Why has China become so important? Largely because global investors are in this transition mode and do not understand how or why the foundation of everything is changing beneath them. The market turmoil in China spread around the world on Thursday as global investors took their lead from China as a contagion unfolded with no real understanding. […]

For the second time this week, China’s stock exchange saw a closing due to limit down (7% move). It happened early in the day (actually, only half an hour into the trading day) which spread an uneasy tension to the Nikkei and Heng Seng. The Nikkei lost 2.33% (as the JPY strengthened), whilst the HSI […]

Asia started weak (again), not China, but the Nikkei (-1%) and HSI (-1%). China actually performed better (+2.27%) with dealers quoting the off-shore FX weakness as a consequence. The yuan (off-shore) lost around 1% to close at a low of 6.7315 (a five-year record low). Obviously, North Korea’s claim that it has successfully carried out […]

Certainly, the markets were a lot more sedate today than they were on the first day of 2016! All eyes were on China after yesterday’s exchange close and initially, we did see a rather depressed (-2.6%) open, but only to recover within minutes. Most of the day was spent in and out of the red […]

What a start to the New Year! Talk around the street voiced a few reasons for today’s stock market declines from geopolitical tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran to additional dealing costs associated to playing the markets. Discussions are apparently underway across the globe to address market orders, the way in which orders are placed, […]

As we close 2015 and begin a new year, the markets generally closed flat to neutral with a warning that as we approach the political year from hell (2017) that this is by no means going to be a walk through the park. We are more likely than not going to see some trends conclude […]

It was a very dull day to finish 2015, but not really surprising given the performance we have seen for the year. Shanghai has finished the year up 9.4%, but it was the smaller Shenzhen Composite with a YTD gain of 63.2% that was the shining star. The Nikkei added to its annual gain by […]

  Below is the holiday schedule for the markets. The closing for our models will be TODAY, and for the most part, this will be a full normal day. We are hovering around our year-end numbers in many markets from gold, the pound, to oil and the Dow. If the Dow closes lower than last […]

Asia finished a mixed session with gains in Shanghai (+0.25%) and Japan (+0.27%), countered with a small decline in the HSI (-0.53%). For Japan, today was the last trading day for 2015 and returned a yearly gain of just over 9%. European core indices fell across the spectrum with losses for DAX (-1.08%), CAC (-0.52%), […]

Despite the low volume, we saw a positive rally across Asian equities with all markets closing around 0.5% or higher. The PBOC set the yuan rate at 6.486, the lowest since mid-2011, but marginally weaker than yesterday. In Europe, markets moved ahead with the DAX, FTSE, and CAC all closing higher by around 2%, the […]