Your IMPORTANT Weekly Briefing: (17th July 2026)

The Neil McCoy-Ward Newsletter

July 17, 2026

Opening Note…

Welcome back again this week.

Before we get into the newsletter, I just wanted to give you ONE FINAL reminder that Digital Income Mastery closes this weekend!

After this weekend, the price will go up from the (pre-release) price of $497 for all 3 programs + bonuses (over 30 hours of high quality video education)

The new price will be in line with the other large programs available in the Academy - specifically over $6,000 for this full package…

So if you would like to take the program, this will be your last opportunity as I will be releasing the final modules tomorrow evening (UK timezone)

Here’s the LINK to watch the video and get the 90% off closing deal.

Table of Contents

1. Weekly Spotlight

Tokyo Just Tried to Bluff the Bond Market

Something happened in Japan this week that barely made the news over here, and I think it might be one of the more important things that's happened all year.

For about thirty years, Japan has had one of the strangest bond markets in the world.

When the Japanese government borrowed money, it paid back almost nothing in interest - sometimes even less than nothing.

So for a whole generation of investors, lending money to Japan just wasn't worth doing.

But that's now changing fast.

The interest rate on Japan's 10-year government bonds (basically the "price" Japan pays to borrow money for 10 years) - jumped to 2.9% last Thursday.

That's up more than 0.7% since January, which is a big move for something that barely budged for decades.

And Japan's Finance Minister said the government would encourage the country's pension funds to buy more Japanese assets, and floated the idea of a tax-free savings scheme to get everyday citizens buying government bonds too.

That’s important because Japan's state pension fund is the largest pension fund on the planet.

And for a moment, it worked - interest rates dropped back down to 2.7%. Not because anyone actually bought anything. Just the announcement was enough to calm things down, briefly.

But then the Japanese yen (the country's currency) fell to its weakest level in about 40 years. So really, the market saw through it.

Pension money has to be invested in something - and the everyday people whose retirement savings make up that pension fund don't get a vote on where it goes.

I'm writing about this today because Japan is running out of easy options.

They already tried propping up the yen directly (spending their savings to buy their own currency and prop up its value), but even that isn't working…

Goldman Sachs recently pushed its 12-month forecast for the yen from 155 to 165, which basically means Wall Street doesn't believe Japan's efforts will hold up.

That leaves one option: raising interest rates.

And that’s BAD, very bad indeed for stock markets and liquidity in general. Yes, even in the USA…

I wrote this in more detail for my Patreon members this week, how it works, what actually happened previously, and what to look out for when this starts to unwind. If you're not in the Patreon yet, head over and sign up now and you can get access to this full article and so much more: LINK

2. Quick Takes

Here are the other top stories shaping the week:

  • Iran Is Threatening "Infrastructure For Infrastructure"

    Iran has vowed to destroy "all infrastructure throughout the region" if Trump bombs its bridges and power plants further, with an IRGC colonel calling Hormuz an unimpeachable red line. Just 13 merchant ships crossed the strait on Wednesday, and only one used the US-approved route

  • Iran Has Asked The Houthis To Shut The Red Sea If Trump Bombs Its Power Plants

    Iran has told the Houthis to be ready to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait if Washington hits its power infrastructure, This is just after Trump warned "next week comes the power plants." With Hormuz already being blocked now both ends of the Middle East's oil routes could close at once

  • Indian Firms Are Ditching American AI For Chinese Models

    Indian companies are switching to DeepSeek, Alibaba and Moonshot models, cutting costs tenfold. DeepSeek starts at 19 cents per million input tokens versus $5 to $12 for GPT 5.5. Chinese usage doubled to 25 trillion tokens in late June, 78% ahead of US models

  • 1 In 30 Korean Adults Just Got Margin-Called As The Kospi (The Korean Stock Market Index) Crashes

    Over 1.2 million leveraged Korean accounts triggered margin calls and up to 360,000 were wiped out entirely, that's roughly 1 in 30 adults. The Kospi is down 27% from its June peak. Only now has the regulator banned new leveraged ETFs - one to watch

  • Japan Just Reclassified Bitcoin As A Financial Asset

    Japan's parliament voted to move crypto into the same law governing stocks and bonds by 2027. This clears the path for spot bitcoin ETFs and cuts the top tax on crypto gains from 55% to a flat 20% in 2028. Halving the tax and opening the ETF door in one vote; this will have other countries taking notice

  • The US Just Hit Brazil With 25% Tariffs Because Lula Wouldn't Play Ball

    The US ordered 25% tariffs on most Brazilian imports, with Rubio saying Lula put his ego ahead of his people (although coffee and beef are exempt). Lula faces Flávio Bolsonaro in the October election. The tariff is really an election message. Latin America keeps flipping, and Brazil is the big one

  • Trump Accused China Of Rigging The 2020 Election For Biden

    Trump is set to unveil four sets of declassified documents allegedly showing China hacked state voter databases to manufacture mail-in ballots for Biden. Senator Warner says he'd be shocked if such intelligence was never shared with Congress. It all rides on whether the documents survive independent checking.

