Morning Brief – UK House Prices

UK House Prices
 

When UK house prices rise and the chattering classes regularly re-calculate the value of the equity in their homes while they scan the pages of the weekend property press, that fascination is often described as middle class porn. Well the stats yesterday consigned that top shelf material to the bin as Nationwide reported that UK property prices have fallen for the first time for 15 months in this case by 0.9%. Rather like Brexit which was blamed for everything from floods to Covid, the cause of this fall was attributed to Trussonomics. Really? Maybe in part, but in a rising interest rate environment, a rising tax take and in the light of global economic uncertainty, it stretches credibility to blame the ill-fated but short tenure of the previous Prime Minister and her Chancellor-especially as interest rates are lower than they were when Liz Truss took office. GBP/USD 1.1505.

Federal Reserve
 

The closely watched 2 day meeting now under way since yesterday morning is expected to result in the fourth consecutive rate rise of 75bps. If that is nailed on why the close interest? The answer is the growing debate on whether a smaller rate rise will achieve the necessary cap on inflation and avoid sending the world’s economy into a prolonged recession. EUR/USD 0.9875

Twitter
 

Still somewhat bemused from discovering only 15 months before the completion last week that Elon Musk was actually anteing up the $44 billion he had promised, the Board of Twitter discovered yesterday that the sinking in gimmick with the kitchen sink was not just a bad dream and that the Board had all “been departed”, while EM had appointed himself as sole Director and CEO. Not much comment yet on corporate governance and the implications of having the mercurial Elon Musk as sole decision maker of such an influential company-but it will surely come.

Spacehub Sutherland
 

Hard on the heels of Spaceport Cornwall which we wrote about last week for their plans for horizontal rocket launches, comes the Scottish riposte which will host the first and probably only vertical rocket launchpad from a remote peat bog in Sutherland, Scotland. Orbex is building what they claim will be the world’s most environmentally friendly space rocket which will pitch satellites into space and create jobs. As for the environmental friendliness: the rockets will be re-useable and the fuel will be clean burning propane derived from vegetable waste. GBP firm on the brink of a UK space age at GBP/EUR 1.1620.

Elvis Presley
 

This day in 1957 The King had no less than 8 songs in the UK Top 40. Ok things were a bit restricted in those days as jazz gave way to rock n’roll and folk, and mainstream pop was a concept yet to be developed; and yes the UK music scene was about to explode with new groups especially from Merseyside which gave us skiffle and the Beatles. But 8 songs for one artist must be a feat that has never been equalled. Here is perhaps the song that epitomised the burgeoning rock n’roll scene: Jailhouse Rock:

The warden threw a party in the county jail
The prison band was there and they began to wail
The band was jumpin’ and the joint began to swing
You should’ve heard those knocked out jailbirds sing

Let’s rock
Everybody, let’s rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock

Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone
Little Joe was blowin’ on the slide trombone
The drummer boy from Illinois went crash, boom, bang
The whole rhythm section was a purple gang

Let’s rock
Everybody, let’s rock
Everybody in the whole cell block
Was dancin’ to the Jailhouse Rock

Discussion and Analysis by Humphrey Percy, Chairman and Founder

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