Hillary Clinton & Michael Bloomberg at the Goldman Sachs new building construction Former Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg had the audacity to deliver a speech at the Democratic Convention saying, “There are times when I disagree with Hillary Clinton. But let me tell you, whatever our disagreements may be, I’ve come here to […]

All eyes were on the BOJ, and even though they disappointed many, after a turbulent trading session the Nikkei index closed higher. No easing, no additions to the money base, no further purchases of JGB’s, commercial paper or REIT’s but they did almost double the ETF purchase programme from JPY 3.3tln to 6tln. Stocks did not know what […]

As we enter the BOJ meeting, messages are very mixed. Many are hoping the package exceeds expectation JPY 28tln ($266bn) whilst others, anxious the BOJ may shoot too soon, possibly more easing at a time when they feel it will not work; so Asia could be interesting tomorrow. Today the Nikkei lost some of yesterday’s […]

More talk that the expected that the Japanese stimulus package could exceed the JPY 20tln and could even be as large as 28tln boosted the Nikkei and sent the Yen back to 104.50 level. Rumours have been circulating for a while and even yesterday stories were that the package would only be a fraction worried the market yesterday resulting in the 1.4% loss. […]

We saw a bit of a wobble today in Asian cash markets after BOJ governor Kuroda dismissed the idea of helicopter money and following a weak US session resulting in 1% declines for the Nikkei, Shanghai, and a small loss (-0.2%) in the Hang Seng. Oil didn’t help sentiment having lost 2% yesterday and no sign of recovery today as we head […]

Talk that the BOJ was preparing even more stimulus to be announced at next weeks central bank meeting certainly helped the Nikkei and also sentiment for most core Asian exchanges. After yesterdays 13% fall in Nintendo shares today was reasonably quiet closing just 0.8% higher on the day. The Shanghai and Hang Seng indices were […]

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced it will decide in the coming months whether monetary policy should be eased any further. Clearly, Draghi is completely losing control for he cannot entertain the remote possibility that negative interest rates will only cause hoarding and capital flight, and not stimulation. People only borrow when they see an […]

Japan finally saw a down day (-0.25%) that could be allocated to the individual performance of Nintendo shares, which declined over 12% today due to the delayed launch of the “Pokemon Go” app in Japan! However, the Hang Seng did return a nearly 1% gain today with Shanghai having a small loss, which was a […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, why are Italian banks in worse shape than most other countries. What happened to the bail-in program of the ECB? Can you explain why Italy is threatening the entire banking system of Europe? ANSWER: The bail-in policy of the IMF and ECB was directed at the idea that the rich would pay, […]

Despite weekend press of Turkey, BREXIT and a small early CPI miss for New Zealand (0.4% against an expected 0.5%) and with Japan on a national holiday, all of this resulted in a rather lacklustre start to the week. Shanghai saw a fairly tight trading range (<1%), closing off the days lows but still down […]