On Tuesday global equities were down a very modest amount. The U.S. DOLLAR continued it move higher as the growth story and positive nominal yields is enough to push global investors into the U.S., the center of complacency. Commodity prices started off weak but OIL, grains and even COPPER found some buyers.
Posts Tagged ‘copper’
Notes From Underground: And the Concerns Continue
February 18, 2020Notes From Underground: Man Plans, God Laughs
February 2, 2020It has been three weeks since I have sat down to articulate my thoughts on the global macro financial system in an effort to profit from trade/investment potentials. A lot of the discourse with many readers the focus was on the situation in the Middle East.
Notes From Underground: The Summer Doldrums
July 10, 2018There are storms brewing but for the moment markets are stuck in the Doldrums waiting for the winds to increase in velocity. The issues confronting the market are all too familiar as NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND has been categorizing for the previous months.
Notes From Underground: Feeding the Ducks When They Quack
January 9, 2018Since the unemployment data, I have tried to write an appropriate blog but “all my words came back to me in shades of mediocrity” so I refrained from adding to the stream of vapid commentary that fills the Internet. But let’s proceed as the markets provided movement based on some sense of heightened inflation expectations. There is certainly money flowing into commodity based investments as OIL, COPPER, GOLD, and a litany of other natural resources have become a repository for money concerned with investments other than crypto currencies. The U.S. employment data was well within the range of expectations. The important average hourly earnings and the average work week were close to the consensus forecasts. The Canadian data beat estimates for the second consecutive month. The consensus was for an unemployment rate of 6% and addition of 2,000 jobs. The actual data was 5.7% unemployed and almost 80,000 new jobs, with two-thirds being part-time.
Notes From Underground: It’s Halloween and Nothing Scares the Markets
October 31, 2017It has been a few days since the ECB announced its intentions. There was no surprise as President Draghi met market expectations by beginning a NON-TAPER, cutting QE by 30 billion euros beginning in January 2018. So as we considered the outcome of PACE and DURATION, the ECB cut the pace in half and extended the program by nine months to September 2018. The most significant piece of the Draghi press conference was his persistence on making the composition of future purchases. It seems that the ECB will utilize the European corporate bond market to meet its requirement and stay true to its CAPITAL KEY. By buying more corporate debt the ECB will find enough German assets to buy. The major problem for the European markets is that UNLIKE the U.S. financial system, European banks are a much more important actor as they provide far more corporate loans on a percentage basis of GDP than U.S. banks. The U.S. financial system relied to a far greater extent on issuing bonds. We have previously discussed the absurd chart showing European high yield debt to have a lower interest rate than 10-year U.S. Treasuries.
Notes From Underground: Arthur’s Song, Lost Between the Moon and New York City
August 28, 2017A long-time reader of Notes From Underground posted a comment to a previous post promoting long GOLD/short YEN. When I asked him about this trade he noted the onset of currency wars. There is no question, as I have regularly shown that many foreign central banks’ currency’s strength is a reason to maintain very low interest rates and if in place QE programs. I certainly agree with Arthur about this narrative. But from a relative value perspective the Japanese yen has already benefited from its weakening versus the EURO, Aussie, Kiwi, Canada and Swiss franc.
Notes From Underground: Let’s Deflate the Cult of Personality and Media-Inflated Infallibility
August 18, 2015Some follow-through from yesterday: The DAX,Dow and Russell 2000 closed below their 200-day moving averages but it is early in the week so while a negative it is not definitive of any sustaining activity. Just another effort to be attentive to global developments. The Chinese markets were under assault last night, which led to a selloff in copper and silver prices although GOLD remained firm. Some analysts maintain that the selling in copper and silver was due to having meet margin calls with account collateral being liquidated. I have no argument with that analysis but if so silver should regain itself above 15.10 and GOLD should rise above its recent highs. If China’s recent market developments is the onset of global deflation the world’s central banks will be forced into renewed crisis mode and the precious metals will again be viewed as a “reliable haven.” Let the market be your guide for theory confirmation and have your technical levels ready especially for GOLD resistance.
Notes From Underground: Enduring the Doldrums of a Central Bank-Controlled Market Structure
July 27, 2015Never has such calm winds cause so much turbulence. The markets have been grinding up and down during the last four weeks as traders and investors weigh the consequences of the Greek resolution and the Chinese intervention into their equity markets. ONE THING IS FOR CERTAIN, THE CHINESE EQUITY MARKET IS AN OXYMORON. If a government can set the price of individual stocks or the price of bonds it is not a MARKET but a plaything for the ruling party. The Chinese Government can try to mandate rising stock prices but ultimately it will take more than a mandate but actually spending of capital to support prices, or else invoking the fear of capital punishment for all short sellers of equities (PUN INTENDED). The talking heads are concerned that the Chinese weakness is causing selling in all global equity markets. The DOW JONES did close under the 200-day moving average last Friday and continued its downward path today. The SPOOs tested the 200-day and managed to save itself by the market close.
Notes From Underground: Fed Creates Jobs by Printing `Data Dependent’ T-Shirts
May 11, 2015Today, CNBC‘s Steve Liesman interviewed San Fran Fed President John Williams. In a swipe at Fed gallows humor, President Williams presented Liesman with a T-Shirt that said the Fed was DATA DEPENDENT. The humor part was Williams’s effort to cut-off Steve Liesman’s well choreographed question which amounts to: “Come on, John, share your inside view about the possibility of a RATE RISE at the next FOMC meeting (just between us, John).” So as to make sure that Liesman understands the consistent answer: It is data dependent. If the FED wants to create some jobs it can send everyone with a bank account a free “Data Dependent” shirt, compliments of their regional Federal Reserve. All sarcasm aside, President Williams’s view puts added importance now to the inflation data on Friday and of course the retail sales input on Wednesday. The consensus on the CORE RETAIL SALES is 0.3% increase so a strong number would be above 0.6%. If the theory of data dependence holds then it should be the SHORT END of the curve that gets sold and here is my reasoning: The 2/10 and 5/30 parts of the yield curve have steepened dramatically during the last two months as the market accepts the fact that the recent bout of weak economic data has pushed the FED further away from raising rates.