Speaking at the Boao Forum, sometimes known as "Asian Davos", Chinese President Xi Jinping announced four major areas of reform in opening up the market. First, the government would “significantly” ease market access, lowering restrictions for foreign investment in a number of Chinese sectors. In the financial industry, Xi...
In IMF’s latest world FX reserve report*, central bank’s/ reserve managers’ demand for US dollar remained intact in 4Q17. This has not only reinforced the greenback’s dominant status as the world’s reserve currency, but also signaled other currencies still failed to gain widespread confidence due to the economic and/...
Asian markets responded positively to the highly anticipated speech by China President Xi Jinping. At the time of writing, Nikkei is trading up 0.65% and HK HSI is up 1.14%. But it should be noted that Nikkei is already trading way off today's high at 21933.99. We could see...
Sterling surges broadly today and is so far trading as the strongest one. Some point to solid housing data as a trigger for the buying. Mortgage lender Halifax house price rose more than expected by 2.7% in Q1. And that should be something welcomed by BoE hawks on their...
Asian markets open positively this week in spite of the sharp selloff in the US on Friday. At the time of writing, Nikkei is trading up 0.55%. China is back from holiday with SSE up 0.35%. Hong Kong HSI is also up 1.8%. The lack of risk aversion lifts...
CFTC Commitments of Traders
Speculators turned bearish over the energy complex in the week ended April 3. Net LENGTH for crude oil futures plunged -16 225 contracts from a week ago to 699 545. NET LENGTH of heating oil slipped -586 contracts to 14 401 while net LENGTH for gasoline...
US-China trade war was the dominant theme in the financial markets last week. US started by announcing the list of 1300 product lines to be tariffed under Section 301 actions. China quickly responded by announcing 25% retaliation tariffs to US imports, matching the size of USD 50b product values....
Reactions in the financial markets to the escalation in US-China trade tensions remain rather mild. Nikkei closed down just -0.36% today. European indices are in red at the time of writing. But DAX is down -0.5%, CAC down -0.3% and FTSE is nearly flat. US futures point to triple...
Trade war comes back to headline as US President Donald Trump announced his intention to triple down on the tariffs on Chinese imports. But so far, market reactions are muted. Major forex pairs are trapped in yesterday's range, just with some notable weakness in New Zealand Dollar. Swiss Franc...
Global stock markets rebounded impressively today as traders looked past the first chapter of US-China trade war. Nikkei closed up 1.53% at 21645.42 earlier today. European indices are all trading up at the time of writing, with DAX gaining 2.44% being most impressive. CAC is up 2.07% while FTSE...
The report from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows that total crude oil and petroleum products stocks fell -3.94 mmb to 1185.58 mmb in the week ended March 30. Crude oil inventory declined -4.62 mmb to 425.33 mmb, amidst decreases in 4 out of 5 PADDs. Stockpile in...
US-China trade friction aggravated as China on April 4 announced the second round of retaliation, immediately after US revelation of a list of about US$ 50B worth of made-in-China products that are subject to 25% tariffs. The first round of the retaliatory tariff, involving US$ 3B worth of US...
While the initial selloff in US stocks were steep, they quickly recovered and didn't look back. DOW made a massive 700 pts come back from session low at 2523.16 to close at 24264.30, up 230.94 pts or 0.96%. Nikkei followed and staged a strong 1.5% rebound. For now, the...
US-China trade war is the dominant theme in the markets today. Initial reactions were muted to US announcement of the product list in Section 301 tariffs on China. However, global stock markets were rocked by China's immediate response of its own retaliation measures against the US. The speed of...
The US finally announced the list Chinese products to be tariffed in its Section 301 actions. China responded with strongly worded statement. But so far, market reactions are muted. After limited volatility, both Japan Nikkei and Hong Kong HSI are trading nearly flat at the time of writing. The...
Crude oil prices climbed higher for the second consecutive day as a report showing unexpected expected decline in US inventory. Meanwhile, Russia pledged that it would fully comply with the output cut deal this month. However, caution is advised over the promise as Russian oil output has reached the...
EUR/USD finally breaks 1.2285 support with some momentum in early US session. That could be seen as a sign that the forex traders are finally back from holiday, and starting to commit on a position. Events earlier today were important, but non-market moving. PMI data from UK and Eurozone...
On March 26, China launched its, and also the world’s, first renminbi-denominated crude oil futures. The debut appeared successful with 20M barrels of oil changed hands on average in each of the first two trading days. This represents 3% of combined WTI and Brent volumes on these days. The...
The April RBA meeting contained little surprise. Policymakers left the cash rate unchanged at 1.5% and made few changes in the policy statement. The central bank remained upbeat on growth and employment. Yet, it remained wary of the slow growth in wage. Meanwhile, the members took note of the...
US equities suffered steep selling overnight with DOW losing -1.9%, S&P 500 losing -2.23%. NASDAQ was worst hit as tech rout continued and closed down -2.74%. While Asian equities opened lower and stay in red, selloff is relatively much milder. Nikkei hit as low as 21056.02 but at the...