  • Americans Say They're Miserable, But They're Still Shopping

    June retail sales rose 0.2%, up 6.7% on the year, with the GDP-feeding control group jumping 0.5%. Adjusted for inflation, sales are growing at their fastest pace since March 2022, even as sentiment sits in the gutter. Surveys say one thing, wallets say another…

  • More Americans Are Borrowing Money Just To Buy Food

    Nearly 9% of working-age Americans put groceries on a credit card then couldn't make the minimum payment, up from 7.1% in 2023. Almost one in ten used buy-now-pay-later for food. Food costs are up 32% in five years. This scenario of financing groceries on a card you can't pay is about as close to the edge as it gets.

  • The UK Is About To Tell Households To Stockpile Food And Water

    (Watch today’s walk and talk for the full details). Britons will be urged to keep long-life food, water, medicines and wind-up radios at home under a campaign launching later this year, while ministers confirmed the largest home defence exercise in decades for 2027. The Cold War Government War Book is being updated for the first time since 2004. Britain scrapped civil defence in the 1960s to save money. Telling people to stock their own cupboards is really the government admitting the state can't guarantee the lights stay on.

NEIL’S TAKEAWAYS:

In the United States
Prices dropped 0.4% on the month, the biggest fall since April 2020, taking the annual rate down to 3.5% from 4.2%, also gasoline fell 9.7%. But given the situation now I expect next month to be different.

The Fed's June minutes showed officials split down the middle, some seeing rates going lower, others seeing hikes. Nine of nineteen want at least one increase this year. New Chair Kevin Warsh called it a "family fight".

Prepare: Watch the energy component next month, because if oil climbs back, this whole improvement reverses. Companies with low debt and real pricing power handle either outcome.

Across Europe:
Britain gets its seventh prime minister in a decade on Monday. Andy Burnham becomes Labour leader today, then replaces Keir Starmer on Monday.

What matters here is the money; his team has already asked the civil service to draw up plans for new North Sea oil and gas drilling and for taking Thames Water into public control, ready to go as soon as next week.

Burnham has spent years arguing Britain is "in hock to the bond markets" and wants a bigger public role in the economy. That's a real change of direction, and the bond market hasn't priced it yet.

He’s obviously never read an economic history book to learn that when the Government takes over from the free market - things go very wrong. Just ask any Venezuelan.

There’s also another risk to this: When a government borrows, it sells gilts. If investors get nervous, they demand a higher return, and borrowing costs jump. That's what broke Liz Truss in 2022.

The UK has to refinance £192bn of gilts next year, and with new borrowing on top, we're near £300bn. Markets are going to be watching two things: his economic speech, and whether he picks a Chancellor they trust.

And the ECB isn't riding to anyone's rescue either. Rates are expected to stay put next week and eurozone bond yields have climbed on the rising tone even with growth stuck around 0.9% this year.

Prepare: Watch the Chancellor announcement and the 30-year gilt yield together. If yields spike on the appointment, that's the market's verdict before any policy exists. UK utilities and North Sea energy names are directly exposed to next week's announcements, in both directions. I'd stay cautious on anything that needs UK government spending to arrive on schedule.

On the Global Stage:
China's investment engine has gone into reverse. Urban fixed-asset investment fell 5.7% in the first six months, a bigger drop than expected, and Q2 GDP came in at 4.3%, the weakest since late 2022 and below Beijing's own 4.5% to 5% target.

(Fixed-asset investment means the building of things: factories, roads, property. It has been the engine of Chinese growth for thirty years.)

Then we look at South Korea: The Kospi fell 6.37% on Thursday to 6,821, down 23% in a month, roughly 27% below its June record of 9,385. Monday saw it plunge nearly 9%, with SK Hynix down more than 8% despite its Nasdaq debut days earlier.

On Wednesday it rallied 6.2% on the soft US inflation print, then gave it all back on Thursday. And the Bank of Korea raised rates 25bp (0.25%) to 2.75%, starting a new tightening cycle.

I warned about Korea's concentration before, and here's the proof: Leveraged single-stock ETFs tied to Samsung and SK Hynix have fallen below their listing price.

People borrowed money to bet on two companies in one index, and the market moved 9% in a day, in both directions. That’s very bad…

Prepare: Anything tied to Chinese construction, industrial demand, or commodity imports needs a hard look. On Korea, an index this concentrated is a bet on two chipmakers wearing a country's flag, so an ETF won't diversify you. And leverage into a market swinging 9% a day is how people get destroyed.

P.S. If you like this kind of commentary, and want detailed investment posts - then you’ll love the private finance and investing community over on Patreon (where you’ll also get as many as 3 Significantly Undervalued stock picks each month). You can also speak with me privately via personal messaging. Check it out here: LINK

3. Chart Of The Week

Global Investment Just Fell Off A Cliff, And The Middle East Is In Freefall

Foreign investment announcements dropped 17.5% globally between March and May, from 5,170 projects to 4,265, but the Middle East collapsed 67%, from 580 down to just 191.

