Sweden’s Bråvalla music festival for 2018 has been cancelled because of sex attacks by refugees. The Bråvalla Festival began back in 2013 and became the biggest music festival in Sweden. Allegations of rape and sexual assault at several music festivals in recent years have sparked outrage in Sweden forcing the festival to shut down because the government will […]

Following on from the weak US session, Asia tended to drift in sympathy. Ahead of the US NFP’s it was always going to be light volume but with G20 also just stated numbers were even lighter. The Shanghai has managed a positive close (+0.17%), but not so for the Hang Seng which closed down -0.5%. […]

The left is engaging in violent protests at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany. Both the police and G20 opponents were mutually responsible for the escalation of violence, as politicians are demanding harsh punishments for the violent protests with many arguing for prison time. The protesters blocked the routes of the delegations in several places. Other […]

QUESTION: Dear Martin: How does this affect cash flow to and within the USA? (China Bond market) Rich ANSWER: It does not alter anything just yet. Most of the capital outflow from China has been its own people trying to get cash out. They were using BitCoin to accomplish that. This is a first step […]

Geopolitics has taken centre stage today as Trump comments on the severity required towards North Korea and prepares for his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has talks with President Trump are expected to be frosty as she commented, “He is the most disruptive and egotistical leader at the (G20) summit”. […]

Refreshingly, the markets tended to ignore geopolitical tensions escalating around North Korea after the recent missile test. All core markets returned positive today with China performing for both markets. The Shanghai recovered early weakness and closed up 0.75% on the day, whilst in Hong Kong the large cap’s weighed much on the shine but still […]

  The governor of California is just insane and out of control. Besides the boasting that California is its own country free to enter into treaties with Europe against the Constitution, now Governor Brown is restricting the freedom of movement of its citizens, creating a list of states within the USA that California is imposing […]

COMMENT: Dear Marty   I’m doing business w companies in Holland. So I go there with a colleague to visit one of the factories outside Amsterdam.   We rent a car and drive there. Everything is fine and all. No problems with traffic, finding our way or so …   After leaving Amsterdam back home it […]

Whenever there is a national holiday and especially July 4th, volumes are light which can result in larger moves and higher volatility. Given that North Korea tested another missile earlier today the effect on markets was more extreme than would otherwise have been expected. The Hang Seng took the brunt of the move closing down […]

Some refreshingly strong data released in both Japan and China has helped market move on a note. We saw the BOJ’s TANKAN (business confidence data) show an improvement from previous quarterly number at +17 (prior was +15). This has helped push the Nikkei a little better but sees the JPY trade weaker now with a […]