Japan

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.

Alexander Friedman, global CIO at UBS Wealth Management, sees Japan as ‘more of a risk' to investors than China in the coming year.

After Shinzo Abe took power late last year, Japan has been 2013's undisputed success story.

Mainstream emerging markets may have remained thoroughly out of favour this year, with developed nations driving global equity returns, but surprises can still be found in the top ten markets of 2013.