An encouraging session for Asia overnight but especially the Nikkei. Bouncing from yesterdays lows with an enticing 600 point (3.7%) rally. We did not see that response from either the Shanghai or Hang Seng but positive sessions for both is acceptable for any day. The JPY remains a focal point between dealers as all are looking for […]

A disappointing result from the weekends Doha meeting, resulted in negative market reaction early Monday morning trading. With oil initially trading off 6.5% from Fridays close the Asian equity markets opened in a bit of a frenzy with many brokers looking for the bid. The Nikkei was the weakest of the bunch closing down over […]

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong, I think I am starting to see the light you have been shining. Negative interest rates really are “completely insane”. I also now see that months after you wrote about central banks were trapped, others are now just starting to entertain the idea. Is this distinct difference in your views that eventually […]

Saudi Arabia has threatened the Obama administration and congressional leaders that it will sell billions of dollars in U.S. financial assets if Congress passes a bill to make the Saudi government legally responsible for any role in the 9/11 attacks. That bill would allow claims to freeze their assets in the USA by a judge pending […]

JPY remained the focal point for Asia, well that was until the market realized it had finally turned. The JPY took out the 109 handle and dealers were less concerned and comfort returned to the Nikkei. The session went from strength to strength closing up almost 2% on the day. The Shanghai and Hang Seng […]

Oil was blamed for the majority of today’s equity weakness but there was no new news and the reason was a little baffling! The Nikkei broke the 16k level and then fell another 300 points quite sharply. In late US trading, it lost an additional 150 points and is currently trading around the 15,500 level. […]

A lot of emails have been coming in with regard to the Panama Papers. Let me say this from the outset — Panama has been the key place to establish offshore accounts for decades. This was not a government hack. The German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung obtained the stash of records from an anonymous source and shared […]

Trump’s latest comments over the weekend regarding the economy are interesting but still fall short of reality. He argues the unemployment number is really in the 20%+ zone, and the number that was provided was deliberately contrived to make politicians look good. That is basically true, but his number is a bit high. He says the […]

After an initial opening surge in the Nikkei, briefly topping 17k, sellers appeared and drove prices lower to close the day -0.7%. The JPY was weaker throughout the morning session but had also turned stronger to balance the Nikkei swing. With the 10yr JGB having turned negative recently, this will squeeze banks and foreigners in […]

Asia followed the bullish tone provided by the Federal Reserve with a gap higher opening of around 1%. Mainland China and Hang Seng managed to build upon this enthusiasm, eventually closing up almost 2.5% each. The same could not be said of Japan when the Nikkei had problems holding the 17k psychological level. Tomorrow being […]