Currency tended to have more of an effect today in Asian trading, well certainly for Japan anyway! The Yen played between low and higher end of 111, edging lower into the close of the session as earnings failed to match expectation. Late in the US trading day, the Yen was flirting with a 110 handle […]

The Hang Seng and Shanghai were both off to an impressive start for the New Year. Recording gains of over 2% for the first two trading days, we saw the former touch 10-years intraday highs. China PMI data released yesterday helped sentiment, but we saw an impressive all round performance with real estate related companies […]

Although not all markets closed positive, the overall theme certainly was. Shanghai and Hang Seng were both strong with gains made from Tech, Consumers and Energy all adding to the near 1% gains. Volumes were again very disappointing with todays HSI around 70% of the previous 30 days average. Much has ben talked of the […]

My recent meetings in Brussels reveals some concern what happens when Merkel loses power? Schultz is calling for the complete federalization of Europe – the United States of Europe as he puts it. The power is starting to slip between their fingers and as Italy approaches its confrontation with the EU in the next elections, there too we see […]

Asia drifted with prices for core all closing around -0.5% lower for the day. Volumes were light but the lack of conviction as well as year end book-squaring were the key discussion topics. The Dollars decline did not help Exporters within the Nikkei, but that has been an issue for a few days this week. […]

The Trump Tax Reform reducing the corporate tax to 21% and taking effect January 1st, 2018 rather than being delayed until 2019, will be one of the biggest positive catalysts for US equities in decades. This is very interesting because it is now fundamentally validating what our computer has been projecting for highs going up […]

QUESTION: Hi Martin, Despite the Bitcoin fanboys arguing that Bitcoin is untouchable by governments, would you agree that once governments, in particular, the Chinese government, make it unlawful to own Bitcoins, the additional introduction of proceeds-of-crime legislation would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to use Bitcoins to acquire assets, and dealing a permanent blow […]

Asia started where the US markets off and confidence ahead of payrolls Friday, a government shut-down averted and hopes riding high for a BREXIT deal – which ran on the back of Sterling’s strength. For the Nikkei it felt important that we saw a 1.5% rally today taking us back to returning a roughly flat […]

A refreshing bounce for both the Hang Seng and the Nikkei were most welcome despite the continued low volume. Admittedly, the HSI only saw a small improvement but the Japanese index recovered 1.5%. Financials helped todays bounce with technology managing to hold yesterdays declines. There is still an air of optimism coming from global events […]

The final hours of the US trading session was a major concern for Asian trading this morning, which probably was not helped when the RBA (Reserve Bank Australia) left rates unchanged. This move certainly helped a bounce for the A$ but didn’t help stocks with the ASX closing down around -0.25%. The Hang Seng traded […]