With little help provided by the US Asia had yet another quiet summer trading session. The Nikkei opened lower but recouped losses ahead of the lunchtime break, only to edge lower again during afternoon trading. News remains light even after a slightly better mfg PMI data only managed a short-term bounce and by end of […]

  The German government is now advising its people to stockpile food for 10 days. This advice should be heeded throughout Europe and even in the United States. Here are the storage tips from the Red Cross. This is now time to begin to do this. Those who have the basement space, may also want […]

QUESTION: Hi martin I see all kind of speculation about what will be the price of gold in the coming years. I wonder if it makes any sense such debate as long as socrates is foreseing a monetary reform maybe in 2018. What will be the real value of the currency after that? Any thoughts on […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Asian cash markets just could not wait to open this morning after the huge Payrolls number on Friday. Admittedly, it took a little time and a better than expected Trade Surplus number (52.31 v’s and estimated 47.6) for the Shanghai market to join the excitement, but they eventually did to close +0.9% firmer. The […]

With the exception of the Hang Seng (+1.4%) it was a relatively quiet day in Asia having digested the BOE move and anticipation of US NFP’s data and ahead of the weekend. Late in US trading futures have responded to the global stock rally (as a result of the US numbers) and are currently trading […]

  Japan remains unloved opening down 1% and then drifting even lower as exporters led the way. The JPY has seen the safety bid for the majority of the week whilst the Nikkei has lost around 4% so far. Finally we saw a little support return for JGB’s since the news but then they have seen yields rising (or I […]