Asia was relatively well behaved today, weaker obviously after what market activity there was yesterday in Europe, but lets just jump straight to the action. Developments really are happening by the hour in Italy, now with the Five Star Movement calling for the countries President to be impeached. There is a good chance we will […]

COMMENT: Mr. Armstrong; I am a loyal reader from Java. We have a big volcano here which has started to show life. The government has just put out a warning that it may erupt. I really find your work so interesting. You said 2018 would see a rise in volcanic activity along the Pacific rim of […]

The safe-haven bid that the Yen has received this week, has resulted in a 2% decline for the Nikkei by the time we closed Friday. Despite todays market managing to hold a small positive for much of the afternoon, the currency has had a significant influence. The Yen is closing mid 109 in late US […]

Asian markets declined on the President Trump China Trade headline and also on talk that the Singapore meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Un may not happen. Markets are nervous and volumes thin, which is why we are seeing such movement. The Nikkei lost over 1% with exporters leading the pack as the Yen […]

The jittery close in US markets weighed on Asia at the opening and the lack of clarity just accelerated the uncertainty. The safe-haven bid returned for the Japanese Yen with a 1% rally taking it back to a 109 handle. The Nikkei lost along with the core, ending the day down around 1.2%. The Hang […]

A fairly quiet day across all regions today, but probably expected given little overhang of the US/China Trade Talks, a lack of economic data and the FED minutes we will see being released tomorrow. In China the Shanghai closed almost unchanged, as Hang Seng market was closed for holidays. In Australia the ASX dipped -0.7% […]

The weekends news of on-going constructive talks between the US and China, certainly gave Asian markets a boost this morning. One noticeable event was the weakening in the Yen, now trading comfortably with a 111 handle (-0.6% on the day). Now close to its weakest since January, the fear is it now targets the mid […]

Unfortunately, the WEC in Singapore was tight on space. We stated at the beginning of this year that we would be reducing the seating for these events because they have been getting too big. I like the interaction with the people so more intimate is better. Seating was limited to 150 maximum in Singapore because […]

After watching the US market decline over fears of US/China trade talks erupting yet again, many were concerned that Asian markets would suffer a similar fate. However, that was not to be the case as most core markets actually performed reasonably well. We did see a small wobble initially for the Hang Seng and Shanghai […]

The Nikkei strength was the exception in Asia today, as all other core markets closed lower on the day. The Japanese index benefitted from the weakness of the Yen, which at one stage looked as though it may challenge the 111 handle. Even this evening in US trading it remains vulnerable as the safety bid […]