Skip to main content

Do strong defences make Japan vulnerable?

Today Nikkei 225 closed at +246 points - a robust growth after several weeks of an almost free fall. Growth was lead by banking and automotive industry. This can be seen as a good sign of revival, but is it necessarily so?

First of all, what are the most frequently cited causes?
Most obvious is the fact that US markets closed higher on Friday. Behind this increase were increased retail sales and expectation of further growth in the wake of the year-end holidays.
Another reason mentioned is the weakening yen. However, it actually strengthened today, so this was hardly the reason of the index growth.

So, the most important factor that moved Nikkei up was a purely domestic US information.
It is really amazing how susceptible Japan is to the influence of changes in American economic situation. Especially, when one considers how tightly closed to outsiders Japanese economy still is, especially when it comes to foreign companies entry into Japanese market.

May it be that by having open financial market and de facto closed economy enhances the influence of the largest consumer of Japanese exports? I cannot figure it out in every detail, but the idea looks plausible.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Investment Banking Series: Pitch Books

Investment Banking Series Post 3 Pitch Books 1. What is it anyway? A pitch book is the paramount of days and nights of a banker's hard work. It is a marketing tool that tries to set apart basically very similar banks and to support the claim that THIS bank, and NO ANY OTHER should be selected to arrange the deal. They say pitch books used to be actual books, but in the present world they are Power Point presentations printed out and bound in a plastic cover. The main purpose of the pitch book is to deliver two messages to the prospective client: (1) "we understand your business very well", and (2) "when it comes to arranging your deal, we are the best fit". Both claims are usually weak at best, but they are made elaborately and extensively, and the resulting multi page document often looks impressive. 2. Typical structure A pitch book will have varying structure depending on what product is being proposed, but there is a lot of similarities. Below is o...

To everyone leaving comments

Thank you for taking interest in my blog, I appreciate your comments. Please be informed that I enabled comments moderation, and every comment has to be approved before it is actually displayed. I had to do so because there was a case of inappropriate comments made at my blog, which brought no value to the readers. Therefore, do not be surprised if your comments are not displayed at once. It will take me from some minutes to some hours to read and approve their posting. Thank you for your understanding.