The Nikkei saw another impressive day today with the index closing up +0.97%  but at the same time the Yen continues to lose ground. In late US trading we have broken again the 103.50 level with the lose this week close to 3%, there are many rumors around BOJ intervention in the FX but all […]

We are monitoring confidence in the banking system as reflected by cash withdrawals. The sale of home safes has exploded in many countries. I previously reported that one in ten currency notes in Switzerland being printed is now the 1000 franc note. In fact, there is some 41.6 billion in Swiss francs now in circulation in 1000 […]

This week, a German cooperative savings bank in the Bavarian village of Gmund am Tegernsee with less than 10,000 in population, announced it will begin charging retail customers to hold their cash starting in September. This will apply to accounts greater than €100,000 euros. This means the bank will charge customers 0.4 percent, which amounts to […]

$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 […]

More talk that the expected that the Japanese stimulus package could exceed the JPY 20tln and could even be as large as 28tln boosted the Nikkei and sent the Yen back to 104.50 level. Rumours have been circulating for a while and even yesterday stories were that the package would only be a fraction worried the market yesterday resulting in the 1.4% loss. […]

Germany’s obsession with anti-inflation policies, inspired by the hyperinflation of the 1920s, is so misguided that it is now threatening to collapse all of Europe. Former ECB banker Lorenzo Bini Smaghi has now called to rescue the Italian banks with European taxpayers’ money. He is correct in warning that the insistence of Germany on the prohibition […]

With the exception of the firmer Hang Seng (+1.75%), core Asia was pretty much mooted. The big news today was BREXIT again when Boris Johnson withdrew his name for potential Conservative Leader. This comes on the tail of Michael Gove declaring his willingness to throw his hat in the ring. Markets were firmer (around +0.5%) […]

Interesting price action – it is the UK that is leaving Europe and yet we saw the DAX fall 6.8%, CAC -8.35% and IBEX down 12.35% whilst FTSE declined just 2.8%! Bank share were hit everywhere with some of the large institutions (Deutsche Bank, Barclays and RBS) falling between 14 and 18%. The afternoon behaved […]

The Nikkei could not hold the late US rally and as the cash market opened the weakness returned from the opening, especially having just seen the weaker than expected Machinery Orders. Gaping lower, we did see a small bounce but not enough energy to look for a positive close. Eventually the index closed around 1% […]

All the Asian indices performed well today and mainly off the back of the rumors that China -Shares are to be included in the MSCI soon. These were only rumors but we did see a 3.3% rally on the beck of the story. Also, on the back of a better than expected Japan Industrial Output […]