Daily Snapshot

For regular readers of the Snapshot you’ll be aware that I’m quite easily impressed by sporting feats. But even I am a bit taken aback by the incredible story about Nedd Brockmann, an electrician from Australia who just completed one of those ‘How on earth did you do that?” challenges by running 3952km from Perth to Sydney in just 47 days, raising a huge amount of money for the homeless. I bet the first beer tasted pretty good! Mr Kwarteng might be having a few cold ones right about now as his budget has been completely ripped up by Jeremy Hunt and Liz Truss.

I’ll let you all into a little sales-trader secret and I hope you aren’t too shocked – sometimes when there is a little more time, I try to pen some of the Daily Snapshot before the European trading day is behind us. The benefits being that on quieter days, what you’ve written earlier in the day is often the case by close of play, the downside being when everything changes half way through and you have to re-write the whole thing. Luckily, today was a day I decided to leave it late, let the dust settle following the UK U-turn headlines and CPI mess and then crack on. Headline CPI the big event and it disappointed.

Of all the headlines that caught my eye today, the best had to be the Bank of England’s Jonathan Haskel saying that he won’t speak about Monetary Policy today. I might try my luck with Mr Quick and declare that I shall not be speaking about stocks or the broader markets tomorrow but have a feeling that a) no one would to listen to my other ramblings, b) I certainly wouldn’t be very good at my job and c) I think I might be a little bored sitting here all day if I wasn’t. This is what you are paid to do Mr Haskel.

For those watching the current markets who have Instagram or Twitter the must follow account at the moment has to be Good News Movement. A daily dose of “GOOD NEWS ONLY”, all very heart-warming stuff and a good reminder of perspective in what is undoubtedly a very challenging time where good news seems very rare. Wondering if in the current mood the Snapshot should be renamed Bad News Movement, but I guess it is important to take stock of all that is going on, even if its seems largely skewed to the negative.

The start of the Snapshot usually includes some witty, interesting anecdote, but having done a week of solo-daddy-day-care I can only report that ‘Pointless’ has to be the best daytime quiz show, getting a baby to sleep/nap usually includes 20k steps a day and you get some strange looks in the pub at 3pm… if you go every day with a pram. I missed the squeeze and subsequent fall last week and with the market up 60bps for the quarter it feels like there are still more questions than answers out there at the moment.

As UK boxing is thrown into uproar as to whether Chris Eubank Jr vs Conor Benn will still go ahead this Saturday despite the latter failing a drugs test, I’m hit with mixed feelings. Firstly, being a Shenfield/Brentwood resident I can’t help feel some dented pride given promoter Eddie Hearn, keen for the bout to go ahead regardless, is a local lad and an alumni of my son & daughters former school, as well as Conor’s supercar of the moment with plate ‘KO 13ENN’ (it is Essex after all) being a regular sight in the neighbourhood.

A sigh of relief for all the Olivers amongst you today as the name finally comes off the top of the most popular names for boys list after an eight year stint. What do you reckon replaced it? I can promise you after the royal headlines of the last few years it wasn’t Andrew. And we KNOW it wasn’t Courteney. Noah the new name topping the boys list and it has been appropriately biblical out there on the weather front today.

The cost of living crisis is very real for all of us, with present tongue in cheek discussions centring on how long one can wait before turning the heating on. The ultimate brag has gone from the amount of toilet rolls you had during covid, to a more sobering whether you have fixed your energy bills or mortgage rate today. For the less fortunate masses, we have to look for other ways to keep warm, so when I saw hooded blanket company Oodie offering up to 50% off some bundles, I had a lightbulb moment as a consumer, although it demonstrated the struggles firms benefitting from gains in energy prices face too.

Ah yes. It’s all coming back to me now. I’ve had a few months away from the Snapshot but the old feelings don’t take long to return. The angst over what to focus on out of all the themes that have emerged over the weekend. The slightly niggling doubt that I shouldn’t be talking about things I don’t fully understand. The chutzpah to talk about them anyway because someone reading this might know even less. (I did say might). So what to focus on?

2022 is currently the year with the most S&P down days since 1974. And 2022 is the third worst year already in the number of -3% weeks. And we’ve had six 3% down months in the last rolling 9 months, only surpassed in the 1930s. For the bulls – “Twelve post-WWII bear markets have ended in October: 1946, 1957, 1960, 1962, 1966, 1974, 1987, 1990, 1998, 2001, 2002 and 2011.” Something we can all hope for. Lots of amazing stats there and as much as I would like to take credit, all are from the Midweek Charts pack which is, in my opinion, the second best guide to what is going on, only just behind the Daily Snapshot of course.