UBS On-Air: Paul Donovan Daily Audio 'Managing a “no deal” world'
6/1/20263 min
Oil prices have edged higher on the lack of any discernible progress toward an Iran-US agreement. As with reports of an imminent deal last week, the reaction is muted. A jaded cynicism has come over investors, and in the absence of a definite statement from Iran there is a tendency to downplay comments from the US administration.
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First 90 secondsPaul Donovan· Host0:02
Good morning. This is Paul Donovan, Chief Economist at UBS Global Wealth Management. It's seven o'clock in the morning London time on Monday the first of June. Despite last week's reports on the Axios newswire, there seems to be little progress on an Iran-US agreement. Oil prices have edged higher as a result, but as with the reaction to talk of an agreement last week, the moves have been muted. A rather jaded cynicism has settled over financial markets, and until there is a clear signal of progress from Iran, markets are not likely to put too much weight on comments from the US administration. And at this stage, reports on the Axios newswire would seem best interpreted as a reverse indicator of what's actually happening. Japan's first quarter investment spending data was much weaker than had been hoped for. Even including software spending and the investment related to the nice shiny new toy of artificial intelligence, spending growth was nonexistent. Uncertainty is being blamed, and this is hardly confined to Japan. The Biden-era factory-building boom in the United States has continued to fizzle away in the wake of a series of areas of policy uncertainty.