Finally we saw a little profit-taking in the Nikkei today, after having touched 26 year highs in earlier trade. The sell-off was not so much but felt more after spending the majority of the day in positive territory. The Yen moved stronger but that was later in the trading day after news of possible delays to 2019 […]

  The Nikkei (+1.75%) had the strongest session in Asia today, helped by the continued rally in oil (+3% on Monday) prices and strong earnings. The Nikkei reached new 26 year highs earlier on optimism of growth, mergers and fresh international investment. The index moved stronger from the opening, eventually closing at the highs of […]

Not that much to get excited about in Asian markets today, but with not much fresh news to go-on indices closed mixed. The Nikkei opened better after their long weekend but with other regional markets drifting weaker, the index did well just to close in the positive. Bank of Japan minutes released relatively smoothly with […]

The Alternative for Germany party (AfD) in Germany has asked the Federal Government to file a lawsuit against all decisions of European Central Bank (ECB) regarding the purchase of government bonds and corporate bonds as well as derivatives since 2015. They are petitioning to file in the European Court of Justice asserting that the policies of the […]

We opened the first day of the month with a strong Asian session with indices up nearly 2%. In Japan, the Nikkei added 1.85% with a weaker Yen, associated energy stock comfort and helped by a huge earnings expectations from Sony (+11%). The Yen is now comfortably into the 114 handle and will now be talked […]

GREXIT QUESTION: I just read an article about Grexit and the MoU that expires in the summer of 2018. Let’s assume Greece exits EU and the Euro, what would happen to Greece and it’s people? What hardships would Grexit bring to the Greek people and what could individual Greeks do to prepare themselves for these hardships? […]

China saw a mixed close with Hang Seng’s fall balancing Shanghai’s gain. Talk for China however, focused on reports that China may offer a two tranche 5 and 10yr deals having been absent from the markets for a while. At a time when yields are so low one would expect rather larger deals than is […]

QUESTION: I read your blog about the Saudi’s potentially selling a large private equity position from China in Aramco rather than accessing the public markets. You have pointed out the need for the Saudi’s to modernize their economy to be less dependent on oil income and to monetize that resource for capital improvements/diversification, but how […]

  Having just seen an uncertain US session, Asia was a little confused which way to take markets from the opening bell. Still, it appears as though Shanghai and Hang Seng want to cancel each other out which a very much mixed session. The Nikkei had another strong day resulting in 16 days of consecutive […]

Europe is now replicating the 1930s and the mistakes it made with austerity back then as well outside of Germany. Of course, Merkel has imposed the German view of austerity based on their experience but has ignored the opposite experience of the rest of Europe that led to the 1931 Sovereign Debt Crisis and mass […]