Continued speculation that additional official support would be available next week in China supported the Shanghai Stock Index yet again. The strong close (of over +1.3% higher) in Asia has been short-lived as the events in Europe have reversed most, if not all, of today’s move (as seen this evening in futures trading). Initially, all […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, the rally in the euro and the failure to see a similar move in gold certainly makes this appear to be just a short cover rally. Correct? ANSWER: Yes. This illustrates just how big the short euro position was on the carry trade. The underlying “fundamentals” did not change, in fact they got […]

The Thai government has taken steps toward the elimination of cash moving forward. Thailand is abandoning its ‘safe haven’ image. This is yet another step to drive capital to the dollar. (Note: this chart shows the Baht against the dollar so a rise reflects the rise in the dollar decline in the Baht)

Rumors between dealers that Chinese authorities could be about to introduce new incentives to boost property prices saw the Shanghai Index rally 2.3% in today’s trading. The Hang Seng closed marginally firmer also (+0.5%) but only a smidgeon in comparison. The Nikkei did not benefit from a weekly close above the 20k level and so […]

While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expected to give the renminbi (yuan) a political victory by including the Chinese currency in the list of reserve currencies, few in the West even understand what this means. Including the renminbi in the SDR economically means nothing for it will not dethrone the dollar any more than […]

An extremely dull day for most core equity markets across the globe today with plus or minus 0.5% movements throughout. If anything to write about it was probably that US stocks closed close to the days lows as they all drifted but even that it probably clutching at straws. Currencies were also quiet today but […]

The central banks are simply trapped. They have bought in bonds under the theory that this will stimulate the economy by injecting cash. But there are several problems with this entire concept. This is an elitist view to say the least for the money injected does not stimulate the economy for it never reaches the […]

The Guardian has reported that the hunt for money is indeed in full swing. Germany has now handed Greece the names of more than 10,000 Greeks who they say are dodging taxes with holdings in Swiss banks. These people are destroying the world economy and cannot even see what they are doing. What rebuilt the world […]

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Armstrong, You write that you apologize that you can only provide 400 seats to this years’ World Economics Forum in Berlin. Why don’t you offer the possibilty to take part via an Internet Conference? So a lot more people could join your conference! Best regards, AS ANSWER: Doing a two day live […]

The spotlight was firmly on China today where the equity tumbled over 6%. News that market regulators are investigating suspected violation by some of the countries brokerages finance their clients stock purchases. Citic fell to its daily limit (-10%) before closing. Other non-financials also fell with notable Cathy Pacific, Petro-China and Sinopec were all down […]