I’ve been reading quite a bit over the last few days about the gruelling, non-guided, 100mile, 60,000 ft elevation Barkley ultramarathon in the U.S. which is started in the unorthodox way by the race director lightening a cigarette. Not to mention the fact that you have just 60 hours to complete this but a British female by the name of Jasmin Paris just became the first female to complete the test (and only the 20th person ever!) What a legend. Simply incredible and it made me tired just readin…

We’ve always said we enjoy replies to the Daily Snapshot and if that happens to be a photo of the ski slopes today then that is just fine by us – it looked like a great day out there! A couple more runs for Equity markets to get through before Après this weekend but today started with a little blue run down to the top as the start of this holiday interrupted fortnight started without much fanfare. The month and quarter end is in danger of slipping by without anyone really noticing but we’d sti…

Whilst recovering from my knee operation I have certainly watched my fair share of TV. Kin on the iPlayer was very good, I’m desperate for the next series of Yellowstone to be released (if it ever is!) and I just finished the fourth series of Fauda last night which was just superb and a completely gripping. It’s probably a bit of a stretch to say that Equity markets are ever gripping but as they climb to yet new highs they’re certainly not lacking interest and the Stoxx 600 closed up 94bps. Exp…

Whilst all eyes are on the Fed and the dot plots tonight I’ll be keeping one eye on the football. Who doesn’t love an underdog story? San Marino have won just one of their 206 international football matches with the one win coming in 2004 vs Lichtenstein but one of the longest streaks may be close to ending as they play St Kitts & Nevis this evening. Aside from this obviously there will be the dot plots to assess – In December these suggested three 25bp rate cuts by the end of this year. We do…

Having got back from 3 weeks abroad and tentatively stepped onto the scales I quickly decided it was probably time to lose some of that Christmas weight!! Easier said than done as everyone knows and temptation is absolutely everywhere in this office – Krispy Kreme’s yesterday, Ole & Steen Cinamon Social today being paraded through the room. It appears one of the few problems with becoming a bigger firm is that there is a birthday nearly every day! Ben and Jerry’s and Magnum’s were talk of the o…

I announced the start of Spring this morning and was quickly corrected that that isn’t until the early hours of Wednesday morning but there is something about the light in the morning that just energises one’s self. Equity markets didn’t quite get the memo with developed indices broadly trading within a few bps of where they closed Friday. Central Banks spring into action overnight with the BoJ kicking off a bumper few days where the commentary is likely more up in the air than the decisions th…

A Friday feel to Thursday today but possibly in anticipation of a Thursday feel to Friday’s tape tomorrow. Quarterly options expiries and index reweights providing a liquidity event ahead of a jam packed macro week next week. There was a bit to keep on top off as we headed in the afternoon and it finally felt like both Yields and Equities couldn’t continue to climb in tandem. Yields had a sizeable move post a hotter than expected PPI – U.S PPI was stronger than expected up from 1.0% in January…

There is just nowhere else to start today than the red headline that flashed through early this morning – “Euro Stoxx 50 hits 5,000 points for first time in 24 years’. I may be revealing a bit too much but the last time it was here I was probably somewhere collecting Pokémon cards. In Europe we’ve been hearing (and if honest getting a lit bit bored/envious) of all the chatter re how well the Mag 7, Nasdaq and S&P 500 have done but a quick look at the YTD index performance will show the Euro Sto…

It’s been a while since I have done one of these so please forgive any tardiness on my behalf. A few weeks away from the screens always tends to sooth the soul and give a fresh perspective and I’ve been impressed with what Equities have managed to do. We approach a big expiry on Friday which could open the door to some more volatile moves next week especially with a number of Central Banks updating us (BoJ, Fed, BOE) 3 days on the trot but for now we are grinding higher, with the odd pull back…

1992, a fantastic year that saw Kris Kross make us “Jump”, Jon Secada claimed it was “just another day”, Bobby Brown was “Humpin Around”, Right Said Fred declared “I’m too sexy” and the great Luther Vandross & Janet Jackson reminded us “The best things in life are free”. But something disappeared in 1992, and hasn’t made a comeback until 2024… Vinyl! OK, OK, vinyl itself didn’t actually ‘go’ anywhere, but today it has reappeared in the UK Consumer Price Inflation basket for the first time since…