Another day when Central banks took centre stage. Oh and how we have missed them….right? Following on from the Hawkish Powell yesterday who dispelled any thoughts of a pivot in the near term we had a deluge more from the BoE, Norges Bank and had a raft of ECB speakers to fill the diary today. The BoE stepped up and raised by 75bps in a vote 7-2 with one voting 25bp (!?) and one voting 50bp which was slightly strange.
The big event of the evening is actually happening 3460 miles away from New York at the Savoy where the Execution team are representing Redburn at the TRADE’s Leaders in Trading awards for 2022. You may remember that last year we strolled away with the Best Trading Performance award and this year we are nominated for Best Access to the Market and Best Customer Support. We’d be happy with either of those but let’s see. To all those readers who are also up for awards, we hope to see you there and best of luck.
Lots of politicians have used their political standings to make some big moves in the business world post their political careers but clearly that isn’t for everyone. Nick Clegg has gone on to hold a senior position at Meta, David Miliband is the president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee and Matt Hancock is entering the Jungle for I’m a Celebrity get me out of here. He must be quite short odd favourite for the first Bushtucker trial.
Another rotation around the sun this week for yours truly and someone asked me this morning if the $134k iPhone 14 that comes with a built in Rolex Daytona is on my birthday list. Definitely not – completely out of touch with the current climate in my view and from a practical standpoint I’ve never had a problem with the digital clock on the front of my iPhone and I am quite prone to dropping it.
Again another day when I think there was too much to digest to see that much invested and I’m sure a few colleagues would agree we were all wishing for a little less c̶o̶n̶v̶e̶r̶s̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ earnings a little more action…..please. But under the surface there was a slight shift back in dynamic to what we have seen throughout the year. A quick glance at the sector performance on the day mirrored quite nicely what has happened YTD. Crowded trades being re-populated as Shell, Repsol and Total showed that the Oils is still a sector on the up.
Another day with plenty of huff and puff to it but no houses blowing down while – despite plenty of noise – volumes remain conspicuous by their absence. Are we at the start of another reluctant rally? Plenty of echoes of the June to August squeeze and our Charts team went all literary on me with a Mark Twain quote today. “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes,” they opined looking into the near distance. I think someone needs a Sazerac.
Tony Atkins has been raving about the food market at Paternoster Square pretty much every last Wednesday of the month for the past 6 months. Problem is it happens on the last Tuesday of every month and we’ve missed every single one. So you can imagine my disappointment when we finally remember the day, on the day, to be massively let down when arriving to no market. Apparently a ‘Halloween special’ next week bucking the trend and derailing our plans and it has only added to my dislike of Halloween! (more on that next week).
By no means trying to turn the Snapshot into ‘Monday Kitchen’ but I was home at the weekend and my mum cooked up what must have been the best rich-delicious-winter-warmer ever (not biased at all). Thai massaman lamb curry with all the trimmings and I’m told this is the recipe. 15mins prep and a 3hour cook is my kind of ratio too (though need those gas/elec prices to keep dropping) which gives you time to get on with your day, relax, and tick off those endless to-do’s that you really don’t want to do.
As guest editor of the Snapshot, parachuted in when Courteney & Andrew are away, I’m usually scratching around for a light-hearted opening gambit to our wrap. Today, with only one main story that deserves to adorn our front page, I’m met with an abundance of material. Whether it was the tongue-in-cheek youtube page set up pitching Liz against an iceberg lettuce as to who would last longer, that has earned her the label ‘Titanic PM’ (beaten by an iceberg), or the fact that Sky News political reporter wrote “My son has lived through four chancellors, three home secretaries, two prime ministers & two monarchs.. He’s four months old.”.
It is a very dangerous finding, but I can confidently report that the Cinnamon Social from Ole and Steen is the premier coffee/meeting accompaniment for all occasions. The Danish bakery knocks up a 2 foot long, feeds-14-or-so slab of deliciousness and the good news is there is a one opening just around the corner from the Redburn office – not what we really need it in the run up to Christmas. Now this market does feel like it is in the midst of a daily balancing act at the moment and in honesty no side is really winning. The U.S. 10yr hit multi-year highs today and the USD was up 60bps which makes any rally in Equity markets for the time being quite tricky to continue.