ASIA: Profits at China’s industrial firms grew for the eighth straight month in December, suggesting a sustained recovery as the manufacturing sector rapidly emerged from its COVID-19 slump, Reuters reported. Profits surged 20.1% year-on-year in December to 707.11-billion-yuan ($109.40 billion), after rising 15.5% in November, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data showed on Wednesday. […]

ASIA: Barring another wave of COVID-19 infections, the worst is over for India’s economy and policymakers may soon have more room to support a recovery, the central bank said in its January bulletin released on Thursday. The RBI slashed interest rates early last year to cushion the shock from the coronavirus crisis, but has left […]

ASIA: The Bank of Japan kept monetary policy steady on Thursday and revised its economic forecast for the next fiscal year, signaling that it has delivered sufficient stimulus, for now, to cushion the blow from the COVID-19 pandemic, Reuters reported. As widely expected, the central bank kept unchanged its target for short-term interest rates at […]

ASIA: China’s economy grew at the slowest pace in more than four decades last year, official figures show but remains on course to be the only major economy to have expanded in 2020. The economy grew 2.3% last year, despite Covid-19 shutdowns causing output to slump in early 2020. China’s mainland share markets as well […]

QUESTION:  Hi Martin, the dollar’s performance bucks logic, especially with Federal Reserve officials spending all week to deny any speculation of a tapering soon in relief measures or an imminent hike in interest rates standing at near zero. But what made the whole thing even more bizarre was the dollar’s defiance of the rocketing U.S. […]

  QUESTION: This civil war you talk about. Is it Republican v Democrat? Is this because your precious Trump lost? FH ANSWER: Look, this is the computer forecast and you can go back years and see that this forecast was made before Trump ever ran for office. Make no mistake about it, that this is […]

  ASIA: Chinese exports grew more than expected in December, customs data showed on Thursday, as coronavirus disruptions around the world fuelled demand for Chinese goods even as a stronger yuan made shipments more expensive for overseas buyers, Reuters reported. While Chinese exports are likely to benefit from solid global demand at the start of […]

ASIA: Wall Street firms in Hong Kong including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan on Monday moved to reduce exposure to Chinese telecom companies named in a U.S. ban on investments in companies Washington considers linked to China’s military. Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley said in filings to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong that they […]

It is beyond description that we face such crazy times politically around the world. The people are distracted between the left and the right but what is being ignored has been just what is the incentive for governments to join this cabal? What is really going on is simply that we have reached the end […]

ASIA: Chinese regulators are reportedly pressing Jack Ma’s fintech Ant Group to share consumer data with Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Ma, founder of Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Group, hasn’t been seen in public in two months. On Monday, CNBC anchor David Faber reported that he was laying low, rather than missing. […]