Be it nature or politics, everything dies in a Phase Transition. The fall of communism in 1989 was abrupt and swept from China to Russia within a matter of months. Western political systems will simply collapse by this same process. Everything dies in an explosive Phase Transition. It is said when you die you see your […]

The Nikkei was the bright spot in Asian equity markets today closing up 0.8% whilst the JPY decline would have cost 0.3% of that gain. It was far better than the declines we saw in mainland China which closed -1.7%. Yuan gained small ground today and was last seen 6.5212. Given the majority of the […]

Shortly after the European open news broke of the Belgium terror attacks and we saw the usual flight to quality. Treasuries rallied, as did Gold and the US Dollar while stocks fell and in particular airlines and travel companies. At one stage we saw the DAX down over -1.5% with CAC, IBEX and FTSE not […]

The strong Yen continues to weigh on the Nikkei even though other core Asian Indices performed. Minutes from the Jan BOJ meeting were released which showed that additional stimulus were discussed, including the possible expansion of QE. However, having opened unchanged and after a long week the Nikkei closed down -1.25% on the day and 2.5% lower […]

The Asian markets responded quite positively to the FED’s unchanged decision yesterday with HSI and China Main trading a little over 1% higher across the board. The Exporters did not fare so well, as such, Japan closed a little lower (-0.22%) on the back of a stronger JPY (+1%). China moved the yuan mid-point from 6.5172 […]

With both Asia and European markets were in pretty much a waiting station ahead of the FED, so it is probably worth us heading straight to where the action started! Even the events of the UK Budget were almost removed with talks of,  “It could all change come June 23rd anyway” so why get too hot under the […]

Asia closed mixed in a session dominated by central bank thinking and with the uncertainty of holding recent gains. The BOJ was vocal only in that they stated it was too early still to monitor the effects of the recent negative move. The JPY returned to previous highs and in late US trading Nikkei futures have dropped […]

  The usual domestic analysis has its usual blinders on like a horse pulling a carriage in Central Park. Typically, this analysis blames everything on the Fed and remains clueless about international capital flows or trends. They argue that the S&P 500 doubled in value from November 2008 to October 2014, coinciding with the Federal Reserve […]

Quieter equity markets across the globe today with gains decreasing as we move from east to west. Core Asian markets saw returns today of around +1.5% each but the week is to be dominated by central bank activity. Today sees the start of the BOJ’s two-day meeting, but no change in rate is expected by […]

The surprise rate cut by the New Zealand Central Bank earlier this morning spooked a few markets especially ahead of the ECB later in the day. The Nikkei liked the news which resulted in a +1.3% rally but that has been reversed after the wests reaction to the ECB this evening. In late US trading […]