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Market Talk – August 20, 2015

Another very poor performance from Asian equity markets rolled over into Europe and the U.S. All Asian markets lost between 1% – 3.5%. In Europe, FTSE was the best of a poor bunch, only losing 0.6%, whilst the DAX and CAC were both down over 2%. The U.S. fared no better with the DOW and […]

The Mad Max Event

QUESTION: Martin, Can you explain more fully why you are expecting the market to rally post 2015.75 while at the same time the economy turns down? Is it merely capital flows domestically as the international economy worsens further, which will ultimately wash up on the shores of the US?  At that point should we expect […]

Market Talk — August 18, 2015

With the exception of the Shanghai market today — IF we can excuse a 6.5% decline — most markets were well behaved, generally speaking. European stocks were off but only modestly and the Dow is slightly down after exceeding yesterday’s high. The U.S. dollar continued its stronger tone to Emerging Market (EM) currencies. Again, Russia […]

Why is it so Hard for the West to See That Everything is Connected?

QUESTION: Marty, you have written many times how everything is connected and how in Asian culture that is the foundation of all understanding. Why is it so hard in the West to comprehend this fundamental concept? All the best GD ANSWER: I think it is all part of the idea that we can alter society […]

The Flight to Quality – Right on Target

China’s devaluation of the yuan has helped to complete the cycle for the bubble in government. One of the major repercussions of the turmoil caused by China’s currency move has been that investors are running for the flight to quality as we have warned. German 2yr bonds have hit new record lows with negative yields edging […]

Market Talk – August 12, 2015

The Chinese revaluation of yuan has unsettled Asian equity markets and the obvious spread across the globe. The Nikkei and Hang Seng were off 1.6 and 2.4% respectively, which rolled over into Europe. The recent performance in both the DAX and CAC finished today and became the worst performers — down around 3.6% each.  The U.S. market was also feeling the pressure with the […]

INFLATION – Multi-Dimensional Confusion

The old idea that inflation is created by an increase in money supply has distorted the minds of many people. Inflation is caused by numerous factors for it is not a one-dimensional aspect. For example, the current bird flu has rendered half of the egg production to be worthless, which has sent egg prices soaring. This has nothing […]

The Age of Deflation & the Fed

It appears that many people are married to the idea that the Fed creates INFLATION by expanding the money supply. Sorry, it does not work that way. Others confuse the fact that interest rate increases are bearish and declines are bullish. All you need to do is look at Japan to see that did not work […]

Market Talk – August 5, 2015

With the exception of the bond sell-off yesterday, the markets behaved reasonably well – even in thin summer trading. This comes after Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Dennis Lockhart’s comments that the Fed is poised to raise rates. Today, we saw a mixed Asian session for equities with both the Nikkei and HSI ending with small gains (+0.45%) whilst the […]

Market Talk – August 4, 2015

None of the core Asian Equity Indices managed to trade in positive territory today: Nikkei (down 0.19%), Shanghai (-1.12%), and HSI (-0.92%). We saw weakness again in Asian currencies, and this mood worked its way in Europe as well. The first trading day in the Greek stock market after its official closure saw a 17% […]