Click here to view this email in your browser (mmmmaven.com/daily-market-update-dmu/)
Sign Up Here (mmmmaven.com/dmu-sign-up/) for Free to the DMU Email me to provide feedback
Contents Click on the links below to get to the stuff you really really want. USA – OPEC and Russia failed to agree production cuts sending oil prices down; Stocks followed as investors worried about near-term lockdown implications; Bonds wibbled about (#USA) UK – Shell and BP down 5.4%; Arcadia collapses; Brexit deal still appears likely (#UK) Continental Europe – Total down, Delivery Hero up (#Europe) Elsewhere – Positive Chinese economic data lifts sentiment and stocks (#Elsewhere) WTF – Pulling a moonie (#WTF) Links (#Useful) Numbers (#Numbers) Ts & Cs (#Ts+Cs)
————————————————————
USA
It’s the beginning of December. Yeah, I know that every year goes past more quickly than the previous, but this year has been insane. Why am I telling you this? Largely because nothing of any great interest happened in markets yesterday that hasn’t been going on quite a bit lately already.
Cutting to the chase then, stocks dropped in value as folk worried about the near-term implications of virus numbers and lockdown measures. Some idiots insist on going out and protesting against the lockdowns, but that’s a bit like protesting against cancer. I wonder if they’ll protest against being given a vaccine.
Back to the markets; OPEC and its Russian chums failed once again to agree on production cuts of oil, which meant that supply would continue to outstrip demand for the time being. That sent oil prices down fairly sharply, dragging oil producers along for the slide.
Tech stocks and sandwich deliverers rose while financial, travel and leisure stocks fell. We’re kind of in the final throes of the pandemic as far as the immediate economic effects are concerned, so expect a bunch more volatility while investors try to work out when things will stop getting worse and start getting better.
The S&P 500 closed 0.5% lower, while the demand for and prices of low-risk bonds wibbled about – bond investors once agains seeming to focus more on the medium- and less on the short-term.
Back to Contents (#Contents)
————————————————————
UK
Much like their US counterparts, stocks across Europe were reflecting a sense of short-term worry exacerbated by falling oil prices. Shell and BP slumped by 5.4% or more on the day while financial and mining stocks also declined for all the reasons that I outlined in the US section.
The big news in the UK yesterday was the collapse of Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group (owner of various clothing retail chains). Retailers were struggling before the lockdown, and those that had failed to establish effective online services were hammered. Green’s fellow podgy retail dictator, Mike Ashley, offered a £50m loan to Arcadia which was summarily rejected. I suspect it carried a harp’s-worth of strings that would have left the Arcadia board having to swallow a good deal of pride.
Meanwhile, Domonic Raab is rather fatuously claiming that Brexit negotiations are down to their last two issues. Let me guess, movement of labour and a trade agreement. OK, maybe not quite that bad, but five years of stalemate and false promises is pretty crap. It does seem as though we might now get a deal of sorts though, and that might have helped the pound to rise in value yesterday. That, in turn, pushed the export-heavy FTSE 100 down by 1.6% while the more domestically focused FTSE 250 only fell by 0.6%.
Back to Contents (#Contents)
————————————————————
Continental Europe
Oil producer Total slumped by 5.0% while sandwich deliverer, Delivery Hero, rose by 2.3%. That kind of tells you the story for yesterday on the continent.
Back to Contents (#Contents)
————————————————————
Elsewhere
Things are much more upbeat in the Asia Pacific region this morning. Indices across the region are up fairly solidly as positive factory data came in from China (again) and investors shifted their focus to a post-Covid world. The Chinese CSI 300 is trading 2.2% higher at the time of writing.
Back to Contents (#Contents)
————————————————————
WTF (What’s The Fact?)
Pulling a moonie
There are various names for different views of the full moon. In January, there’s the “Wolf Moon”, February it’s “Snow Moon”, then there’s “Worm”, “Pink”, “Flower” and God-knows how many others.
This morning, the moon was in a partial shadow on the Earth. Light passing through the Earth’s penumbra cast a reddish shadow on the moon. Some refer to November’s full moon as Frosty Moon, others as Oak Moon or Mourning Moon. In the US, it’s called a Beaver Moon. This has nothing to do with it having an orange face, blonde top, nothing interesting to say and generally being a complete
Back to Contents (#Contents)
————————————————————
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.
Back to Contents (#Contents)
———————————————————— 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.
————————————————————
============================================================ Copyright © 2020 Chris Hurst, All rights reserved.
Want to change how you receive these emails? You can ** update your preferences (funnymoney.us4.list-manage.com/profile?u=09a51282c76deb2dc44653051&id=dcc3fa0043&e=f68b7163ab) or ** unsubscribe from this list (funnymoney.us4.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=09a51282c76deb2dc44653051&id=dcc3fa0043&e=f68b7163ab&c=d787622a18) .