Ex-FSA chief honcho Lord Adair Turner years ago commented that peer-to-peer lenders ‘’will make the worst bankers look like lending geniuses’’, City AM reports. Yesterday one of these unicorns, Funding Circle, warned that revenue growth would be less than half of what it had hoped at just 20 per cent. For a firm that hasn’t made a profit in its 9-year history, growth is everything. Shares, which floated in October 2018 at 440 pence, closed at 115.6 pence last night.
As it is now forced to do, the BBC yesterday disclosed the names of its top earners, though not those who have production companies supplying content for programming. The salary bill last year increased by £11 million. Needless to say, this rubbed salt in the wounds of those who are angry that free TV licences for over 75-year-olds will be scrapped. Talking of which, despite yet another rise in the total UK population, last year the sales of TV licences fell by 37,000 – the first drop in a decade. The corporation blames streaming services, YouTube and such like. Nothing to do with content, of course.
DAX 30
Still almost overbought and Monday’s gap (and shooting star doji) still looming large this week.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Small short at 12530; stop well above 12625. Target 11800.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
FTSE 100
Overbought again after yesterday’s surprising burst higher.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
S&P 500
Almost overbought and holding above Monday’s gap, mainly on hoped for Sino-US trade talks.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
BRITISH POUND/US DOLLAR
Dipping below secular support around 1.2600. Disappointing.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Stopped out on yesterday’s drop for a small loss.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
EURO/US DOLLAR
EU leaders have chosen their candidates for top EU jobs – with the surprising choice of Christine Lagarde to head the ECB. Now new and existing MEPs will have their vote on the chosen ones. Yesterday’s shooting star candle on the euro is not a good omen, nor is the yen’s return to safe-haven status.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Square.
POSITION TAKER: Square.
GOLD
A surprising surge in the price of spot gold so that it’s comfortably back above the psychological 1400 level.
SHORT TERM TRADER: Stopped out yesterday of my short position.
POSITION TAKER: Short at 1404; stop above 1440. Target 1320.
