rainbow   After yesterday’s court ruling and with 37 days left to the current deadline: 40% probability of NoDeal. And that is despite the Benn Amendment that prevents the U.K. leaving with NoDeal(!) Meanwhile the cliff edge uncertainty has sent UK factory output expectations to a […]

Sagging   Of the $6.6tn daily foreign exchange market, trading across the two leviathans, EUR and USD, takes the lion’s share. In normal times then, the sheer weight of demand and supply behind both of these two major currencies makes the EURUSD pair relatively flat. However, when presented with a big enough reason, the value […]

China: The Growth Story   Bizarre really that market analysts are wringing their collective hands because China’s growth for this quarter may dip below 6% after 6.2% in the last reported March to June period. In Europe’s anaemic world, we can only dream about such a figure. Needless to say the headlines will all reflect […]

Windfall or the Economics of the Madhouse   To most of us including the Cambridge English Dictionary a windfall is an amount of money that you win or receive unexpectedly. The managers of Eurozone economics view a windfall as being money that they have saved due to lower global interest rates. Now this may seem […]

Crude Responses: Oil and Brexit   The attacks over the weekend on Saudi Aramco’s eastern facilities have moved foreign exchange markets. Unlike a lot of financial headlines at the moment, this serious threat to the provision of global energy looks as though it could have an enduring impact upon global FX. Throughout yesterday’s European trading […]

European Central Bank stimulus   As expected a fresh stimulus package was approved by the ECB yesterday which saw the deposit rate cut to -0.5% and the restart of EUR 20 Billion bond purchases per month starting November and with no announced end date. Analysts are still sifting through the tea leaves of outgoing Governor […]

WeWork: Nice work if you can get it- they can’t as it turns out…   Goldman Sachs had previously advised a pre IPO valuation of $65Billion for the trendy hipster office sharing business. Smaller businesses have been struggling to find office space in all major cities worldwide as WeWork have relentlessly mopped up multi occupancy […]

Volfefe   The President of the United States of America needn’t exercise all of his 280-character quota (including spaces) to upset financial markets. In fact deploying the full arsenal of a tweet might be too crass for the reserved and presidential billionaire. However, his contentious Twitter account “@realDonaldTrump” moves interest rate; currency and equity markets […]

Markets, GBP and Brexit   So much to write about so many different aspects of the political maelstrom in which UK plc is currently being buffeted, but in the end it comes down to just three potential outcomes:  1. NoDeal Exit. 2. Exit with a Deal. 3. No Exit.  Such is the frustration caused by […]