While the wholesale disappearance of retail traders from stock markets is hardly a novel observation, it has taken on a whole new meaning in Japan, where the lack of carbon-based investors has prompted Deutsche Bank to ask if "Japan's stocks are still traded at all by humans."
Following the landslide victory by Prime Minister Abe in Japan's Sunday elections, which left his ruling coalition with a supermajority allowing him to change Japan's constitution, Abe wasted no time in signalling a push towards his long-held goal of revising Japan's post-war, pacifist constitution, however as Reuters reported earlier, Abe would "need to convince a divided public to succeed." Parties in favor of amending the U.S.-drafted charter won nearly 80% of the seats in Sunday’s lower house election, leaving the small, new Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) as the biggest
S&P futures are little changed as the Fed begins its two-day FOMC meeting pushing the VIX below 10, down 1.3% and falling for the 7th day; European shares are lower as is the dollar while Japanese stocks soar on the back of a tumbling yen as a snap election in Japan now appears imminent. Despite the cautious action ahead of the Fed, the The MSCI All-Country World Index rose 0.1% to a new record high.
Almost exactly ten years ago, on September 12, 2007 Japan's current prime minister Shinzo Abe resigned less than a year into a tenure dogged by scandals, the suicide of a minister, a raft of resignations and corruption allegations, and a humiliating election drubbing for his Liberal Democratic Party. Never one to shrink away from resposibility, Abe blamed it on crippling diarrhea:
Calls for the ouster of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi are growing louder heading into the weekend as the blame for the Democrats’ 0-5 showing in a series of special house elections held this week has fallen squarely on her shoulders. While Pelosi has faced down previous threats, the present controversy looks like it’s snowballing into the biggest threat to her dominance during her 10-year reign as the party’s leader in the House.