Thursday, 19 September 2024
The Mighty Headlines
Economics: US interest rates cut to 5 per cent
Business: EU court cancels €1.5 billion fine on Google
Markets: US markets fall following interest rate cut
Foreign Affairs: EU cracks down on Hungary and removes €200 million of funding
Security and intelligence: US says China poses a greater challenge than the Cold War
Domestic politics: Government sets out plan on getting more people into work
The Mighty Stats
FTSE = 8,253.68 (down 0.68 per cent at Wednesday close)
S&P500 = 5,618.26 (down 0.29 per cent at Wednesday close)
Nasdaq = 17,573.30 (down 0.31 per cent at Wednesday close)
Nikkei = 37,155.33 (up 2.13 per cent at Thursday close)
CAC40 = 7,444.90 (down 0.57 per cent at Wednesday close)
£1 = $1.32 / €1.19 / ¥188.66
US: Trump / Harris = 47.4 / 49.4 per cent
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The Mighty Detail
Economics: The United States Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to 5 per cent. The half percentage point reduction is at the top end of what was expected. Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said however that no-one should assume “this is the new pace” of cuts. The Bank of England announces its own interest rate decision at midday today.
Business: An EU court has cancelled an antitrust fine imposed on Google in 2019. Five years ago, the European Commission had ordered Google to pay a €1.5 billion fine for abusing its position in internet advertising. The EU General Court has now ruled the European Commission had not fully proved its case against Google.
Markets: US markets rose yesterday before falling back down after the Chairman of the Federal Reserve indicated caution on the scale of future interest rate cuts. Both the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq closed down. Separately, the UK FTSE 100 also closed down on the news that UK inflation stayed the same in August at 2.2 per cent.
Foreign Affairs: The EU is set to remove €200 million in funding from Hungary. Hungary has failed to pay a fine to the EU over its restrictive asylum policy and the EU will now recover the money by reducing the funding Hungary receives from the EU budget.
Security and intelligence: The Deputy US Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, has said the challenges posed by China to the US are greater than those posed by the Cold War. Campbell particularly highlighted China’s military support for Russia.
Domestic politics: The Work and Pensions Secretary has set out a plan aimed at getting more people into work. This includes creating a new jobs and careers service, providing a youth guarantee to offer training, apprenticeships or work to all young people aged between 18 and 21, and providing mayors with powers “to take the lead in driving down economic inactivity”.
The Mighty Calendar
What’s happening today?
Foreign Secretary in Paris meeting US, French, German and Italian counterparts
G7 Culture Ministers meet in Italy for two-day meeting (ends Friday)
UN Security Council discusses situations in Burma and in Middle East
Bank of England interest rate decision
Bank of Japan interest rate decision
Japan CPI inflation data (August)
Italy, France, Germany, UK new car registrations data (August)
United States unemployment data (weekly)
Lookahead to tomorrow
Czech Republic senate elections begin (ends Saturday)
UN Security Council discusses pager explosions in Lebanon
UK retail sales data (August)
Canada retail sales data (August)
UK government borrowing data (August)
Germany PPI inflation data (August)
Eurozone consumer confidence data (September)
The Mighty Finale
🌤️Weather today
Sunny and dry for the fourth day in a row! High of 25oC and low of 15oC in London. Same weather again in Belfast and Edinburgh. Wonderful!
✏️Life coaching quote of the day
“Success leaves clues.” – Tony Robbins, motivational speaker
Mighty takeaway: You don’t have to re-invent the wheel to be successful. Successful people have certain attitudes, mindsets and behaviours that you can copy. For example, choose to think positively not negatively, set goals and take action every day on your goals.
That’s about it for today’s edition. If you like what you read or don’t like it at all, let us know. And do pass this newsletter on to someone who might find it useful.
Adios!
The Mighty Memo team