Opinion – Thursday 22 February 2018

Initial reaction to the Fed minutes was on the dovish side putting the US Dollar under pressure amid a rally in US Treasury Yields. The dovish take also boosted US equities, but we saw a major reversal in US equities into the close with the Dow now trading 600 points...

Opinion – Wednesday 21 February 2018

Yesterday was a rather contained trading session with most attention centred on the first slab of this week’s US Treasury supply deluge with the US back on line after the long weekend. The US Dollar has re-captured some more ground in the face of the Treasury...

Opinion – Tuesday 20 February 2018

Amid a thin holiday trading environment with China, Hong Kong, the US and Canada all out on Monday, European equities were unable to follow the positive lead from Japan, closing marginally lower. European bond yields pushed up with the move led by the back end of the...

Opinion – Monday 19 February 2018

Following five consecutive days of gains, US equities – the Dow and S&P at least -squeezed out miniscule gains on Friday to make it six from six, in front of a three day holiday weekend (Presidents Day). This followed an ‘’up’’ day for European stocks and...

Opinion – Friday 16 February 2018

After an initial wobble , US equities have recovered to close higher for a fifth day in a row with gains of 1.25%/1.58%.10y UST yields are unchanged after trading to a new 4 year high while the US Dollar has continued to fall and is now down almost 2% so far this...

Opinion – Thursday 15 February 2018

Much of the anticipation for markets for the past week or so has surrounded whether, after the larger than expected gain in average hourly earnings, the CPI would present a similar picture of emerging US inflation. And it did. Headline and core CPI came in stronger...

Opinion – Wednesday 14 February 2018

US stocks rose for the third consecutive trading session with a late rally having spent most of yesterday in the red. There was no obvious catalyst for the intra-day turnaround, with all sectors bar energy showing similar sized gains. As yet again it is so difficult...

Opinion – Tuesday 13 February 2018

US equity markets have started the new week on a positive note and after two consecutive days of negative returns, European equities play catch up, posting gains across the board. Excluding the back end of the curve, US Treasury yields are marginally higher and the US...

Opinion – Monday 12 February 2018

Friday was another choppy day for equity markets, although the S&P500 managed to end on a positive note. US Treasury yields nudged higher, with oil prices falling another 3%. Equity market volatility continued on Friday, with US stocks trading within a 4% range...

Opinion – Friday 9 February 2018

Just when it seemed safe to go back out, risk markets are on the defensive again, with European equities down 1%, but this time rising bond yields have re-emerged as the catalyst as they were at the end of last week on that higher than expected US Average Earnings...

Opinion – Thursday 8 February 2018

Well it might be too early to call the recent rout in equity markets over, but price action over the past 24hrs suggests calmness has returned with European equities rebounding while US equities were relatively steady until the last 30 minutes of trading when the Dow...

Opinion – Wednesday 7 February 2018

After sharp drops in Asia, European equities cratered yesterday and following a big decline at the open, US equities rallied late to close in positive territory after a dramatic trading session. The Dow closed up 567 points which was an incredible 1800 points off...

Opinion – Tuesday 6 February 2018

Yesterday the stock markets crashed with Europe taking up where the US and Asia left off (the Eurostoxx 600 was down 1.56%) and this set the tone for the US market. The drop in the Dow accelerated in the last hour with the Industrials at one stage down 1600 points,...

Opinion – Monday 5 February 2018

The jump in US annual average hourly earnings in January, to 2.9% from an upwards revised 2.7% in December, stole the limelight on Friday albeit there were a number of extenuating circumstances suggesting the number should not be taken completely at face value....