All Posts

Yesterday saw the beginning of the UN General Assembly, where the biggest news was that Tehran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within seven days if the US eases military pressure and lifts its blockade of Iranian ports. The US has said they are 'open to that', but there have been no formal talks and nothing has been scheduled. However, following on from yesterday, these are the first signs for a while of a willingness to reopen negotiations. We have been down this

Yesterday was very much a risk-on day, with oil falling and news from the Middle East. The UN General Assembly is due to take place in New York this week, where world leaders are due to meet. Trump was asked and responded to Fox News that he would 'probably' be open to sitting down with the Iranian President over the course of the week, which is the first sign of a potential resumption in peace talks for a long time. This adds on to the expected meeting between Gulf State lea

The weekend continued to bring escalation between the Houthis and the Saudis, as the Houthis claimed to have targeted 'sensitive' sites in Riyadh, with Saudi Arabia issuing air-raid alerts in the capital for the first time since April, as well as targeting an Aramco facility in Yanbu. US citizens are now also being advised to 'seriously reconsider' travel to the region. Separate from this, the Iranians have reasserted their stance that the Strait of Hormuz will not be reopene

The first full day after the Fed's rate hikes saw precious metals rally significantly, while we also saw rallies in the stock market for the tech sector. We saw two more central banks give their rate decisions, with the BoE holding and the BoJ raising rates as expected. Geopolitically, there were not large developments; there are still concerns surrounding the Middle East, and the US/Iran conflict still shows no sign of slowing down. However, we have begun to see oil fall as

Yesterday saw the main event, where the Fed raised interest rates by 0.25% as expected. The real market-moving news, however, was the forward guidance and the dot-plot that went with the decision. The decision to raise rates was unanimous, with 16 of the 18 participants also expecting at least one more rate hike this year. Four expected two rate hikes, whilst the majority expected only one. An interesting thing to note, however, and a point that has affected the precious meta