Shinzo Abe

Apple’s highly anticipated deal with China Mobile helped both the Dow and the S&P 500 climb to all time highs on Monday. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.45 percent while the S&P 500 finished 0.53 percent higher as the technology sector soared. Apple’s deal with the world’s...

On Wednesday, data released by Japan's Ministry of Finance showed that the nation posted a November trade deficit of 1.29 trillion yen ($12.56 billion). The yen weakened for the first time in four days against the U.S. dollar on the news, edging closer to the 5 year low reached last Friday....

Japan is moving closer to legalize gambling in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. Lawmakers will submit a bill to legalize gambling within the next few days. Proponents of the bill believe that legalizing gambling will “provide a strong boost to the government's growth plans...

USD/JPY rallied to its highest levels since September 11, after Japan's Finance Minister Taro Aso said it was important to keep foreign exchange intervention as a policy option. Speaking in parliament on Thursday, Aso said "Japan must have tools to counter speculative moves in the currency...

The latest buzz in the casino industry is the possibility of Japan legalizing gambling and there are more signs pointing to this becoming a reality. If the country opens up the doors to casinos, it could become the second largest gambling market in the world. With Tokyo hosting the 2020 Summer...

The Republican-led House and Democratic-led Senate failed to come to an agreement on Tuesday evening, leaving the US government no choice but to shut down for an undetermined period. However, most are expecting the shutdown to be short lived and markets responded calmly with the dollar...

Policymakers in Washington continued to struggle with passing a spending bill that will keep the government going past October 1. Unfortunately, even if the bill is passed, most see this battle as just the tip of the iceberg as US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has indicated that the US will reach...

The suggestion that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could avoid military intervention by giving up his chemical weapons to international regulators has quickly grown into a possible non-violent resolution to the crisis in Syria. The proposal, backed by Russia, has been named a possible...

The FOMC minutes’ release continues to be the main driver in the markets. The minutes, to be released at 18:00 GMT, will hopefully provide some guidance about when the Fed will begin to taper its bond buying stimulus. Top News In other news around the markets: The euro/dollar...

Stocks in Japan dropped to a seven-week low overnight on reports that the world's third-largest economy grew much slower than expected in the second quarter. Inflation also ran at a higher rate than anticipated, raising fears that the extraordinary expansionary policies of the both the Bank of...

Futures Higher On China Trade Data U.S. equity futures shrugged off fears of Federal Reserve tapering in early trade and moved slightly higher following a largely better than expected trade report from China for July. Also, the European Central Bank issued its monthly report, revising down growth...

Ahead of this weekend's Japanese elections that will decide control of the country's upper house of parliament, stocks in the world's third-largest economy tumbled. During Friday's Asian session, the Nikkei 225 lost almost 1.5 percent. At this writing, USD/JPY is down almost 0.2 percent and,...

Abenomics, the colloquial term for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's agenda to rejuvenate the world's third-largest economic, could get a boost this weekend. That is when Japanese voters head to the polls to decide which political party will gain control of Japan's upper house of parliament...

Yields on 10-year U.S. Treasurys are trading lower Tuesday, but a one-day pullback does not entirely erase the 52-basis point increase that occurred from June 3 through July 8. Ten-year yields reside at just over 2.6 percent at this writing, but investors may not want too comfortable with that...

Thanks to a strong jobs report, U.S. stocks soared last Friday with all three major indexes gaining about one percent. After the U.S. Labor Department said 195,000 new jobs were added last month and that the April and May figures were revised higher, the S&P 500 settled the week with a gain...