Markets

Talk that Russia could be behind the bulk of the more than $100 bln drop in the Federal Reserve's custody holdings for foreign central banks, in the week ending Wednesday has many observers scratching their heads. This would represent about…

By WIn Thin and Ilan Solot 1) The annexation of Crimea by Russia represents an important escalation of the crisis 2) China has re-emerged as a concern for markets 3) Turkish political tensions are rising again ahead of March 30 local…

Remember that the rest of the world has so far accepted the experiment that is Abenomics not only because Japan has been running a current account deficit (thus making it more reasonable for Japan to weaken its currency), but also because…

Japan has just decided that Bitcoin is not a currency, which subjects it to sales and income taxes. This is consistent with the view of the Canadian Revenue Service, which has found Bitcoin to be property and not a legal currency, and the…

By Marc Chandler - This week, investors should brace for a re-escalation of tensions in Crimea and China - There are four sources of heightened tensions with the Crimean crisis - Weekend news from China played on fears that the yuan is…

By Win Thin and Ilan Solot The Crimean crisis threatens to escalate again this week. Russian forces in Crimea have been increased and they are consolidating their control of Crimea. This involves neutralizing Ukrainian bases in Crimea and…

Capital outflows from Russia seem to be picking up steam. These outflows - combined with the central bank's "weaker ruble" policies and the Ukrainian tensions - are all fueling the ruble sell-off. The ruble resumed its slide this week,…

There is mounting evidence, from valuations being paid in M&A deals, junk bond yields, margin debt and price extensions from long term means, "irrational exuberance" is once again returning to the financial markets. However, that does…

We are seeing broad improvements across global commodity markets. To be sure, commodity valuations are still at depressed levels relative to the past decade, but after a prolonged decline, broad indices seem to have stabilized.

By Claus Vistesen ... China! At least this is the conclusion from some fascinating number crunching from JPMorgan's Flow & Liquidity team in their report last week. I had a feeling that this was the case looking at the surge in…