Watson’s Weekly 28 -10-2023

This is an amalgamation of the “best bits” of the daily weekday newsletter/blog woven together to form a concise and coherent view on the things that matter in the commercial and economic news of the week. 

THE COLOURED HIGHLIGHT REFERS TO THE EDITION WHERE THE STORY APPEARED IN WATSON’S DAILY. Clicking on the day will take you to the appropriate edition of Watson’s Daily.

IN BIG PICTURE NEWS...

This was the week when luxury slowed down, when the bankers’ bonus cap was removed and when the US ordered Nvidia to stop selling AI chips to China…

  • IN THE US – GDP accelerated at a rate of 4.9% in Q3, its fastest pace since Q4 of 2021! It was driven largely by consumer spending. The Fed is due to meet next week to discuss interest rates, but it is widely thought that they will be left unchanged. The strength in GDP would suggest that interest rates are going to have to stay higher for longer.
  • IN EUROPEthe ECB left interest rates unchanged amid worries that the Eurozone economy is going to be weak for the rest of the year at least. Germany continues to be a drag.
  • IN MARKETS – it was interesting to note that the UK Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund holds a severely underweight position in UK equities – which is other UK defined pension schemes. This suggests that the PCPF thinks the UK economy is going sideways, at best! This isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement of the government and the way it’s running things!

IN COMMODITIES NEWS…

IN BUSINESS EMPLOYMENT & CONSUMER TRENDS NEWS...

IN BUSINESS TRENDS…

IN EMPLOYMENT TRENDS…

  • The latest employment figures have been called into question because the ONS has had to change the way they collect the data as the number of respondents has fallen sharply (from 40% pre-Covid to just 14% now!), rendering their accuracy somewhat doubtful. Inaccurate data is clearly going to make interest rate decisions by the Bank of England very difficult…

IN CONSUMER TRENDS…

IN RETAIL, CONSUMER GOODS & LEISURE NEWS...

IN RETAIL NEWS…

IN LEISURE…

IN AUTOMOTIVE-RELATED NEWS...

IN EV NEWS…

ELSEWHERE…

IN FINANCIALS NEWS...

IN US BANKS NEWS…

  • Goldman Sachs launched the Goldman Sachs Global Institute that will analyse and advise clients on geopolitics and disruption from the rise of AI. This kind of business already exists but I’m sure that this one will be a great way of harnessing Goldman’s expertise given its incredible network.

IN EUROPEAN BANKS NEWS…

IN UK BANKS NEWS…

ELSEWHERE…

IN TECH NEWS...

IN AI NEWS…

IN CHIP NEWS…

IN SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS…

BANTER

I know this was staged, but it still made me laugh – so my favourite “alternative” video from this week was this one of the inappropriate DJ at an office party 🤣!

 

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