REVIEW OF THE PAST QUARTER: Weakening global economic data triggered by heightened political uncertainty and renewed US-China trade tensions spurred central banks to continue down the dovish path this quarter. The US Federal Reserve cut rates by a quarter of a percentage point twice over three months. The Bank of England maintained rates but will […]
BORIS AND DONALD STIR UP STRONGER POLITICAL HEADWINDS This week much of the news has been dominated by two political scandals; the court ruling that Boris Johnson acted unlawfully by proroguing parliament, and the developing news that Donald Trump tried to pressure Ukraine into investigating a political rival by withholding military aid. While both could […]
KEY CENTRAL BANKS SEND DOVISH SIGNALS This week we saw more central bank action, as the world’s major monetary policy makers try to cope with a slowing global economy. In the US the Federal Reserve cut rates by a quarter per cent, following the lead set by the European Central bank last week. The move […]
DRAGHI URGES EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS TO INCREASE PUBLIC SPENDING This week while the UK might be paralysed over Europe, the same can’t be said for the European Central Bank, which announced a major change in policy in its attempt to stave off a recession within the Eurozone. The actual policy, a 0.1% cut in deposit rates […]
BORIS HAS A CHASTENING WEEK AS OPPOSITION DEFY NO DEAL BREXIT We mentioned last week the potential of fireworks in Parliament and so it came to fruition – with all of them aimed at Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Boris has had a spectacularly bad week. Highlights include, MP’s successfully backing legislation to stop a No […]
BORIS MOVES TO SUSPEND PARLIAMENT As we march towards the Brexit deadline, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided to play his hand and take an unprecedented step by attempting to suspend parliament for five weeks. Much like in football when a team holds the ball close to the corner flag, Boris Johnson is simply running […]
BUSINESSES EXPECTING A RECESSION This week there were no end of strange headlines, from Trump tries to buy Greenland to Trump declares himself the chosen one, but its likely they were all an attempt to obscure the one headline that really mattered; the latest survey of purchasing managers that suggests US businesses are expecting a […]
MARKETS AMPLIFY GLOBAL HEADWINDS This week was another eventful one for global markets. They fell at the start of the week on news that Trump was going to ramp up his trade war with China, rose when he decided not to and then plummeted again when weak data out of China and Germany stoked fears […]
WHY ITS TIME TO REVIEW MONETARY POLICY INDICATORS This week the world has been focused on those two hardy perennials, Trump and Brexit. The former for being racist and the latter for parliament acting to contain the new prime minister. At this point however, these events hardly qualify as news. Instead we’ve been taking a […]
UK NAVY BLOCKS IRANIAN ATTEMPT TO CAPTURE BP TANKER This week saw the UK get dragged into the simmering Middle East conflict between the US and Iran, when the Royal Navy had to intervene to prevent the Iranians from seizing a British tanker in the key shipping lane of the Strait of Hormuz. While this […]