Asia today - Indonesian election, themes for a lower yen, Indian monsoon and surprisingly new Korean productivity measures

Lots going on today in Asia.  As I write we await the results of the Indonesian elections which look relatively closely run.  A great set of graphics here from ThomsonReuters.

Turning to Japan which is playing a bit of catch-up today after a three day weekend, I was interested to see in The Financial Times the sheer size / direction of recent US dollar asset purchasing (with a notably more positive trend than other currencies):

Now logically this is due to the higher yields on offer and potentially a hope/anticipation of a weaker yen / stronger US dollar - a theme/direction I would agree with.

The euro does not offer particularly higher yields but one of the Japanese banks notes that continuing material QE by the Bank of Japan is likely to lead to one outcome and draws on a trading observation from a hedge fund guru to make their point:

'The euro will surge to a six-year high against the yen by the end of 2014 as the European Central Bank isn’t printing money as fast as the Bank of Japan, according to Daiwa Securities Co. The CHART OF THE DAY shows the ratio of Japan’s monetary base to Europe’s jumping to a record. Japanese traders and investors refer to this gauge as a “Soros Chart,” after billionaire investor George Soros correctly predicted in the 1990s that the yen would weaken because of Japan’s burgeoning money supply'

As one correspondent noted very correctly on Twitter (h/t @MarkBrant1KM)

'Also, Soros' power can effect reflexive feedback into euroyen, hence "reflexivity".'


A couple of final stories...

We all forget how big China is:

'China had 632 million Internet users as of the end of June, just slightly more than double the entire estimated population of the U.S. The year-to-date growth alone is more than 14 million users, roughly equivalent to all the residents of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago combined. Just as interesting is the tremendous mobile-internet penetration -- a full 83%, or about 527 million'

Some interesting information on the Indian monsoon:

Finally...Korean productivity as you have never seen it before!