QUESTION: Dear Marty, I sure would appreciate any thoughts you have on rumors making the rounds that the International Monetary Fund has tipped its hand, in part via its June 2017 “Fintech and Financial Services: Initial Considerations” IMF Discussion Note, and intends to replace the US Dollar as the global reserve currency as early as […]

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Armstrong, I have been reading your blog for over a year now. Your posts are a superb read and one of the first things I check every morning before leaving for work! Although I admire your work and writings a great deal, I’m sometimes surprised by the level of certainty you seem […]

QUESTION: Hello Mr Armstrong. I understand the logic of the weakness / strength of currency that you outline from time to time in your modelling of the global crisis. You omit to explain the importance in the pace of change in the value of a currency; for instance Venezuela and Argentina according to your explanation […]

Governments and central banks across the world are still concerned about the lack of inflation or significant growth and we saw evidence again in that today from the Japanese Q2 GDP release. Well below estimate of 4% this mornings release came in at 2.5%. Mario Draghi also commented on growth concerns in yesterdays ECB meeting […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; You said at your Frankfurt the ECB policy of negative interest rates is actually creating a wider gap between the poor and the rich. Could you elaborate on that comment? Thank you. Hope you come back to Frankfurt. You do realize that you get twice the crowds here than anyone. OT ANSWER: Lowering […]

Yes, Asia benefited off of the back of the US markets bouncing but it was far from encouraging. We saw small gains for the Nikkei (+0.2%) and the ASX but declines for the Hang Seng (-0.35%) and Shanghai (-0.6%). Given we have little new headline news concerning North Korea the KOPSI has seen a 1.1% […]

The European Central Bank (ECB) is expected to begin reducing its bond purchases gradually tampering its stimulation program of Quantitative Easing (QE). Nevertheless, reliable sources tell of the ECB being extremely cautious fearing what will happen if buyers do not appear and rates begin to rise sharply. The difference between the ECB and the Fed […]

Think we should just probably forget the Asian session as all were waiting for the US numbers and hoping for some direction as a result. mixed cash session but we are seeing some positive moves in futures following the US numbers. Europe sees the core perform (CAC and DAX both around 1% better) while the […]

A solid day for the Nikkei today closing up +0.7% but have watched yen trade comfortably with a 110 handle all day. Talk in Japan is very much concentrated on Theresa Mays three day visit and the possible speculation surrounding Japan/UK trade deal. There was a sense that todays session seemed a rebalancing after the […]

Asia benefited from the afternoon bounce in the US markets, with all core performing across the board. The Hang Seng probably saw large cap’s perform on the back of a further gains made in the Yuan’s appreciation. Shanghai finished small down but again in extremely light summer volume. The Nikkei regained much of yesterdays loss […]