Black Friday

Friday Feeling

Check out this week's playlist here!

Where Is the Love??- ?Black Eyed Peas

Price Tag - Jessie J

Friday I'm In Love - The Cure

Right to Die - AlicebanD

Over Before It Began - Joyce Manor

Black Friday

With today marking another Black Friday, the UK retail sector is hoping for an early start to the festivities. According to predictions from PWC, total spending is expected to hit ￡7.1bn today, representative of a meteoric ￡2bn increase from last year.

This they say due to two primary factors. The first being a rise in the absolute number of people participating in the shopping spree while the second is due to a forecasted rise in spending per head.

According to the Leader of Industry for Consumer Markets at PwC, there was a 44% increase in the number of people indicating an interest in Black Friday deals alongside 6% saying they are actively avoiding the Black Friday sales half that of last year.

If realised, the 37% rise would equate to the average UK household spending as much as ￡258 today.

In the interest of some context, the term “Black Friday” originated in Philadelphia during the 1960s and was coined by people to describe how congested streets filled with shoppers and tourists the day after Thanksgiving. This heavy traffic caused significant disruption, leading to the name “Black Friday.”

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Potential Chinese Stimulus:?

Both of China's main indices rallied hard on Friday on the expectation of an additional stimulus coming early next month. Today, the Shanghai Composite and Shenzen component climb 0.99% and 1.72% respectively.?

Despite the threat of Trumps’ Tariffs on the horizon holding significant downward pressure on stock performance for the majority of November, they are beginning to show some relative strength. With Chinese PMI data coming tomorrow, continued strength may be dependent on its outcome. NBS Manufacturing and Non-Manufacturing PMI are expected at 50.3 and 50.2 respectively.

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Lagarde Warns EU Consumers

Continuing the theme of tariff threats, President of the ECB, Christine Lagarde touched on the topic in her most recent interview on Thursday of this week. She posited that despite the potential of a 10-20% tariff on all exports to the US, the EU is ‘not to retaliate, but to negotiate’. Increasing imports from the US through liquid natural gas and defence goods has been suggested.

A most notable takeaway was that a trade war between the EU and the US would have sizeable negative implications for global GDP and inflation. Lagarde also acknowledged the burden of overregulation on business and the need for harmonized standards in her interview. Despite the uncertain future trade environment and the potential for structural reforms, Lagarde is optimistic about Europe’s potential to innovate and compete globally.