Good morning, it's Paul here. Here is the usual placeholder, for your early comments, whilst I piece together something vaguely sensible to say during the morning.
Estimated timings - I'm on the late shift today, so will be updating this most of the afternoon - 4pm finish. Today's report is now finished.
Got to say, just 50-60 thumbs ups by lunchtime yesterday after me doing 6 hours work, didn't exactly motivate me to do any more work for you in the afternoon, so I went to the beach instead, and listened to some more of a smashing audiobook, the memoirs ("Winning Against the Odds") of 85-year-old Stuart Wheeler, the founder of IG Index.
I won't spoil it, by giving away some of the hilarious anecdotes - such as gambling with Lord Lucan, overturning a red cross ambulance accidentally, getting shot in the face in Egypt, and numerous other wonderful stories, all told in a calm and quiet tone. It's great fun, if you can plough through the rather slow start. Recommended. Everyone should record an autobiography.
Thanks for all the lovely thumbs ups today, I'll have to produce something decent now!! It really does help motivate the writers here, and yes I know I'm a bit of a muppet over this!
It's another strong day for the markets today. Listening to CNBC, hopes seem to be very high over a potential covid-19 vaccine. This is very much at odds with what the UK Govt has said, and what pretty much every expert in the UK has said. I remain very nervous about everything.
There was also some unexpectedly good economic data in the US yesterday. Or rather, not as bad as expected. The stimulus being thrown at the economy by the US & UK Governments is absolutely mind-boggling. Although it's probably going to need waves of more QE to keep it going. Sooner or later that has to cause inflation. Then we're in a gigantic mess. But people have been saying that for 12 years, and yet everything seems to carry on fine. Everything I previously learned about economics, at school & university, doesn't seem to apply any more.
So it's all incredibly confusing. Are we going into a proper recession, or having a short, sharp, V-shaped recession? Who knows? It's totally perplexing. I can understand why investors are feeling more bullish, given that the…
