Despite a better than expected Japanese Q2 GDP (annualised 4%) the Nikkei fell 1% in thin summer trading. The currency probably took most of the blame for this as it weakened back towards 110 as we head to the end of the trading day. One wonders if the flight to safety argument is finally being […]

China really felt the hesitant mood today with the main Shanghai index down 1.6% and the Hang Seng fall over 2%. President Trump really was doubling down on the speech play late US/early Asian time zone and the markets reflected the mood. South Korean KOPSI dropped 1.7% in todays trading and also the SENSEX gave […]

Although Asian core all closed lower it really wasn’t that bad – at least in the Asian cash time zone. The JPY traded above the 110 level as cash rebounded at the close but then saw the late safety rally (US time zone). It was the large cap Hang Seng that appeared nervous in late […]

Only one big topic for Asian markets this morning and unfortunately, not a happy one. The uptick in geo-politics dominated everything today and unsurprisingly saw equities retreat, with a rally in gold and treasuries. The Nikkei fell the most of the cores with a decline of 1.3% and saw a strengthening of its currency down […]

We did not see a clear direction for core Asian indices today as we played between the positive and negative for most of the day. A typical August Tuesday with slow trade, low volume and no direction but we did have economic data to digest. Chinese released Export numbers for July increased by 7.2% whilst […]

Asia opened still with the buzz of Fridays surprizing good payrolls number. There were some concerns surrounding the sanctions the United Nations imposed on North Korea but these were quickly dismissed as the day wore-on. In Japan the Nikkei was not to sure in which direction to move and suffered a little ahead of lunch […]

Markets in Asia were looking like they have been on borrowed time a few days this week and so a small retracement ahead of todays US numbers is no real surprise. Most indices were lower but saw a deserved bounce in the KOPSI after yesterdays drumming and also a small gain for the Hang Seng […]

Asia loved the idea that the DOW had closed above the 22k level but many were questioning why is it only the DOW that is soaring? Other core indices (S+O, NASDAQ and even the Russell) had all closed unchanged but for the Russell which fell 1% yesterday. Markets feel like they are treading water, was the […]

  Asia found renewed support from the surprise Apple result with a beat of both numbers and units. A worth note here was the size of options traded upon the results – looks like market-makers were running short into the release! This released just after the US close yesterday but is a great way to start […]

A solid day for Asia with gains for all core markets of between +0.3% in the Nikkei and +0.9% for the Australian ASX. All sectors contributed to the broad gains with no single area playing a dominant role. In China, we saw better than expected PMI which provided the boast many markets were looking for. […]