市场资讯及洞察

Deal or No Deal Brexit negotiations have been ongoing for some months now, and even while officials state that ‘sufficient progress’ in the talks has been made, the public are still unaware of what the details of said progress are. This week Theresa May was in Brussels and it was expected that here a deal would be agreed upon, with key issues worked out before talks would then move to trade and transition. However, a deal was not settled, as the Democratic Unionist Party did not agree with the proposed deal after discovering it would prevent Northern Ireland from leaving the European Union on the same terms as the rest of the United Kingdom.

What happens next? As a deal was not agreed, time is running out before the European Council meeting, which is to be held on December 14 th -15 th. Theresa May will be hoping a deal can be made before the meeting and will be returning to Brussels at some point this week to push a deal through.

It looks like the main issue is the Irish border between Ireland and Northern Ireland; no one wants a hard border between the two nations, as it would undermine the 1998 peace accord that ended 30 years of violence in the region, making it vital a deal is agreed on the matter. If not, it will hard to see Brexit talks moving to the next phase. A transition deal should be made by October 2018; if not, the United Kingdom may crash out of the European Union without a deal – a disastrous scenario.

Financial Markets It was highly anticipated a deal would be agreed between the two sides this week and we saw the Pound leaping higher against the major currencies. However, as the news of a no deal broke out, we saw the Pound drop against the US Dollar and the Euro. However, the Pound is up at around 10% against the US Dollar since beginning of 2017 but further development will certainly influence the Cable.

GBPUSD: Source: GO Markets MT4 The Euro strengthened against the Pound when the news came out, which has caused more uncertainty around the matter. The Euro is up by around 21% against the Pound since January and we could see more gains for the Euro as the UK economy keeps outperforming in the coming months. EURGBP Source: GO Markets MT4 As the Pound fell, we saw the FTSE100 jump higher as a weak Pound boosts the earnings for London listed companies with international profits.

The Index is up 3% since the start of the year. FTSE100 Source: GO Markets MT4

City of London Feeling the Brexit Effect Not a day goes by without Brexit being mentioned and we can expect more of this to continue for some time, even after Britain leaves the European Union next year. With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cutting its economic growth forecast for Britain for the coming years, are we also starting to see the impact of it on the City of London – the biggest financial centre in the world? Morgan McKinley has shown that the number of jobs available in December 2017 fell by around 52% month-to-month, a much bigger decline compared to the 30% drop seen over the same periods in 2015 and 2016. “In December, the city is abuzz with holiday parties, not hiring, so a drop is to be expected, but for it to be such a seismic drop is alarming” said Hakan Enver, the operations director for financial services for Morgan McKinley.

Year-on-year we have seen 37% fall in vacancies which is a completely different picture to when we look at figures in 2015 and 2016 when we saw a 16% increase in job openings. A recent survey by account firm Binder Dijker Otte (BDO) has shown that the United Kingdom has dropped out of the ranking for top six countries for potential migrants from the European Union. Paul Eagland, managing partner at BDO said the government must act to secure the UK’s access to talent: “UK businesses are already struggling with a skills shortage.

The impact of the EU referendum and uncertainty around a new trade deal is likely to make this worse.” “It’s absolutely imperative that the Government makes it clear to the world that the UK is still a great place to do business and that we continue to attract the world’s brightest and best to our country”. UK’s former immigration minister, Brandon Lewis, said that the issue of skilled worker visas was up by 38% but that is unlikely to make up the difference. Mr Enver said: “On the one hand, it’s great that the UK is still being considered an attractive destination from countries outside of the EU.” “However, on the other hand, there are signs that European employees are becoming less captivated by the draw of working in this country.” “2017 was the year we were told we’d have an exit strategy and a transition plan.

We have neither. “As new rounds of talks kick off, let’s hope 2018 brings the much-needed clarity and stability everyone’s waiting for.” A challenging time for the financial sector in Britain.

The US official trade deficit number with China is $375.2bn in 2017. But According to China Customs General Administration, this number should be $275.8bn. Notice there is a vast gap between the versions from two sides.

So, which version is closer to the facts? Firstly, let’s start this debate by looking at the US perspective. Previously in the 1990s and early 2000s, most of the imports from China were low-value, labor-intensive products such as toys, clothes, footwear, etc.

