Tuesday 15:10 GMT What you need to know ● Pound under pressure amid Brexit and Scottish secession worries● Sterling drops below $1.22 and euro edges up towards 88p● S&P 500 down 0.5 per cent as sliding oil hits energy stocks● Treasury yields little changed ahead of Fed decision——————- Hot topic The UK pound is back under pressure as traders become concerned that Edinburgh’s demand for a another […]
The French presidential election is setting up a critical test of resolve for Japanese investors as life assurers, big banks and struggling regional lenders enter a second year under the Bank of Japan’s negative interest rate policy. The policy shift by the BoJ in February 2016 accelerated efforts by Japanese investors to seek higher fixed-rate returns overseas and has raised the sensitivity of their portfolios to global […]
To investors still betting — either by choice or technical necessity — that Toshiba can pull off a miracle escape act, Monday night produced yet another dispiriting blow. With just hours left before the troubled Japanese conglomerate was due to submit its audited third-quarter earnings — an already overdue document critical to its continued status as a listed entity — sources close to the company confirmed that […]
D.C. bureau chiefs from major news organizations, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the wire services, Fox News and CNN sent a letter to the State Department earlier this week protesting Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s decision to ditch reporters on his upcoming trip to Asia. “We were deeply concerned to hear that Secretary Tillerson plans to travel to Beijing, Seoul […]
Friday 06:00 GMT Overview Asian markets were broadly positive on Friday as South Korea’s president was formally impeached, while Treasuries remained under pressure ahead of the US jobs report that could fuel expectations the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week. European bourses are expected to open higher, with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will add 20 points to 7,335 and Germany’s Dax to climb […]
Via Damiel Lang of SHTFPlan.com, Since the end of World War Two, the United States has established itself on every continent with hundreds of military bases, and has sent troops to foreign nations (both covertly and overtly) on so many occasions that it’s difficult to keep track of them all. And this doesn’t even take into account the nations that our government has quietly and successfully pressured […]
By Tim Kelly and Nobuhiro Kubo | TOKYO TOKYO Rattled by North Korean military advances, influential Japanese lawmakers are pushing harder for Japan to develop the ability to strike preemptively at the missile facilities of its nuclear-armed neighbour. Japan has so far avoided taking the controversial and costly step of acquiring bombers or weapons such as cruise missiles with enough range to strike other countries, relying instead […]
07 March 2017 Geneva – The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air freight markets showing that demand, measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs), rose 6.9% in January 2017 compared to the year-earlier period. While this was down from the 10% annual growth recorded in December 2016 it still was well above the average annual growth rate of 3% over the past five years. Growth […]
March 7, 2017 by: Song Jung-a and Bryan Harris in Seoul and Jeevan Vasagar in Singapore North Korea’s latest missile tests were a rehearsal for an attack on US forces in Japan, Pyongyang has revealed, ratcheting up tensions with two of its sworn enemies even as relations with erstwhile ally Malaysia took a nosedive. The increasingly isolated nation on Monday launched a barrage of ballistic missiles into […]
March 6, 2017 by: Bryan Harris in Seoul, Kana Inagaki in Tokyo and Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington North Korea fired four missiles into the Sea of Japan on Monday, according to officials in Seoul and Tokyo, in a move likely to escalate tensions that are already running high in the region. One of the currently unidentified projectiles could be an intercontinental ballistic missile, said a South Korean […]
A historic change in party rules has handed Shinzo Abe the possibility of becoming Japan’s longest-serving prime minister in more than half a century. The revision, which would allow Mr Abe to stay in power until 2021, marks a stunning turnaround for a country long known for its revolving door of prime ministers to becoming one of the most stable governments among the group of seven leading […]
Earlier this week, Japanese TV audiences glimpsed a potentially revolutionary contraption from the Matsue College of Technology that rapidly separates closed shijimi clamshells into those with a live mollusc inside and those without. Cut to footage of a human sorter, expertly performing the same function at a rate of just 90 kgs of shijimi per day and whose job this machine seems destined to replace. In other […]
