International Share Prices

USA – HAPPIER DAYS

The latest US consumer price index report flagged headline inflation falling to an annualised 4% in May, its lowest level since March 2021. Investors immediately anticipated the end of regular Federal Reserve interest rate increases and Wall Street stocks rallied in response.

Market indices therefore closed consistently upbeat. S&P 500 blue-chips were 2.6% up, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by a more staid 1.2%. S&P’s MidCap 400 put on 1.5% and the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite flaunted a much bigger 3.2% hike.

Biker stocks were all positive to varying degrees, but Harley-Davidson is still struggling to climb back up past a $35 watershed. Its latest hindrance is another bout of production downtime owing to parts shortages, with Harley’s biggest plant in York,

Pennsylvania, shuttered for much of the past two weeks – threatening dealer inventories as the peak sales season approaches.

EUROPE – NOT SO CHEERFUL

After Eurozone stocks weathered most of the week in a bright mood, market indices managed to conceal a painful impact. Both the Dax Performance in Frankfurt and Milan’s FTSE MIB nevertheless finished 2.6% higher. However, the European Central Bank had lifted its deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 3.5% on Thursday, thoroughly spoiling the trading session with a brief but vicious sell-off.

An ECB spokesperson asserted once again the official view that inflation “will be too high for too long” and won’t return to target for at least the next two years.

JAPAN – DIFFERENT RULES

In a decidedly topsy-turvy manner of doing sums, the Bank of Japan kept its interest rate on hold at minus 0.1%, despite Japanese inflation rising above the central bank’s target of 2%. Market confidence therefore blossomed, and indices firmed up nicely. Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 stacked on 4.5%. Without exception, indigenous motorcycle manufacturers grew in value for a second consecutive week.

INDIA – CASINO ECONOMICS

Equities-trading turmoil, engendered by the Reserve Bank of India refusing to slacken tight monetary conditions, calmed to some extent. Mumbai’s BSE Sensex index returned to full-week positivity with a rise of 1.2%. However, sell-off bursts by disgruntled investors far more swiftly. As soon as revelations of illegality emerged, soccer premier league club Chelsea and rugby league big shots Wigan Warriors hastily unpicked CWM embroidery from players’ shirts. A putative contract as title sponsor of the London Boat Show was summarily torn up as well.

Financial hacks had a field day. Tales of bacchanalian boozeups in CWM offices, where party animal Constantinou showered favoured employees with bundles of banknotes and female members of staff were regarded as fair game, abounded. Disgracefully slow retribution began after formal complaints to the rozzers of rampant regular molestation by some of the latter. In 2016, Constantinou was eventually fingered for several counts of sexual assault and sentenced to 12 months in chokey.

But the snail’s pace of investigations into CWM’s core scam was really shocking. Eight long years would pass before Tony Constantinou stood in the Southwark Crown Court dock to face his accusers. Once there, prosecutor David DuRose KC regaled jurors with sordid details and produced duped and now impecunious investors in the witness box.

In the early stages, naive victims had been told an initial minimum input of £50,000 was required, subsequently increased to £100,000. Hundreds of them paid up, assured that their money was secure. Many were retired Gurkha soldiers and their expatriate Nepalese families, seeking risk-free havens for pension pots and life savings, unaware that they were about to lose everything.

Constantinou refused to admit guilt but didn’t testify in his own defence. Lawyers representing him accepted there had been a fraud in relation to CWM’s managed account (of which he was in sole control) but claimed their client knew nothing about it and that the fraud had been perpetrated by others.

Commenting in the wake of conviction, City of London Police Detective Inspector Nichola Meghji said: “Throughout this lengthy investigation, Constantinou has continued to try to deceive officers and denied wrongdoing. We are glad that the jury has seen through his lies and unanimously found him guilty.” Quite what serried ranks of penniless old Gurkhas thought about the outcome is unknown.

And as for biker beneficiaries of deeply dubious largesse –LCR’s seasonal budget funding, plus whatever remuneration

Cal Crutchlow and Jake Miller trousered – why cry over yesterday’s consummate lack of due diligence?

While his trial was still in progress, the fugitive Tony Constantinou was briefly detained in Bulgaria carrying false documentation, then released without charge and allowed to leave the country for an opaque destination. Unconfirmed rumours suggest he may have been heading for Dubai, a Middle Eastern thieves’ paradise that studiously avoids extradition treaties, or the rogue state of Northern Cyprus.  profit-taking didn’t stop altogether. There can be no other explanation for the falling share prices of Hero, Bajaj and Royal Enfield parent Eicher against a background of their currently soaring sales.

CHINA – THE TOUGH GET GOING

The People’s Bank of China finally initiated a raft of measures to tackle stumbling Chinese economic recovery, lowering short-term lending rate to businesses on Monday followed by a significant cut to its medium-term policy rate on Thursday. Suddenly awash with cheaper investment cash, markets rallied mightily. The CSI 300 gained 3.3%, with the Hang Seng China Enterprises index, not far behind. Shanghai’s all-share SSE Composite ended 1.3% up, with the majority of listed biker stocks along for the ride. Sole party pooper was Sunra parent Xinri.

New scooter and motorcycle registrations for May 2023

May 2023

1. Honda ............. 2083 (-0.1%)

2. Yamaha ............

(-25.2%)

3. Triumph ........... 1001 (-1.3%)

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(+18.4%)

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May