Asia benefited from new record highs in the US and really set the pace for the end of the week. The Nikkei was certainly the star performer adding 2.5% on the day taking the index to 19,400 with many talking the psychological 20k is next weeks target number. The JPY suffered against the USD falling […]

Asia was split today with the Nikkei not managing to move out of first gear – at least during the Asia session – but saw the Yen lose its haven status. The volatile Japanese data for Machinery Orders was released better than the 3.1% expected figure at +6.7% (against a previous -5.1%) did not really […]

  In the earliest days of the Republic Rome’s taxes were quite modest, and were not direct, but were a property tax or a wealth tax on all forms of property, including land, houses, slaves, animals, money and personal effects. The basic rate was just 1% and sometimes it would occasionally rise to 3%. This was to fund the […]

All core Asian indices closed higher today even as energy prices fell another 1% in todays trading. The Nikkei, Hang Seng and Shanghai all closed +0.5% firmer on the day. Currencies were well behaved with the JPY playing around the 112 figure for the majority of the day. The dollar index (DXY) broke above the […]

We can probably count on one thing – the people from Goldman Sachs advising Trump will most likely do what they always do – assume the manipulation and “influence” is all that is needed to change the trend in the dollar. Donald Trump’s top trade adviser Peter Navarro has hit out at Germany and accused the country […]

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Armstrong, Is silver currently showing more strength than gold, and therefore likely to move beyond gold in this phase? I’m not a technician but it looks that way to me. Thank you for all you share. M ANSWER: Yes. This is one of the critical factors that must turn to signal a real […]

COMMENT: Hi Marty, I am in San Francisco (though trying to move out)….and attended WEC Orlando. In reading the blog recently there is a lot of talk about Civil War and the US breaking up. I have to tell you that the election in San Francisco was pretty much devoid of Clinton or Trump signs anywhere. There […]

One of the main topics of conversation overnight was the fact that the Shanghai market reopened, after the week long holiday, to a surprise reverse-repo hike (10bp’s to 2.35%) which resulted in a -0.6% decline in the Shanghai Index. The CNH traded back up through the 6.82 mark but in late US trade saw core […]

Here is a board meeting of CALPERS illustrating that (1) the majority of the board is totally without any experience in financial markets and (2) they are trying to throw off the board anyone who points out they are in trouble. Pension funds on average need 8% to break even. You will hear in this discussion […]

COMMENT: Sir, Thanks for all you do. As you have been teaching, do the math. What would be the financial implications of CALIEXIT be? In other words , how much would the rest of the country save if we voted California off the island?  You have already enlightened us to the fact that they asked behind […]