Asia

The Nikkei is at a five and a half year high after the yen broke through the psychologically important benchmark of 100 against the US dollar. The falling yen continues to fuel the Japanese equity rally. Refresh Chart   Edit Chart The yen has fallen some 20% against a basket of currencies since late November, [...]

Faced with a growing debt burden, agricultural supplier Olam is facing increased interest costs and continued poor cash flows — factors that affect earnings quality. Olam International Limited (OLAM.SI) is a Singapore-based supplier of agricultural products such as nuts, coffee, spices and cotton. It also provides commodity financial services and risk management solutions. In November [...]

April proved to be a somewhat volatile and uncertain month for investors in many asset classes, as traders proved ready to take profits on the first sign of trouble and as the economic overview remains murky at best. The second quarter of 2013 got off to a bumpy and uncertain start in April. On the [...]

Based in Jiaxing, China, the 19-year-old Haining China Leather Market sells leather and fur products – and acts as a pricing and fashion center. Enjoying revenue and earnings growth powered by strong cash flows and expanding margins, Haining is exhibiting signs of excellent earnings quality. China’s economy may be cooling down, but its people are [...]

China’s economic growth is decelerating and that’s applying the brakes to the automobile sector. Brilliance China Automotive is faced with weak cash flows and falling margins. A Thomson Reuters StarMine Earnings Quality analysis indicates the company’s earnings may encounter bumps in the road ahead. As China’s economy slows down (relatively speaking) and as the new [...]

Over the past decade the Bank of Japan has more than doubled the monetary base with little or no effect on the real economy. Now it plans to double it again – this time within just two years. Although the recent policy statement has a material impact on financial market pricing, we see a very [...]

Net inflows into exchange-traded products hit a fresh high of $73.4 billion during the first quarter of 2013, pushing assets invested ETFs and ETPs to a new record of $2.09 trillion, according to data from ETFGI. Large gains in many global equity markets fueled enthusiasm among investors for exchange-traded products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) during [...]

This research note is provided by Fathom Consulting. All of the charts below and many many more, covering a range of topics and countries on both the macroeconomy and financial markets are available in the Chartbook to Datastream users at www.datastream.com. Alternatively you can access Fathom’s Chartbook at www.fathom-consulting.com/TR. The Fed, the Bank of England [...]

In spite of renewed signs of turmoil in Europe, as the government of Cyprus struggled to prevent the collapse of its banking sector, investors continued to display their confidence in financial assets and once again, stocks and other “risk on” asset classes led financial markets higher in most corners of the world. The investment universe [...]

Japan’s stock market is on a tear, backed by the Bank of Japan, now acting as decisively as the Fed in trying to drive down the value of its currency with the goal of transforming deflation into economic growth. It may work — but what are the pros and cons for investors pondering putting money [...]