Currency tended to have more of an effect today in Asian trading, well certainly for Japan anyway! The Yen played between low and higher end of 111, edging lower into the close of the session as earnings failed to match expectation. Late in the US trading day, the Yen was flirting with a 110 handle […]

  It has been a pretty impressive start to the New Year as we close firmer on all core markets and across all core regions. Asia followed US sentiment and added another 1% for the Nikkei, 0.75% for Australia and +0.25% for both Shanghai and Hang Seng. The KOPSI added 1.3% after news that North […]

If you needed proof we have had a positive start to the new year you saw that in Japan this morning. Re-opening after two-day national holidays, the Nikkei added 3.25% today. In fairness, we saw a very narrow range having made the gains from the opening quote, but it was nice to see a 3% […]

  QUESTION: Hi Marty ! Happy new year! Not written in a while, but wanted to ask a private question related to the forthcoming cold period. a) How long will it last? (It will start now and go into 2024 – when does Socrates say it will start to reverse and when will temperatures be […]

QUESTION: What is your opinion of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg idea of universal income? ANSWER: The idea of free money being touted by Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg only demonstrates that they know nothing about humanity or economics. They see universal free money as a cushion for workers whose jobs might be replaced by automation or […]

The Hang Seng and Shanghai were both off to an impressive start for the New Year. Recording gains of over 2% for the first two trading days, we saw the former touch 10-years intraday highs. China PMI data released yesterday helped sentiment, but we saw an impressive all round performance with real estate related companies […]

Year end book squaring outweighed yet more positive economic data to close the Nikkei a tad weaker on the day, but closes up 34% on the year. Earlier positives were lost onto the close but probably the result of a stronger Yen trading stronger towards the 112 handle. Both Shanghai and the Hang Seng closed […]

Although not all markets closed positive, the overall theme certainly was. Shanghai and Hang Seng were both strong with gains made from Tech, Consumers and Energy all adding to the near 1% gains. Volumes were again very disappointing with todays HSI around 70% of the previous 30 days average. Much has ben talked of the […]

COMMENT: I think the danger for Canada is not Quebec leaving because they get 11 billion dollars a year given to them by the federal government, it is the provinces paying the bills that are more likely to leave, western Canada in general but especially Alberta which has been getting hosed. As you noted before resentment […]

There are a number of states now looking into imposing a tax on every mile you drive your car. The leader of the pack has been the West Coast.  I previously reported that California wanted to tax space shots per mile they flew into the sky. Then California wants to tax taxi drivers per mile […]