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 […]

We have certainly embarked down the road of a police state. Federal agencies are tracking people who travel on trains and in the air. If someone buys a ticket for cash, the government is notified. They are looking for the slightest thing. I went to the airport to pick up a friend who comes over […]

Yet another rather uneventful session made even worse by the fact that Japan had a national holiday. Early trading in the Shanghai tended to follow the weak US sentiment but despite flipping in both directions, eventually closed down but above the psychological 3k level. Hang Seng performed well and it could be said took a […]

  A weaker opening for the Nikkei was off-set by better than expect economic data (Machine Orders) by lunchtime. The majority of the afternoon trading was in the positive but eventually closed small down. Many are concerned that the JPY may attempt a summer break of the 100 level which has the tendency to weigh […]