The futures are lock limit down again this morning, with ETFs trading in the after-hours indicating losses on the (eventual) open of up to 10%. This is probably not what the Fed had in mind when they unleashed the massive, emergency rate cut and $700 billion in new QE an hour before the futures opened … continue reading →
Two charts best define the day we had yesterday. First, VIX tagged our next highest target: the intersection of the .786 Fibonacci retracement and the trend line connecting two previous highs. The other one was the SPX arithmetic (as opposed to log) chart, which stopped on a dime at the channel bottom.The bleeding continued well … continue reading →
In a stunning demonstration of the extent to which algos control the market, ES soared 56.50 points after the World Health Organization declared the Wuhan coronavirus a public health emergency of international concern. While it’s true the press conference felt more like a China tourism promo, the declaration in no way reduced the risk the … continue reading →
We’ve been bearish on oil for quite a while, shorting it at 75.57 on October 3, 2018 after Jamal Khashoggi was dismembered and at each of the 3 subsequent peaks since then: just before the JCPOA breakup, the Abqaiq attack and the Aramco IPO — which should have been a peak, but resulted in a … continue reading →
Not too surprisingly, the Iran problem didn’t go away over the weekend. If anything, both sides are making threats that would significantly expand the conflict. What’s more, Trump’s unilateral actions have resulted in Iraq’s parliament calling for all US troops to withdraw from Iraq – without question an important win for Iran. Trump’s 2011 predictions … continue reading →
WTI futures spiked nearly 5% overnight in the wake of a US drone strike on Baghdad Airport which killed Iranian military commander Qasem Soleimani. It is a dangerous escalation in the US conflict with Iran which broadened when Trump alarmed US allies by pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal last May. We argued at … continue reading →
Inflation drives interest rates. Though the Fed probably wishes it didn’t, it’s an inconvenient truth. There are much tighter correlations, but consider the strong positive correlation between CPI and 10Y notes. This matters, of course, because with $22 trillion in debt, the US faces the same problem as the ECB and Japan: High interest rates … continue reading →
It’s now been five days since futures bounced out of the falling white channel. It still seems fairly likely it was just a delaying tactic, as various currency pairs, commodities and indices are sliding toward our next targets. continued for members… … continue reading →
Over the last 20 years, we’ve seen two yield curve (2s10s) inversions: essentially all of 2000 and Dec 2005-May 2007. The inversions themselves posed no issues for equity markets. It was the dramatic unwinding of those inversions that produced crashes.Eight months ago, we almost had another. 2s10s had fallen to a trend line connecting those … continue reading →
As the currency turmoil continues, it’s interesting to note that cryptocurrencies are having a worse go of it than EMs. Meanwhile, futures dipped enough overnight to finally backtest the SMA10. They’ve since rebounded enough to backtest the broken red channel. It remains to be seen whether SPX will join in and backtest its SMA10 and … continue reading →