Mortgage Approvals Hit Three Month High

As per Bloomberg:

"Mortgage approvals rose in September to a three-month high, the Bank of England said.

Almost 63,000 loans for house purchase were granted, up from a revised 60,984 in August, it said in a report in London on Monday. Economists in a Bloomberg survey had forecast a figure of 61,500.

The report also showed that consumer credit rose 1.4 billion pounds in September after a 1.6 billion-pound increase the previous month.

The BOE figures suggest that household demand for credit is holding up since the Brexit vote in June. With the economy performing better than expected in recent months, the central bank is forecast to refrain from cutting interest rates this week."

Another couple of nails in the coffin of Project Fear!

Nissan To Build New Car In UK- In Spite of Project Fear

Reuters reports that Nissan will build its next new car development in Sunderland.

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) October 27, 2016

Post Brexit Growth - In Spite of Project Fear!

BBC News - UK economy grows 0.5% in three months after Brexit vote https://t.co/Rlb7qSIedi

— Stephen Gifford (@SGiffordUK) October 27, 2016

Project Fear proven wrong again!

Hammond Mulls Dropping Autumn Statement

Chancellor considers dropping Autumn Statement https://t.co/Rif1VA4ic7 via @FT << Good, once a year is enough

— James McBrearty (@taxhelpukcom) October 26, 2016

An excellent idea, as it has proven to be a means to muddy already very muddy waters wrt tax and government finances.

Greece Gets Another 2.8BN Euros

Eurozone approves 2.8B euros in bailout funds for #Greece #Luxembourg https://t.co/A0qvCSk2K5 pic.twitter.com/YHNJ4fVsC4

— Trending Greece News (@greekolizer) October 25, 2016

The taxpayers of Europe are throwing their money away, or rather are having their money thrown away for them!

Greek Economic Statistics Are Bollocks

#Greece @StatisticsGR Authority issues final 2015 deficit data; revises primary surplus from 0.7% to 0.2%.
Bailout MoU target was 0.25%. pic.twitter.com/lzHD3gJnOg

— Yannis Koutsomitis (@YanniKouts) October 20, 2016

Brexit Doesn't Dent Retail Sales

Britons’ enthusiasm for shopping hasn’t been dented by Brexit vote as retail sales hold up after strong summer https://t.co/o2PIqq1IIl 🔓

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) October 20, 2016

Project Fear Fail!

UK House Prices Rise - Project Fear Wrong Again

"Average UK house price was £219,000 in August 2016. This is £17,000 higher than in August 2015 and £3,000 higher than last month" ONS

— Simon Gompertz (@gompertz) October 18, 2016

UK house price growth speeded up to 8.4% in August, year on year, up from 8% - that's from govt stats people, ONS

— Simon Gompertz (@gompertz) October 18, 2016

Despite dire warnings, pre Brexit, by Project Fear of a property apocalypse in the wake of Brexit, Project Fear has been proven wrong!

Greece Needs Fourth Bailout

This has been inevitable ever since the third bailout, which was inevitable after the second, which..... https://t.co/xawcCxgcKp

— (((FrancesCoppola))) (@Frances_Coppola) October 14, 2016

Why oh why does Greece want to stay in the Eurozone?

The ECB Lives In Fantasy Land - Strengthening The Greek Financial System

Strengthening the Greek financial system

Introductory remarks by Benoît Cœuré, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, at a public hearing at the European Parliament,
Brussels, 12 October 2016

Sheer fantasy, that will never occur!

Samsung In Meltdown Over Exploding Phones

I fell asleep on my Samsung Note pic.twitter.com/Ljc34N4sqE

— RANsquawk (@RANsquawk) October 11, 2016

Samsung can't catch a break with the Galaxy Note 7.

Samsung recalled 2.5 million phones in September after complaints of exploding batteries, and later insisted that all replaced devices were safe.

However, there are now reports that even those phones were catching fire.

