Yen is weaker and Japanese equity futures notably higher following a landslide election victory for Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe which theoretically ushers in yet more easy monetary policy.
USDJPY tried to run stos at 114.00 but failed (for now). However, NKY futures are up almost 1% in the pre-market...
As we’ve reported in the past, skyrocketing wages in mainland China have caused the adoption of robot workers by the country’s manufacturers to accelerate rapidly in recent years, cementing the country’s position as a world leader in industrial automation.
In early trading, the Turkish Lira is slumping (having tagged pre-US-Visa highs) as President Tayyip Erdogan showed no retreat from a diplomatic row with the United States, castigating Washington for what he called an "undemocratic" indictment against his security detail.
As Reuters reports, his comments may further dash hopes of a quick resolution to an on-going diplomatic crisis between the NATO allies. Both Ankara and Washington have cut back issuing visas to each other's citizens as ties have worsened.
Two days after former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon warned that California may attempt to secede from the US over the next decade if Republicans failed to reassume control of the state, the state’s attorney general played down speculation that the state would make a credible attempt at leaving the US in the coming years.
One week after we reported that the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard (which two weeks ago was designated by the US as a terrorist organization), Qassem Soleimani, was observed in Erbil last Sunday where he met with Kurdistan regional president Barzani to "discuss" the growing crisis - the latest indication of Iran's surging influence in the region - and just days before Iraq sent in troops assisted by Iranian militia into Iraq's Kurdish region, which promptly regained control over the oil-rich Kirkuk region, on Sunday Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that Iranian "milit