This is how tenuous the markets really are. The slightest breeze from the Federal Reserve, the mere hint that the flow of money will slow, sends one of the world’s major stock markets pinwheeling.
At this moment US market futures aren’t looking very good.
Juiced data coming out of the Ultimate Crony Capitalist State? We are shocked.
Yesterday we talked about inflationary pressures in stocks and in housing. But the core of the world economy continues to struggle. We are printing like crazy here and in Japan, and equity markets, and to a very limited extent some housing markets, have trended up. But retail sales are trending down. Gold is trending down. Silver is trending down. Europe continues to trend down. China? Well it depends on the day. Things are pretty weird right now. And North Korea is throwing a nuclear tipped fit.
Just one more hit. That will make everything better. Just…one…more…hit……….
Not only is the Bank of Japan going to buy huge amounts of government bonds, but it’s also going to buy stocks, ETFs, and real estate investment trusts.
Printing money and broad fiscal stimulus isn’t going to work because of deep structural issues within the Japanese economy. Specifically the country’s population keeps getting older while the economy is also becoming more and more integrated with China’s. Deflationary winds are gale force and steady.
