Welcome back.
This week, we turn our weary locked-down eyes to foreign holidays, and specifically to the airline sector. The idea that vaccines could bring the virus under control have made investors – and would-be travellers – optimistic, and the share prices of many airlines are back on the way up. Matthew Partridge takes an in-depth look at the sector and picks the best-placed shares to buy now.
In the podcast this week, Merryn talks to one of our favourite global economists, Dambisa Moyo. She talks about the future role of corporations vs governments at a time when public trust in big companies – not necessarily fairly, says Dambisa – is not particularly high. She also has a lot to say about the economic recovery (or lack of) from the pandemic, the strength of China’s economy, and the prospects for the UK and Europe. Listen to what she has to say here.
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This week’s “Too Embarrassed To Ask” video takes a look at Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency created specifically to poke fun at the whole cryptocurrency thing, which everyone is now taking seriously after some remarkable gains (and some big falls too). Watch that here.
Here are the links for this week’s editions of Money Morning and other web stories you may have missed.
- Monday Money Morning: The FTSE 100 has clawed back above 7,000 – how much higher can it go?
- Web article: Dogecoin goes “to the moon” – what’s going on?
- Tuesday Money Morning: Why investment advice could be about to get a lot cheaper
- Wednesday Money Morning: China owns a lot more gold than it’s letting on – and here’s why
- Thursday Money Morning: House prices in the UK are still surging – here’s why it’ll probably continue
- Friday Money Morning: Why higher capital gains taxes in the US might be bad news for bitcoin
- Web article: The factors driving Britain’s provincial house-price bubble
Now for the charts of the week.
The charts that matter
Gold’s mini-rally continued. One reason, perhaps, is China’s continued appetite for it, as Dominic Frisby explained earlier in the week.
(Gold: three months)
The US dollar index (DXY – a measure of the strength of the dollar against a basket of the currencies of its major trading partners) turned up towards the end of the week.
(DXY: three months)
The dollar’s bounce is reflected in chart of the Chinese yuan (or renminbi) – when the red line is rising, the dollar is strengthening while the yuan is weakening.
(Chinese yuan to the US dollar: since 25 Jun 2019)
The downward drift in the yield on the ten-year US government bond continued for another week.
(Ten-year US Treasury yield: three months)
The yield on the Japanese ten-year bond also continued to drop.
(Ten-year Japanese government bond yield: three months)
The yield on the ten-year German Bund, however, continued its slow rise towards positive territory.
(Ten-year Bund yield: three months)
Copper’s positive mood continued as it headed back up, almost hitting its most recent high.
(Copper: nine months)
The closely-related Aussie dollar didn’t seem to share its enthusiasm, however, drifting downwards against the strengthening US dollar.
(Aussie dollar vs US dollar exchange rate: three months)
Cryptocurrency bitcoin plummeted this week – a much bigger fall than we’ve seen in recent months. John explained in yesterday’s Money Morning how US president Joe Biden’s plans for higher taxes on “the rich” may have had something to do with it. If you missed, it, have a read of it here.
(Bitcoin: three months)
US weekly initial jobless claims fell again – down 39,000 to 547,000, compared to 586,000 last week (revised up from 576,000). It’s the lowest number of claims since March 2020. The four-week moving average fell to 651,000, down 27,750 from 678,750 (which was revised down from 683,000) the week before.
(US initial jobless claims, four-week moving average: since Jan 2020)
The oil price seems to be making its way back up.
(Brent crude oil: three months)
Amazon continued its modest retreat from its recent high.
(Amazon: three months)
While Tesla continued to tread water.
(Tesla: three months)
Have a great weekend.
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