Having rallied seven-plus percent in the past five months, there is a spring in the US dollar index’s step, but it is unlikely to break out of a year-and-a-half range any time soon. The two-year Treasury yield tends to be … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 18, 2016. 10-year note: Both China and Japan reduced their holdings of Treasury notes and bonds in August – the former by a whopping $33.7 billion and the latter by … Continued
One of the hallmarks of post-Great Recession recovery has been subdued capital expenditures. In 2Q16, real non-residential fixed investment was $2.19 trillion (at a seasonally adjusted annual rate) – essentially flat since 3Q14. Investment peaked at $2.22 trillion in 3Q15. … Continued
Equity bears have been rewarded the past couple of weeks, with the S&P 500 large cap index down 1.6 percent. There is likely more reward medium term, but near-term is a toss-up. In the wake of the 2.5-percent drop on … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 11, 2016. 10-year note: In late September, Janet Yellen, Fed chair, said the bank might be able to help the U.S. economy in a downturn if it could buy stocks … Continued
Here is a brief review of change in short interest in the September 15-30 period in the Nasdaq and NYSE Group as well as nine S&P 500 sectors. Nasdaq – short interest down 0.1 percent p/p; Nasdaq composite up 1.2 … Continued
Building on the crude theme a week ago, spot West Texas Intermediate crude did indeed break out of a declining trend line drawn from May 2015 (Chart 1). It rallied 3.3 percent for the week. For the last eight sessions, … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of October 4, 2016. 10-year note: Bloomberg ran a story on Tuesday saying the ECB would probably gradually wind down bond purchases before the end of quantitative easing, and that it may … Continued
Gold bugs were simply swamped with an avalanche of sell orders on Tuesday, with spot gold losing 3.3 percent. This was probably in the making. Ever since spot gold peaked at $1,377.5/ounce on July 6 this year, it had been … Continued
Crude oil sits at a critical juncture. Depending on which way it breaks probably decides stocks’ path of least resistance near term. Last week, OPEC announced its commitment to cutting output to between 32.5 million barrels per day and 33 … Continued