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Contents Click on the links below to get to the stuff you really really want. USA – 48 hours to reach a stimulus deal; Stocks up, despite US Justice Dept suing Google (#USA) UK – BA and RR up helping FTSE 100 to avoid loss; House builders down (#UK) Continental Europe – Higher virus numbers blight confidence; Tech stocks down; Spanish stocks up (#Europe) Elsewhere – Chinese currency rises impede export numbers; Rest of region up (#Elsewhere) WTF – A (#WTF) Links (#Useful) Numbers (#Numbers) Ts & Cs (#Ts+Cs)
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USA
Speaker of the House and Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, has given her Republican counterpart, Steve Mnuchin, 48 hours in which to reach a deal on a stimulus package. Talks have improved, but Pelosi wants to get a deal in excess of $2.0 trillion to support households and businesses that are struggling with the economic downturn. Trump has gone up to $1.8 trillion, but his fellow Republicans in the Senate (the upper house) are resisting that.
But the progress was enough to suggest that a pre-election deal might go through, and that nudged stocks upwards to leave the S&P 500 0.5% to the good yesterday.
The other bit of news, that the US Justice Department was going to sue Google for allegedly abusing its power (I’m with the USJD on that one), was largely shaken off. Meanwhile, Moderna let it be known that its virus vaccine could be ready for use in December. I sense that folk are more sceptical about these claims now that Anthony Fauci’s realistic assessment seems to have sunk in. But it didn’t hurt the mood.
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UK
British Airways and Rolls Royce bounced up yesterday, but they’ve been bouncing up and down for a while now, so I’m not reading too much into that. It did help the overall price of the FTSE 100 to stay positive despite ongoing concerns about the increased lockdown measures to combat the rise in virus cases.
By the close of trading, the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 were 0.1% and 0.4% higher respectively on the day.
Various companies were reporting sales and profits for the third quarter of 2020. The notable trend was a downward shift in the stock prices of house builders after Bellway’s profits slumped by 68%, leading it to slash its dividend.
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Continental Europe
Higher virus numbers continued to blight investor confidence across the continent where the Euro Stoxx 50 and German DAX closed 0.5% and 0.9% lower respectively. Tech stocks had a particularly bad time following the disappointing results from IBM.
But Spanish stocks were on the up following a fall in the new virus case numbers there.
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Elsewhere
Chinese stocks are down this morning as the value of the yuan (Chinese currency) rises. The prospects of Chinese economic recovery have been consistently positive, leading to the currency rising in value which makes its exports more expensive to overseas buyers. Chinese authorities regulate the value of the currency by buying and selling it, so don’t be surprised if it falls in value again.
The rest of the region seems to be responding positively to improved chances of a US financial stimulus package coming through and having a positive knock-on effect.
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WTF (What’s The Fact?)
Miley Cyrus chased by aliens
Yes, apparently, it was that way around. Miley Cyrus was chased by aliens in a flying, yellow snowplough yesterday. Nothing strange about that, I hear you say.
What is slightly strange is her decisions to do an album covering Metallica songs. It would appear that she’s finally stopped pretending that she writes anything and is exclusively copying other people’s work because it’s good money and her followers might like it. Nice work if you can get it.
Meanwhile, having done a couple of searches on this, I’m now getting adverts popping up for yellow combine harvesters. Not only am I being spied on, but I’m being spied on incompetently. I don’t want a yellow combine harvester you morons, I want a flying yellow snowplough. Duh.
Actually, I would quite like one of those. That’s the only way to turn up at a school reunion (or chase nut-job starlets).
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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’re unable to recognise the devil’s ear wax when you see it, then you’re on your own.
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