Opinion – Friday 11 August 2017

Lack of US data releases has kept North Korea- US tensions as the overriding theme in markets. After the negative lead from Asia, European and US equities have ended the day with sharp losses, safe haven assets such as gold and yen have outperformed and the VIX has...

Opinion – Thursday 10 August 2017

Geopolitical tensions surrounding North Korea dominated yesterday’s trading session. However, market moves were contained following a winding back in rhetoric by US Administration officials. In this high stakes geopolitical poker round it appears both players were...

Opinion – Wednesday 9 August 2017

One of the big news from a relatively volatile trading session has come from the JOLTS report showing the gap between job openings and actual hiring’s in the US is now the widest ever. The Fed would argue that this is a signal of a tightening labour market and...

Opinion Tuesday 8 August 2017

Last Friday’s US Payrolls Report was strong in all respects, lifting the US Dollar and US yields across the board while allowing for small-scale gains in US stocks and risk sentiment. Non-Farm Payrolls rose by 209k against 180k expected with trivial 2-month net...

Opinion – Friday 4 August 2017

The biggest news stories since I posted yesterday morning are the 6-2 Bank of England MPC vote for no change in Interest Rates together with downgraded growth forecasts, which has knocked the British Pound off its recent lofty perch, and a significant downside...

Opinion – Thursday 3 August 2017

The big news in equity markets has been the Dow Jones move up to 22000 for the first time ever boosted by Apple’s better than expected sales report. Amid a soft US Dollar environment the Euro briefly traded above 1.19 and UST yields are little changed. Meanwhile...