$278bn and the market is still disappointed! Despite the package provided by the Japanese government today late futures trading has followed the weaker cash market and extended losses by another 2%. Confidence is slightly dented as the market was hoping we would see the helicopter approach and that is why the market continued to sink […]

All eyes were on the BOJ, and even though they disappointed many, after a turbulent trading session the Nikkei index closed higher. No easing, no additions to the money base, no further purchases of JGB’s, commercial paper or REIT’s but they did almost double the ETF purchase programme from JPY 3.3tln to 6tln. Stocks did not know what […]

QUESTION: Hello Martin, If i have exposure to various banking counterparties in europe – what do i do from running a fund mgmt business as i m a bearish on banks….but i cant shut my business as i m fearful of banks…..what do you advise….how can one hedge or think about getting away from this […]

The US Department of Justice has arrested Mark Johnson, who was the global head of foreign exchange trading at HSBC, and a former colleague, Stuart Scott. The two traders were accused by the US government of using inside information to profit from a $3.5bn currency deal. Of course, inside trading only is a crime in […]

Japan finally saw a down day (-0.25%) that could be allocated to the individual performance of Nintendo shares, which declined over 12% today due to the delayed launch of the “Pokemon Go” app in Japan! However, the Hang Seng did return a nearly 1% gain today with Shanghai having a small loss, which was a […]

After Abe’s comment this was an awesome day for the Nikkei and laid the ground for Asia markets combined. A 4% rally for Japan with a 1.5% improvement for the Shanghai whilst Hang Seng made just a marginal improvement. The Upper House elections saw Japan’s Abe party secure a landslide victory in the Sunday election which promised […]

The continued decline in the price of oil, US markets having turned mid-session and you have the makings of confidence deficiency – which is exactly what we saw for Asia. By the open dealers were looking for the bid and that never really changed. Nervousness for the US data so it was absolute certainty that […]

We must face the fact that we are in a slowing global economy and governments simply have their fingers crossed in hopes this nightmare just corrects itself. There is a massive slowing of real income in Europe and the OECD has commented that this is creating a serious political problem for governments moving forward. Central banks cannot stimulate, because at […]

Confidence remains the key in Asia and that is what we remain in search of this evening as we watch global equity markets depreciate. In Asia China was in better shape having seen better than expected Service sector growth resulting in a 0.6% gain. This was only for the first half of the day as […]

Asia performed well in what appeared to be trading in shadows the majority of the day. Rumors that the PBOC were about to cut rates saw a rally in Shanghai (+1%) only to drift off the highs by the close. Rumors of more BOJ easing (attempting to put even 40yr bonds into single digits). It […]