The European “bail-in” rules have been cheered claiming taxpayer money will be spared. However, many seniors bought bank bonds for their retirement. In the rescue of the small Banca Popolare d’Etruria, a retiree who had lost more than 100,000 euros worth of bonds committed suicide. There have been many such events that do not always make […]

As many expected the BOJ kept rates unchanged as they continue to encourage a move away from bonds and into equities. Still the policy approach continues as slow but steady. This caused the JPY to trade above the 111 level even as the BOJ talks of 2% inflation (currently 0.5%). Hang Seng and Shanghai saw […]

China’s Industrial Data release marginally above expectation but Investments let them down and tended to quell afternoon anticipation and we closed only small positive. It may also have been the weakness of other core markets that also had an impact as both Hang Seng and ASX closed over 1.2% down the pair. It was energy yet […]

The European Central Bank (ECB) left its stimulus programs and record low interest rates unchanged. Pundits were seeing some cyclical signs of what they hoped was a spreading recovery in the 19 countries that use the euro currency rather than just a bounce in anticipation of tourist season. The ECB dropped any wording that it could […]

Zeno (474-491AD) Zeno (c. 425 – 491) became an Eastern Roman emperor from 474 to 475AD, and his second reign was from 476 to 491AD. His reign was eventful and important. When Rome fell in the West, Odoacer (433-493AD), who had deposed the last Western Emperor, Romulus Augustus (475-476AD), sent the imperial regalia to Constantinople. […]

The tragic incident in London over the weekend certainly unnerved market with all core markets trading heavy throughout the day. The Nikkei closed only marginally lower (-0.03%) given the JPY traded in one of its narrowest days in a long time – tensions are building for the end of the week. Other core did not […]

Thank you to all who joined us at the Frankfurt seminar!

A video of the event will be available for purchase shortly, and all attendees will receive the video complimentary.

This morning in Asia markets were still playing off of the US ADP data and enjoying that its continues to support the recent bull run. Confidence was obvious in markets when the JPY traded back to 111.70 (losing its safe-haven bid) but then NFP’s were released. We’ll comment on this in the US session update […]

Another mixed session for core Asia but we did see a slight pick-up for China following better than expected PMI report. The consensus was looking for a 51 and the actual release came in at 51.2%. Shanghai closed slightly better at +0.3% and proved to be the best performing core market. A good start after […]

The solid close to US trading on Friday fortunately had more influence than the concerns surrounding the weekend missile test completed by North Korea. The safety bid appeared to be lost in early trade as we watched the JPY lose ground first thing trading 111.60. Despite the marginal performance of the yen the Nikkei joined […]