The Friday before January 25th Greek elections, the euro closed at $1.123. Yesterday, one euro bought $1.133. Since anti-austerity Syriza party swept to victory late January in Greece, the euro – by default FXE, the Currency Shares Euro Trust ETF … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of June 16, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Let us see if we can make some sense out of this week’s major developments. The FOMC met, and it looked like members … Continued
We are in uncharted territory! On so many levels. As you will see in the charts below, many valuation metrics are stretched. The nation’s debt load just rose to a new high. At 1Q15, the total credit market debt outstanding … Continued
Is the Fed about to make a mistake? Post-FOMC meeting yesterday, the Fed’s ‘dot plot’ suggested a majority of policymakers were leaving the door open for two rate hikes in 2015. After the release of the statement, TLT, the iShares … Continued
Chart 1 looks normal except for one thing. In the current cycle, the green line has not followed the red line higher. U.S. capacity utilization bottomed out at 66.9 percent in June 2009 and moved higher. The Fed funds rate … Continued
TLT, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond Fund, declined 16 percent between the all-time intra-day high of 137.09 on January 30 and the low of 115.26 last Wednesday. It is as if the bond market globally has been awakened from … Continued
There is a trade brewing on GLD, the SPDR Gold Trust ETF. First some background. Ever since gold peaked in September 2011, the metal has lost its luster. Back then, GLD had $77.7 billion in assets, becoming the ETF with … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of June 2, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: Yields have decisively broken out of a five-month downtrend channel. The only question is what triggered this. To quote the Beige Book: “The … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 26, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: If we just focus on what the consensus was expecting, U.S. economic data this week were split down the middle, with maybe a … Continued
The following are futures positions of non-commercials as of May 19, 2015. Change is week-over-week. 10-year note: The April FOMC minutes for all intents and purposes put a nail in the coffin of June rate-hike odds. At the March meeting, … Continued