Governments and central banks across the world are still concerned about the lack of inflation or significant growth and we saw evidence again in that today from the Japanese Q2 GDP release. Well below estimate of 4% this mornings release came in at 2.5%. Mario Draghi also commented on growth concerns in yesterdays ECB meeting […]

Yes, Asia benefited off of the back of the US markets bouncing but it was far from encouraging. We saw small gains for the Nikkei (+0.2%) and the ASX but declines for the Hang Seng (-0.35%) and Shanghai (-0.6%). Given we have little new headline news concerning North Korea the KOPSI has seen a 1.1% […]

A lot of the talk in Asia was surrounding concerns over the continued and unsurprising decline in the KOPSI. Today it fell again (-0.3%) with industrials and core exporters leading the decline making this the fifth day sellers have taken the lead role. The Nikkei lost for another day, but this time only a small […]

Am eager to get onto the US’s reaction to weekend events, so will just briefly say that China markets performed on the back of strong PMI data – the highest in three months (52.7 against a previous 51.5). RBA left rates unchanged. The remainder of the trading day focused on US markets reaction to the […]

Stock markets were spooked by North Korea’s sixth nuclear test over the weekend which had the usual effect of rallying safe-haven such as gold and treasuries. The US dollar also found a bid with the Japanese yen benefiting as money scattered from the risk. The Nikkei ended the day around 1% lower with exporters being […]

Think we should just probably forget the Asian session as all were waiting for the US numbers and hoping for some direction as a result. mixed cash session but we are seeing some positive moves in futures following the US numbers. Europe sees the core perform (CAC and DAX both around 1% better) while the […]

A solid day for the Nikkei today closing up +0.7% but have watched yen trade comfortably with a 110 handle all day. Talk in Japan is very much concentrated on Theresa Mays three day visit and the possible speculation surrounding Japan/UK trade deal. There was a sense that todays session seemed a rebalancing after the […]

Asia benefited from the afternoon bounce in the US markets, with all core performing across the board. The Hang Seng probably saw large cap’s perform on the back of a further gains made in the Yuan’s appreciation. Shanghai finished small down but again in extremely light summer volume. The Nikkei regained much of yesterdays loss […]

Back to geopolitical risks again today after North Korea spooked markets with yet more missile test, but this time flying over Japan. All Asia markets were hit as a result of this, with a rush into safe-haven assets such as gold, oil and treasuries. Interesting that oil traded heavy even as the news hit the […]

When a major market contributor is away the markets are always quiet but today with the UK off, there really was very little action anywhere. China continued its constructive roll with the main Shanghai adding an additional 1%; with the Hang Seng little changed. Australia suffered a touch (-0.6%) with the decline of financials. SENSEX […]