Japan's economy contracted more sharply than anticipated in the first quarter of 2024, as a persistently weak yen posed new challenges to the Bank of Japan's push to move interest rates further away from zero.

US oil looks like it’s in great shape, but pressure is being put on prices by rising Covid-19 Delta variant cases worldwide. Oil trading EIA storage data records another successive drawdown in its latest report. For the week ending July 23rd, crude inventories dropped by 4.1m on a week-by-week basis. That puts them roughly 7% below the five-year average […]

It’s relatively quiet in terms of major announcements this week. The bulk of the key market-moving data will be coming from the US, as preliminary quarterly GDP figures are released alongside the latest CB consumer confidence sentiment. Both will be enlightening as to US economic sentiment as inflation stops lurking in the background and comes […]

The European Union is set to officially present a recovery package next week on May 27th, with a focus on the EU Green Deal – an economic rescue plan aimed at generating jobs and private investment across the continent, while also integrating into the package policies geared towards reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by […]

The S&P 500 is down less than 5% for the year and is 40% above its pandemic trough, whilst the forward price-to-earnings multiple has risen to a two-decade high at 22.4. US GDP is seen falling by an astonishing 52.8% in the second quarter, according to the Atlanta Fed. Whilst this number is always up […]