Budget reactions: Optimism and relief to Sunak’s plans March 4, 2021 Following Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement yesterday, of a raft of new support measures alongside plans to shore up Britain’s finances in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the details of this year’s Budget gradually become clear to SMEs, entrepreneurs, startups and others in London and across the country. Sunak set out extensions to the furlough [...]
City A.M. TV – Daily Market Snapshot (video) March 3, 2021 Markets are poised at a key juncture. The signals from the price action have been ambiguous in the past few trading sessions, while certain key (formerly) leadership stocks are sitting on, and struggling at, important technical support levels. The back-up in bond yields over February clearly damaged upwards momentum towards the end of the month. [...]
Before the Bell: Europe pointing to lower start as bulls take a breather March 2, 2021 Equity markets started off the new month on the front foot yesterday as lower bond yields combined with stimulus hopes from the US boosted sentiment. Last week, stocks saw some selling pressure as increases in government bond yields acted as an excuse for dealers to reduce their equity positions, indices were coming from a relatively [...]
New UK-Kenya trade deal to be extended to all of East Africa after threats not to ratify March 1, 2021 The recently signed trade deal between the UK and Kenya will be extended to Burundi, Uganda, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania, according to multiple media reports in Kenya. The announcement follows weeks of threats by members of the House of Lords as well as Kenyan MPs not to ratify the trade agreement, which was signed [...]
Markets are freshly vaccinated with the latest buy everything potion March 1, 2021 US FDA approval of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson Covid-19 vaccine over the weekend has seen the global recovery trade reappear with a vengeance, at least overnight across the APAC region. Equities, energy and commodities all jumped higher, as have the cyclical Commonwealth currencies. “Even precious metals have found some friends today, while Asian regional [...]
City of London’s prospects as global derivatives capital remain bright February 25, 2021 UK-based financial institutions have used the past four years to develop and implement (re)location strategies, working on the assumption of a harder Brexit and lose historic passporting rights, and hence unfettered access to EU markets. As things stand, London does indeed not have any equivalence agreements in place with the EU. This explains why we [...]
UK-EU meeting on Northern Ireland fails to produce breakthrough February 24, 2021 Frustrations all around as Arlene Foster's talks with the EU end with no breakthrough over trade issues
Before the Bell: All eyes are on UK retail sales and PMI numbers today February 19, 2021 Sentiment in stocks this week has been slowly eroded as the bullish mood that circulated on Monday has since turned a little bearish. At the start of the week, the outlook was upbeat on account of optimism connected to the vaccine rollout. The UK confirmed that it was on track with its vaccination distribution scheme [...]
Before the Bell: Europe set for mild recovery, US data in focus February 18, 2021 In recent weeks global stock markets have been in rude health as traders have been banking on the Biden administration to approve the proposed $1.9 trillion stimulus scheme. In addition to that, the progress made with respect to the distribution of vaccines has added to the positive move too. On Monday, it was confirmed the [...]
Before the Bell: Reflation concerns prompts yields spike while UK CPI is up next February 17, 2021 Over the past few weeks, it’s been notable that bond markets, both in the UK and in the US are starting to price the risk of higher inflation pressures, as long-term yields move to the upside. Yesterday, US 10-year treasury yields jumped sharply higher to 1.3 per cent, in a move that suggested that markets [...]