Tuesday 02.00 GMT Overview Stocks across Asia were higher, taking their lead from US and European bourses that shrugged off the result of a No vote in Sunday’s Italian referendum on constitutional reform. Hot topic China’s renminbi has become a talking point after a handful of web sites, including Google, generated apparently erroneous quotes for the currency around Rmb7.48 per US dollar — a rate that would […]
Shinzo Abe will make a historic visit to Pearl Harbor later this month where he will remember the dead of World War Two alongside outgoing US president Barack Obama. The visit will make Mr Abe the first sitting Japanese prime minister to visit Pearl Harbor since his country’s surprise attack on the Hawaiian port began the Pacific war 75 years ago. Following Mr Obama’s visit to the […]
Monday 14.40 GMT Overview Italy’s stock market and much of the country’s banking sector is back under pressure, as investors refine their response to the No vote in the country’s referendum on constitutional reform that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. The yield on the country’s benchmark sovereign debt yield remains higher as investors continue to sell Italian government bonds. Italy’s 10-year government debt […]
Photo Tiger Woods after a shot on the 11th fairway during the third round at the Hero World Challenge in Nassau, the Bahamas. Credit Lynne Sladky/Associated Press NASSAU, the Bahamas — On his fifth hole Saturday at the Hero World Challenge, Tiger Woods holed a bunker shot for his fourth birdie of the day. It had taken him only 41 holes in his first competitive start in […]
Saudi Arabia is boosting the firepower of its sovereign wealth fund to accelerate deal-making and lessen the country’s dependence on oil. The Public Investment Fund is receiving a 100 billion-riyal ($27 billion) transfer from official reserves, according to a statement Wednesday on the SPA official news agency, increasing its existing assets by about 17 percent. The injection will help the fund diversify investments and revenues, it said. The […]
Thursday 06:00 GMT Overview Markets across Asia saw a day of solid gains as oil continued to trade higher following Opec’s decision to cut output for the first time since the financial crisis and as Japanese stocks benefited from recent weakness in the yen. European bourses are expected to open little changed, with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will add 2 points to 6,785 and Germany’s […]
Toyota wants to release a new version of its hydrogen-powered Mirai in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, underscoring its commitment to fuel-cell vehicles despite joining the global market for battery-powered cars. “The 2020 Olympics could be the venue to showcase [the new Mirai] to the world,” Kiyotaka Ise, head of advanced research and development at Toyota, told the Financial Times. The world’s top selling carmaker this […]
Monday 12:00 GMT. Overview Stock markets in Europe are slipping back, led by losses for embattled Italian financials, on concern about potential contagion spreading from the sector into the eurozone financial system after Italy’s reform referendum. Meanwhile the dollar is cooling after its sustained run higher, with the index tracking the world’s reserve currency against six of its rivals down 0.1 per cent, although it is holding […]
Monday 11:30 GMT. Overview The dollar is cooling after its sustained run higher, with the index tracking the world’s reserve currency against six of its rivals down 0.5 per cent, although it is holding the 100-point mark at 100.940. Stock markets in Europe are slipping back, led by losses for embattled Italian financials. Hot topic Oil is likely to loom large over the week before Wednesday’s Opec […]
The dollar broke new ground in its post-US election surge against the yen on Friday as the market eyed a potential ¥3.8tn ($34bn) deluge of yen selling by life insurers. Tokyo’s morning session saw speculators pushing the dollar into the high ¥113 zone — an eight-month peak and a move that is underpinned by more unwinding of long yen positions built ahead of what big Japanese investors […]
They may break out the caps on Wall Street when the Dow Jones rises through thousand-point barriers, but it might be time for Japanese investors to pull out their Spinal Tap t-shirts – because this rally has gone to 11. Things were looking a bit shaky for the Topix during the afternoon session on Friday. The yen trimmed its early decline, which dragged the Japanese stock market […]
While most global equity markets were subdued due to the US Thaksgiving holiday, the FX world was very busy overnight, marked by the relentless dollar surge on expectations of a rate hike not only in December but further in 2017, sending Asian currencies to the weakest level in 7 years: the Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asia Dollar Index reached 103.32, the lowest level since March 2009. The regional FX plunge […]
