Chart of the Dax (visit www.Bloomberg.com)

Refresh your browser to update.  Time in Central European Time.

I mentioned the gap in trading between the end of US and the start of trading in Tokyo (see the Asian markets section).  Well there is another gap.  This is more related to geo/religo/politics than anything else.  If you watch CNBC or Bloomberg TV, they seem to make a jump from the close of Hong Kong to the opening in Europe.  The Indian stock market is very rarely mentioned.  They forget the central Asian or the western Asia.  Western Asia!  Where is that you say?  Well I am a geologist and I am sick and tired of the Europeancentric geography.  Take central Asia as the centre of Asia, and will you end up between Caspian and Aral sea.  So India is Southern Asia, and they do call themselves that.  So it stands to reason to call the places around the Persian Gulf or Caspian Sea as Western Asian not Middle East of London.  Anyway this whole block of people, some 1 billion, is ignored by the financial networks.  They just jump from the close of Hong Kong to the London opening.  Never mind.  Just remember the markets there move very well with the aspects and I cover them as well.  In the American section I mentioned the large stocks and their effects on the US markets.  I think one needs to mention Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation or more commonly known as HSBC.  Don't forget that some of the big US stocks trade on the Dax (German) system.  But the main instruments to look at are the S&P futures and then the Dax itself once it gets going.  Obviously keep an eye on the like of Deutsche Telecom as it does skews the index.  London market, ironically (because I live in the UK) I ignore.  Too weighted in the Britishers (eg: BT BP etc etc).  For London read currency markets.  Currencies are alive all the time, and the world used to be split between the dollar and the yen, with the Swiss Franc acting like Gold.  It is a very simple way of putting it, but it holds.  It used to be the case that the balance of power  was held by Cable.  Now that the Euro has come along, the story has changed for both the Swissy and the Cable.  For more info on this email me.