Calling a spade a spade

Trump sides with a hard Brexit… or does he?

We’re trading the headlines around the US President, and it’s gripping stuff. With Trump being his usual inimitable self, there is little chance that we’re going to feel overly comfortable with anything. He has dropped a few bombshells already and the UK government’s stiff upper lip has needed to be as rigidly fixed as it could be.

So the UK has been in the doghouse with the President, even as they entertain him with tea & scones at the Palace. The political impact and possible fallout did feed through into some apprehension in markets at the end of last week, leaving us to close out higher in equities but without any real zest behind it. Sterling, in particular, took some punishment as a result of Trump’s trade deal comments, before recovering after he qualified his views!

Activity overall, though, is light and the thin markets into the holidays can move sharply and disproportionately lower as they react to any negative event-risk. On the other hand, we can creep higher should the prevailing news flow be fairly neutral.

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