Investment Markets Overview — W/E 31st March 2017

“Rock On”…… is a song written by British singer/songwriter David Essex and recorded in 1973 shortly before a UK referendum took the nation into the European Union. In the week when “Article 50,” the process by which member states may withdraw from the EU, was triggered by the British Prime Minister,  “Rock,” hit the news once again, in the guise of Gibraltar and says much about the likely discord to expect as the protracted divorce evolves. Despite both parties providing assurances that expatriates living across the union would not be used as “bargaining chips,” documents were published by the European council within two-days of article 50 stating that decisions affecting Gibraltar, the small territory of 30,000 in southern Spain and which has been British for more than 300 years, would be referred to the Spanish government.

Meanwhile, an interesting article by Sarah Marley at Select Statistical Services shines a light on how EU migrants are represented across the UK workforce, observing that 6.8% of the 31.5m people aged 16 or over in employment within the UK are EU nationals from across the continent. Whilst that may not sound much, the percentage has grown from 1.7% over the past 20-years and makes up a dis-proportionate bias towards the UK public sector, particularly the National Health Service, the largest employer by headcount across the EU and the fifth largest in the world according to a mid-2015 Forbes report.

Market-wise the closely watched S&P 500 stock-index enjoyed a decent first quarter, albeit that March’s 0% change removed some of the shine, whilst the cost of debt, by way of the 10-year treasury yield, was also virtually unchanged over Q1 thanks to the second half of March. For the main economic data of the week, supported by informative charts, please read on:

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Additional Commentaries:
•US economic data . . .
•Euro-Zone . . .
•The UK . . .
•Out East . . .
•The $US index . . .
•Within the commodities complex . . .
•Economic data due next week includes . . .

 The European civil service, aka the European Commission, allegedly employs about 25,000 individuals’ plus “approximately” a further 10,000 “external staff” who are employees on time-limited contracts, but   ……

Charts:
1.  Indices Weekly
2. US Personal Incomes V US Personal Spending
3. UK Consumer Credit V UK GDP
4. Japan Housing Starts V Japan CPI
5. Commodities Weekly

Table:

13 Indices, 11 columns of detailed information, for accurate analysis

                     “Dick Turpin was a Paragon of Virtue versus the EC” 

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