Category: INO.com Contributors

Wooing Inflation

Posted on by Gary Tanashian

The Continuum (the systematic downtrend in long-term Treasury yields) has for decades given the Fed the green light on inflation. Sometimes it runs hot (as per the red arrows) and sometimes it runs cold. One year ago people were confused about why a declining stock market was not influencing Fed chief Powell to reverse his relatively hawkish tone.

tyx-Inflation

The orange arrow shows exactly why, per this post that will be one year old tomorrow (Dec. 19)…

FOMC at Center Stage (NFTRH 530 Excerpt)

Inflation is what the Fed does, after all. But it needs periodic deflationary episodes in order to keep the racket going. I will stick with my original view that the Fed is not adverse to a market correction or even a bear market. It is exactly what is needed to reload the next inflation gun.

The “BOND BEAR MARKET!!!” stuff ran very hot on this cycle as the 30 year yield broke the Continuum’s limiter (monthly EMA 100) before failing over the last few weeks (to the surprise of many, but not us ;-)). As I have noted previously, in my opinion the Fed does not want a bond bear (breakout in yields) or its running mate, a breakout in inflation expectations because the Fed is an inflation machine. But it has inflated against this pleasant continuum of declining yields over the decades that has encompassed the entire training of most of us as market participants.

Inflation

I am not saying that a red dashed line is the be all end all of market analysis. But it is a marker that we have used in NFTRH since 2008 in order to correctly interpret the macro situation. My interpretation today is that the Fed has countered the cost-push inflationary pressures that by definition are injected through fiscally (political) stimulative policy by withdrawing liquidity until something breaks. Ironically, that has involved raising the Fed Funds interest rate and withdrawing QE, which theoretically would raise long-term yields. But when something breaks, the risk ‘off’ herds buy the bond driving yields down.

Fast-forward to today. The herds bought the bond alright; they bought it for most of 2019 amid ‘trade war!!’ and ‘inverted yield curve!!’ headlines and associated economic fears. And so the Continuum dropped again, along with inflation concerns and logically, the Fed’s hawkishness after the Q4 2018 orange alert. Continue reading "Wooing Inflation" →

Thankful For Another Great Year On Wall Street

Posted on by Matt Thalman

This past Thanksgiving, millions of Americans sat at the dinner table and proclaimed what they were thankful for. For some, it was loved ones, new family members, a promotion at work or a new job altogether, but at the very least, the food that was about to be eaten was mentioned. The success of the stock market in 2019 was undoubtedly one of mine, but I may be in the minority when it comes to people who said such out loud.

However, with the major indexes again trading at new all-time highs, something we have now had occur more than 20 times in 2019, 18 times in 2018, 62 times in 2017 and another 126 times from the start of 2013 until the end of 2016, its hard not to think about how much further this bull market can run.

Adding new money to the market seems very risky today based on how far the market has come the past few years and considering we have seen so many new all-time highs over the past few years.

However, new all-time highs is a very normal thing for the market. Since 1928, the U.S. stock market has seen new all-time highs on 5% of the trading days. Think about that! That’s on average, one in every 20 trading days, the U.S. stock market is hitting an all-time high. From that perspective, a new all-time high sort of seems like not that big of a deal.

Another crazy thought is that since World War II, the U.S. stock market has spent nearly 40% of its time within 5% of all-time highs. Ok, so almost half the time stocks are trading within reach of an all-time high. Furthermore, 54% of the time stocks are trading within 10% of all-time highs.

However, that means 46% of the time stocks were more than double digits below their highs. Continue reading "Thankful For Another Great Year On Wall Street" →

Current Equities Rally Similarities To 1999

Posted on by Chris Vermeulen

Euphoria is a type of market rally where valuations, real market expectations, and global market concerns are pushed away from view while a trader based rush to rally takes place. One of the clearest examples is the 1995 to 2000 DOT COM US stock market rally. As the Internet burst into homes and businesses across the world, the US-led the way with dozens of new Internet-based IPOs touting glorious expectations, potential earnings and more. Everyone had the idea this new medium would dramatically change the economy for the better and breakthrough traditional economic boundaries.

The rally that took place in 1995 through 2000 was incredible. The S&P 500 rallied from 463 to 1535 – +235.57%. What we find interesting is the “price wave formation” that took place within that rally. There were a number of key price rotations that took place as the market continued to rally, we’ve labeled them A, B, and C. The first rotation, A, took place in July~Dec 1997. The second, B, took place from May 1998 to November 1998. The last, C, took place between January 1999 and November 1999. Technically, these rotations are significant because they represent “true price exploration” related to price advancement. The price must always attempt to identify true support/resistance levels while trending.

When we compare the rally from 1995 to 2000 with the current rally in the US stock market, we can see a defined level of euphoric price advance after the 2016 US elections. We must also pay attention to the previous price advance from the 2009 price lows as the global markets were struggling to recover from the Credit Crisis. Our research team identified the A, B, C rotations in the current price and associated them to the similar rotations in the 1995-2000 price rally as “key components of the current rally and a potential warning sign of a pending top formation”.

Our researchers believe the QE processes of the global central banks have set up a similar type of euphoric price rally in the current global markets even though current economic metrics are warning of weakening economic activity and weakening global market output. The US Fed and global central banks seem to want to keep pumping money/credit into the global markets to keep the rally going – most likely because they are fearful of what a crash/correction may do to the future growth opportunities around the planet. Continue reading "Current Equities Rally Similarities To 1999" →

Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery

Posted on by Mike Seery

Hog Futures

Hog futures in the February contract settled last Friday in Chicago at 67.55 while currently trading at 69.60. I am now recommending a bullish position while placing the stop-loss below the contract low and low yearly standing at the August 5th low of 63.67 as the risk is around $2,500 per contract plus slippage and commission.

The United States and China agreed on a phase one trade agreement, which certainly should pick up demand for pork. China has lost 250 million hogs due to the swine flu as that is why you see hog prices trade higher over the last 2 consecutive sessions and historically speaking, prices look very cheap.

Hog prices are trading above their 20-day but still under their 100-day moving average, which stands around the 72.40 level as prices have been depressed for quite some time because we've had no agreement with China. Still, that situation has changed as I think the risk/reward is in your favor to take a bullish position. I think the 65 level will hold so play this to the upside while making sure that you risk 2% of your account balance on any given trade as the proper risk management strategy.

TREND: MIXED
CHART STRUCTURE: EXCELLENT
VOLATILITY: HIGH

Live Cattle Futures

Live cattle futures in the February contract is sharply higher this Friday afternoon in Chicago up 250 points at 127.60, hitting a fresh contract high. Prices are reacting strongly because of the phase 1 trade agreement with China as most agricultural markets are higher across the board as that is an extremely bullish fundamental factor for higher prices ahead.
Continue reading "Weekly Futures Recap With Mike Seery" →