SGM-FX insights

Unprecedented Action   Last night’s Federal Reserve action underlined the commitment of global monetary authorities’ to tackle the economic fallout from the virus. The Currency Market is opening steady from the move late on Friday night which no doubt lay behind the weekend decision. GBP a cent stronger versus USD but still sharply lower than […]

Markets Maelstrom   News early on in the day yesterday that Central Banks were ready to inject a stimulus by way of more liquidity and to create still easier monetary conditions to combat the economic effects of Coronavirus cheered stock and oil markets further. Then statements from the G7 in the morning and the pre-emptive […]

Singapore Money Management   In the wake of the Hong Kong demonstrations and the recent questions as to the HK authorities’ management of the Coronavirus outbreak, Singapore is making much of the fact that the number of applications for money management licenses in Singapore has increased from an annual average of 180 to 200 in […]

Aston Martin   Phew. It really was last chance saloon for the iconic carmaker when Lawrence Stroll, the FI investor opened his wallet on Friday and hey presto a GBP 500 Billion bailout was secured. Lawrence Stroll made his money by being an early investor in brands such as Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors and Polo […]

No small issue   Buyers of Rand have enjoyed the sell-off in the South African currency so far this year. Sellers on the other hand have displayed concern throughout the market as the South African economy embarks upon quite the first quarter of the decade. This shift in sentiment has been responsible for the change […]

History and Hong Kong   News that China is considering the nomination of Shenzhen as a business centre is an unequivocal message to Hong Kong: continuing civil disturbance will be punished. Shenzhen is already a major city with a population of 12.5 million located on the east bank of the Pearl River Estuary on the […]

Fishermens’ Friends   In Jiangsu Province, Eastern China there is a coastline 620Km long which faces Japan and South Korea with Taiwan 500 kms to the south. There is also a large US presence in that region. All those countries including China keep a close watch on each other, and the chosen way to do […]

US-China   End of the beginning or beginning of the end? Markets took heart on Friday with news that the two sides have reached agreement in the nick of time ahead of the imposition of those increased tariffs yesterday December 15. Japan’s Nikkei surged 2.5% to a new 14 month high and the Shanghai Blue […]

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 […]

Get Real   Apart from yet another BRLliant equivocation for a title, pause for applause, it’s apparent that the foreign exchange market is getting worried about equilibrium price action affording a seller of 1 US Dollars 4.2 Brazilian Real. With widespread pension reform hailed to take place in 2019, the market entered 2019 with high […]

INR   They say that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes. Whilst far too gloomy for my bright and sanguine eyes, just how certain are these two certainties? In the case of India and particularly taxation, the predictability of these words, attributed to Founding Father of the United States Benjamin Franklin, are […]

Negative   In a hailed return to phraseology I condone the expression “no news is good news”. Sure it has its flaws but it’s watertight in circumstances when it is deployed to mean that without information to the contrary we might assume that all is well. I’m also, quite obviously and tautologically, willing to accept […]