Much of the talk surrounded the 12 days of fresh highs for the US markets, but even so Asia closed mixed with focus well and truly on President Trump’s speech. The congress address will not take place until late in the US evening which will be just ahead of the Asian opening. The safe-haven […]

QUESTION:  Martin, Love your blog, especially your historical perspective. You recently responded to a viewer that we should take precious metals out of safety deposit boxes. Is there a reason for this? To my understanding the bail-in rules for banks in N.america put deposits and bonds at risk only? Thanks. ANSWER:  The contents of a […]

Another lacklustre session for Asian equity markets as we approach both the end of week closely followed by the end of the month. The Nikkei and Hang Seng both lost around 0.6% on the day with a small gain registered for Shanghai, but the big talking point remains the bond market and specifically the west. […]

A little rest and relaxation is a good thing and that is what Asian equity markets gave us today. Having seen the US markets set even more new highs rather than retrace the nerves were truly set after the comments alluding to the March rate rise. All core indices drifted with Nikkei, Shanghai, and Hang […]

Having seen the US markets set new record highs, most Asian indices followed the momentum. Many dealers said the euphoria can take us only so far, then we look for substance and they were hoping for that from tonight’s FED minutes release. The Nikkei retraced much of Wednesday strength but interestingly enough remained within the […]

One of the quietest days in a while with even the JPY trading in a fairly tight trading range, less than one Yen (113.00 – 113.80). Early talk surrounded Fed’s Member (Patrick Harker) who commented late in the day that March is still in play for potential move. US Dollar bulls needed no encouragement and […]

QUESTION: Hi Marty, I just read the latest blog post. Thanks for the advice re: hard assets. I’m wondering though about any asset which is not in one’s personal custody, i.e. stocks in street name. If we suffer a partial collapse don’t you think the banks and brokerages will suffer to the extent of a Bear […]

QUESTION: Martin – Given your compelling elucidation of the business cycle (which remains ineluctable even with central bank and regulatory distortion of money and markets), the avg annual return targets set by pension and retirement plans seems absurd. CalPERS had an annual bogey of 8% to meet via its active management. Even in a rapidly-growing economy […]

The 1840 Presidential Election took place in the midst of a great depression that was set in motion by State Sovereign Defaults after Andrew Jackson shut down the Bank of the United States, which acted as the central bank. There, the incumbent Democrat, President Martin Van Buren suffered a devastating loss to the new unified […]

It was a mixed story in Asia today with the Nikkei still cooling after its recent performance, but given Toshiba’s performance, -3.5% again today – having missed its publishing deadline, certainly did not help confidence. The Nikkei ended the session down almost 0.5%, but we do have the Tankan to be released later this evening; […]