2022/03/28 (022) Column

US Stock Markets Close Higher Today For A 3rd Straight Session,
While Most European Stock Markets End Mostly Higher.
China 10Y Governemnt Bond Yields Remain Low,
A Japanese 10Y Yield Hits New 6-Year High!


At The Weekend I Attended The Football Friendly Match Between Germany And Israel

Regardless of the result, it was a nice evening. And the total contrast to what is happening in Ukraine right now. As you know if you know me, my parents are Catholic Croats – my ex wife, my future wife, my future ex wife are Jewish Serbs. And many of my readers come from both Ukraine and Russia – and are both practicing Orthodox Jewish Ukrainians and Russia, as well as practicing Orthodox Christian Ukrainians and Russia. As do atheists. Actually, I have decided not to report anymore about the Ukraine-Russia war! But isn’t that an alternative? That`s why I want to rephrase my analysis of this war. And compare it on the basis of historical data. Because we can only learn from historical comparisons – even if every comparison is always somewhat flawed. Because history doesn’t repeat itself, but at least it can always be put together again and again. Just like the numerous nationalist wars waged by my Slavic brothers after the fall of the Cold War. After the fall of the East-West conflict. After the fall of the Soviet Union. Because there are both positive examples, such as the end of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s, which demonstrate a healthy, peaceful, self-assured and free coexistence as sovereign states. As well as negative examples, such as the end of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, which resulted in a sick, warlike, insecure and uptight coexistence. Unfortunately, that continues to this day. That`s why we need, at least in my opinion, healthy, peaceful, confident, and free political defenders of the right (left, if necessary) to take an image out of sport. So right-wing Federal Republicans who defend their homeland. And no political nationalists (as well as socialists) who, sick, warlike, insecure and uptight, rise above other peoples and try to wipe them out militarily!

According to the German philosopher and pioneer Immanuel Kant, who formulated as early as 1795 that the only constitution that corresponds to the ideal of peace can only be the republican one (“The state of peace among people who live side by side is not a natural state, but rather a state of war. The bourgeois constitution must be republican”). Through this constitution, the citizens have to decide for themselves “whether there should be war or not” and they have to bear the consequences themselves. If the constitution is not republican, the citizen is a subject and the “head” is a state owner who loses nothing through the war and runs it as a pleasure party. With a republican constitution, citizens must “resolve the tribulations of war upon themselves.” But he says there is a difference between the Republican and Democratic constitutions. Democracy would actually mean “form of domination” while the republican constitution separates the executive power from the legislative power. In despotism, the seed alone carries out the law. Democracy is in its proper sense a despotism because an executive power is established, which is a contradiction in terms.The republican constitution is the only one “which is perfectly appropriate to the rights of the people, but also the most difficult to create, or rather to maintain”. Because it would have to be a seed of “angels” for a republican constitution to actually work, because people with selfish tendencies do not apply to the principle of this constitution.

I don’t like to repeat myself, but I already wrote a few lines earlier that I intend not to report anymore on the Ukraine-Russia war! But isn’t that an alternative?
Which is why I, I and you, all of us sports-loving stockbrokers, only ask the question: “When will we ever again be able to watch a football friendly match between Ukraine and Russia, at least on TV?”

US Stocks Close Higher for a 3rd Session

US stocks managed to close higher following a choppy session with the Dow up 90 points, S&P 500 gaining 0.7%, and the Nasdaq surging 1.5% as investors were bracing for interest rates hikes and monitoring the situation in Ukraine. Gains in tech shares were led by Tesla which jumped more than 8% after the company said it would seek investor approval for a stock split. On the other hand, banks and energy stocks slid alongside the oil prices. Meanwhile, peace talks between Russia & Ukraine are set to resume tomorrow in Turkey with President Zelenskyy pledging Ukraine could adopt a neutral status as part of a deal with Russia.European Shares End Mostly Higher

European equity markets closed mostly higher on Monday, with Germany’s DAX up more than 1% with automakers and defensive stocks among the best performers as all sectors entered positive territory except oil and gas. Sinking oil prices on the back of renewed Covid curbs in China calmed inflationary fears and the Ukrainian President’s willingness to assume Ukraine’s neutrality and compromise over the eastern Donbas region supported investor sentiment. German chemicals giant BASF gained 1.6% after HSBC upgraded the stock to “buy”, saying “resilient demand” will likely help first-quarter earnings.China Bond Yields Remain Low

The yield on China’s 10-year government bond was around 2.8%, remaining close to low levels not seen since June 2020, and defying a global rally in borrowing costs, on concerns that fast tightening in the US could drive the world’s biggest economy into a recession. As opposed to the Federal Reserve and other major central banks around the world, analysts expect the PBoC to resume its loosening monetary policy in April, as the economy remains under significant downside risks from the fast-spreading omicron subvariant BA.2 and the elevated global commodity prices, as well as the war in Ukraine.

Japan 10-Year Yield Hits New 6-Year High

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Japanese government bond rose to above 0.25%, the highest since January 2016 and reaching the upper limit of the Bank of Japan’s policy band even after the central bank offered to buy an unlimited amount of government bonds, to stop the sell-off prompted by rising global interest rates. The BOJ has set 0.25% as the implicit upper limit of its tolerance under its yield curve control (YCC) policy, which pegs the benchmark at around zero. Last week, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said that the central bank was in no rush to withdraw stimulus and that any increase in inflation must be accompanied by steady rises in wages, jobs and corporate profits. Recent data showed Japan’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 0.9% in February, the most since April 2019; while core consumer prices were up 0.6%, the most in two years but remained below the BoJ’s target of 2%.