Ray Douglas

🔶 Gold price tops $4,000 for first time 🔶

The precious metal has soared more than 50% this year, driven by central banks buying bullion to diversify away from the dollar, as well as by investors who see gold as a hedge against inflation and widespread uncertainty

FT www.ft.com/content/ed7f...

Always thought this was a peculiar sponsorship deal (to put it mildly). Kagame has been president for around 25 years

🇺🇸 AMD soars on OpenAI deal

Chipmaker AMD surged after signing a deal with OpenAI for infrastructure that could generate billions of dollars in new revenue

Deal comes just a fortnight after AMD’s rival, Nvidia, announced plans to invest $100bn in OpenAI

FT www.ft.com/content/bfaf...

Comes after stellar run this year (cf chart by @raydouglas.bsky.social) and as people start to worry that inflating-away-our-massive-debts is the gameplan.

ETF flows have jumped and bankers say they are receiving a surge in calls from people wanting to take an allocation
www.ft.com/content/54dc...

Bargain Chris

The AI capex endgame is approaching - the always excellent @ianrharnett.bsky.social here on the AI bubble and how it is likely to burst. This chart from @raydouglas.bsky.social in the column underlines the risks www.ft.com/content/c7b9...

🇺🇸 Trust in US media hits historic lows, across the political spectrum

◉ Just 8% of Republicans say they trust the media

◉ Only 27% of Independents agree

◉ Even among Democrats, trust has slipped to a narrow majority (51%)

#MediaTrust #Gallup #USPolitics

🇺🇸 US private sector sheds 32,000 jobs, according to ADP, confounding expectations for a gain of 50,000

It’s the sharpest drop since March 2023

With Friday’s nonfarm payrolls postponed, this is the clearest signal we’ve got on the state of the US labour market

FT www.ft.com/content/c86e...

Not sure many people would have expected this amid trade wars etc - emerging markets are having one of their strongest years since 2010. Column here from Oliver Harvey of Deutsche Bank. Graph by @raydouglas.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/359c...

I presume Liverpool have scored?

It's clear a significant amount of effort, including heavy editing, went into crafting this post with the singular goal of pushing the idea that freedoms in the UK are under attack. Whoever did this has no conscience

Misleading X video post: 6 million views
Fact-checked rebuttal from West Midlands Police: 574,000 views

Dollar (blue), sterling (gray) and euro (red)

Here's the answer @proptermalone.bsky.social

Opinion: In the Trump 2.0 era in financial markets, the dollar is taking the strain. The stock rally is masking deep anxiety from investors about the path forward for the world’s biggest economy. on.ft.com/4pubDza

😆

The dollar is taking the hit from worries over the US - column here from @katie0martin.ft.com. The stock rally is masking deep anxiety from investors about the path forward for the world’s biggest economy. Great chart from @raydouglas.bsky.social www.ft.com/content/ac9e...

Wow. You must have a resting heartbeat of 39 or something. Super fit

Is there a lido near you? Brockwell?

What is it with Liverpool always scoring in extra time ⚽️

Bessent, Like Fed Governor, Made Contradictory Mortgage Pledges US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once agreed to occupy two different houses as his “principal residence” at the same time, mortgage documents show — the same kind of contradictory pledges that Pres...

🇺🇸 Bessent argued that allegations of mortgage fraud against Cook warranted scrutiny and suggested she should resign if they prove true: September 2025

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Ha! Speaking as someone who used to closely cover quarterly earnings daily, I suspect most companies that withheld important quarterly data would get punished by investors. (Meme stocks are, of course, exempt from that logic)

She did speak of the "tyranny of quarterly earning reports" but her solution wasn't to get rid of quarterly reporting. I recall it had something to do with changing the tax code...

Good grief ...

Donald Trump ends Secret Service protection for Kamala Harris Move prematurely halts extended guard for the president’s 2024 rival just ahead of her national book tour

Donald Trump ends Secret Service protection for Kamala Harris

FT www.ft.com/content/95fe...

Black US unemployment is now near a four-year high, climbing to 7.5%, its highest level since October 2021

The jobless rate for Hispanic workers also rose to a 10-month high of 5.3%

#blacksky

🇺🇸 US consumer sentiment dropped more than expected in September, with the decline led by Republicans and Independents

Sentiment among Democrats remained low but stable

#ConsumerSentiment #USPolitics #Economy

You, like me, have clearly given this much thought 🍽️

🧽🇬🇧 Blame lies squarely with Fairy Liquid’s iconic “Hands That Do Dishes” campaign, where the suds were often depicted as leaving dishes clean and "soft as your face"...

🚗 Tesla’s US market share drops below 40% for the first time since 2017 🚙

Musk's company accounted for just 38% of US EV sales in August, according to Cox estimates, down from more than 80% at its peak

#EVs #Tesla #AutoMarket