Emerging Europe fell 34.6% with the Russia-Ukraine war in its fourth year, Western Europe dropped 23.9%, and Africa and Asia-Pacific each fell around 12%.

North America was the only region to grow, up 4.2% to 1,517 projects, though even that's still below its post-COVID average.

Liquidity doesn't care about borders, it cares about not getting blown up. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE spent decades building a reputation for stability, and a few months of war undid it.

4. Market Overview

S&P 500 (U.S.) 
Down on the week. It started the week fine, inflation data came in better than expected and tech shares rallied, but then the chipmakers fell apart. Investors got nervous that all the money being poured into AI won't pay off, and a new Chinese AI startup made that worry worse. The US-Iran fighting didn't help either.

FTSE 100 (UK)
Up on the week. London barely holds any tech shares, so it mostly avoided the global chip sell-off. Boring, dependable companies, utilities, supermarkets, drugmakers, did most of the work. Good UK jobs numbers helped. Burberry was the week's worst performer after a weak update.

S&P/TSX Composite (Canada)
Flat on the week. Oil companies did well as the Iran conflict pushed oil prices up, but that same expensive oil made people worry about inflation, which hurt the banks. Gold miners fell as the gold price slid. It all cancelled out.

ASX 200 (Australia)
Flat on the week. Most of the market actually finished the week higher, but the mining companies were hit so hard that nothing else really mattered. BHP cut its copper forecast, and gold and iron ore shares were sold off.

🇺🇸 United States – S&P 500

  • High: 7,579

  • Low: 7,433

🇬🇧 UK - FTSE 100

  • High: 10,619

  • Low: 10,426

🇨🇦 Canada – TSX Composite

  • High: 35,490

  • Low: 34,050

🇦🇺 Australia – ASX 200

  • High: 8,865

  • Low: 8,758

Cryptocurrency:

  • Bitcoin (BTC): -0.1%

  • Ethereum (ETH): 2.6%

  • Tether (USDT): 0.0%

  • BNB (BNB): -1.9%

  • USDC (USDC): 0.0%

  • XRP (XRP): -1.2%

    Solana (SOL): -3.7%

  • TRON (TRX): -2.3%

  • Figure Heloc (FIGR_HELOC): 0.7%

  • WhiteBIT Coin(WBT): -1.0%

Metals Market:

Gold–Silver Ratio: ~71:1, Rose. Both metals fell, but silver fell much harder. The US-Iran fighting pushed oil up, reviving fears of higher inflation and another Fed rate rise, and silver takes that worse than gold because most of its demand comes from industry. Soft inflation data early in the week briefly pulled the ratio down, but the oil story won out.

Gold & Silver:

  • Gold:  -2.33% with a Week High: $4,122 & Week Low: $3,960

  • Silver: -6.19% with a Week High: $60.04 & Week Low: $54.79

5. Faith & Success

❝

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens.”

— Ecclesiastes 3:1

We're right in the middle of summer… and I've been fielding a lot of emails and messages over Patreon from people feeling that they’re not doing enough. This is leading to them carrying low-level anxiety…

And it’s a difficult one because while they’re still working hard, the world has slowed down around them (because it’s Summer).

So firstly, this happens every year - you can’t change the habits of people anymore than you can stop the sun rising in the morning and setting in the evening…

Simply accept it as is.

I’m even scaling back my work by several hours a day at the moment so I can enjoy this beautiful weather we’ve been having. Because I can tell you one thing - it won’t last!

Because just like the sun rise, it comes and goes…

But the other side of this is that if you’re running a business that relies on a lot of human capital - then I would again urge you to refresh your training on The Rapid Cashflow Program…

Because that lays out the blueprint for why I moved my businesses away from relying on other people (who may constantly let you down or get sick) and move towards working for yourself by adopting the NEW business model for a new era.

So this verse is wise because it doesn't say "there is a time for working and everything else is wasted time." It says there is a time for EVERYTHING. A time to push hard and a time to let things settle. A time to plant and a time to let what you've already planted simply grow.

One of the real skills in life is learning to read which season you're actually in - and then working WITH it rather than against it. Because seasons are not obstacles, they're the rhythm.

So ask yourself honestly this weekend: what season am I in right now? And am I working with it… or against it?

But to be honest, my advice would be to give yourself a break. Life’s too short to stress about this, soon enough the weather will change and you’ll be back to full speed ahead.

Have a wonderful summer weekend my friend!

Take care, and God Bless,

Neil,

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DISCLAIMER
This newsletter is 100% FREE & is designed to help your thinking, not direct it. These newsletters shall NOT be construed as tax, legal, or financial advice and may be outdated or inaccurate; all decisions made as a result of this information are yours alone.

Trading/Liability: Neil McCoy-Ward operates/trades under a private Ltd company within the Isle of Man.

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