Standard Chartered Plc, trading around 1,987.50 at time of writing and perhaps interesting too.

#GOLD #NASDAQ There’s a company called “Salesforce” in America, one which has binned around 4,000 customer support jobs, replacing them with AI to pick up the workload. Their CEO, boasted of “being able to rebalance my headcount on {customer] support, reducing it from 9,000 heads to about 5,000. The boss of the 148.4 billion USD company said his AI/human workforce is nothing dystopian, just reality. The subject of AI has been consuming quite a bit of our attention, not just because of the success of our robot lawnmower. There’s something about the introduction of AI which makes us uncomfortable, feeling a core mistake is being made.

When Electric street lights appeared, entire regiments of “gas lighters” were vanquished into history. While we suspect many of them became politicians, in reality many found jobs in more modern industry as electricity opened new doors throughout the nation. Similarly, the movement from “Sail Powered” ships to steel hulled and steam or diesel engines utterly destroyed some towns. Here in Scotland, folk utterly disbelieve the very pretty town of Kirkintilloch (Kirkie to its friends) was once the largest shipbuilding centre in Scotland, the proximity of a canal making it able to literally ship its products both West and East. The pretty town dating from around 1200AD survived the shipbuilding calamity, even going on to produce David McCallum, one of the Men from Uncle and the ‘Ducky’ character in NCIS. In Kirkie, he’s remembered with a nice statue.

Then we’ve a concept which is a bit more difficult, the move to cars and lorries which left horses and carts behind. It was a sharp change and folk became used to horse meat in their diet, due to the animals being surplus to requirements. There was a similar calamity a few years ago, when Romania slaughtered herds of excess horses as cars became affordable and available. UK supermarkets badged the imported meat as bovine. It was a nice little scandal, one which the UK government turned a blind eye to, the supply of horse meat from Romania quickly declining. As someone guilty of enjoying steak (in France) from equine sources, the subject is not something which provokes guilt. But, as cars and lorries made themselves known, what happened to the gangs of road builders suddenly displaced by JCB type diggers? There’s a fabulous story from around 1908, where a bunch of blokes were widening the A87 alongside Loch Cluanie in the Scottish Highlands. Most of the Harry Potter Hogwarts scenes were filmed on the south side of this loch, the film crew encampment now being a very private estate with trees shielding any view from the other side of the loch. But more importantly, the road digging guys had to contact the police as they dug up some skeletons. The problem with their piles of bones came from the skulls, the workers able to clown around with a skull fitting over their entire head! The police sprung into action, contacting the relatively new Natural History Museum in London who promptly sent up a couple of suits. (an early entry for the Men in Black) The museum guys were enthusiastic about this historic find, telling the road workers they thought the bones would date from before the Stone Age. They waved goodbye and caught the next bus to Inverness, catching a train to London, and the giant bones disappeared forever from historical comment. As for the workmen, during the month which covered their initial report and the bones vanishing, they had progressed to the head of Glen Moriston when a JCB type machine arrived. A couple of the guys learned how to drive it, a couple more guys worked through the maintenance, and the other 12 guys watched in fascination as the machine quickly worked down the Glen toward Eileen Donan castle in record time, the work of a week usually taking around a day. By the time the road crew arrived at Lochalsh, 10 of the extra 12 guys were dispensed with, victims of the internal combustion engine. It was a vivid example of the change in industry.

And so life went on. Traditionally, it seems the folk at the bottom become the victims of changes. But with AI it’s different. The technology, by necessity, targets the folk at the bottom, many of whom exist in such positions despite being able to do an awful lot more. And some, of course, being these folk unpleasantly remembered from school, the ones who always sat at the back of a class.

But the introduction of AI, is essentially targeting an entire class of people, removing them from employment and creating a problem for society. The telly show, “The Simpsons”, brilliantly places the father as the single person in a Nuclear Power Station control room, his ONLY job being to press a big red button if things go wrong. Obviously, Homer Simpsons job would be first against the wall, if the company introduced an AI. We suspect if society is to continue, a return to the Victorian concept of “serving class” may become necessary, though god help anyone who employs Homer? The entire concept is uncomfortable, very uncomfortable. Growing up with a “housekeeper” was a way of life, personally, my parents often occupied with the realities of work. Needless to say, as soon as the writer bought his first house, a housekeeper was employed (actually called Helen) who assiduously ensured any visitor would be overwhelmed by a clean, tidy, well decorated house, a completely impossible proposition for this 22 year old bloke.

