Adoring Crowds...Rioting Masses

Adoring crowds, rioting masses…
Huge crowds, adoring admirers and an endless supply of good-will for the skill and seemingly effortless ability as displayed by one of the world’s most famous men – I wish I was talking about Obama and the reception he received on his typically charismatic and bridge-repairing visit to Russia this week, but it was in fact the reception of a thoroughly arrogant and thriving-on-disproportionate-and-misplaced-importance-football-player, Cristiano Ronaldo. An estimated crowd of 80,000 (that’s not a typo) jubilant and expecting fans filled the Bernabeu stadium to near-capacity, welcoming their new (mightily expensive) star. Oh how he pranced around (a good deal of restraint was required in choosing that particular description), soaking in the glory without even a glint of humility. What’s that saying about nice guys finishing last? – poor Andy Roddick had that very same heart-breaking truth handed to him over the weekend.

Whereas Obama may well be credited with bringing global peace a step closer (if not prosperity in this credit-crunch ravage global economy), Ronaldo’s golden boots may prove that he has the balls for scoring a few wins of his own at his new Spanish home. Obama’s own effortless ability and deft touch may not result in a multi-million pound contract, nor posters depicting poses with him sporting the latest tight swimwear on the back of another multi-million pound sponsorship pay-out, but his efforts are still quite worthy of note methinks.

Obama, in addition to his many other well-deserved titles, has now been hailed as the harbinger of the end-of-the-“new”-cold-war, as he does what he does best and smoothes over all the rough patches that his predecessor’s administration had so kindly created for him, resulting in a resounding win with the declaration of a significant decrease in the unnecessarily high number of nuclear weapons both nations still possess since the maddening rush for the “ultimate deterrent” during the 50s-70s. Success on the back of the meetings with Medvedev will not prove as interesting as the highly-anticipated run-in with heavyweight (and still undoubtedly in-charge) Primeminister Putin.

Seems to be the week for crowds, what with almost half-a-million (estimated) fans descending on LA to be a part of the Michael Jackson funeral (sad stories of tickets being sold over the internet at ridiculously inflated prices not diminishing the emotional aspect of the event – this really is it). A little more worrying, the riots taking place in China’s Uighur city – reports there putting the number of deaths at 156 people, apparently inflicted by long-standing and deep ethnic divides (is it ever because of anything else?) – most concerning is that if the official number, and official numbers in China are strangely often not that accurate, is suggesting such a high number of casualties, the true situation on the ground must be even more dire.

Spec”tacular”ulation...
Markets are still quite jumpy during this holiday-period (Asia quite mixed, Europe trading higher so far, US futures slightly higher) as volatility continues to provide opportunities for only those patient enough to sit in front of their terminals all day, outguessing others to enter and exit markets at the right time. The large swings in cable and oil price in the last few days still attracting a lot of attention from those investors looking for any interesting piece of news to pin their views on. For a good read to assist in forming these views, our global strategy team released their quarterly report today, upgrading financials, energy and telecoms sectors and maintaining an overweight stance in emerging markets – let me know if you would like to discuss in more detail.

In another worrying admission of defeat of some aspect of the one-much-vaulted and relied upon system of financial trading, there are some reports that speculation on oil, gas and commodity markets may be curtailed – by the limiting of holdings by energy futures traders and other speculative funds (partly on the back of the latest manipulation in the oil market uncovered last week). Wow, this is another serious blow for the so-called efficient market system where previously authorities heralded speculative traders as providers of liquidity and others forms of efficient distribution of market “noise” – another spectacular moment of hypocrisy and incredulity in the face of short-term public memory - should be quite a fall-out on the back of this development.