Opinion – Thursday 7 June 2018

The prospects of an end to ECB easy money sparked a sell-off in EU bonds spreading across the Atlantic and into the US. The Euro also got a boost lifting other European currencies along the way, meanwhile equities moved higher shrugging off the spike higher in yields....

Opinion – Wednesday 6 June 2018

Markets have traded in a cautious mood over the past 24 hours, despite solid data releases on either side of the Atlantic. Solid services PMI helped Sterling outperform, but a strong non-Manufacturing ISM was not much help for the USD. Core bond yields have edged a...

Opinion – Tuesday 5 June 2018

An all-round strong US Payrolls Report backed up by a better than expected manufacturing ISM drove Friday’s market moves, with some of the payrolls impact coming an hour before the release, courtesy of a 7:21am Trump tweet that he was ‘’Looking forward to seeing the...

Opinion – Friday 1 June 2018

A new Italian coalition government between the Five Star and the League is now done, Prime Minister designate Conte proposing and announcing an alternative (less immediately contentious) candidate for Finance Minister, Giovanni Tria, head of the Economy Faculty at...

Opinion – Thursday 31 May 2018

Global markets moves on Wednesday are not quite the mirror image of Tuesday, but many of them are doing a passable impression. In FX for example, the Swedish Krone lost over 1.5% on Tuesday in the midst of the Italian bond market carnage, and yesterday it closed up...

Opinion – Wednesday 30 May 2018

Yesterday’s trading session was dominated by the heavy selling of Italian debt securities, bonds and stocks, spilling over into other prone European markets, nothing short of a meltdown as others have noted, also selling of the Euro and risk assets globally as the US...

Opinion – Tuesday 29 May 2018

Fears of a Euro existential crisis are gathering momentum amid simmering political turmoil in Italy. President Mattarella proposition to form a technocratic government has been met with fierce opposition, suggesting new elections late in the Italian summer now look...

Opinion – Monday 28 May 2018

This time yesterday, there seemed to be every chance that this morning’s market re-open would see some fresh pressure on all things Euro following Friday’s news that Moody’s had placed Italy on watch for a possible downgrade to its Baa2 long term sovereign...

Opinion – Friday 25 May 2018

Geopolitics is well and truly back with President Trump announcing yesterday afternoon that the proposed June 12 Summit in Singapore he was to have with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is off. Initial thoughts ran to Trump’s recent comments speaking aloud about the...

Opinion – Thursday 24 May 2018

The risk off tone that started just before I posted yesterday morning, amid a 3% drop in the Turkish Lira and stalling news on US-China trade talks, extended into the European session courtesy of underwhelming PMI’s in the Euro-Zone and a soft CPI print in the UK....

Opinion – Wednesday 23 May 2018

There have been no major economic releases over the past 24 hours and the news has been more of another instalment of recent themes. China trade tension news was risk-supportive, China announcing a cut from July 1 of car tariffs from 25% to 15% and some car parts to...

Opinion – Tuesday 22 May 2018

On first impressions it has been a quiet risk positive past 24 hours in markets, US equities have closed higher, 10y US Treasury yields are little changed and the US Dollar is almost exactly where it was this time yesterday. However, there are a few themes simmering...

Opinion – Monday 21 May 2018

A ‘’risk-positive’’ start to the week is already in evidence via higher opening level of the US Futures Markets for both the Dow and S&P while the DAX is again trading at new all-time highs this morning. This follows the weekend news that the US has effectively...

Opinion – Friday 18 May 2018

Amid a range of uncertainties from Italian politics, North Korea’s tantrum, US-China trade talks, NAFTA, Brexit and ….let us not forget Iran, market moves over the past 24 hours have been relatively subdued reflecting a wait and see mode by investors. So with...