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Contents Click on the links below to get to the stuff you really really want. USA – Renewed stimulus talks lift stocks (#USA) UK – Brexit worries dominated again sending pound and domestically focused stocks down (#UK) Continental Europe – Stocks fairly static overall as investors await ECB comments, and Hungary and Poland to stop preventing EU budget (#Europe) Elsewhere – Chinese consumer inflation down (#Elsewhere) WTF – Red China (#WTF) Links (#Useful) Numbers (#Numbers) Ts & Cs (#Ts+Cs)
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USA
Investors ignored yet more record virus case numbers and, instead, focused on talks within the Republican Party about approving a financial stimulus and support package. Republicans have to tread a fine line between preventing the Democrats from getting what they want (partly coz they think it’s too expensive, and partly they don’t want to afford any opportunities of approval for the Democrats) while, at the same time, trying not to alienate voters in Georgia ahead of the crucial Senate run-off votes in January.
Hope springs eternal when it comes to investments and rumour, so stocks were heading back towards record territory again yesterday. By the close of trading, the S&P 500 added a modest 0.3% but, once again, tech stocks were more in favour, hence the Nasdaq Composite nudged to a slightly higher 0.5% on the day.
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UK
The pound nudged down some more as folk fretted over the last-ditch Brexit negotiations. The UK relented on its threat to override agreed trading rules, which helped things a touch. But the fishing rights and market access issues don’t appear to have been ironed out so far.
Lower pound, higher FTSE 100. The export-focused blue-chip index nudged up by less than 0.1% on the day. The more domestically focused FTSE 250 was down 0.3% as news that the first vaccine dose had been administered in the UK. In case you’d not realised, that’s a year after cases had started coming to light in China, which is super-quick for a vaccine to be produced from scratch.
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Continental Europe
Stocks across the continent were mooching around, being about as interesting as a bowl of tapioca. The Euro Stoxx 50 and German DAX both closed within 0.1% of their respective starting prices.
Folk there are waiting for two things on the regionally domestic front: 1. For Hungary and Poland (the two right-wing nut job government-led countries in the EU) to agree to the proposed EU budget in which financial support is dished out to countries that both need it and which comply with EU laws. Sounds simple… 2. For the latest European Central Bank comments to emerge and provide a better idea of what Christine Laggard and her amis are planning.
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Elsewhere
Chinese stocks fell this morning after consumer price data showed the first fall since 2009. The rest of the Asia Pacific region did rather better as investors concentrated on the distribution of vaccines (despite Russia and China not having gained all the approval they might have for their respective vaccines).
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WTF (What’s The Fact?)
Red China
A university women’s football team in China was forced to forfeit a match after a player’s hair was deemed to be “not black enough”.
According to Reuters, the Fujian Provincial Department of Education rules stipulate that “athletes are not allowed to dye their hair, grow long hair (for boys), wear weird hairstyles, or wear any accessories”. In other words, they must not, under any circumstances, look like professional footballers. I think I might be with the Fujianese dictators on this one.
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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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