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Grasping straws
“Stocks jump as global coronavirus case growth slows” blasts the headline from Yahoo this morning (Monday 6th April). With much of the western World under various forms of house arrest for weeks now, this should hardly come as a great surprise, but it tells us little on how and when we might be able to […]
Continue readingJobs data pain for impeachment obsessed Democrats
Without power, all that’s left is pointless political posturing. Markets therefore should be content to suck up some short term central bank profligacy if it can deliver more solid jobs and wages data, as we’ve seen in November’s non-farm payroll data. But then again, perhaps voters will want to take a risk on an increasingly […]
Continue readingUS August jobs – porridge tepid and cooling
Markets weren’t expecting much from the August non-farm employment data and they didn’t disappoint. While average wage growth remained solidly above +3%, the underlying rate of private sector job growth slipped back to an anaemic +64k, with +15k of this coming from temporary help. Although comfortably ahead of the level of contraction that would signal […]
Continue readingWinning a trade war?
Good to see US & China agreeing to meet next month and hopefully they’ll start to settle their trade differences. Clearly Trump’s buckling, as China shows itself to be made of sterner stuff than to worry about lower pork imports from the US, despite half their own herd being wiped out by pig ebola. Kenyan […]
Continue reading2019 or 1648?
Will Corbyn now hold us all hostage with the fixed term Parliament Act? This is all looking a bit like a re-run of the ‘Long Parliament’. “On 1 December 1648 [4 September 2019] , the House voted 129 to 83 to continue negotiations with Charles [the EU] for reforming the government on terms they had […]
Continue readingFCA-Renault merger crash tested by dummies
With the auto industry facing some existential challenges, one might have thought a low margin operator and its shareholders would have seized at the opportunity for a highly synergistic merger. Unfortunately, when one of those shareholders is the French Government, then the normal commercial rules don’t seem to apply. So after some foot-dragging by Macron […]
Continue readingIf MARTIN NIEMÖLLER was on social media
First they banned Alex Jones, and I did not speak out—because I had never heard of him. Then they banned Louis Farrakhan, and I did not speak out— because I’m not Snoop Dog. Then they banned the climate change ‘deniers’, and I did not speak out—because I was cold. Then they came for me—but I […]
Continue readingECB hopium
“substantial monetary policy stimulus remains essential to ensure the continued build-up of domestic price pressures over the medium term.” So says Sig Draghi in yesterday’s release of the ECB’s 2018 annual report and so much for any doubt that the ending of the asset purchase programme (AAP) in December would actually herald a return to […]
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