Japan finished on a strong note but it was a disastrous opening (following oil) that it had to spend the rest of the day recovering from but a near 1% better close certainly helped confidence into European trading. Shanghai opened well and continued strongly, eventually closing +1,4% firmer. However, the Hang Seng was anything but […]

Asia started poorly on the back of a weaker oil market until Russia announced it would be willing to cutback its oil production in respect of the OPEC decisions. Oil bounced over 3% on the Asian day reversing the mornings losses. In Japan the Nikkei traded heavy most of the day but recovered off of […]

Asian markets were marginally better on the back of oil but were awaiting the all important US jobs report after a sleepy opening until the FX market woke everyone up. A “fat-finger trade” as many were reporting it (implying a trader input the wrong price and/or quantity) saw GBP trade down to 1.1378 in seconds only […]

An orderly open for Asia with an oil rally ($50.5 TWI) following on from a positive US session really leading momentum. We did see a wobble just ahead of lunch but that was only short-lived and as trading remains thin due to China’s absence. All in all we closed firmer on both the Nikkei (+0.5%) […]

A steady but quiet day in Asia saw a good performance all around with 0.5% better return. JPY continued its decline reaching the mid 103’s as the Nikkei’s run gained pace. However, the main talking point today even for Asia was the talk of ECB considering to cut-back on their QE pace. Most guys we […]

With China still on national holidays (Golden Week) trading was quiet but maintains the same trend. That being stronger equity markets offsetting the weaker currency. The JPY today hit recent lows (102.50) whilst the Nikkei heads for levels not seen since Q1. The 17k level remains the intraday psychological barrier where traders feel nervous as […]

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) agreement to cut production is supposed to end Saudi Arabia’s policy of the last to years to pump-at-will. This has sent Middle Eastern economies into a tail-spin and the glut of oil has meant rising taxes and selling bonds to raise capital. With this new claimed reversal of that […]

We saw a healthy Asian session today with the Nikkei up almost 1/5% at one stage following the impressive US mood. The market could not maintain its strength closing up 0.9% which was a small reaction to some mixed data but did provide Europe with some opening guidance. The Shanghai market was closed today for […]

The one thing that markets do not like is uncertainty and that is exactly what we have suffered from the past couple of days. Asia reacted to the Deutsche Bank news with heavy selling despite better than expected numbers from Japan and in late trading the futures have responded yet again. Having lost 1.9% in […]

What was initially a healthy start to the day following a strong Asian session all that changed mid-afternoon when reports about Deutsche Bank hit screens yet again. So, rather than me recapping the whole day lets just concentrate on the final few hours where all the excitement accorded. The rumours hit the trading floors that a […]