March 3, 2017 by: Jamie Chisholm, Global Markets Commentator Friday 08:35 GMT Overview Stock markets are retreating as Wall Street equity futures dip further from this week’s record high as investors cash in some of their bullish bets on stronger growth following the election of US president Donald Trump. The pullback comes amid heightened expectations that the improving economic scenario will encourage the Federal Reserve to increase […]
Core inflation has returned to Japan for the first time since 2015, with consumer prices excluding fresh food rising by 0.1 per cent in January over the same month a year earlier. The return to positive territory was driven by energy — petrol prices jumped 9.2 per cent year-on-year after big drops in 2016 — but the rise will be welcome news for the Bank of Japan. […]
The Bank of Japan published detailed schedules of planned asset purchases for the first time on Tuesday as it seeks to prove its commitment to a zero per cent cap on 10-year government bond yields. Japan’s central bank said it will buy a minimum of ¥1.375tn and a maximum of ¥2.175tn of government bonds during March, giving a series of dates and estimated sizes for its planned […]
Wednesday 16:30 GMT Overview Wall Street surged to another record as comments from Federal Reserve officials caused traders to boost their bets for an increase in US interest rates this month and investors celebrated a more upbeat tone from Donald Trump in his first address to Congress. In keeping with he risk-on mood that washed across financial markets around the globe, the dollar also rose and gold […]
Wednesday 09:30 GMT Overview The dollar and government bond yields are jumping, and gold is falling, as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials cause traders to drastically shorten the odds of an increase in US interest rates this month. Meanwhile, US equity index futures point to another record on Wall Street, tracking gains in Europe and Asia, after Donald Trump addressed Congress for the first time, with […]
Tuesday 12:30 GMT Overview Global stocks are finishing a positive month on a mixed note as traders appear cautious about making fresh bold bets ahead of Donald Trump’s speech to a joint sitting of the US Congress later on Tuesday. The dollar is fairly steady, while gains for perceived haven assets such as Treasuries and the Japanese yen speak to the underlying tentative tone. Hot topic The […]
Monday 08:50 GMT Overview European stock markets are making gains, tracking another set of record highs for Wall Street’s main equities gauges. The rally reaches the region even after Asia missed out, with banking and commodity stocks leading a sell-off there. Hot topic US equity futures are pointing to further gains after a late rally on Friday pushed the S&P 500 up 0.2 per cent while the […]
Friday 05.00 GMT Overview Asian stocks looked set to end a solid week on a down note, taking their cue from a subdued session on Wall Street as investors looked past some optimistic comments on US tax cuts and failed to catch a boost from higher oil prices. Hot topic Steve Mnuchin, the US Treasury Secretary, said the White House wanted to pass “very significant” tax reform […]
For a century after the incredibly influential writings of Carl von Clausewitz in the early years of the 19th-century, the study of war, specifically the study of battles, occupied a regal prominence in the field of history-writing. It was taken as a given that the study of battles was illustrative, even vaguely ennobling, and monumental, multi-volume battle-histories appeared at regular intervals, often running to many reprints and […]
America’s Midwest farmers can’t seem to catch a break. First, an epic collapse of grain prices over the last couple of years have threatened to wipe out family farmers (see “Midwest Farm Bubble Continues Collapse As Farm Incomes Expected To Crash In 2017“) and now, thanks to the pending NAFTA showdown threatened by President Trump, Mexico, the single largest importer of U.S.-grown corn, has announced plans to […]
Thursday 05:25 GMT Overview Asian stocks fell, following their US counterparts lower as investors digested the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s January policy meeting. Hot topic The Fed’s minutes showed that “many” policymakers thought it would be appropriate to raise short-term US interest rates again “fairly soon”, even given potential uncertainty around the new Trump administration’s economic policies and possible tax cuts. The market view on rates […]
Wednesday 12:45 GMT Overview US equity futures suggest Wall Street will dip from record levels that were reached amid a positive outlook for economic growth. Political concerns leave the euro carrying the wooden spoon in the forex markets, while the rush for supposed havens pushes short term German bond yields to their lowest ever. Hot topic The FTSE All-World equity index is at another record, up 0.1 […]