Mid-morning last Friday, as Tokyo’s foreign-exchange traders were contemplating lunch, the first pictures of Donald Trump meeting the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, flashed up. The yen bears loved it. Setting aside the gold-encrusted Babylonian decor of Trump Tower and forced bonhomie, conventional market wisdom before November 9 was that an image like this would send global investors everywhere screaming into haven, long yen positions. Forget an […]
South Korea on Wednesday signed a military intelligence-sharing pact with Japan aimed at better managing the threat from North Korea’s increasingly active missile and nuclear weapons programmes. The deal, which comes as Seoul scrambles to adjust to the region’s shifting geopolitical landscape, has faced fierce domestic opposition from critics who slam it as an example of embattled President Park Geun-hye’s unilateral decision-making. Ms Park is embroiled in […]
The overview Wednesday 2.20am GMT Asian equities continue to rally on Wednesday after Wall Street notched up another set of record highs overnight, while the US dollar is trading flat. Standout stories The Dow Jones Industrial Average deserves a mention for closing above 19,000 points for the first time, while its peer US stock indices again closed at record highs. Monday was the first time since 1999 […]
Tuesday 08:00 GMT. European stocks are following a positive Asian session as global investor sentiment is buoyed by simultaneous record highs for Wall Street’s main equity gauges. A steadier dollar and further gains for oil prices are supporting the chipper mood. After the FTSE Asia Pacific index rose 0.8 per cent, the pan-European Stoxx 600 is advancing 0.7 per cent. Germany’s Dax is up 0.6 to challenge […]
Japan has issued a series of tsunami warnings along its north-eastern Pacific coast after an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 struck offshore early on Tuesday morning. The strongest tsunami waves are predicted to hit the seaboard of Fukushima — the prefecture whose nuclear power plant was engulfed by the 2011 tsunami, triggering a meltdown and one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters. The quake and […]
November 21, 2016 by: Peter Wells in Hong Kong and Michael Hunter in London Monday 08.00 GMT. Oil prices are making notable gains, tracking the prospect of a deal on output cuts between major producers, setting Brent crude on course for its first two-session advance since early October. Brent crude, the international benchmark, is up 1.3 per cent at $47.47 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate is […]
Friday 06:00 GMT. The US dollar continues to push higher and sovereign bonds remain under pressure, while major equities benchmarks are on track to finish the week on a positive note. European bourses are expected to open firmer, with spreadbetters predicting the UK’s FTSE 100 will add 5 points to 6,800 and Germany’s Dax to gain 30 points to 10,716. US index futures suggest the S&P 500 […]
LONDON Battered bonds and emerging market currencies enjoyed some respite on Thursday as the dollar took a breather from a post-U.S. election charge that has taken it to a 13-1/2 year high. Wall Street looked set for a quiet start and Europe’s main stock markets <0#.INDEXE> were shuffling sideways as the dip in global bond yields cooled bank stocks, which have been rising on better lending profits. […]
Thursday 08:30 GMT. European and US equity gauges are subdued as government bond yields dip from multi-month highs and the dollar stalls after hitting its strongest level since 2003. Following a muted Asia-Pacific session — encapsulated by Japan’s Nikkei 225 closing unchanged — index futures suggest the S&P 500 will dip 1 point to 2,176 when the opening bell rings later in New York, leaving the Wall […]
Wednesday 17:00 GMT. US and European stocks were softer as the dollar hit a 13-year high and bond yields eased off multi-month peaks, as investors reined in bets that US president-elect Donald Trump’s pledge of infrastructure spending and tax cuts would accelerate inflation. In Europe, Germany’s Dax fell 0.7 per cent as shares in Bayer fell 4.2 per cent after the drugmaker raised €4bn to pay for […]
Wednesday 09:20 GMT. European stocks are tracking a mostly positive showing in Asia as Wall Street eyes record highs on hopes the Trump administration’s pledge of infrastructure spending and tax cuts will boost the US economy. The dollar and government bond yields are a touch firmer, keeping gold and industrial commodity prices in check. After the FTSE Asia-Pacific equity index rose 0.6 per cent, the pan-European Stoxx […]
At the end of last week, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut interest rates. It could yet prove the last central bank to do so in the current cycle. For an inkling of why, look no further than the US government bond market. Treasuries are enduring their worst sell-off since the taper tantrum of 2013, when then Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke first signalled the end […]
