The Bank of Japan reviewed the effectiveness of their policies, and decided at their meeting to leave interest rates in the negative, and maintain their $750b p.a of bond buying. The review reflected on the billions of dollars (trillions of yen) they spend on buying bonds, which has distorted the market and left the BOJ holding 40% of government bonds. To try and reduce the distortion, they announced a cap on 10 year Japanese Government bond yields, and vowed to overshoot their 2% inflation target. The Nikkei closed 2.6% weaker, as a stronger Yen hurt exporters.

• The RBNZ has left its Official Cash Rate on hold at 2.00% but signalled that “further easing will be required”. This means a rate cut in November is very much on the table. 
• The US Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged, as did our RBA and the ECB.
• Stocks were volatile during the month, reflecting nerves around Deutsche Bank’s solvency, Central bank action, and commodity price movements. In one session, the ASX 200 lost $35b, but by month’s end, this was more than made up to close almost 0.5% higher.
• Coal prices surged in September, with metallurgical coal spiking from around $85 in June to over $200 a tonne. The main reasons were on both side of the supply and demand equation, reflecting supply disruptions and increased demand.. This (of course) emanated from China, as a policy change in April reduced the number of days a mine can operate to 276 days,  and flooding in the major producing province to limited domestic supply. Australian miners like Whitehaven Coal, South 32, BHP, New Hope Corporation all experienced a lift in price.
• The Australian economy continues to surprise, registering a very solid 3.3% increase in growth for the second quarter.