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Here are some stunning stats from Ken Fisher in yesterday's Financial Times:

Forget the falling dollar. What we should fear is a rising yen. The most amazing statistic you never heard is: the year-to-date daily correlation between ups and downs in the global stock market versus spreads between the yen and the euro is 93 per cent. That is beyond eye-popping.

I had no idea it was that strong:

The 2007 year-to-date daily correlation coefficient between changes in the yen/euro spread and the MSCI World Index – best reflecting the total developed world stock market – is 0.93. For the S&P 500, it is 0.89, for the FTSE 100, 0.86, and for Germany’s DAX, 0.87. All higher than most people can fathom.

The correlation of the MSCI World to the yen/sterling spread is lower, at 0.75, but is still sky-high. To the Australian dollar it is 0.86 and to the Canadian dollar 0.81. All breathtakingly high. Only to the U.S. dollar, which everyone fears, is it materially lower at 0.37.

Posted by edelfenbein at November 13, 2007 12:27 PM