15 August

 

It occurs to me that the ramblings that go on in my head might best find an outlet here....but than again maybe not, we'll see. I go away for a week and the Stock Market starts to misbehave swinging wildly about with a 10% difference one week to the next. People slash prices in the Supermarkets and this brings inflation down (not exactly rocket science but seems to have caught a few people out) which perhaps might turn the odd hawkish MPC member a little more lovey dovey, and thus we may just have reached the top of the interest rate cycle? Just as the warm glow of that washes over you 127m daily shoppers in the US have decided to start spending less in Walmart's stores and this has meant that they (they're massive) and other retail outlets have posted crap returns for the last quarter sending everyone running for cover again. It's all a bit difficult to read and volatile and given in the property market, particularly in London, volumes are wafer thin (It's August) and everyone's on holiday maybe we should wait a bit before jumping to any conclusions.