Judging by the YTD high responses to the Snapshot yesterday I would hazard a guess that people care more about Biscuit preferences than the markets right in this August tape. And rightly so – we had Choco Leibniz and Tim Tam’s thrown in the mix from our readers but sadly neither are readily available in the local Co-op, and we were really looking old fashioned classics! For those still caring about the markets the big data week came towards an end with some more reassuring tones struck from a w…

As things have quietened down from the not-so-August start to this month, and with us all waiting patiently for each daily dose of U.S. data we have used our time to go through some important testing. Currently we’re exploring – What is the Perfect biscuit? Not an easy question, a great way to put on some very unnecessary pounds in the summer months, have more cups of tea just to test dunkability and bring some nostalgia to the desk. Custard creams non-negotiable up near the top of the leader b…

So go on then, it isn’t the parallel bars or the pommel horse, probably not the marathon or the pole vault and definitely not the Golf – So based on a YouGov Poll ‘if started training today, what do 27% of Brits think they could qualify for the 2028 Olympics in? I was asked this last week and went with Rowing or Beach Volleyball but admit my competitive sport years are well and truly behind me. What currently seems behind us is the notion of a resilient and spending U.S. Consumer which dominate…

Right that is it….the world has gone mad…it is nigh on impossible to open a joint bank account. Impossible to do online. “Head to a branch” they say…well there isn’t a single one open in central London, and at my local one “Opening hours are 9-4”…Brilliant! I got absolutely nowhere with that then but it was encouraging to see the Banks leading the way today in Europe (clearly not for their new customer acquisition skills). For Europe to do well, banks need to do well and although the macro head…

Anyone else feeling a bit short changed this morning by the bounce that was looking so promising at 7am? There are LOTS of moving parts at the moment which could go a long way to explain the jitters: Geopolitical instability, Yen Carry trade implications, U.S Economic jitters, Mega cap tech wobbles, political instability/elections, seasonality…. The list goes on…. The bounce in Europe turned out to be short lived and turned into a fall at one stage, by no means what we’ve been used to the past…

It’s August, the third session and it’s already been a long month. Lots of people are away and there was no real need/desire to be a hero and that was fairly evident today from the offset. Walking into the Nikkei -12% doesn’t happen very often, not for 37 years as it happens and within the Japanese markets the real culprit emerged once again: The Yen. It strengthened by as much as 3% today, by 8% in the last 5 days and actually is near parity for the year vs the Dollar. The Carry Trade that has…

First the ECB, now the BOE…. are Powell and the Fed behind the curve here? Who knows but the BOE decision today was a coin toss but they decided to cut rates, split 5:4 in terms of votes showing just how finely balanced this decision was. On services inflation the MPC view is that, excluding volatile and indexed prices, service inflation is lower than the headline rate suggest. The market was quick to price in a further 2x cuts this year here in the UK though we do not expect any further easing…

A Microsoft miss did nothing to dissuade Europe from having a relatively good midweek rally. It wasn’t really a big miss, and it rallied all the way through the post-market and pre market which helped but all focus was on a raft of European names that managed to report reasonable sets. JDE Peet’s, Teleperformance, Just Eat Takeaway, Airbus, HSBC, Danone, Legrand and Schneider – the list goes on. A decent print from AMD softened some of the fears around the Semi-conductor space too and we were b…

Off to dinner tonight at somewhere that has claims to be ‘London’s Largest Private Terrace’ which is just as well given the weather! Factor 50 applied early because I’ve learnt that lesson one too many times. Other things I’ve learnt over the years is don’t book the last flight home on a Sunday and one for the road is never a good idea (especially on a Tuesday). 9pm this evening not a time for a Whisky but instead time to check the Bloomberg and see what Microsoft, the $3trn beast has said to t…

Tarte Tartin on the menu yesterday as I decided to pull myself away from the Olympics for a couple hours and make some use of myself. It has to be one of the best deserts (and I didn’t mess it up thankfully): not too heavy, quite sweet, and once I got it unstuck from the pan, a real treat! It was a lovely way to set myself up for the week ahead which has a full array of treats in store: Megacap Tech earnings from Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft clearly on peoples minds, Central Bank meetings fr…