Conjuring Kyle Bass' recent explanation of the massive surge in the nominal price of the Zimbabwean stock market [3] enabling the purchase of only 3 eggs, much is being made of the surge in Japan's Nikkei index (overnight up ~3.8% and the last few months). It would appear that, as we noted recently [4], the world forgets (quite readily) that 'real' and 'nominal' returns are quite different. With JPY collapsing at its fastest rate in a decade (relative to fiat and hard currency) to 33-month lows, is it any wonder that the nominal price of the stocks that represent the nation are surging to keep their 'value'. In nominal terms, NKY is at its highest since 2008; in real (gold) terms, it is laboring at its lowest since 1984 - which do you trust to judge your wealth?
[5]
(h/t MarketUpdate.nl [6])
Charts: Bloomberg