As I write this, investors are increasingly hopeful that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) will deliver a 25 basis point interest rate cut on Friday, taking policy rates back down to 0.25%. Mere speculation on this front is buoying global financial markets. However, if the BoJ does deliver tomorrow, this begs the question, will Japan… [Read more]
This week’s market action should eliminate any remaining doubt that we are in a bear market of historic proportions. How historic? There have been some pretty famous bear markets over the last century, and I’ve plotted a few of them on the chart below. Using the peak of the market as the base (at a… [Read more]
One of my favourite historical quotes was uttered 63 years ago today, when Emperor Hirohito, in announcing to the nation Japan’s surrender in World War II, stated ‘… the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage’. Unfortunately, the same can be said of Japan’s Q2 2008 GDP data, which showed an annualised contraction… [Read more]
There’s a growing school of thought that it is time to buy into the Nikkei. The argument goes something like this: Japan is practically the only country in the world that is benefiting from rising inflation – because it has extricated itself from a decade of deflation. Japan is one of the most energy-efficient countries… [Read more]