· Risk-on rally driven by reflation trade
· Bitcoin fresh record high, sterling heading for $1.40
· UK assets in favour, Deliveroo IPO eyed
Twenty-five-year-old security guard Salvador Vergara took out a $20,000 personal loan at 11 per cent to buy GameStop shares at $234. He still owns the shares – now worth 52.40 – and the debt on the loan. It’s not a pretty story and underlines why it is so important not to get carried away by fads, social media and the madness of crowds. It could be worse: Vergara lives at home, has plenty of time to pay off the loan and hasn’t touched his $50,000 in index funds. And GME could yet moon.
Yesterday I read an article saying Elon Musk now controls a quarter of all satellites orbiting our planet. Now amid all the zany crypto tweeting and market subversiveness – and running the world’s most valuable car company – there surely needs to be a question or two asked about whether it make sense to allow a marijuana-smoking, Mars-colonising maverick to have custody of such an important geostrategic asset. By next year Musk could control half the satellites in space, such is the number of Starlink missions planned. Musk’s SpaceX has already said it won’t recognise international laws when it settles Mars, but is there not some kind of law here on Earth against a giant private monopoly controlling the skies? Investing in space is starting to get really interesting.
Bitcoin – of which Tesla owns a little north of $1.5bn but has little to do with space except it will probably become the currency of Musk’s Martian settlements- rose to hit a new all-time high overnight, flirting with the $50k marker. Growing corporate support for the crypto makes this a very different market to what it was in 2017. Money printing and dollar debasement is also a factor.
London may be set for a boom time for cannabis listings with Kanabo the latest to IPO today after MGC Pharmaceuticals last week. It follows the FCA’s decision last year to allow medical marijuana companies to list in the UK, which could create a major European trading hub for cannabis companies which is currently dominated by Toronto and New York. See our recent news feature on London’s IPO comeback.
The FTSE and sterling had a stonker of a day as UK assets found favour thanks largely to Britain’s successful vaccination rollout, which has handsomely boosted sentiment towards the UK economy. Vaccinations are already reducing hospitalisations and deaths. The pound was one of the main beneficiaries as vaccines look set to kickstart the economy in Q2 – we hope. GBPUSD broke through 1.39 before kicking on to mark a new 3-year high overnight at 1.3950 and now looks set to take out 1.40 as expected. EURGBP slipped further towards 0.870, levels not seen since May last year. The FTSE 100 meanwhile broke free from its 100pt February range to rally over 2.5 per cent and hit its…
Read more:Market Outlook: UK assets finding favour, Deliveroo IPO eyed, Bitcoin record again &
