26 Jul 2023
All the UK share indices fell modestly in Q2 as the wait for recession continued and inflation remained stubbornly high. Year to date, the FTSE 100 has a clear lead (+5%) over the more domestically exposed 250 (-1.3%).
There was some blood spilt in the government bond markets, especially in the UK where the 10 year gilt yield leapt from 3.49% to 4.65%. Germany (2.18% to 2.63%) and the US (3.41% to 4.00%) moved in the same direction but less dramatically. Sensible but shocked financial TV commentators could be heard breaking a lifetime’s habit and actually suggesting that private investors might invest in government debt.
This is a trickle, as the calm stock markets show and most attention has focused on the woes of those who need to remortgage at rates that they apparently never considered to be possible.
Crony capitalism has shown a few stress fractures, not least with a ruling from a judge in Missouri that the Biden administration should stop directing the large media organisations to suppress unwelcome opinions. The bizarre sight of the liberal media closing ranks around big Pharma, big Tech and, thanks to Coutts and Natwest, big Finance, is perhaps paused for a moment.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1677289360486457345
But the subsidy truffle hunters are still snuffling away. Tata has secured unknown public money for its battery factory in Somerset and the Swedish company Vattenfall has halted work on its Norfolk offshore wind farm pending….you guessed it.