Breathing easier for the moment
This week has been quite quiet in the UK. Of note, wages look set to rise more than 3% this year, stronger than 2.6% rise for last year. Subsequently, the Bank of England will probably deliver a rate rise at their March meeting. But we’ll look at the UK in more depth next week.
Trump’s long-awaited budget plan fails to inspire
Over a year since Donald Trump was sworn into the White House, one of his main campaign pledges is finally taking shape. On Monday, the US President proposed a long-awaited infrastructure spending plan through which the administration hopes to galvanise $1.5tn in funding over the next 10 years. However, despite the headline figure, only $200bn would come from the federal government, while the rest will have to be put up by state and local governments or the private sector.
Zuma’s story draws to a close
At long last, Jacob Zuma is gone. The former South African president resigned on Wednesday, pre-empting a vote of no confidence from his party that would likely have removed him anyway. In his place steps the deputy Cyril Ramaphosa, who won the leadership of the ruling ANC party back in December, and was swiftly elected to succeed Zuma on Thursday.
Share buybacks and stock market volumes
What caused last Monday’s volatility surge? We believe it has something to do with the sudden plunge in daily trading volumes in February, and corporate share buyback programmes going dark in January.
Please click here for the full Tatton commentary.
