Why Bonds Are Still Important

I had an great question yesterday regarding the bond market: “Is it possible the fear of pandemic in spring 2020 affected the behavior of 2yr and 10 yr and then indirectly triggered the crash?” Pebblewriter longhaulers will recall that our bond cycle model forecast a severe plunge in interest rates long before anyone was talking … continue reading →

COVID: Still With Us

Interesting piece in Reuters today on Japan’s vaccination efforts and the overwhelming level of infections in Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, only two months ahead of the Olympics. While many countries are making good progress with vaccinations, Japan – the 11th most populous country in the world – is lagging badly.  It’s not the only … continue reading →

PPI Confirms Hot Inflation

It comes as no surprise that PPI confirmed yesterday’s hot CPI print, coming in at a whopping 6.2%. We’ve been beating the inflation drum for so long, it feels a bit anticlimactic to acknowledge that it’s finally here and even slightly greater than we anticipated. As regular readers well know, I expected central bankers to … continue reading →

Charts I’m Watching: May 6, 2021

Futures are flat after tumbling to and holding our backtest target yesterday morning. But, pay no attention to stocks just yet. They should continue to be under pressure, with the real action in oil and gas. continued for members… … continue reading →

Not Transitory, Not Even Close

If gasoline prices remain where they are or continue to rise, Powell will be just plain wrong about inflation being transitory. This is what to expect if gas prices were to flatline at this level through December. Unless most of the other components of inflation were to nosedive, CPI will remain well above 2% for … continue reading →

What Inflation?

The Case-Shiller Home Price index rose 12% YoY – the fastest pace since February 2006 – meaning even fewer Americans have a shot at purchasing or renting a house. Ironically, the burden falls mostly on the low-income families that the Fed claims to be most concerned about. Thank goodness we don’t have an inflation problem. … continue reading →

USDJPY’s Turn

Members will recall that one critical component of our oil/gas decline scenario is USDJPY’s breakout from the falling channel from 2017 shown below.  Guess what? The yen carry trade is a tried and true method of goading the algos into buying equities – even overpriced ones. It works especially well as a counterweight to falling … continue reading →

The Usual Suspects

There’s a well-known scene at the end of the classic film Casablanca where Captain Renault (Claude Reins), having seen Rick (Humphrey Bogart) shoot a Nazi in order to enable Ilsa and Lazlo to escape, tells his men to “round up the usual suspects.” It saves Rick, Ilsa and Lazlo’s collective bacon (though I suspect it … continue reading →

The Bond Market Finally Woke Up

For months we’ve been warning about the coming inflation problem, wondering when the bond market would notice and/or care.  The immediate problem in a nutshell: One of the most highly correlated components of CPI with the headline rate is the price of energy, and gasoline in particular.  If prices were to remain where they are … continue reading →