A chart-up from China and Japan. Growth of Chinese industrial production, retail sales, fixed asset investment is at lows not seen since the Asian financial crisis. The Yuan is falling. Economic data from Japan is not a lot better. Economic Data from China Then Chinese data largely disappointed. A “meet” in Industrial Production – hovering at multi-year lows… *CHINA MAY INDUSTRIAL OUTPUT RISES 6.0% FROM YEAR EARLIER...
Read More »Chart up-date: Stocks, Bonds, Copper, Bonds
Well that escalated quickly…All-time highs within reach… everything is awesome…wait what… Quite a week: Gold +5.25% in last 2 weeks – best run in 4 months Silver +5.65% this week – best week since May 2015 Copper -4% this week to lowest weekly close since January Sterling -2.5% in last 2 weeks – worst drop in 3 months US Dollar Index +0.6% – up 7 of last 9 weeks 30Y Yields -21bps in last 8 days – best rally in 4...
Read More »Chart up-date: Stocks, Bonds, Copper, Gold
Well that escalated quickly…All-time highs within reach… everything is awesome…wait what… Quite a week: Gold +5.25% in last 2 weeks – best run in 4 months Silver +5.65% this week – best week since May 2015 Copper -4% this week to lowest weekly close since January Sterling -2.5% in last 2 weeks – worst drop in 3 months US Dollar Index +0.6% – up 7 of last 9 weeks 30Y Yields -21bps in last 8 days – best rally in 4...
Read More »Asylum Seekers in the EU
… by year, country and status, from the FT.
Read More »Futures Flat, Gold Rises On Weaker Dollar As Traders Focus On OPEC, Payrolls
After yesterday's US and UK market holidays which resulted in a session of unchanged global stocks, US futures are largely where they left off Friday, up fractionally, and just under 2,100. Bonds fell as the Federal Reserve moves closer to raising interest rates amid signs inflation is picking up. Oil headed for its longest run of monthly gains in five years, while stocks declined in Europe. Treasuries retreated in the first full day of trading since Yellen said late Friday that the improving...
Read More »Switzerland’s Gotthard Base Tunnel: Swiss Engineered, Foreign Made
Earlier we introduced the Gotthard Base Tunnel, the longest and deepest tunnel in the world. The 35 mile long tunnel which cuts underneath the Alps helps remove natural barriers to trade and tourism, and is undoubtedly a testament to Swiss precision engineering. Interestingly, as Bloomberg reports, the tunnel that was 17 years in the making and had workers on three shifts working around the clock to build, was built primarily by foreigners. Only 14 percent of the workers were from...
Read More »Ten Most Expensive Countries for Healthcare in the World
What do financing your retirement as well as finding affordable healthcare and the possibility of losing your job all have in common with each other? Easy, at least for an American, these days. Those are the top three worries that we wake up to in this country and that 60% of people believe are very much more than just nightmares gone wrong. They could become reality and it would seem that women are more concerned in particular. It’s healthcare that is on everyone’s lips and it’s been like...
Read More »Tim Price: Why I’m Voting To Leave The European Union
Submitted by Tim Price via SovereignMan.com, On 23 June 2016, this British citizen will be voting to leave the European Union. To me it’s clear: the EU has not only become too big for its own good, it’s too big to do hardly anything good. Back in 1975 when the UK first confirmed membership in the EU (when it was called the European Economic Community), it made sense. Britain has always thrived on international trade, and the EU promised more trade. But that’s not what happened. The EU...
Read More »Japan Banks May Soon Pay Borrowers To Take Out Loans
Things are increasingly upside down in the brave new centrally planned world: thanks to negative deposit rates central banks have put an explicit cost on saving, while in various instances, such as taking out a mortgage in Denmark and the Netherlands, the bank actually pays the borrower, thus rewarding living beyond one's means. Curiously, it was just a month ago when an offer was spotted in Germany offering a negative -1% rate on small consumer loans issued by Santander Bank. ...
Read More »Global Stocks Jump; Oil Rises As Yen Plunges After Another Japanese FX Intervention Threat
In what has been an approximate repeat of the Monday overnight session, global stocks and US futures rose around the world as oil prices climbed toward $44 a barrel, with risk-sentiment pushed higher by another plunge in the Yen which has now soared 300 pips since the Friday post-payroll kneejerk reaction, and was trading above 109.20 this morning. At the same time base metals regained some of Monday’s steep losses following Chinese CPI data that came in line while PPI declined for 50...
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