We start the week with mixed session from Asia as Chinese reserve data showed small increase and the general trend of acceptance for Chinese 5% growth. The Japanese yen continued its decline breaching 114 and even in late US trading had was last seen around the 114.25 level. The Nikkei edged better but a small […]

China’s Industrial Data release marginally above expectation but Investments let them down and tended to quell afternoon anticipation and we closed only small positive. It may also have been the weakness of other core markets that also had an impact as both Hang Seng and ASX closed over 1.2% down the pair. It was energy yet […]

Despite better than expected data from domestic China (Retail Sales 11% and Industrial Production +6.5%) it was not sufficient to support a positive close. Shanghai finished the day -0.75% as talk that Private Investment growth slowed suggesting a lack of demand for small and medium sized companies; Private Investment is the bulk of the buying […]

Volumes are always low when many markets are closed and that is what we saw in todays trading. Under those conditions the Nikkei returned a positive performance as the Yen continued Fridays heavy theme having spent much of the day in the high 111’s. This is not a huge move but a weaker currency will […]

Nervous markets again with US military positioning headlines for most of the session and that led to safety moves back into the JPY. Having broken the 111 handle early, next target was the 110 handle. Many did not expect the US trading hours to take it as far as it did (109.65 -1.1% last) levels […]

Yen weakness continues to push the Nikkei, which helped the exporters but also the inflation outlook appears more positive. Todays CPI release was came in a smidgen better than the zero forecast at 0.1%, with National at 0.4%. In Shanghai and in the Hang Seng we saw declines ahead of Janet Yellen speech later in […]

I have warned that rates will rise BECAUSE the Federal Reserve will be criticized if they fail to do so when they are faced with a stock market that is rising. However, while one by one, several Fed officials have all signaled in recent days that the Fed is ready to resume raising interest rates […]

The euphoria seen in the states followed on into Asia with the Nikkei returning almost 1% in today’s trading. The mood did not want to change from Wednesday, leading traders to think that many have finally thrown in the towel and are accepting that we are moving higher. The strange thing is the odds move […]

It was the speech that most claimed lacked substance that just did exactly what most thought it couldn’t – rally global stock markets. Yes, Japan’s Biz Cap-Ex released at 3.8% compared to the previous 1.3%; that woke markets, then Manufacturing PMI released a smidgen worse but when the JPY started to fall, everyone blamed Trump. […]

Following from the constructive message the market was hearing from the FED, the Nikkei regained the 1.05% it lost yesterday. This proved to be an impressive performance when considering Toshiba shares dropped 9% amid a potential book write-down of $6.3bn to its US nuclear unit. Hang Seng built on yesterday’s gain adding another +1.2% reaching […]