Despite a better than expected Japanese Q2 GDP (annualised 4%) the Nikkei fell 1% in thin summer trading. The currency probably took most of the blame for this as it weakened back towards 110 as we head to the end of the trading day. One wonders if the flight to safety argument is finally being […]

China really felt the hesitant mood today with the main Shanghai index down 1.6% and the Hang Seng fall over 2%. President Trump really was doubling down on the speech play late US/early Asian time zone and the markets reflected the mood. South Korean KOPSI dropped 1.7% in todays trading and also the SENSEX gave […]

  Behind the Curtain, there seems to be no government going completely nuts more so than Australia. They are doubling taxes on all foreigners who own property, which is a violation of international law, and then they made it a crime for a foreign to even buy a house undisclosed. On top of all of […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; I attended the Paris conference of the BIS when you were the keynote speaker. You delivered a forecast that was probably too far ahead for its time. You said the euro would go through and it would first drop but then peak with deflation in 2008 after the markets crash from 2007. […]

Although Asian core all closed lower it really wasn’t that bad – at least in the Asian cash time zone. The JPY traded above the 110 level as cash rebounded at the close but then saw the late safety rally (US time zone). It was the large cap Hang Seng that appeared nervous in late […]

Only one big topic for Asian markets this morning and unfortunately, not a happy one. The uptick in geo-politics dominated everything today and unsurprisingly saw equities retreat, with a rally in gold and treasuries. The Nikkei fell the most of the cores with a decline of 1.3% and saw a strengthening of its currency down […]

New South Wales in Australia has doubled property taxes for foreign real estate buyers. Of course this violates international law, but governments are broke and they are doing their best to destroy the world economy from every which direction. The politicians are responding to Australians who see foreign buyers of property causing a real estate […]

  Many financial firms in London claim to be looking to move to Frankfurt or Paris with BREXIT. They are going to have a very rude awakening. The proposition to demand all euro clearing takes place inside the EU will be the death of Europe – not the rebirth. The dominating position in Brussels among […]

A solid day for Asia with gains for all core markets of between +0.3% in the Nikkei and +0.9% for the Australian ASX. All sectors contributed to the broad gains with no single area playing a dominant role. In China, we saw better than expected PMI which provided the boast many markets were looking for. […]

Our European Tour this season has been very enlightening including meetings with politicians, corporations and many of the top banks. The concern centers around the ECB having to change policy with regard to negative interest rates. The net result has been to create massive hoarding of cash rather than spending cash for the sake of […]