Samsung has urged owners of the Galaxy Note 7 to turn off the phone while it investigates new reports of the device catching fire.

The firm also said it would stop all sales of the phone.

The key issue here is not the fact that the phones seem to have a serious technical flaw, but that Samsung dragged its heels wrt denials actions taken when problems were first reported.

It's the lie that gets you!

Deutsche Bank Given Special Concession By ECB

The FT reports that Deutsche Bank was given special treatment in the summer EU stress tests that were meant to restore faith in Europe’s banks by assessing all of their finances in the same way.

Deutsche Bank, which has seen its share price fall as much as 22 per cent in recent weeks on fears that it could face a US fine of up to $14bn, has been using the results of the July stress tests as evidence of its healthy finances.

Deutsche’s result was boosted by a special concession agreed by its supervisor, the European Central Bank.

Deutsche’s results included the $4bn proceeds from selling its stake in Chinese lender Hua Xia even though the deal had not been done by the end of 2015, the official cut-off point for transactions to be included.

The ECB claims that it treats all banks equally, yet this is clear evidence that it doesn't.

The ECB knows that if Deutsche Bank goes under then so does Germany and the whole eurozone!

The Pound's Flash Crash - The Danger of Algorithms

The pound dropped as much as six per cent to $1.1841 today.

For why?

It seems that there was a case of fat fingers or idiotic trading in Asian markets that caused an algorithm to kick in and start dumping Sterling.

Algorithms are all very well, occasionally. However, to rely on them to "manage" trading is foolhardy in the extreme!

Turn the bloody things off and take responsibility for poor trading decisions!

Deutsche Bank's $47 Trillion Derivative Exposure

Those of you who think that things have calmed down a tad for Deutsche Bank may care to remember that in its 2015 annual report, Deutsche Bank said its exposure to derivatives was €41.940 trillion ($46.994 trillion).

The Wall Street Journal provides more detail, noting that Deutsche Bank has more Level 3 assets compared with its common equity Tier 1 ratio, a measure of financial strength, than its peers. Its Level 3 assets are estimated as being valued at 72% of its Tier 1 assets. That compares with a 38% average for 12 global banks.

Jockeys Told To Avoid High Street Banks

The BBC reports that jockeys in the UK have been advised to move their money out of High Street banks, after a string of frauds dating back more than two years.

The Professional Jockeys Association issued the warning after saying an estimated £200,000 had been stolen from about 30 jockeys across the UK.

The money had been withdrawn over the counter from cashiers, possibly using fraudulent documents, the body added.

The PJA said banks were "unwilling and incapable" of preventing the frauds.

It said the crimes dated back to 2014, when about £50,000 was reportedly stolen from the bank accounts of several riders.

Whilst it may be the case that jockeys (as a percentage of the population) have had a higher rate of bank fraud perpetrated on their accounts, it is not just jockeys that have had money fraudulently removed from their bank accounts. The issue does not just affect jockeys.

Advising jockeys to avoid high street banks is all very well and good, but where are they meant to put their money?

Sterling Falls - So What?

Since June 23rd Brexit vote, pound has plunged 13.7%, from (artificial) high of $1.5018 to today's 31-year low of $1.2757. FTSE over 7,000.

— Andrew Neil (@afneil) October 4, 2016

I remember the days 31 years ago when the pound plunged new depths, yet here we all are 31 years on.

The world didn't stop spinning then, and it won't now!

Deutsche Bank's Lost Weekend

Hot on the heels of the unsurprising revelation that AFP's stock rallying report at the end of last week, that a deal had been done between the USA's Department of Justice and Deutsche Bank, was utter bollocks; it transpires that Deutsche Bank suffered a further blow to its image this weekend with a third IT outage in the space of a few months on Saturday "that prevented some customers getting access to their money for a short time."

Today is a bank holiday in Germany. However, that will provide no respite for Deutsche Bank. We can expect more bad news whilst the markets in Germany are closed.