Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
The fallout: The US mid-terms have passed, and while there were signs throughout yesterday's trade that the vote would throw up a few curly situations, the outcome fell broadly in line with market expectations. The VIX has dropped and US equities, paced by the NASDAQ, have subsequently rallied, primarily on the knowledge that everything went according to plan -- proving the notion that the biggest drag in markets all-in-all is uncertainty. There are enum
US mid-term elections have resulted in a gridlock in Washington, Trump's Republican Party hold the senate having had key victories in Texas, Indiana and North Dakota.
The Democrats have gained control of the House of Representatives which has set up a divided Congress until the next presidential election in 2020.
The dollar has dipped as the dust settles on the results of the mid-terms, the Euro and Yen both rose 0.2% against the dollar. The dollar index, which measures the value o
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
America votes: Now we play the waiting game, it seems. The US electorate have set off to the polls to vote in their mid-term elections, and the world now awaits their decision. Financial markets aren’t exempt from the interlude, trading on very thin volumes, as traders opt to stick to the sidelines until a result is revealed. There appears a very general unwillingness to jump-in to markets ahead of the crowd on this event, presumably owing to the incredi
The US Dollar is holding within tight margins as investors are showing discretion ahead of the US Midterm elections that take place today.
The Dow closed up 190.87 points at 25,461.7 and the S&P rose 15.2 points closing at 2738.31 led by the financial and energy sectors.
The Nasdaq fell 0.38% lower at 7328.85 as Apple and Amazon both fell more than 2%
Apple has had its second downgrade since its earning report last week, as Rosenblatt Securities followed Bank of America
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
I'm mad as hell and I am not going to take this anymore! It was this sentiment in November 2016 that raised political-renegade and anti-establishment Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump from rank-outsider and laughing-stock to President of the most of powerful country in the world. No one seemed to see it coming, and as electoral college votes were slowly counted on Election Day almost exactly 2 year ago, the world sat in awe as what was consi
May seems to have secured concessions from Brussels to let her keep all of Britain in a customs union and avoid a hard border. How close is a Brexit deal?
Sterling briefly jumped to a two-week high on Monday on growing hopes of a smooth Brexit.
The U.S. dollar struggled on Friday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of major currencies, was last off 0.1 percent at 96.459. Against the safe haven yen, the dollar held at 113.25 . The euro was flat at $1.1
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
A historic week ahead? One does get the sense that some of the biggest risks plaguing financial markets -- over the course of several months, if not years -- may be coming to something resembling a definitive end. This isn't to suggest that extreme bouts of volatility, like those experienced throughout the month of October, have been put behind us; but that we are at least reaching a critical juncture for some of the biggest macro-economic challenges
Expected index adjustments
Please see the expected dividend adjustment figures for a number of our major indices for the week commencing 5 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 neut
Remove the Political Bias, Focus on the Volatility
There has been plenty of political risk keeping the markets at a steady simmer these past months. Some situations like Italy’s budget stand-off with the European Union and the Brexit negotiations are more overt concerns. However, the general rise of populism and the erosion of cross border diplomacy (trade wars, sanctions, failed trade deals, etc) represents a more systemic risk. Yet, despite the ubiquity of this fundamental influence, the
Trade tensions between the US and China have finally shown signs of easing as Donald Trump described the conversation he had with Xi on Thursday as "long and very good" and later tweeted that trade discussions were "moving along nicely".
Chinese stocks rally in afternoon trading following Trump's tweet, as the Shanghai Composite rose 2% along with a 3.5% increase in Hong Kong's Seng index.
US stocks also reacted positively to the potential progress of US-China trade relations. The
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Market sentiment: The final session of the week is upon us, and though a Friday can throw-up any number of shock events, the week has been a relatively good one for equity market bulls. Of course, this is primarily being led by a stable equity market in the US, but that strength has filtered through global equities to generate positive activity. Naturally, the ASX200 has benefitted from this dynamic, delivering an opportunity of circa 215 points for trad
Global stocks rebound after worst month since 2012. Corporate earnings in the US and Europe have helped ease lingering worries over rising interest rates, trade tensions and a slowing global economy.
The S&P 500 rose 1.1% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 2%. The Dow is currently trading flat after jumping more than 350 points at yesterday’s open.
