Hardly a day to write about with Asian equities not really showing any indications of a direction, let alone a story, for the day. All core indices closed +/- 0.5%; even to fabricate a rumour would constitute just that — a fabrication! The European session was pretty much the same without much away from core DAX, and CAC […]

China’s trade surplus did not live up to expectations, and as a result, we saw weaker prices across all major Asian indices. Shanghai and HSI were both down around 1.5% whilst the Nikkei lost only 1%. The Nikkei did attempt to lead the pack when Q3 GDP saw a small recovery, but when the mood within […]

Asia saw a mixed session with prices marginally lower, but not too much to write home about. It was not until Europe opened that we started to see a pick-up in volatility that provided dealers with something to talk about. The oil and energies market provided the discussion point with TWI, Brent, and Nat-Gas all […]

Asia caught the end of the US session this morning as all three core markets responded with falling prices. The Nikkei performed worse of all losing 2.4%, while the Shanghai and Hang Seng returned -1.3% and -0.9% respectively. European markets attempted to bounce after yesterdays declines but a non-farms payrolls number spurred the US but at […]

Continued speculation that additional official support would be available next week in China supported the Shanghai Stock Index yet again. The strong close (of over +1.3% higher) in Asia has been short-lived as the events in Europe have reversed most, if not all, of today’s move (as seen this evening in futures trading). Initially, all […]

Rumors between dealers that Chinese authorities could be about to introduce new incentives to boost property prices saw the Shanghai Index rally 2.3% in today’s trading. The Hang Seng closed marginally firmer also (+0.5%) but only a smidgeon in comparison. The Nikkei did not benefit from a weekly close above the 20k level and so […]

COMMENT: If the Fed is so smart and understands the problem with low/negative interest rates, then why didn’t it hike rates in September?  Better yet, why didn’t they raise rates YEARS ago?  The Fed has kept rates near zero for seven years but now suddenly realizes that this is a problem? I am surprised that you […]

An extremely dull day for most core equity markets across the globe today with plus or minus 0.5% movements throughout. If anything to write about it was probably that US stocks closed close to the days lows as they all drifted but even that it probably clutching at straws. Currencies were also quiet today but […]

The central banks are simply trapped. They have bought in bonds under the theory that this will stimulate the economy by injecting cash. But there are several problems with this entire concept. This is an elitist view to say the least for the money injected does not stimulate the economy for it never reaches the […]

The morning session in Asia was rather dull but all recovered in the afternoon into positive territory with the exception being Hang Seng (which was still down -0.3%). Europe drifted into the negative shortly after the open as news was still focused on the nervous Belgium shut-down. All trading was dull and in thin conditions […]