During the Oct 11 Oval Office press conference in which Trump announced the Phase One China trade deal, he mentioned the words “40 or 50 billion” seven times (five times in the first two minutes alone.) He encouraged farmers to “go and immediately buy more land and get bigger tractors.” In addition, an agreement was supposedly reached regarding structural agriculture issues, currency, foreign exchange, technology transfer, etc.

It was a joyous moment, except that no one in the room can be seen smiling. Not one. Though Trump used the word “deal” six times, the Chinese vice premier studiously avoided mentioning the word, saying only that “we have made substantial progress in many fields” and “we will continue to make efforts.”

The only problem? It was total bullshit – not that the algos cared. Stocks broke out of the bearish Head & Shoulders Pattern they were completing and raced out to new highs. Ever since then, ES has been locked in a tight acceleration channel which is gaining about 5 points per day, almost 1% per week.

Trump’s most notable quote from the press conference was the following non-sequitur:

Every time there’s a little bit of bad news, the market would go down incredibly. Every time there was a little bit of good news, the market would go up incredibly. And, yet, other news, that was also very big, the market just didn’t really care. They just seemed to care about the deal with the USA and China. And, that’s okay with me.

It was his acknowledgement of what we all know: markets are responding to “news” of the deal which is very clearly not yet a deal — 629 days since the “trade wars are good and easy to win” tweet:

Trade wars have obviously not been good (especially for farmers who went out and immediately bought more land and bigger tractors) or easy to win. But, it has been easy to ramp the market higher with tweets, chopper talk and leaks to friendly reporters every time the algos got distracted by disappointing economic or earnings news — aided and abetted by a Federal Reserve which is treating current conditions with the same urgency as the greatest financial downturns of the past 100 years.

As we noted yesterday, the market has yet to decide whether to remain in the channel or backtest some important Fibs. Look for oil, VIX and USDJPY to continue calling the shots and for the White House to continue managing the process.

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We’ll get a chance today to find out what so unnerved the FOMC in October that they lowered fed funds rates to 1.50-1.75%.  This level was last seen in March 21, 2018 (when SPX was 13% lower.) At the time, the FOMC was still raising rates in the wake of that sharp 12% correction.

In terms of cuts, though, the last time was in Oct 2008 after SPX had shed 20% on its way to a 58% crash in the midst of the Great Financial Crisis.  The time prior to that was in Dec 2001 with SPX off 27% during the 50% dot-com bust in the wake of 9/11…Rates also dipped this low during WWII and the recessions of 1953 and 1958.

Prior to that, though, you have to go all the way back to January 1931 when the Dow had plunged 55% on its way to a 89% crash in the midst of the Great Depression.

This latest meeting will also be known as the start of Not-QE – the resumption of inflating the Fed’s $4 trillion balance sheet.  This series of cuts and the restart of QE is being billed as a non-event.  But, if history means anything at all, it ain’t.

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Futures were off as much as 14 points overnight, but are making a comeback. It remains to be seen whether we’ll finally get a backtest of the 10-day moving average and whether will prompt an emergency meeting of the Plunge Protection Team.continued for members… (more…)

Futures melted up an additional 10 points overnight, largely on another VIX test and USDJPY buoyancy.With ES’ SMA20 nearly at the 2.618 Fib extension and the overhang of two channel tops, we could finally see the pullback discussed yesterday.  If not, it’s a different path all together.

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The market has ignored the most obvious reversal points. Does that mean the waters are safe? For what warning signs should we be watching? We’ll take a look back at the patterns exhibited in the last few meltups.

The first is that backtests happen.  The tricky part is the timing.  ES is currently about 44 points above its 2.618 extension and has broken a short-term trend line of support.  As we discussed Friday in our argument to fade that particular ramp job, the path to 3076.93 is wide open.  But, is the timing right?  Is a backtest certain?

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Another day, another breathless Kudlow report on trade talk progress.  At the open, SPX will have risen almost 6% since the Phase One deal agreement was announced.Thanks to Kudlow’s and Trump’s frequent updates, USDJPY and CL’s continuing ramp jobs and the incessant assault on VIX, the market can do no wrong.

Unfortunately for the bulls, ES is back to the top of a rising channel and this latest move should be faded.  The most interesting trade, however, is coming up in the oil market.

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If you haven’t noticed something strange about the market’s price action lately, you probably haven’t been paying attention. Hint: it involves more than the market “shrugging off” bad news.

This is the 9th session in a row where oil futures temporarily popped up above their 200-day moving average. Today is also the 10th out of the last 14 sessions where VIX was briefly hammered right at 9AM (the other 4 sessions, it simply cratered from an overnight high.) With futures off (horrors!) a few points, look for another trademark “breakdown” of the latest straw-man trend line.VIX got a scare yesterday when negative trade news hit the wire.  The panic lasted all of 2 minutes — the amount of time it took for someone to see the aberration and mash the SHORT VIX! button.

Futures have been dancing to the same tune every day – repeatedly “saved” from an ugly open and managing to remain above their 2.618 Fibonacci extension at 3076.93 for what is now approaching 10 sessions. The algos have very clearly been running the show. SPX is off a few points? Simply hammer VIX and ramp CL by a cents.  Works every time. But how long can it go on?

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I saw this posted by a portfolio manager for a big state pension plan yesterday.  It struck me just how significantly the market has changed over the past 20 years.  Twenty years ago, stock buybacks were mostly illegal. They were considered manipulative.

Today, they are commonplace — fueled largely by historically low interest rates, favorable tax policy and an incentive structure that rewards corporate chieftains more for short-term rallies in their stock (buybacks) than for investments which will pay off handsomely in the long run (capex.)

If this scenario troubles you, though, what should you do?  Suppose you’re a portfolio manager with responsibility for providing retirement security for a million participants. Where else should you put the millions of dollars arriving every month from participants’ paycheck deductions?  Treasuries paying 1.8%?

Many portfolio managers have told me they’re secretly scared to death of the market’s nosebleed levels.  In the next breath, however, they all say basically the same thing: there is no alternative.  Those who aren’t stumped by TINA live in Fear of Missing Out.

As a result, the equity market has turned into a grand game of musical chairs. Buy stocks to keep up with the averages, but hope to God you can grab a chair before everyone else when the music stops.

Meanwhile, central banks are doing their best to ensure the music doesn’t stop.  Ever.  Why else would the discount rate be back down to the level it reached in Jan 1931, the middle of the Great Depression, when the Dow had plunged 55% on its way to an 89% crash? For the umpteenth time in the last few months, futures have recovered their most recent losses and are threatening new highs. Nothing especially positive has been reported in the financial press. But Trump is speaking to the NY Economic Club at noon, no doubt to report on the incredible progress being made in the China trade negotiations which were successfully concluded last month (but which are, oddly, still being negotiated.)And, of course, the algos are still being stoked by VIX threatening new lows and CL and USDJPY threatening new highs. What else is new?

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Today we celebrate America’s veterans. Please take the opportunity to thank a veteran in your life for their service and their sacrifice.

There are many organizations dedicated to helping veterans which rely on charitable donations for the good work they do.  One of my favorites, the Michael J Novosel Foundation, was established to assist National Guard and reservists with the challenges of transitioning from service in Iraq and Afghanistan to civilian lives.  Their info can be found here.  Please give generously if you are able.

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Futures are off just enough to test a trend line from the Nov 6 lows.  This is the 6th day in a row that ES has tagged its 2.618 Fib extension at 2076.93.This follows a brief breakdown of important VIX support at the close on Friday which was, in retrospect, a head fake……and another failure (the 5th) by CL to retake its SMA200.continued for members… (more…)