Business

Authored by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

One of the truly mind-boggling absurdities in modern finance has been the creation of ‘negative interest rates’ around the world.

Negative interest rates are particularly prominent in Europe.

Starting back in 2014, the European Central Bank (ECB) slashed its main interest rate to below zero.

One bizarre effect of this policy is that some banks have passed on these negative interest rates to their retail depositors.

Something strange happened on July 24: on that day the Bank of Japan announced it would reduce the size of its purchases of five-to-ten year JGBs from Y500 billion to Y470 billion. However, instead of yields and the yen spiking, as some had expected would happen, they slumped. And, just as unexpectedly, 10Y JGB yields continued to slump over the next month, despite another reduction in the amount of JGB in the 5-10 year bucket that the BOJ would purchase on August when it further reduced the amount to Y440 billion.

Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,

No, I am not talking about “Hurricane Harvey” which will likely be the first hurricane to strike the Texas coast since 2008, but rather the potential for another “debt ceiling” debacle brewing in Washington.

The dollar today...

Summarizing the week's moves: Dollar dump sparks buying binge in bonds, bullion, and stocks (but sinks FANG Stocks)

And this was what happened in FX markets...

While FundStrat's Tom Lee has not been banned from ESPN, he may well be banished from mainstream business media as not only is he bullish Bitcoin, and the S&P's most-bearish strategist (target 2,275 year-end), he is now calling for a 5% correction in stocks as market breadth collapses...