Those of you who have been following markets closely these last few weeks have noticed that in addition to me traveling around a lot, a few of the emerging markets have been experiencing turbulence.

The US economy has been performing phantasmagorically, which in turn is causing the Federal Reserve to tighten the screws on the economy, which in turn, despite Donald Trump’s best wishes, is causing the Dollar to surge, especially against it’s much weaker counterparts.

The Turkish Lira has been a main focus for many. Erdogan is doing his best to sweet talk the currency upwards this morning and has seen some mild success but the Lira is still on track to see its worst monthly performance in 17 years.

What really shocked global onlookers today was the announcement from Argentina’s central bank…

The Peso has dropped more than 100% against the US Dollar since the beginning of the year, prompting the Central Bank of Argentina to introduce what is currently the highest interest rate in the world…. by far.

It is in these countries where economic stability is lowest that cryptocurrencies could help most. Argentina, in particular, has turned to bitcoin several times in the last few years during times of economic distress and it seems that with the current currency depreciation, they have every incentive to do so again.

Unfortunately, there will be no daily market update on Monday or Tuesday of next week as I will be traveling. We will resume with the updates as normal from Wednesday, September 5th.

Today’s Highlights

Traditional Markets

As far as it seems, we may see a new trade deal for North America today, or sometime this weekend. This ramps up pressure on China as Trump’s consideration of new tariffs on $200 Billion worth of trade looms.

Asian and European stocks have been running red for the better part of the week and the United States joined them yesterday. Sill, even with yesterday’s down-tick Wall Street is still sitting pretty for the month.