Last Thursday, Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CEO, grabbed the headlines when he said someone was going to get hurt in the auto-loan lending market. “Auto is clearly a little stretched, in my opinion.” JPM does not do much of … Continued
2016 got off on the wrong foot. By January 20th the index was down north of 11 percent (intra-day), followed by a powerful rally off of the February 11th low. When it was all said and done, the S&P 500 … Continued
The correlation between financials and the two-year Treasury yield is tight. The latter tends to be sensitive to Fed action. In recent months in particular, the two-year has been on a roller-coaster ride trying to keep up with FOMC members’ … Continued
The chart below (Chart 1) caused a lot of stir last Friday – across asset classes, primarily in the U.S., and elsewhere. The U.S. economy only added 38,000 non-farm jobs in May, much weaker than expected and the lowest monthly … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 31, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: On June 14-15, the FOMC meets. This is the year’s fourth meeting, and there will be four more left after this (July 26-27, … Continued
U.S. equity indices are near all-time highs. One would logically think retail investors would be all in, that foreigners are actively taking part in the rally, and that traders are making use of margin debt as never before. None of … Continued
Spot gold potentially had an important session on Tuesday. Since the May 2nd high of $1,306/ounce through Tuesday’s hammer low, the metal gave back eight percent, in the process losing its now-declining 50-day moving average. The Tuesday low likely came … Continued
ITB, the iShares U.S. home construction ETF, cannot get it going. On May 24th, it surged 3.8 percent with massive volume. The ETF was reacting to April’s new home sales, which surged 16.6 percent month-over-month to a seasonally adjusted annual … Continued
U.S. stocks had a very good week last week. The S&P 500 large cap index rallied 2.3 percent, Dow Industrials 2.1 percent, both Nasdaq 100 index and Russell 2000 small cap index 3.4 percent, among others. The rally comes in … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 24, 2016. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Was that a yay or nay from Janet Yellen, Fed chair? In an interview at Harvard University on Friday, she said that an … Continued