And even now, China are still producing these kinds of products. However, over the past decade, an increasing proportion of US imports from China are more technologically advanced products (US calls it ATP). From the table below, we can see that, among the top 5 categories of import products, three of them are ATP by the US’s definition.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. imports of ATP from China in 2017 totaled $171.1 billion. Information and communications products (i.e., Phones and Pads) were by far the most significant U.S.

ATP import from China, accounting for 91% of U.S. ATP imports from China and 60% of U.S. global imports of this category (see table below). This would generally go against common sense, right?

Let me explain. As we all know, Apple is the largest company in the world to produce mobile phones and IPads, and the second largest is Samsung, which is a Korean company. Although Huawei is the third largest mobile phones producer, the US government entirely banned Huawei from entering the US market due to “national security” reasons.

So how did phones and pads become the largest category that the US imported from the Chinese? An explanation from China's point of view helps reveal this mystery. Firstly, there are two terms that we learned in Economics 101, Finished Product and Intermediate goods.

An intermediate good is a product used to produce a finished product. For example, in the case of producing an iPhone, Chinese factories contribute only 6% of the components (which is Assembly). All the other significant parts such as Hardware, Touchscreen& Glass, Battery, etc. these typically come from other countries such as South Korea and Japan.

If we take all those parts which come from Korea & Japan out of the US/China Trade Balance, the trade deficit will decrease one-third straight away. Below is a breakdown of the costs for various components of an average iPhone. Moreover, when an iPhone finished assembly and shipped and sold to US customers, it was Apple, a US company, who earned most of the profits, not Chinese assembly factories.

However, just because the assembly is the last step of the manufacturing process, and the phones did “shipped from China to the US,” the US government defined this as “imports from China.” Based on this knowledge, it appears the US might be deliberately twisting the terminology to fool the general public, helping to fuel the current dispute against China. There are hundreds more similar examples like this. These include iPhone, Dell who assembles their laptops in Shanghai, Boeing who assembles their planes in Tianjin, and most recently, Elon Musk who announced that he wants to open an assembly factory in Shanghai.

In conclusion, the US government seems to be exaggerating the trade deficit figures to help justify starting a trade war with China. This idea may sound like a conspiracy, but when you consider the many influential world powers throughout history who have leveraged their strength and resources to suppress their competitors, it makes more sense. Particularly those deemed to be in second place.

Think about the cold war between the US and Soviet Union; it just passed not too long ago. Lanson Chen GO Markets Analyst This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.

Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: USCITC DataWeb, US Census Bureau, Teardown.com

Central Bank Interest Rates By Klavs Valters A central bank's interest rate is a rate at which it typically lends money to local banks. This interest rate is charged by nations’ central or federal banks on loan advances to control the money supply in the economy and the banking sector. Each central bank has its own annual schedule when announcing its rates.

In the trading world, it's prudent to keep a tab on these announcements as it impacts market volatility if there is a sudden interest rate rise or fall. These rates also have an impact on everyday life, as they often determine what you pay for borrowing money, as well as what the bank will pay you for saving money. Recent Rate Hikes The most recent rate hike came from the US Federal Reserve back in March 2018, when it increased its rates from 1.5% to 1.75%.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve also signalled its intention to further raise this rate in the future. This has been the sixth time the US Federal Reserve has raised its interest rates since the 2008 financial crisis. Bank of Canada increased its key interest rates back in January by 0.25% to 1.25% while quoting a number of upbeat news stories, including an economy that is running flat-out, healthy job gains, and the lowest unemployment rate in over 40 years.

This has been Bank of Canada's third rate hike since the summer of 2017, and the first time the overnight rate has been above 1% since 2009. Current Bank Interest Rates Central Bank Interest Rate Announcement Timetable for 2018 To keep up to date with other news announcements, visit our ‘Economic Calendar’ section on our website - https://www.gomarkets.com/au/economic-calendar/

As Brexit concerns continue to weigh heavy on Pound Sterling crosses, there's not much to discuss from a technical perspective. Evidence of an overall bearishness sentiment dominates the charts with a few corrective moves thrown in for good measure. However, sifting through the layers of Sterling sameness, I uncovered something interesting relating to the GBPJPY, which might provide some trading opportunities longer-term.

