SGM-FX insights

ZAR FWD   The Rand had gained in excess of 25% versus the US Dollar since the peak of the asset sell off during the early stages of the pandemic. Sure, you could argue that the notable part about that statistic is the extent of the sell-off during the fire sale of risk assets in […]

Fowl Play – Stuffed Turkey   A dramatic move over the course of the weekend has the Turkish Lira on its knees with the monetary credibility of Turkey back at all time lows. Yesterday’s European trading session saw the Lira priced around 10% weaker versus its closing price on Friday afternoon. Given market positioning around […]

Decoupling?   Market watchers not only alerted by US 10 year Treasury yield breaking up to 1.74% but also the US-German 10 Year Yield Curve spread breaking through the key 200 Basis Point mark. This points to markets expecting the US economy to not only outpace but accelerate away from the EU economic performance in […]

ZAR   The US Dollar’s advance in the last week has weighed upon the valuation of emerging market currencies that have a large and unstable burden of hard debt. The South African Rand has sold off against many of its peers as a result of this but has begun to find traction upon signs of […]

Malaysia   Appropriately named, the world’s largest medical gloves manufacturer, Top Glove Corp Bhd posted a record profit yesterday of Malaysian Ringgit 2.87 Billion ($695 million) on revenues of RM 5.37 Billion an increase of almost 340% from last year. Through its competitive Malaysian offering, SGM-FX is seeing an increasing amount of Malaysian Ringgit business […]

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group   Owners of Volvo, Guangzhou based Zhejiang Geely has announced that they will simplify the Volvo range, create transparent pricing and go fully electric by 2030 having already pledged to be 50% electric by 2025. They now join Bentley, Ford and Jaguar, Land Rover that have made the same pledge to […]

False signal   As a barometer of the world economy the price of oil is watched closely. Due to the relatively inelastic demand and supply of oil, at least in the short run, higher oil prices tend to be a signal of a more active global economy. Therefore movement of energy market tickers higher can […]

St Valentine   Named after two martyrs both named Valentine executed by Roman Emperor Claudius ll in the 3rd century AD on 14 February(14-02-0002), Valentines Day now enjoys worldwide commercial success. It started off as a pagan festival which was then adopted by the Catholic Church before taking off with cards, flowers and gifts being […]

Ocado   British online grocery, Ocado not only announced soaring annual earnings of 69% yesterday but felt sufficiently confident to announce that the future of food retailing had changed-for ever. No longer will shoppers choose to visit supermarkets, but will instead click and await delivery. Ocado’s hook up with Marks and Spencer is going very […]

501. V2   Having begun its program only a week ago, the plug has been pulled on South Africa’s immediate immunisation through vaccination plan. The first doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine entered South Africa last week, greeted at the airport by the President and ministerial officials who hailed the delivery as a milestone in […]

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)   This week will see the UK applying to join this trading bloc that includes Canada, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Japan, Peru, Singapore and Viet Nam. Negotiations will start later in 2021. The attraction is that this bloc aims to remove almost all trade […]

Global Growth   This weekend has seen the first cautioning by both the Federal Reserve and the IMF that the global economy may not snap back in 2021 in the anticipated V shape and may be more of an elongated U due to the time that it will take to rollout the Covid vaccine. Consequently […]