Perhaps this was why part of our offices was turned into a recording studio (with a bar) as my own Helen could not interfere in the work environment. Nowadays, as a grown up, the idea of introducing such a position into my home is utterly repellent. But it is hard to see society surviving AI without substantially increasing mid level wages, to allow employees to create a serving staff. Perhaps, rather than automatic doors, we shall visit Standard Chartered and find someone opening the door, another someone entering the correct button on the elevator. Rewinding by 70 years does not feel like a satisfactory conclusion to accepting AI. But the knowledge of entire HR departments vanishing, replaced by software which functions on a cheap smartphone, is not horrible. Several US companies have already taken this route, finding immediate increases in moral as employees no longer need police their thoughts.

The boss of Standard Chartered (LSE:STAN) is currently blowing fresh air through the hole in his foot, the crime being saying the truth out loud. But describing people as “lower value human capital” was perhaps an poor choice of words. He expects to consign 15% of back office staff to the bin, in the next couple of years, Obviously, the media chose to savage the guy in the hope of creating a vacancy at the top of the company, disregarding the important detail of his honesty.

Standard Chartered Currently doesn’t look terribly bad, quite the opposite. Instead, above 1980p shows with the potential of triggering share price movement to an initial 2032p with our secondary, if bettered, at 2220p. Our strong inclination is toward optimism for this scenario, their CEO’s statement apparently failing to cause any harm.

If a negative converse scenario is examined, at present Standard Chartered needs below 1700p to provoke reversal to an initial 1439 with our secondary, if broken, at 1113p and a probable rebound point. At present, nothing is pointing in the direction of such a calamity.

FUTURES

Time Issued	Market	Price At Issue	Short Entry	Fast Exit	Slow Exit	Stop	Long Entry	Fast Exit	Slow Exit	Stop	Prior
11:45:20PM	BRENT	9251.9									‘cess
11:12:03PM	GOLD	4457.92	4441	4430	4342	4467	4517	4563	4617	4466	Success
10:44:54PM	FTSE	10465.2
10:51:22PM	STOX50	6061.3
10:55:05PM	GERMANY	25175.2
10:57:52PM	US500	7528.1
11:00:39PM	DOW	50707.2
11:07:12PM	NASDAQ	29985.5	29801	29621	29395	30004	30303	30384	30578	29995	‘cess
11:09:39PM	JAPAN	64946

SUCCESS above means both FAST & SLOW targets were met. ‘CESS means just the FAST target met and probably the next time it is exceeded, movement to the SLOW target shall commence.

Our commentary is in two sections. Immediately below are today’s updated comments. If our commentary remains valid, the share can be found in the bottom section which has a RED heading. Hopefully, this will mean you no longer need to flip back through previous reports. HYPERLINKS DISABLED IN THIS VERSION

Please remember, all prices are mid-price (halfway between the Buy and Sell). When we refer to a price CLOSING above a specific level, we are viewing the point where we can regard a trend as changing. Otherwise, we are simply speculating on near term trading targets. Our website is www.trendsandtargets.com.

UPDATE. We often give an initial and a secondary price. If the initial is exceeded, we still expect it to fall back but the next time the initial is bettered, the price should continue to the secondary. The converse it true with price drops.

We can be contacted at info@trendsandtargets.com. Spam filters set to maximum so only legit emails get through…

Further movement against Standard Chartered ABOVE 2012p should improve ac ……..

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Standard Chartered Plc, trading around 1,987.50 at time of writing and perhaps interesting too.

Section One – Outlook Updated Today. Click here for Section Two – Outlook Remains Valid shares

LSE:CAR Carclo. Close Mid-Price: 33.5 Percentage Change: + 0.00% Day High: 0 Day Low: 0

LSE:CPI Capita. Close Mid-Price: 390 Percentage Change: + 0.00% Day High: 0 Day Low: 0

LSE:GRG Greggs. Close Mid-Price: 1745 Percentage Change: + 0.00% Day High: 0 Day Low: 0

LSE:HSBA HSBC. Close Mid-Price: 1404 Percentage Change: + 0.00% Day High: 0 Day Low: 0

LSE:ITM ITM Power. Close Mid-Price: 194.7 Percentage Change: + 0.00% Day High: 0 Day Low: 0

LSE:STAN Standard Chartered. Close Mid-Price: 1987.5 Percentage Change: + 0.00% Day High: 0 Day Low: 0

*** End of “Updated Today” comments on shares

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