A game of chicken: Did Powell just blink? That’s how last night’s speech from the Fed chair is being interpreted. Debate has raged whether in the face of financial market turmoil, the Fed will be forced to cool its rate-hike rhetoric. Powell’s speech – and this is speculative – may have represented this. Gone was the talk of rates being “a long way” from neutral, and that rates may need to move “past (the) neutral” rate. Instead, it was replaced with the key comment interest rates are “just belo
Asian equities gained as investors weighed in comments from Federal Reserve officials and a possible breakthrough in US-China trade war. Shares in Hong Kong and China led the gains with the Hang Seng Index climbing 0.5% and the Shanghai Composite gaining 0.7%.
Oil crude was up with WTI gaining 0.9% to $52.02 a barrel after a US industry report signaled shrinking gasoline surplus. Concerns of sanctions to Russia following its sea clash with Ukraine and Saudi’s vow to cut production in Dec
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
A loaded menu: If this week in financial markets is a buffet of information, then yesterday’s session tasted like the entrée. The themes that were predicted to define this week’s trade all showed-up in one form or another, hinting at bigger things to come. US President Trump added heat to the trade war, then spiced up the Brexit debate; a speech from US Federal Reserve Vice President Richard Clarida had traders questioning how many Fed hike’s markets hav
Trump reported that Brexit could potentially threaten a UK-US trade deal, leaving Britain unable to negotiate a free-trade agreement with the US
OPEC to meet in Vienna next week to discuss levels of oil production. It is expected to be cut down by 1million to 1.5million barrels due to worries of the US-China trade war
Trump announced a potential introduction of applying a 10% tariff on iPhones imported from China, which could increase to 25% on January 1st
Ukraine to bring m
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
US traders return: It’s nice to be back to some normal programming. The big-wigs on Wall Street have returned to their desks and volumes across the market are looking far healthier. After last week’s sell-off and volatility, and well before the meaty part of trade this week, traders appear to have had their appetite for risk whetted. Only slightly, of course: there is an acute awareness that the next seven days will hurl up some major events and some sig
May will start her two-week campaign to sell her historic Brexit deal to MPs as EU leaders have agreed on the UK's Brexit deal during the summit held in Brussels over the weekend, outlining it is "the best and only deal possible".
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker explained that anyone who thinks that the EU will offer improved terms if MPs reject the deal will be left "disappointed" - MPs are expected to vote on the 12th of December.
Asian equity markets had a mixe
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
The themes: Boy oh boy, are we facing a significant week. It promises to be a big one, with so many of the pressing macro-economic issues currently driving market activity set to dominate headlines. Given this is so, and the Thanksgiving hangover kept trade light on Friday, casting an eye ahead and speculating on what the next seven days may deliver the most valuable insights. The themes won’t be foreign to traders: we’ve got the US Federal Reserve and g
Expected index adjustments
Please see the expected dividend adjustment figures for a number of our major indices for the week commencing 26 Nov 2018. If you have any queries or questions on this please let us know in the comments section below. For further information regarding dividend adjustments, and how they affect your positions, please take a look at the video.
NB: All dividend adjustments are forecasts and therefore speculative. A dividend adjustment is a cash neutral ad
A G20 Meeting of Extreme Consequence
As far as summits for leaders of the world’s largest economies go – in other words, an already very important affair – the gathering in Argentina this coming Friday and Saturday is crucial. There are a host of global conflicts that will inevitably be addressed at this gathering, but certain aspects will preoccupy the market’s immediate focus. It will be important to recognize what will carry the weight of speculative interest. On the one hand, there are
Dolce and Gobbana tension rises as their goods are no longer available on a few Chinese e-commerce sites, including Taobao and JD. Com.
Spain threatens to vote against the Brexit deal as they request that any decisions in relation to the territory of Gibraltar to only be discussed directly with Madrid. EU negotiators are meeting today to try and resolve this before the summit taking place on Sunday
Asian markets show a decline with the Shanghai composite falling 2.25%, the Shenzhe
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Time to give thanks: It’s Thanks Giving in the US, so US traders are away from their desks and equity markets in the country are offline. Perhaps it’s something the bulls can be thankful for: the holiday has resulted in very thin volumes across the globe, giving a subsequent ability to take pause from the unfolding market rout. There is so much information awaiting market participants coming into the end of November and start of December, so surely the o
After yesterday´s meeting in Brussels, Theresa May said “both sides have given sufficient direction” and she will meet Jean-Claude Juncker again on Saturday “to discuss how we can bring to a conclusion this process and bring it to a conclusion in the interest for all our people”, indicating that a final deal is likely to come very soon.
