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Contents Click on the links below to get to the stuff you really really want. USA – Jobless claims troubling; Tesla up; Airlines lead most stocks down (#USA) UK – Indices flat; Company results moved stocks up or down (#UK) Continental Europe – As UK (#Europe) Elsewhere – Chinese stocks fell sharply this morning (#Elsewhere) WTF – Tell an old joke day (#WTF) Links (#Useful) Numbers (#Numbers) Ts & Cs (#Ts+Cs)
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USA
Initial jobless claims nudged upwards in the US, a “nudge” being over 100,000 new claimants. That leaves the four-week moving average of new claimants at 1.3 million which, in turn, sets the unemployment claim total at around 16.2 million for the week-end 11 July.
This is one of those pieces of data that everyone knew was going to be bad, but no one knew how bad. So it’s not so much the numbers themselves that are significant, as what they indicate is going on in the recovery. And it’s not good news. “The economy does not seem to be on sound footing any more” is how Edward Moya of Oanda was quoted by online broker ADVFN.
The worries remain the same and are dominated by the US handling of the pandemic, with cases rising at a much faster clip that almost anywhere else despite the country already seemingly having had its initial burst of cases.
There was a slight distraction from Tesla which delivered way-better-than-expected earnings. But Microsoft’s positive results had been anticipated and didn’t lift the stock price. Worse than that were the losses being posted by American Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
The general mood was negative and that sent the S&P 500 1.2% lower on the day.
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UK
Aside from the US-China tensions and rising case numbers in some regions, stock moves across much of Europe were sufficiently mixed to leave benchmark stock indices flat overall. The FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 both nudged up by 0.1% on the day.
Stock movements were generally driven by individual company results. Unilever, Sage and Petropavlovsk all posted substantial gains after delivering decent profits or optimistic outlooks. SSE and Pennon both sank after their stocks went ex-dividend.
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Continental Europe
Same as UK with US-China worries in the background and no overriding trend to drive stocks one way or the other. Unilever, which is listed on the Euro Stoxx 50 as well as the FTSE 100, helped lift the consumer staples sector, while car makers were also on the up. Financials and oil companies fell (as did Wirecard if you still care about that bunch of clowns).
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Elsewhere
Stocks fell quite sharply across China this morning as US-China tensions are ratcheted up. The CSI 300 sank by 4.4% this morning (now there’s an omen if you’re a fan of Chinese superstition and the perceived relationship between death and the number 4). Losses elsewhere in the region were less pronounced, but the day’s not off to a good start.
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WTF (What’s The Fact?)
Tell an old joke day
In honour of this day, I bring you a joke that I quoted in front of the school assembly when I was about 6. Luckily it was clean, unluckily it was politically incorrect. Luckily it was such a long time ago that political correctness was acceptable whereas touching one of the school’s musical instruments was punishable by death. Unluckily neither I nor any other child understood it. Luckily, the teachers did. And here it is:
There’s an Englishman and an Irishman and three spades in a row. The Englishman says to the Irishman, “take your pick”.
To square things up, here’s a line from German comedic genius, Henning Wehn: ” With stand-up in Britain what you have to do is bloody swearing. In Germany, we don’t have to swear. Reason being, things work.”
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Links
Investopedia (www.investopedia.com/dictionary/) – Loads of free explanations of financial terms including some helpful videos. Not 100% accurate, but a good starting point Guffipedia (ig.ft.com/sites/guffipedia/) – Lucy Kellaway of the FT has collected some painful examples of corporate people disappearing up their own analogies Guardian (www.theguardian.com) – Free to access website with a couple of decent columnists (e.g. Nils Pratley and Larry Elliott) Times of India (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) – Why use five words when 37 will do? Daily Mail (www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/07/the-war-on-stupid-people/485618) – Click it. I dare you.
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———————————————————— IMPORTANT This is my opinion. Yes I read a lot and share what I’ve read with you, but this content remains my opinion. It’s NOT advice. If you take my advice – don’t take my advice. Any decisions you make about investments, your hairstyle or whether or not to eat marzipan are entirely at your own behest. If you are too stupid to recognise the devil’s ear wax when you see it, then you’re on your own.
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