Asia Market Wire

The Hormuz Switch: What the US-Iran Oil Trade Is Actually Pricing

Edward Young — Sat, 20 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Markets have priced the negotiation as a binary on-off switch. The logic behind that framing, and the question of who pays for it, tells you more than the day's price on a barrel.

Inside Japan's JGB market: how the yield curve is built and where the BOJ steps in

Emi Sato — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Through much of the past decade, the yield that anchored Japan's bond market traded where the Bank of Japan chose to hold it. In 2024 that policy was dismantled, and the Japanese Government Bond curve began moving back toward market pricing. Reading it now means understanding how the curve is built, from the Ministry of Finance that decides what to issue to the central bank that decides how heavily to lean on the result.

The Liquidity of Meaning

Edward Young — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Risk is a relationship long before it becomes an event.

Why the Fed says it cannot move the price of eggs

James Cresswell — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

On June 17, at his first news conference as chair of the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh was asked about the cost of groceries. His answer drew a line between two things a central bank treats very differently: the general level of prices, which it works on over time, and the price of any one item, which it does not set.

What Chinese institutional investors see that Western analysts miss

Edward Young — Thu, 18 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The dollar story looks very different from the other side of it.

AI and platform finance in China: adoption, rectification, and the new normal

Vincent Cheung — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Two technology-driven shifts have reshaped Chinese financial services in recent years: the uneven rollout of AI across different financial functions, and the rectification of large technology platforms' financial arms, which has given way to an ongoing, rules-based framework rather than one-off enforcement action.

How the PBOC runs monetary policy: rates, reserves, and the Loan Prime Rate

Edward Young — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The People's Bank of China, or PBOC, manages liquidity and the cost of credit through a small set of interlocking tools: the money supply, the reserve requirement ratio banks must hold against deposits, a short-term rate corridor, and a benchmark lending rate that carries policy into the real economy. Understanding how these fit together explains most of what moves Chinese short rates.

Inside China's bond market: size, structure, and the yield curve

Jonathan Lee — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

China runs one of the larger bond markets in the world by outstanding stock, built mainly on government, policy-bank, and credit issuance. The shape of that market, and the yield curve it produces, is the reference point for pricing nearly every other RMB-denominated asset.

China's insurance industry: structure, premiums, and how insurers invest

Sophia Lim — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

China's insurance industry splits into life, property and casualty, and reinsurance, with premium income concentrated heavily in the life and health segment. How that pool of premium income gets invested, and how much solvency cushion insurers carry while investing it, shapes one of the largest sources of long-term capital in the financial system.

China's cross-border investment channels: QFII, Connect, and the RMB dashboard

Edward Young — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Capital moves into and out of China through a defined set of named channels rather than a single open capital account. Reading those channels alongside a broader RMB internationalisation dashboard shows how managed opening and currency use are advancing together, on related but separate timelines.

How China resolves financial risk: property, local debt, and shadow banking

Vincent Cheung — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 12:00:00 +0000

China's approach to financial risk runs through three connected fronts at once, property-sector stress, local-government financing-vehicle debt, and shadow-banking exposures, each handled through its own dedicated workout channel but governed by the same stated set of resolution principles.

China's asset management industry after the 2018 new rules

Sophia Lim — Sun, 31 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The 2018 asset-management rules reorganised China's investment industry around net-asset-value pricing and clearer regulatory perimeters, and the bank wealth-management and private-fund sectors that emerged from that reorganisation now represent two of the largest pools of managed capital in the system.

Stock Connect explained: northbound and southbound flows

Vincent Cheung — Mon, 25 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Stock Connect links the mainland Chinese exchanges and the Hong Kong exchange through two parallel channels, moving in opposite directions, that have become one of the most closely watched flow indicators in Asian equity markets.

China's ETF boom and the rise of long-term capital

Sophia Lim — Sat, 23 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Exchange-traded funds have grown into a primary vehicle for long-term capital flowing into China's A-share market, a shift that changes how that capital behaves compared with the trading-driven flows that have historically dominated mainland equity turnover.

China's A-share IPO market: counts, proceeds, and the 2025 reset

Marcus Tan — Fri, 22 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The pace of new listings on China's A-share market is set less by company demand to go public than by the regulator's calibration of approvals under the registration-based listing system. 2025 marked a reset in that pacing, visible in both the count of new listings and the capital they raised.

China's GDP and demographics in 2025: the numbers that frame every market

Edward Young — Thu, 21 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

Two long series sit behind every call on Chinese markets: the growth path of the economy and the aging curve of its population. Neither moves quickly, and together they set the backdrop against which every shorter-term policy decision gets read.

China's futures and derivatives market: the six exchanges and 2025 scale

Marcus Tan — Wed, 20 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

China's listed derivatives trade across six exchanges, each carrying a defined product remit rather than competing head to head on the same contracts, an organisational choice that shapes how volume and access are distributed across the market.

RMB internationalisation: payments, e-CNY, and the cross-border rails

Edward Young — Sun, 17 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

The RMB's progress toward becoming a more widely used international currency runs on two tracks at once: its share of global payments messaging, and the physical and digital rails, CIPS, the digital RMB, and the multilateral mBridge platform, that move it across borders. Neither track tells the full story alone.

China's banking system: structure, margins, and asset quality

Vincent Cheung — Tue, 12 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

China's banking system is organised into five regulatory categories, with six large state-owned commercial banks anchoring the system by asset size. Reading that structure alongside the margin and asset-quality trends running through it gives a fuller picture of where stress, if any, is actually concentrated.

China's pension system and the silver economy

Sophia Lim — Thu, 07 May 2026 12:00:00 +0000

China's pension system rests on three pillars, a state basic pension, employer and occupational annuities, and a personal pension account now in nationwide rollout, set against a demographic backdrop that is turning aging itself into a distinct financial market, the silver economy.