Let’s get straight to it – a soft tape following poor moves in the aftermarket post results from Tesla, Alphabet and LVMH and a move lower from Nvidia so it felt like a tricky day to update the market from the outset and it proved to be with the Stoxx 600 ending the day -60bps. We’ve broadly been quiet on the data front this week but there was also some soft Eurozone PMI data which had Manufacturing lower at 45.6, down slightly from 45.8 in June whilst services also fell. This followed material…

The readers in Paris may disagree but has this not been the least excitement in the run up to an Olympic games ever? Reports show the number of unwanted Paris Olympics tickets available for resale has now hit more than 250k though In fairness we’ve just had a mammoth few months of Sport in Europe and I’m sure there are a few disgruntled locals at the cost of putting on such games at these times in France! It’s a shame as I remember the last delayed one in Japan very fondly, fully invested and e…

Oh hello 31 degrees in London tomorrow, we have not been blessed with your presence yet this summer! Anyone unsure what to do? I imagine significant temptation to ‘WFH’, get the BBQ on and enjoy a nice lunch in the Sun (possibly with the Open on in the background) – tbh I think everyone deserves it the way this summer has been! That being said…we’ve got expiries to navigate, rotational gyrations to keep on top of, earnings to digest and there is no doubt more moving parts than many anticipated/…

“Taylor Swift pushes back August Rate Cut Expectations” really should be the headline in ALL the papers tomorrow as the Eras tour was possibly the case for sticky services inflation as Hotel booking prices caused a 8.8% rise in June vs May as Swifties across the world flock to the UK and Hoteliers take advantage! This, plus strong GDP growth and recent sterling appreciation reduce the case for a cut in Bank Rate at the 1 August MPC meeting and we now look for no change in August. There wasn’t a…

All about China to start the week which is just as well as no one (maybe the Scots) want a recap of the sporting weekend just gone! Sadly – ‘all about China’ hasn’t been positive for a while! It started with GDP which came in below estimates at just 4.7%, Industrial Production and Retail Sales both slowed and they left the 1yr MLF unchanged. So what investors who were already a little nervous around China and hoping to see some concise economic stimulation from the Third Plenum summit likely l…

There was a period this morning with the sun shining, England fans happy and flurry of business that felt like the summer lull was going to briefly take a pause. That being said it was U.S. CPI day which ended up, as it always does, sucking most of the life out of markets for the morning. However it was worth waiting for and good news when it came. Cooler than expected MoM at 0.1% for core and what seems like another step in the right direction. 4.2% on the 10yr is a key short term support and…

My daughter is half English and half Scottish so she gets to support Scotland in Rugby and England in Football. At the tender age of 2 years she has already experienced enough disappointment for the former so hopefully England can get the win tonight and give her some joy! I’ll keep it brief today given that the vast majority of readers will be heading out and getting prepared for the game and broadly speaking nothing much has happened. European Equities still struggling from low volume and bro…

We’re not normally blessed with an abundance of Liquidity in European and UK Equities at the best of times but as things start to deteriorate it seems front and centre of peoples minds as we kick of the summer and are just a number of days away from Q2 numbers starting to come in thick and fast. Some painful moves today, broadly down the liquidity spectrum but wide ranging – Indivior -35%, CompuGroup -32%, Veralia -17%, Pagegroup -6% and Dassault Systemes -5% the headlines today but it felt cle…

A first for me having managed to navigate the heat in Italy (not meaning to rub it in too much) without any instances of Sunburn whatsoever. Maybe I’ve finally matured, realised my Scottish heritage or took suitable advantage of my daughters factor 50 spray but I thought it was an achievement nonetheless. Not a huge amount achieved in European equities last week with holiday interruptions, elections and things broadly as I left them (aside from Political change in the UK and France) as U.S. equ…

As we approach the end of the Month/Quarter/Half end and moves/flows start to be dictated by that I thought the Snapshot could take on a slightly different tone, having a look back at the first half and a few looks forward to what may come. Oh and the Stoxx 600 closed a little lower weighed by France…again!