REMINDER: Last call for pre-registration for the Webinar Thursday 30th November 10am Pre-registration link is here: https://event.on24.com/wcc/r/4415548/1FE19490B28856477CC82CC544A090D0 N.B. The webinar will be recorded, so if you cannot attend but.
Read moreMonday Musings 07/10/2019
Although Tweedledum and Tweedledee seem to have legal issues up to their wazoos, and the opposition parties here and there are having their own mad hatters tea party, you can still see a silver lining behind the clouds that there are on both sides of the pond. According to Citigroup, the investment bank, the FTSE 100 will break through the 8000 point barrier by the end of next year. As you will recall I to have been fairly positive about the coming year so lets hope that Citigroup and Straight Talk have it right.
There was an interesting article in the Times last week about the impact that the Trumps war with China has had on the American farming community. One Cattle farmer said that if he-Trump- makes one of his unexpected tweets between the Monday when they take their cattle to market and the actual sale on the Wednesday the price “tanks”. She makes the point that I have made time and time again that what the markets cannot cope with is uncertainty. Of course, in the States it is not just the beef farmers who are feeling the heat in the farming community, Soya and Pork have also been devastated as China was the biggest client they had. Many farmers have had to sell parts of their land or take out large loans just to stay in business.
This side of the pond the Chancellor seems to be preparing for an economic shock in the event of a no deal Brexit. I think that is fair to say that the impact would not be as severe as the financial crisis we went through about 10 years ago, but all of the support systems used last time would be wheeled out again. These would probably include reducing the bank rate and using quantative easing again.
You will see from the quarterly reports we will be sending that in the main our portfolios have had a reasonable year. I have recommended selling the property funds we own and moving into infrastructure funds as I flagged up previously.
So to the Markets
Market movements of the week
FTSE 100 down 3.65%
DOW JONES down 0.92%
NASDAQ up 0.54%
S&P 500 down 0.33%
NIKKEI down 2.14%
HANG SENG down 0.52%
SHANGHAI down 0.92%
CAC 40 down 2.70%
DAX down 2.97%
I had a strange encounter on Facebook this week (sounds silly, bear with me…). A new mum put a post up on a local group asking for help. She said.
Read moreAs I’m sure is the case for you, I’ve been watching the coverage of the Israel – Hamas war with horror. The loss of innocent civilian lives, the impact of.
Read more