After shedding 0,7% last week, the MSCI Asia Pacific regional index got off to a bad start this week, dropping another 0,4% in the Asian afternoon.
Tokyo's largest-cap index, the Topix, lost 1,1%, despite the rebound in Japanese retail sales, which grew - seasonally adjusted - 6,3% over February in March; a leap that however owes much to the effort to anticipate purchases in order to 'beat' the 3 percentage point increase in Japanese VAT, in force since April XNUMXst.
The main cause of the weakness is certainly the worsening of tensions over Ukraine: the United States and the European Union are preparing to introduce new sanctions, while what is now almost a civil war is unfolding in Ukraine.
The euro is stable at 1,382 against the dollar and the yen strengthened slightly, to 102,2. The sharp depreciation of the yen since last November does not seem to have had much impact on Japanese exports.
As the analysis of the second link suggests, South Korean exports, despite the won appreciating significantly against the rival currency, grew much more than the Japanese one. Proof of the fact that exchange rate variations, which only affect price-competitiveness, are less important than one thinks.
Gold has again passed the threshold of 1300 $/ounce and reaches 1304, while black Wti oil registers 191 $/b, 109,8 for Brent.
