Away from the President Trump inspired trade and sanctions fury, it is very difficult to tell the difference between Tariff and Sanction, a great piece from the team at Bloomberg yesterday regarding ‘stranded assets’.

In the past the term was used to describe fossil-fuel projects which had turned unprofitable before even being deployed as pollution regulations tightened. Now the term is being used in conjunction with battery technologies as the pace of new development in the storage devices is so fast that yesterday’s technologies is outdated before production can start.

The Turkish lira continued to set record lows against major currencies overnight as the country wrestles with a crisis that is beginning to rattle other markets. The lira was down 11% at one point against the US dollar, trading at a low of 7.23, on top of the 20% the currency dropped last week. However, in spite of the nation’s predicament, the Turkish president is showing no signs of backing down.

China-US trade tensions have continued to escalate with Trump having stated that a further USD16bn of tariffs will be implemented over and above the USD34bn already implemented in July. The US has also threatened a further USD200bn in tariffs. China has responded with a further USD60bn in proposed tariffs.

China’s proposed tariffs include adding US LNG imports to a list of goods incurring a 25% tariff. As of 2017 China was the world’s second largest LNG importer at 39mt (GIIGNL data) behind Japan at 83.5mt, although the European region imported 45.9mt.

For the 4 months since its peak in April sterling has continued to tumble. After yesterday’s announcement – that Theresa May is planning a cabinet meeting on the prospect of a no-deal Brexit – sterling dropped below 1.29 against the dollar for the first time in over 11 months. Of course over the last 3-4 months the currency markets have faced broader dollar strength, with the DXY Index moving from below 90 to above 95.

Mubadala Investment Co, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund and one of our core holdings has been extremely busy over the last eighteen months; according to records it has transacted 31 major deals since January 2017.

Mubadala was created back in 2002 but has sprung into life following its merger with Abu Dhabi’s Investment Council which doubled its balance sheet to around $250bln and has become the main focus of the government to diversify the country’s economy from oil production.