Japan

Former Barclays UK private banking head David Semaya is to join Nikko Asset Management, as CEO Charles Beazley steps down for family reasons.

Mario Draghi, the head of the European Central Bank (ECB), has said the country is not facing a Japanese-style deflationary spiral despite recent data showing inflation is sliding.

David Jane, founder of Darwin Investment Managers, has named the five investment themes he is backing in his multi-asset fund to outperform this year.

Japan is the "most interesting place" to take equity market risk thanks to Abenomics, according to the managers of the Ruffer investment trust.

The US dollar is closing in on a five-year high versus the yen, with gold heading towards a one-year low, ahead of the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve's historic December meeting.

Asia's major equity markets have fallen after data from China's services sector disappointed.

Pioneer Investments' head of European fixed income, Tanguy Le Saout, has identified four key fixed income themes for investors to watch in 2014.

A year hyped as the start of a great rotation from bonds into equities actually saw more of a trickle out of fixed income, but it was not plain sailing for bond funds.

COMMENT

Neptune CEO Robin Geffen is buying into the Japanese recovery led by Shinzo Abe, dismissing comparisons to earlier efforts to revitalise the country.