Fridays NFP in the US did not help support the Nikkei despite the DOW’s strong closing rally. We did see a bounce off of the 16k figure but given that the Chinese markets were closed, holding any gains on the day proved just too lonesome. Late news on Friday about oil production continues to haunt […]

Extremely poor data in Japan (Tankan est -0.7% actual -0.9% Previous +10.8) weighed heavily on stocks closing the Nikkei 3.55% lower and not a great start for the second quarter. Despite the better than expected Chinese Manufacturing report (49.7 versus an estimate of 48.2) it was not enough to turn sentiment around in Asia. It […]

After an initial opening surge in the Nikkei, briefly topping 17k, sellers appeared and drove prices lower to close the day -0.7%. The JPY was weaker throughout the morning session but had also turned stronger to balance the Nikkei swing. With the 10yr JGB having turned negative recently, this will squeeze banks and foreigners in […]

Asia followed the bullish tone provided by the Federal Reserve with a gap higher opening of around 1%. Mainland China and Hang Seng managed to build upon this enthusiasm, eventually closing up almost 2.5% each. The same could not be said of Japan when the Nikkei had problems holding the 17k psychological level. Tomorrow being […]

Most markets were undecided on which way to play ahead of today’s main event, and so moves were light and limited. Asia saw all core indices tussle between black and red, and with the exception of China all closed pretty much unchanged. Shanghai closed down 1.3% but that was after a late recovery rally at the […]

The weak close in the US followed through into the open for Asia and we saw prices gap lower across the board. The Nikkei did attempt to break higher around lunch but was short-livid being dragged down by oil, yet again! Both Shanghai and Hang Seng closed around 1.5% lower as increased talk of US […]

It is a sad state of affairs when, after a terrorist incident such as yesterday’s events in Belgium, how quickly the markets have accepted it and within a few hours priced out! This is both a reflection of what is becoming “a horrible accepted norm” and also the lack of market participants. Even though Asian […]

We have many readers in Brussels who have my sincere sympathy for what is taking place in Europe. I have hesitated to be an alarmist with this aspect of our war cycle, but one reader sent this note today: Dear Martin, I could have been one of the victims today since I passed the Maalbeek […]

Shortly after the European open news broke of the Belgium terror attacks and we saw the usual flight to quality. Treasuries rallied, as did Gold and the US Dollar while stocks fell and in particular airlines and travel companies. At one stage we saw the DAX down over -1.5% with CAC, IBEX and FTSE not […]

With Japan on national holidays it was left to Shanghai and Hang Seng to show the rest of the world the way forward. With the help of the PBOC, adding ample liquidity and fixing the Yuan rate at  6.4824 (compared to 6.4628 on Friday) stocks saw a healthy 2%+ gain for the day. HSI closed marginally firmer. In […]