This week, May’s existing and new home sales data come out – on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. In April, the former rose 1.7 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.45 million units, and has essentially gone sideways … Continued
If the past couple of weeks were an indication, bulls and bears are locked in a vicious tug of war over the near- and medium-term direction of crude oil. From the February 11th low to the June 9th high, spot … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of June 14, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: In Godfather III, Michael Corleone famously says: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” Given the circumstances, this … Continued
The last data point in Chart 1 is as of yesterday and uses intra-day highs rather than the close. The VIX-to-VXV ratio is calculated by using 22.89 for VIX and 23.53 for VXV. They respectively closed the session at 19.37 … Continued
The Fed is in a tight spot. Yesterday, on the day it told us it continues to have a slight tightening bias it published capacity utilization and industrial production for May. Utilization dropped 0.4 percent month-over-month to 74.9 percent, a … Continued
It is not easy getting a handle on valuation dynamics. During good times, multiples rise to exorbitant levels, and the opposite happens when times are bad. The usual cycle of things. Come to think of it. At any time, value … Continued
Since spot West Texas Intermediate crude bottomed intra-day at $26.05/barrel on February 11th and began to rally, resistance points have fallen one after another. First went $34-$35, then $40, followed by $42-$43 and then $47-$48 (Chart 1), rallying past both … Continued
In 1Q16, the S&P 500 large cap index edged up 0.8 percent. Not much. But considering that the year got off on the wrong foot, quickly losing north of 11 percent by January 20th, this was quite a comeback (Chart … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of June 7, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The Bank of Korea on Thursday eased its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low 1.25 percent. The move … Continued
May’s jobs report out last Friday gave us a glimpse into how U.S. job creation has been in gradual deceleration. Now we have the latest JOLTS report that is pointing us toward a possible inflection point. To refresh, a mere … Continued