The Nikkei (cash market) had a lot to recover having just returned but recover it did. The early bounce was pulled back then the Friday afternoon recovery took over and we closed just off the days highs (+1.2%). China’s Industrial Output was expected at 6.1% but came in a little short at 6% which did […]

The Nikkei did manage a positive close for the end of the week but finished down just over 2% on the week. The JPY continues to play around the par level until the stock markets decide their direction. Shanghai and Hang Seng closed mixed in thin summer trading in what can only be described as lethargic trade. With […]

In the first six months of the year, the raw data has shown that several central banks have been selling US government bonds in an attempt to support their currencies against the dollar. This has come in part at the request of the United States, exactly as took place back in 1985 at the Plaza […]

QUESTION: All energy says spike low on monthly global market watch. Now we had a correction from 52 to $39 so that qualifies but we also had a rally from 39 to 47 so does it still qualify? If Socrates uses the last data point 47 it would not be a spike low  but if it accesses […]

Exporters within the Nikkei weighed heavy on the index today eventually closing down 1.55% at 16,486. Watching the JPY trade below par was no surprise the likes of Mazda, Toyota and Nissan all traded around 2% lower. Exports for July were the worst seen in seven years down nearly 25% YoY. China played in a […]

The Pension Crisis continues to spiral out of control and the central banks are incapable to reversing their policy. Raising rates now will cause budgets to explode and all the bonds they bought would collapse in price no less become totally unsalable. Now in Germany, the Bundesbank has addressed this crisis advising that the population […]

There appeared little reason the JPY to strengthen as much as it did yesterday during any of the sessions but that said, we did see 99.75 at one stage yesterday. No-one knew why and so in Asia back it traded to 101 again. In late US trading we have seen another attack at the par […]

The financial services industry is undergoing its greatest upheaval perhaps in more than 35 years because the government came up with a brilliant new idea to pretend there is a crisis that they need to step in to save you. I have warned that there has been talk about taking over 401K funds which are […]

Marginally disappointing as far as Japan is concerned, but having just seen Q2 GDP at zero (against estimation of +0.2%) already called down from the 0.5% seen in Q1, it was no surprise the market was torn today. The strength of both the Shanghai and Hang Seng lifted sentiment more than prices which certainly gave […]

The Nikkei (cash market) had a lot to recover having just returned but recover it did. The early bounce was pulled back then the Friday afternoon recovery took over and we closed just off the days highs (+1.2%). China’s Industrial Output was expected at 6.1% but came in a little short at 6% which did […]