Nicholas Spiro

13 hours ago | scmp.com | Nicholas Spiro

As recently as the beginning of last year, many Western institutional investors were debating whether China’s stock market was investible. It was a legitimate question which, to this day, is difficult to answer given the plethora of risks in China.

3 days ago | scmp.com | Nicholas Spiro

When US President Donald Trump unveiled his sweeping “reciprocal” trade tariffs on April 2, prompting swift retaliation from China and triggering a full-blown trade war between the two countries, Asia’s economies quickly came under the spotlight. Societe Generale said that “it is not exactly surprising Asia has been targeted the most among regions given its large surpluses over the US and its leading role in global manufacturing supply chains”.

1 week ago | scmp.com | Nicholas Spiro

When it comes to high-stakes moments in financial markets, analysts and commentators often hedge their bets. That prominent chief executives, investors and academics have been anything but equivocal in their reactions to the damage wrought by Donald Trump’s assault on the global trading system attests to the dramatic shift in sentiment since the US president announced his “reciprocal tariffs” on April 2.

1 week ago | scmp.com | Nicholas Spiro

When China’s stock market resumed its sharp decline in 2023 despite the reopening of the economy, Bank of America came up with a catchy acronym to describe the growing appeal of investment strategies and products that excluded China, particularly “Asia ex-China” products. The MSCI China Index began to fall dramatically after 2021 while the Nikkei 225 index kept rising and surpassed its 1980s bubble era peak last year.

2 weeks ago | scmp.com | Nicholas Spiro

It is no exaggeration to describe the moves in financial markets in the week after US President Donald Trump announced swingeing “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly all US trading partners as historic. Following Trump’s assault on the global trading system on April 2, the S&P 500 equity index suffered its fifth worst two-day performance since World War II, according to data from Deutsche Bank. On April 7, the Hang Seng Index plunged 13 per cent, its sharpest fall since 1997.