COMMENT: Martin, A few weeks ago (12/13/2016) my wife received a notice from her company about changes to her 401K and I thought I was in a Kafka film. The notice basically identified “the investment elections you can make and the actions that will occur if you do not make you elections by the deadlines […]

Asia has started the new year in positive mood especially after some better than expected China data. The Chinese PMI rose to 51.9 from an expected 50.7 forecast helping the core markets register a 1%+ increase today. This comes on the heels of a change in the calculating factors for the Yuan. As we reported […]

Although the cash markets for Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Australia were closed some of the exchange traded futures market did open. All were better bid, closing in positive territory but as you would imagine, volumes were extremely thin and even the Indian Sensex closed unchanged. It was the European markets that tended to drive […]

The only thing about international trade is that someone cannot have a trade surplus without another experiencing a trade deficit. We all cannot have trade surpluses simultaneously and we have to begin understanding this reality. The net capital movements around the world are showing clear signs that things will be intensifying and the net capital […]

The Associated Press ran a story reporting: “Congressional Republicans are planning a massive overhaul of the nation’s tax system, a heavy political lift that could ultimately affect families at every income level and businesses of every size.” The interesting aspect is that the headline reads: GOP: Cut taxes, change brackets; but what about deficits There is zero discussion about […]

With the exception of Japan most Asian markets were subdued in typical holiday style. It was the downgrade of Toshiba by both Moody’s and S+P that resulted in a 17% decline in its share price today and was blamed for the 1.2% decline in the Nikkei. In late US trading the Nikkei futures have fallen […]

As we approach 2017, the euro appears far worse than anyone could imagine. The biggest hypocrite is actually Mario Draghi who is outrageously managing the European Central Bank (ECB). To make this as plain as possible, the ECB is the largest individual creditor of the euro countries, and is thus a bank that is undermined completely by the poor creditworthiness of the […]

To make it clear, India is not going door to door to confiscate gold any more than FDR did. The reason so many $20 gold coins have survived is because there was no door to door confiscation. Banks and corporations who had records of gold were forced to turn their gold over and then FDR […]

After a reasonably quiet session for the US markets (when many had hoped the DOW would break the 20k level) Asia had little chance of making much ground. The Hang Seng took most of the wind out of their sales with prices down around -0.8% with many large caps lower on year end profit-taking and […]

Today, we saw the first decline for the Nikkei in eleven trading session despite better than expected Trade data (Estimated Y227.4 but actual release Y152.5bn). The Japan Index closed down just 9pts at 19,391 but breaks the winning streak with the currency trading back below the 117 level. BOJ starts its two day meeting today […]