United Kingdom

It's A Wonderful Life Is A Wonderful Lesson To Hold Gold Outside of The Banking System

- Christmas film serves as reminder that savings are not guaranteed protection by banks- Savers are today more exposed to banking risks than ever before- Gold and silver investment reduce exposure to counterparty risks seen in financial system- Basket of Christmas goods has climbed since 2016 thanks to 11% climb in gold price

Spanish stocks and the euro fell, while Spanish government bond yields hit their highest levels in over a month after Catalan secessionists delivered an unexpected blow to the government of Spanish PM Rajoy by winning the Catalan regional election. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, U.S. equity futures and the dollar rose on the last trading session before the Christmas holiday. The MSCI index of world stocks was flat.

Tory (lack of) power-base takes another hit.

The UK prime minister's right hand man Damian Green has been fired from his post based on the allegations over pornography usage.

In an ongoing saga Damian Green was "asked to quit" after he made "inaccurate and misleading" statements over what he knew about claims pornography was found on his office computer in 2008.

U.S. equity futures are little changed with the GOP Tax Plan now a done deal and no more daily "pricing in" of tax reform possible, as traders nerviously look to see if others will now be "selling the news", a preview of which we got yesterday when US equity indexes closed red across the board despite Trump's biggest legislative win to date, while bonds were spooked by the blowout in government debt needed to fund the giveaways.

Asking prices for houses in the UK are starting to fall at a time when first time buyers in the UK continue to struggle to get on the ladder.

The average house price in the UK has now moved lower by around £25k according to property website Zoopla, but are still nearly 8 times the average wage, which is around 30K per year.