Mind The Gap

In our latest morning roll call we highlighted the fact that, despite the USA avoiding a potentially catastrophic financial meltdown by way of a default, only a temporary solution was reached. We’re left with a totally unsatisfactory situation were milestones and obstacles in mid December, January and finally February 7th will haunt any progress towards

There was good news from the European car sector in this mornings financial news, European sales have improved by 5.5%. However, that news needs tempering with the realisation that the numbers bounced up from an incredibly low point reached during the summer months.  Sales rose 5.5% during September compared to a year ago, making it

Europe’s major stock indices are higher this morning, on hopes that the progress made in Washington last night between the opposing Democrats and Republicans will eventually translate into a debt ceiling and budget deal. Senate majority leader Harry Reid increased hopes of a deal last night telling reporters that he and minority leader Mitch McConnell

We’re not alone in expecting this deadlock debt ceiling situation to be resolved any day soon as it dramatically heads right down ‘to the wire’ (as they are fond of saying in the USA). As we’ve stated on several occasions; once individual greed rears its head, a solution will probably be found. A drop of

The DJIA rose 2.2% yesterday, by far its best day in 2013. However, with president Obama not making any real tangible improvement with his opposite numbers in the Republican Party, the huge boost in market sentiment experienced on Thursday could evaporate quickly once USA markets open this afternoon. On closer examination nothing actually changed to

During yesterday’s White House conference, President Obama praised current Fed chairman Ben Bernanke as he winds down towards his leaving in January 2014 for leading the US through; [quote]“some of the most daunting circumstances of a lifetime. He has truly been a stabilizing force, not only for our country, but for the entire world.”[/quote] Describing

It’s noticeable just how fickle consumer confidence is in the USA when faced with a political and economic crisis. Similar to many analysts and market commentators, in this column we’ve long held the view that the USA economy had topped out and was only moving forward due to the QE to infinity programme Ben Bernanke,

We start with a title which should remind those investors and traders, who have been seduced by many of the bullish statements from the E.U. and ECB over recent weeks, that the recovery in the Eurozone and as a consequence the wider European region, is far from certain and certainly isn’t underpinned by solid foundations.

In our morning roll call publication (printed this morning) we quoted U.S. Treasury secretary Jacob Lew sharing his concerns regarding the USA debt ceiling impasse, for those who missed it the key quotation is worth repeating; [quote]On the 17th, we run out of our ability to borrow, and Congress is playing with fire. If they

Despite the sweeping generalization peddled by the mainstream media (that 800K government workers and civil servants are not getting paid), due to the various anomalies within the USA government, as to how and why certain employees are paid, ensures that not all government workers are ‘enjoying’ a few days unpaid forced leave… As we noted