🗞️ The Metal Ox: No financial problems

Rational exuberance… We are at the halfway stage of February and some 6 weeks into the new year. Time to take a wealth check. Well, a performance one anyway. The S&P has recovered from its mid-January sell-off and is now up 4.7%, the Dow by 2.8% with the Dax +2.4%. Many equity markets this year […]

🗞️ Risk rally set to go on

It’s all coming together nicely… The Chinese New Year is upon us, and their markets (at least) can feel pleased with themselves. There has been an almighty, record-breaking rally in Chinese and Asian markets. In a sense, the Asian markets’ reaction to reopening are a harbinger of what is to come elsewhere once the US […]

💶 Fiat currency transmogrification to embrace crypto

Swept up by wave of optimism… The only game in town, just at the moment, is crypto. Actually, we think it will be the crypto market will be the most talked-about market throughout the year. Tesla treasury’s huge investment tops the Bitcoin credibility index ahead of the MicroStrategy group’s investment that got the ball rolling […]

🚘 Tesla + ₿ = 🚀 & More to Follow

Who needs equities, corporate bonds… The big buzz getting this week off to a great start was news that Tesla had in the last month acquired €1.5bn of Bitcoin for treasury purposes – and that it would allow Bitcoin payment for car purchases, subject to all the regulatory checks. The coin’s price jumped from below […]

🔛 Feels good.. it’s risk-on

No straight line, but up and away… The tea leaves are once again aligned – and the message is clear: risk prices are in the ascendancy. J&J’s one-shot vaccine is weeks away from emergency approval. The $1.9trn covid relief package has been approved by the US congress, and in its entirety after their Vice President’s […]

🗞️ Turbocharged markets

Fast forwarding after the blip… We questioned whether Main Street was about to unleash some kind of Big Bang II on the financial markets amid some significant falls in equities and weakness across the risk asset markets. It might still, but fast forward a few days and we’re just about back at the heady levels […]

📈 Back to record-breaking territory

2021 starts again… It’s almost as if the second half of January was a necessary aberration, if only to check the breakneck speed with which markets were rallying. That opening rally was courtesy of new year exuberance on the back of the Biden inauguration-cum-fiscal stimulus anticipation, as well as the hope that the vaccine roll-out […]

☕ Storm in a tea cup

Wobble over, big finance back in the game… It took a blow, but the establishment is fighting back. Well, not quite, but calm has transcended the markets and the hitherto great arbiter of efficient capital allocation is back in the game. So, after reeling for much of the final week of January and unfortunately denting […]

💥 Financial markets’ Big Bang II

Established order rattled by the little guy… The emerging retail-led investing phenomenon, buying (at the moment) in heavily shorted equities, has stirred markets and risks  – becoming a real poke in the eye for the established order. It should throw up many concerns for traditional markets and the accepted behaviour of institutional investors (include hedge […]

🗞️ Vaccine sucker punch floors market

Vaccine squabbles sully the mood… The ‘Biden bounce’ might have turned into an almighty, vaccine-squabble-inspired sell-off. And the huge bullish tone early on may have flipped, leaving markets exhibiting a more nervous disposition. But they’ve bounced again, leaving investors chewing on whether they will hang on for a bit longer this time. After all, in […]