Thursday, October 12: Here’s a short list of things that saw more action than the markets this morning;

Theresa May’s fanmail inbox

Egyptian Sunbeds

VHS Recorders

 

Once again, a slowly strengthening pound, together with sparse small data releases and background geo-political risks created a perfect storm of relative calm, and not just in London. As European opening bells rang, the majority of indices made movements of very little note. The IBEX crept up, with more on Spain to come, as Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC tailed off a little, leaving the FTSE flat.

Into the afternoon, as we speak, the Dow Jones sits dead flat and continues the global trend that is nothing much is really going on. The FTSE managed to make some ground and closed a modest 0.3% higher after the pound slipped following Brexit chatter. At the moment the pound sits 0.5% lower against the dollar, oh and Trump’s signing an executive order, which he seems like he hasn’t done in forever so good on him.

Shares in St James’s place topped the main index after climbing 4.07%, with the financial services sector performing well on Thursday. At the bottom of the index were HSBC shares after they announced John Flint, current head of their retail banking and wealth management division, would become the new chief executive. He has worked at the bank for almost 30 years

To give a brief overview of the situation in Spain, as it stands Catalonia now have to clear up whether or not they declared independence and then basically revoke it or another ‘Article’ will be invoked. This time, it’s Article 155, which would see Catalonia lose their autonomy. So the dialogue is going well, over to you Puigdemont.