Asia-Pacific Indices mostly started November on a stronger footing. The Hang Seng was 1.8% higher and Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.4%, howe
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
More information, greater confidence: Markets have been awash with data over the last 24 hours – and traders love it. It’s a behavioural quirk in financial markets: whether good, bad, or otherwise, an inundation of information paints a full and colourful picture of the world and satisfies that innate human desire for (an illusion) of control and certainty. The phenomenon echoes lessons that were reinforced upon the world all the way back in 2008 by one o
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
ASX200 yesterday: It was a tale of two halves for the ASX200 yesterday, dipping at the open before roaring back to close the day’s trade 1.3 per cent higher. The dour beginnings came on the back of reports from Bloomberg – now well known – that the Trump Administration would be seeking to slap tariffs on (in effect) all Chinese imports into the US, if a deal couldn’t be achieved between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping at next m
Cryptocurrencies have been going through a period of relative stability, which is almost unheard of for the asset class that gained notoriety for its volatile price movements.
The stock market selloff that punished the tech sector in the first half of October coincided with Bitcoin losing 7.5% of its value in a single day. Does this correlation in market movements suggest that as Bitcoin and other cryptos have become more mainstream, and adoption by centralised financial institutions has r
Apple hosting event in Brooklyn today, starting at 2pm UK time. New iPad announcements expected
UK Chancellor Philip Hammond announced plans to implement Digital Services Tax from April 2020
UK government’s “Cryptoasset Taskforce" published its final report yesterday outlining a range of regulatory steps around crypto assets
Bitcoin dropped $200 after two weeks stagnating around $6,400. Having achieved earlier this month a 17-month low volatility rate the perception that i
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Asia and Europe’ Monday: Markets were generally experiencing a much-desired bounce for the better part of Monday, enabled by a day light on market moving information and data. The confirmed election of populist Brazilian leader Jair Bolsonaro boosted emerging market indices. News that German Chancellor Angela Merkel would be stepping down as leader of the governing CDU party, combined with a ratings downgrade of by Italian debt S&P, sent minor ripple
Philip Hammond to announce the last UK annual budget plan before Brexit on Monday
HSBC announces a rise in profit before tax of around 28% year-on-year to $5.922billion
IBM to acquire Red Hat for $34billion, buying all shares at $190 each
Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazilians Presidential election with just over 55% of votes
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union votes falls to 28% from 38.3% from the last election
Economic growth for China fell short of expectations, in
Written by Kyle Rodda, IG Australia
Global price action: The global equity sell-off continued during Wall Street's final trading session for the week, putting an end to a horrid 5 days for markets. True to form, it was the NASDAQ that led the losses in US trade, clocking a loss of 2.07 per cent, while the S&P500 shed 1.73 per cent itself. Volatility remained elevated and underscored the intense selling, maintaining a 24 reading throughout the session, prompting a flight to safety from i
Risk Trends – Monitor Liquidity Closely
Sentiment is turning increasingly septic across the financial markets. This past week certainly wasn’t the first week that signs of trouble were starting to show. However, a clear capitulation by one of the favorite benchmarks of hold-out bulls – US indices – has undermined one of the few reliable backstops left. The S&P 500 and Dow have been in retreat through much of October after hitting their respective record highs. Up until this past week,
Expected index adjustments
Please see the expected dividend adjustment figures for a number of our major indices for the week commencing 29 Oct 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 neutra
Japan and China sign a bilateral currency swap to improve financial stability
Asia predicted to be more vulnerable than the US in regards to the sell-off in global stock markets, according to managing director of FX strategy for BK Asset Management
US Futures direct more than a 200-point drop for Dow Jones, after seeing a slight recovery on Thursday
Amazon shares drop nearly 9% in after-hours trading, regardless of hitting record profits of nearly $2.9billion in the last qua
The European Central Bank is announcing its monetary policy today, with expectations that Mario Draghi will confirm that the ECB stands by its plan to end its quantitative easing program by the end of the year.
The euro plunges on Wednesday as concerns over the Eurozone growth continue.
Italian government bonds remain at year-highs as the EU has rejected the country's deficit plan. Yields are expected to remain high over the next few weeks as the Italian government says that the bu
Elevated volatility and choppy trade: Volatility is still elevated. It's one moment up and one moment down. Price action and sentiment is shifting all in the space of a single session. The extreme vacillations in price and sentiment are wrung by the twisting fortunes of the global economy's two major forces: the Chinese and US economies. Day-to-day, markets are playing out like a game of pong, with one side rising only to strike the ball in the opposite direction to send the other diving lower.
Deutsche Bank has kicked off the banking season in Europe today as the bank announced a net profit of €229 million, with analysts expecting a profit of €149 million, as the investment bank branch loses ground. Barclays has followed by beating expectations as net income came in at £1 billion vs. £723 million expected, Jes Staley announced he is "very pleased" with the Q3 results.
The EU continues to mount pressure on the Italian government as Valdis Domborvskis, vice-president of the Europ
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