SGM-FX insights

UK Consumer Spending   Bags of confidence from the UK consumer in July despite what both Westminster and the press are telling us about the UK population being on the edge of despair: 95,000 mortgages approved amounting to £26.1 billion, credit card spending up 8.2% to £12 billion from the same month in 2018-the highest […]

Summer Turkey   An escalation of the trade war in the first half of the fine August Bank holiday weekend gave way to calmer headlines and reprieve at the G-7 in France. Plainer sailing has greeted markets so far this morning with major pairs priced relatively in line with their Friday close. However, there were […]

Squashed Tomatoes   The threat of a US tariff on Mexico’s tomato exports of 17% has been lifted. In the 1980s every US citizen consumed 5.5KG of tomatoes annually; that has now increased to 10KG. So a big deal for US consumers and a very big deal for Mexican tomato growers. Caramba!     Covered […]

Brussels Sprouts Little   Sure, Johnson met Merkel in Berlin yesterday but you try and make a pun suggesting political frustration and Germany’s capital city! Suggestions welcome! Now, in the real world this week, Sterling has been pushed higher (Monday), dragged lower (Tuesday and Wednesday) on whims of reports of progress and then frustration on the […]

Ten Best Countries to live and work in   1. Switzerland  2. Singapore 3. Canada 4. Spain 5. New Zealand 6. Australia 7. Turkey 8. Germany 9. UAE 10.Vietnam Source: HSBC Expat Explorers Survey   All countries and currencies that SGM-FX does business and a judicious apportionment between Europe(3) Asia(3) Oceania(2) and Americas(1).     […]

In the long run, we’re all dead   The quotation above is from legendary British economist John Maynard Keynes. These thoughts were offered in relation to the phenomena of fixed exchange rates but resonate strongly when considering yesterday’s market movements. US Commerce Secretary, Wilbur Ross, announced yesterday that the Trump administration would delay sanctions on […]

Market round up   Equities managed a respectable gain on Friday which left the market at the end of the week looking less shaken if not exactly stirred. Oil WTI at $54.90 after news that the Iranian tanker was being released by Gibraltar raised hopes for a de-escalation in the Gulf. Gold firm at $1523 […]

Rate cuts in the Mexico and US and the whiff of a Canadian political cover up   Following Mexico’s rate cut last night in an attempt to inject life into its flagging economy, it looks as if the market is increasingly pencilling in two further cuts by the Federal Reserve this year: in September and […]

Recession?   About a decade ago you could pick up virtually any newspaper (with perhaps the exception of the Daily Star or the Sun) and see the phrase Double Dip Recession or equivalent brandished on the front page. Whether it was accompanied by a vitriolic attack on the incumbent Conservative government, a backward-looking blame on […]

UK PLC   Great news is that the employment rate of 76.1% is the highest since (meaningful) records were kept and even though unemployment has edged up slightly, it is still only 3.9%.With 32.81 million people in work and an extra 425,000 jobs created in the past year, the UK employment figures are very good […]

Excuses   Argentina as a nation, with the exception of war, and provided we’re not talking about a specific key national export, is not a global market mover. To be frank, its spending power, population, financial market participation and share of global trade are all too small for the South American nation to move markets […]

Negative Interest Rates   Some of our readers have been asking what this means as they are struggling to get their heads around the concept. Essentially it is akin to a storage charge but imposed by banks for your money rather than by Big Yellow for your goods and chattels. Fortunately in the U.K. at […]