Good morning
An announcement yesterday from China that more stimulus was likely pushed China stocks higher, while USDCNY traded lower on reports that Chinese banks were selling dollars, possibly to support the fix that came out once again on a 7.14 handle, this time 7.1406. This has put a little pressure on the US dollar in general but nothing too significant, GBPUSD now 1.2865, EURUSD 1.1085, GBPEUR a touch over 1.1600. Not a great deal of excitement at the moment but this is hardly a surprise given the rate announcements due later in the week from Fed, ECB and BoJ.
Not the busiest calendar today, Aussie inflation numbers overnight will be interesting to watch but although they are expected to show a decent fall it remains well above target, and updated RBA forecasts due next week are likely to suggest inflation will remain above targets for another year at least. We know RBA are concerned above wage growth, and after strong employment numbers last week a rate rise from RBA in August is a possibility although not set in stone. GBPAUD right now 1.8990.
In other news, Twitter has been rebranded ‘X’ in one of those moves that no one other than Musk seems to really grasp or understand. He does make some odd decisions but they never really seem to turn into a disaster. The main issue I have is that I occasionally refer to something I have seen on Twitter, sometimes I refer to it as a ‘tweet’. Do I now call it an ex-tweet?
I went to see the much hyped Oppenheimer yesterday evening. It was pretty good actually, not quite enough about the science behind the ideas but then again I am more interested in most in this, and what little they did share was possibly approaching the limit of my intelligence anyway. T prove this point, one thing I hadn’t really known was that Einstein was alive and well in the 1940s. He always seemed to be someone from way back in history, OK so we could argue that he was born nearly 150 years ago now, but he died in 1955 so when I was a kid he’d only passed away twenty or so years before.
Similar story with Picasso, he only died in 1973. I think I’m just used to painters and geniuses being from a different age. I guess we should we look at Elon Musk as one of the pioneers of this generation, not so much for the change of Twitter to ‘X’ but more for his role in leading the EV charge and his space travel plans. Seriously, if you look at videos of his space rockets returning to earth it is like something out of Thunderbirds or the old black and white Flash Gordon shows. Very impressive.
Mind you he hasn’t come up with anything that we know of to put out vast forest fires. That is something that would be pretty useful for the Greek islands right now as holidaymakers continue to be evacuated from Rhodes and possibly Corfu. I have family out in Zante at the moment and they seem to be getting on OK. Obviously the temperatures are high but not as extreme as some parts. Climate change is of course at the forefront of our minds although I did read this morning that the fires may well have been started by arson. Doesn’t make climate change any less important but is this is arson then I hope they catch the culprit. Shocking.
Have a great day
- 09.00 German IFO
- 14.00 US house price index
- 15.00 US consumer confidence
- 02.30 AUS CPI
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