Not to beat a dead horse, but the current U.S. recovery falls short in many ways. One of which is wages. Six years into the recovery, the share of national income continues to tilt heavily toward corporations. Labor’s is just … Continued
Laggards since March, small-caps continue to fall behind large-caps With increasing signs of distribution, RUT, IWM face technical hurdles More pressure ahead if/when non-commercials start adding to net shorts Since end-September, large speculators have drastically cut back on their net … Continued
Financials have been acting better of late. Since November 20 when XLF, the financials ETF, successfully tested its September 19th high, there are bids underneath particularly large-cap financials. The stocks responded very well to the jobs report last Friday. This … Continued
Inability of offensives to take the lead has been a thorn in the side of rally since Oct 15th low Outperformance last week of XLY vs. XLP and HYG vs. LQD sign of trend change? Duel on between seasonally favorable … Continued
Post-November jobs report this morning, we are seeing some weird reaction in the bond market. Two-year yields have gone up more vs. the 10-year. As a result, the curve is flatter. In fact, as shown in the chart, the curve … Continued
Healthy U.S. non-farm employment versus ultra-low civilian labor force participation rate: Notwithstanding September weakening, job openings has tracked job creation very well: Despite improvement in job creation, wage growth continues to be a dud: Belt-tightening continues in federal payroll — … Continued
Balance sheets have diverged between Fed and ECB As eurozone economy/inflation fall short, ECB under pressure to do QE If there is no QE from ECB, euro probably has a lot of catching up to do on the upside There … Continued
The ratio of VIX to VXV is below 0.80 in early trading today. Early October, it was grossly overbought and was begging us to go long stocks. Now it is the opposite. Near-term volatility has collapsed. In the past, whenever … Continued
Ahead of ECB meeting, euro misery continues Draghi under pressure to deliver news of more stimulus Large speculators look tentative and sitting on massive net shorts When early October, FXE, the euro ETF, was unable to hold on to 126-127, … Continued
Gold bears had big opportunity to push price lower on Monday Technicals acting better, except near-term conditions little overbought How hedge funds were reacting to Friday/Monday action will be a good tell Monday, gold had a solid excuse to melt … Continued