In Japan Shinzo Abe is back in, Czech Republic has taken a step to the right, Catalonian crisis is back in the headline (if it were ever out in the past few weeks), China unemployment hits a low and even an almost political edge from Janet Yellen on Friday evening has given us food for […]

The “Catalan Crisis” as it is now being referred to, is just that, a crisis. Spanish government ministers said they will meet an activate the Article 155 which allows them to take over control of the Catalan region. With Carles Puigdemont saying he will proceed with independence if he is faced with continued “repression” from […]

With core China market still closed, activity in Asia remains rather subdued. The trend is still constructive, following the steady US session but volumes continue low. The Nikkei closed up over 1% as currency drifts weaker and JGB’s are a touch softer. Hong Kong played catch-up and traded strong all day, closing over 2.25% firmer […]

In Asia we saw a similar picture to yesterdays market movers with Shanghai and the Hang Seng both closing higher whilst the Nikkei, ASX, KOPSI and SENSEX all closed lower. The SENSEX lost the most ground today (-1.4%) as it continues to add to its recent losing streak, making this its seventh day in a […]

  The late headline from North Korea yesterday spooked Stocks, Gold and Treasuries but had broadly lost most of that by the end of the Asian time zone. Both the KOPSI and Nikkei lost around -0.3% on the day with exporters and tech suffering in the afternoon session. US indices did manage to recover much […]

After Fridays positive move in western markets and especially US markets hitting yet more record highs, Asia responded with equal optimism. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and the KOPSI performed the best of the crowd with a stunning 1.3% a piece. The Shanghai index traded just 0.3% better but probably reflected the miss in New Home […]

Main talking point out of Asia this morning were the continued strong earnings reports and the subsequent buying conviction. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng gained over 1.2% whilst the domestic Shanghai index rallied near 2% after earnings beat expectations to finish the week well bid. We saw solid gains in Financials, energy, communications and […]

We have seen yet another weaker day with the Nikkei declining once more. It had the opportunity to perform but was dragged lower by Industrials, Metals and Manufacturing. The yens strength throughout the week has seen no retracement and remains close the 109 big figure. Core China and Hang Seng both off-set each other with […]

The second day of Chair Janet Yellen’s address and the Asian markets liked what it heard. Although, Chair Yellen did remark that attaining a 3% growth target would be challenging the markets appeared to take it in its stride as they awaited US inflation data. All core Asia closed better with the Australian ASX (+0.5%), […]

Reflected in Wednesdays late US futures trading Asian indices responded with a strong opening theme. China’s Shanghai found additional support from the Trade data releases much stronger than had been forecast. Exports were released 11.3% with Imports at 17.2% whilst the forecasts had been 8.7% Exports and 13.1% Imports. Shanghai closed +0.65% higher with the […]