First, taking a look at a daily chart above, notice we are hovering around the same price region as we were in August last year. Could this mean the pair is due for a change in direction? Perhaps.

What I find more intriguing is that for the past five years, August has been predominantly bearish for the GBPJPY pair when compared to other months. This seasonality chart from Bloomberg shows this more clearly. So how does this relate to longer-term trading opportunities?

If we are to believe that August is typically a bearish month, then we would be naturally inclined to seek short trades, and according to the point and figure chart below, I think I may have found one. Keep in mind that the seasonality data also suggests recoveries into December so we would need to trade with care. The bearish resistance line suggests we are currently in a downtrend with an increase in supply triggering a bearish trade signal as the price broke through the triple bottom support at 144.50.

At present, I am watching two downside targets should the fall in price exacerbate. These levels are located at 140.00 and 136.00 respectively. Alternatively, any upside move will need to re-test the 144.50 area which should act as resistance and also a rally above 146.00 to consider revising the overall trend.

Finally, if we study the short-term price action above on the hourly chart, it would seem the 100 Day Moving Average line in blue is helping to cap any bullish activity. The only time it has successfully managed to punch above the 100 MA this month has been to test the weekly pivot lines in black. If you are interested in other GBP analysis, I recently posted an article on GBPAUD here which I believe is another potential long-term opportunity.

For both these ideas, much will depend on Brexit certainty and how global trade talks progress in the coming weeks. By Adam Taylor CFTe This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions.

Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk. Sources: Tradingview, Bloomberg

Apple is the first company on this planet to reach a $1 Trillion Market value, each year continuing to release brand new innovative products including the latest iPhone to hit shelves. There is no doubt that Apple is the technology king of this generation given its following, constant growth, and company profits. However, can it maintain its innovation and high market value over the next ten years? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We all know that every technology product has a life cycle.

Think about this: 30 years ago your family might get very excited when purchasing a new television, but are you still as enthusiastic if you buy a new TV today? No, because on the one hand, the technology is a lot cheaper and commonplace, and on the other, the notion of refining this product has arguably reached its ceiling. After Television, PCs and digital cameras also can’t escape from the same fate.

Once sold at high prices with premium product positioning, I still remember my first PC which cost around USD 2000, and even this was considered low in the 1990‘s. How about now? PC sales in 2017 have dropped to 263m, which is even less than the sales of iPhone 1 in 2007. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may not have noticed, but coinciding with Apple reaching a $1 Trillion, value, the two major suppliers for iPhone components——Sunny Optical Ltd (Listed in Hong Kong) & LARGAN Precision Ltd (listed in Taiwan) are both experiencing price shocks in the stock market.

Let me first briefly introduce this two companies. LARGAN Precision is a camera producer and provides five lenses for each iPhone. Its stock price has increased 1692% in the last decade.

Sunny Optical became camera lens model supplier for iPhone since 2007. After ten years, its stock price increased insanely 13068%! These miraculous returns are all based on the developing phase of smartphones.

However, the Smart Phone concept appears to be transitioning to its Mature Phase, and eventually, declining Phase. In the 4th Quarter of 2017, the total sales of the Smart Phone market have dropped for the first time. You'll notice from the chart that every smartphone company value fell, not just Apple and Samsung.

Regarding technology, Apple had already left the “Iron Throne” years ago. In the smartphone chips producing area, only two companies (LARGAN & Samsung) has achieved current Human Limit ——7nm (the thinner the chip, the harder for human technology to achieve) Only one company (Samsung) is willing to put money into R&D and pursue the impossible——3nm. Why has everyone else already given up? (which also means that the iPhone in the next few years will likely see little to no significant improvement, except the size, colour, and Price) The smartphone product is not far away from its tech limit.

It's perhaps not worthwhile to invest loads of money into R&D anymore. Alternatively, it might be better off to move their R&D forces to the next generational products, for example, GPU, VR, Drone, Artificial intelligence, or something even beyond our imagination at the moment. It is still too early to say whether Apple can keep its leading position in next 10 years, let’s wait and see.

By Lanson Chen – Analyst Lanson Chen @LansonChen This article is written by a GO Markets Analyst and is based on their independent analysis. They remain fully responsible for the views expressed as well as any remaining error or omissions. Trading Forex and Derivatives carries a high level of risk.

Sources: Statista, Apple, Google