Once again, oil influenced markets around the world. Having dropped 6% yesterday, we were confronted with another 5.5% drop in prices today, closing below the psychological $30 level. Shanghai was the exception in Asia (closing up 2.3%) but this was a relief from previous weak sessions, rather than a specific excuse! ASX lost 1% after […]

Despite a better than previous Chinese PMI release (48.4 against a previous 48.2) it was not what was expected (48.6) and so the Shanghai Index just could not make headway and eventually closed down 1.8%. Japan, on the other-hand, was still trading better (+1.8%) on the negative interest rate route as money looks for bargains […]

The BOJ certainly woke everyone up this morning having concluded their meeting with the expectation of negative interest rates. Within seconds the Nikkei leaped 700 points only then trade back then spent the final 90mins climbing to close the session +2.8%. Adversely, the Yen was hit reaching 121.50 in Tokyo trading a loss of a […]

Japan opened weaker (mostly following the poor close on Wall Street) but was also influenced by the poor Retail Sales (Est -0.1% v’s actual -1.1%). However, after the initial shock prices recovered on rumors of additional stimulus expected to be announced tomorrow (following its two day policy meeting) but even that could not stop the Index […]

We saw a mixed session in Asia with good performances by the Nikkei (+2.7%) and the Hang Seng (+1%) but had Shanghai spoil the party with a -0.5% decline. That performance was actually rather good as we had seen the Shanghai Index down over -4% intraday. In Europe all Indices opened lower but spent the […]

It was all too weary early this morning with Asian markets collapsing as oil prices hit session lows of $29.25 (WTI) and the Shanghai Index closed down 6.4%. News intraday that the PBOC had conducted its biggest daily open market operation in three years (360bn yuan) still could not turn the mood. The majority of […]

Asia’s response to the late U.S. rally in stocks was to play catch-up this morning with all core indices closing up around 1% (roughly where they opened). The ASX followed the surge in oil prices with a gain of almost 2%. Rumors around the market that the BOJ has furthered easing plans helped sentiment, so […]

Alexis Tsipras has to implement pension reform in order to get more loans from Brussels. He is betraying everything the Greek people voted for and is pushing Greece over the edge. Brussels is demanding that the Greeks pay for the shenanigans of Goldman Sachs whom helped Greek politicians cook the books. Protests against the pension […]

Country 2011 2012 2013 2014 % of Total 2014 Afghanistan 6,344,642,495 7,152,304,412 7,288,702,809 7,528,550,402 0% Albania 2,471,402,948 2,599,863,604 2,773,278,168 2,665,216,203 0% Algeria 191,369,117,586 200,586,904,406 201,436,605,684 186,350,597,819 1% American Samoa 0% Andorra 0% Angola 28,786,209,253 33,414,773,293 32,780,375,986 28,130,311,504 0% Antigua & Barbuda 147,868,736 162,045,102 202,580,587 297,046,138 0% Argentina 46,265,809,101 43,223,271,091 30,533,921,358 31,410,823,483 0% Armenia 1,932,472,154 1,799,374,401 […]

The goldbugs spun the tail that China was going to save them by making gold $50,000-$100,000 an ounce because money, in their minds, has to be tangible. However, China’s $3 trillion-plus in foreign currency reserves was the biggest stockpile in the world, They had no such intention of swapping it all for gold. As a […]