The 27 remaining countries in the EU will meet with Theresa May on Sunday, where they will vote on the Brexit deal. Spain, the only country that was set t
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Overnight bounce: A bounce in equities has finally arrived, unwinding some of the week’s heavy losses. As it currently stands, the NASDAQ – ground zero for much of the recent market correction – is leading the pack, up 1-and-a-half per cent for the day, followed by the S&P, which is up 0.8 per cent, and the Dow Jones, which is up 0.65 per cent. Volumes are down generally speaking, so the recovery today lacks bite – though the Thanksgiving holiday in
FAANG stocks have now shed more than $1 trillion in market value since recent highs, whilst Target leads the fall in retail as its shares dropped 10.5% yesterday after posting worse than expected earnings figures.
The Nasdaq ended the day down 1.7%, whilst the S&P was down 1.8%. The Dow Jones dropped 550 points to close on Tuesday, erasing this year’s gains as it moved into negative territory.
Asian stocks slipped on Wednesday as intensifying fears on global economic growth and
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
I see red: The global equity rout continued last night, and out to the furthest horizons it was a sea of red. There was very little reprieve no matter where one spun the globe. The Asian session saw China's equity bounce faded again, joining the suffering experienced by the Nikkei, Hang Seng and ASX200; European indices continued their orderly decline, underpinned by a 1.6 per cent drop in the DAX and a 0.76 per cent fall in the FTSE 100; and with less t
Nissan shares fell more than 5% following Chairman Carlos Ghosn being placed under arrest for allegedly violating Japanese financial law
Societe Generale SA settles sanctions violation case with US authorities agreeing to pay $1.34 billion
Talk talk hackers who caused massive data breach affecting 1.6 million customer accounts in 2015 have been jailed for cyber crimes
Oil prices ended on a high yesterday, as EU reported to back French sanctions on Iran
Dow Jones tu
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Risk? No, thanks: Markets have given a resounding “nope” to all varieties of risk overnight. Equities have been slogged on Wall Street, following to a sluggish day in European markets, that saw the FTSE drop 0.2 per cent and the DAX shed 0.85 per cent. Here it looks like this is the convergence punters have been calling: US shares are playing a rapid catch-up with their global counterparts. The losses are piling up. The NASDAQ has been hit the worst in t
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit ended on Sunday with leaders failing to agree on a formal joint statement for the first time in its 25-year history, due to disagreements on trade. Chinese President Xi Jinping expected to gain influence in the Pacific as Trump and Putin decided not to attend the summit, however Xi left disappointed as the US and allies made it clear that they are prepared to use economic and military means to counter China's influence.
Asian equities we
Another ‘Brexit Breakthrough’ Falls Apart
Yet another potential breakthrough in the Brexit stalemate seemed to be hashed out at the beginning of this past week following hours of legal negotiation and closed doors discussions. Supposedly, a draft bill was worked out that both the Prime Minister and top European Union negotiators were comfortable moving forward with. If there were only two parties which needed to be satisfied in this divorce, that would be that. However, there are multiple p
Weaker sentiment: Risk aversion continues to plague global markets. Despite some positive developments on Friday regarding the US-China Trade War and US Federal Reserve policy, confidence appears to be lowly, resulting in a general flight to safety. It was telling that the NASDAQ couldn't close higher along with the Dow Jones and S&P500 on Friday: the desire to jump into growth stocks keeps diminishing in this market. It raises the risk that market participants have internalised the idea tha
Expected index adjustments
Please see the expected dividend adjustment figures for a number of our major indices for the week commencing 19 Nov 2018. If you have any queries or questions on this please let us know in the comments section below. For further information regarding dividend adjustments, and how they affect your positions, please take a look at the video.
NB: All dividend adjustments are forecasts and therefore speculative. A dividend adjustment is a cash neutral ad
Theresa May continues to back her Brexit deal despite deep divisions in her party, 16 members of which have openly called for a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister
Brexit draft agreement led to several resignations including Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and cabinet minister Esther McVey
The GBP fell 1.7% against the dollar and 1.9% against the Euro yesterday, the lowest in over two weeks. However, this morning has seen a slight rally
The Trump administration are rep
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Brexit break-down: The headlines in financial markets are mostly Brexit related. What was suspected has become so: Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal with the European Union has fallen by the wayside, potentially (if not, likely) rendering it mute. 24 hours is of course a long time in markets, and this time yesterday optimism was blossoming about a potential Brexit deal to end the years of debate and gridlock. The harsh reality has now bitten though, and
Brexit draft has been backed up by the cabinet where Theresa May will announce a speech on Thursday to the Parliament, however, there are assumptions that this could end with a vote of no confidence
China delivering a written response to the US demands for wide-ranging trade reforms, which could potentially end the trade war between the two countries
Bitcoin market capitalisation declines to its lowest level since October 2017, falling to under $100billion. Ethereum and XRP also d
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
The global market landscape: November’s gains, as modest as they were, have been snatched it would seem, across Wall Street indices and Australia’s ASX200. The bloodletting has been profuse once more this week, and it seems that diminishing number of momentum chasers have had handed to them another dose of market reality. To be fair, this latest round of selling has been precipitated by a new risk: tumbling oil prices. The price of the black stuff bounce
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