Markets

1 November 2014

Japan Impresses with its FIT (Feed-In-Tariff)

The effects of Japan’s feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable energy have been impressive. Since 2011, Japan has seen a massive expansion of solar photovoltaics (PV). The size of the domestic market increased from 1GW in 2010 to almost 7GW in...

30 October 2014

An Update on the Emerging Markets

1) Indonesian Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the government will probably raise subsidized fuel prices before year-end 2) Dilma Rousseff was re-elected as President of Brazil 3) Brazil’s central bank delivered a hawkish surprise too on Wednesday, hiking rates by 25 bp...

30 October 2014

How Important to China is the WTO Ruling on Rare Earths?

In August, the Appellate Body of the WTO ruled that China’s export duties, quotas, and administration of rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum products violated various provisions of the GATT and the Accession Protocol that China promised to implement when it...

29 October 2014

The ECB and BOJ Will Each Meet with New Inputs

The market is generally expecting a dovish FOMC statement. We have argued that it will most likely be little changed, except for modification relating to the asset purchases. Keen interest will be on its references to inflation.   The market...

28 October 2014

Slowing World Trade Does Not Have to Mean Less Globalization

This Great Graphic is from the Dutch Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis (CPB), and was posted by Steve Goldstein at MarketWatch.  It shows the three-month average year-over-year growth rate of global trade.The growth of trade slowed dramatically in from the...

27 October 2014

The Week Ahead in the Emerging Markets

Global risk-off sentiment and the reelection of Dilma Rousseff as the Brazilian president is setting EM off on the back foot to start the week. However, the lack of large moves in the dollar could mean that negative sentiment will...

27 October 2014

Japan’s Abenomics May Be Losing Steam in its Second Year

As the second year of Abenomics progresses, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s program of coordinated monetary and fiscal stimulus and structural reform has lost some of its lustre. Not only have Abe’s approval ratings fallen below 50 per cent for the...

26 October 2014

Global Economic and Market Preview

The week ahead is eventful.  Investors will learn of the results of review and stress test of European banks.  The Federal Reserve meets, as do three other central banks (Bank of Japan, Sweden's Riksbank and the Reserve Bank of New...

25 October 2014

Currency Review and other News from the Markets

The US dollar gained on most of the major foreign currencies last week, but the overall tone, leaving aside the yen, was largely consolidative in nature.  The greenback was soft in the first half of the week but recovered in...

23 October 2014

What’s Happening in the Emerging Markets?

1) India’s equity index continues to outperform following Prime Minister Modi’s decision to end fuel subsidies on diesel 2) On Friday, Moody's cut Russia by a notch to Baa2 and kept the outlook at negative 3) Russian state oil company Rosneft is...

23 October 2014

Japan Tries ‘China Plus One’ Strategy with Vietnam

As Japan seeks to diversify its investments beyond China, an opportunity arises for Vietnam to attract greater international investment. As Japan seeks to diversify its investments beyond China, an opportunity arises for Vietnam to attract greater international investment.Over the past...