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Macro: Flash PMI — US, EU, Japan, UK, Australia

By |2023-10-24T14:04:22-04:00October 24th, 2023|Economy|

The initial print for October was good in the US. Europe continues to struggle. Japan weakens slightly. The UK flat-lines below 50. Australia drops. Numbers above 50 should indicate an economy is growing. FWIW, this data has been very choppy and even enigmatic. Composite Output Index US -- 51, up from 50.2 (a 3 month high) Eurozone -- 46.5, down [...]

Weekly Market Pulse: A Fatal Conceit

By |2023-01-23T10:00:11-05:00January 22nd, 2023|Alhambra Portfolios, Alhambra Research, Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Real Estate, Stocks, Taxes/Fiscal Policy|

Inflation* in the US is falling rapidly with the CPI rising just 0.9% in the second half of 2022 versus 5.4% in the first six months. Existing home sales are down 14.6% in the last 3 months and 34% over the last year. Housing starts are down 22% and permits are down 30% year-over-year. Orders for durable goods are down [...]

Angry April TIC Zeroed In On China’s CNY and Japan’s JPY

By |2022-06-19T00:25:19-04:00June 19th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

If the March gasoline/oil spike hit a weak global economy really hard and caused what more and more looks like a recessionary shock, a(n un)healthy part of it was the acceleration of Euro$ #5 concurrently rippling through the global reserve system. This much was apparent right from the start, with financial markets gone haywire three months ago (mid-March seasonal bottleneck), [...]

No Pandemic. Not Rate Hikes. Doesn’t Matter Interest Rates. Just Globally Synchronized.

By |2022-06-03T20:25:43-04:00June 3rd, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The fact that German retail sales crashed so much in April 2022 is significant for a couple reasons. First, it more than suggests something is wrong with Germany, and not just some run-of-the-mill hiccup. Second, because it was this April rather than last April or last summer, you can’t blame COVID this time. Something else is going on.In America, the [...]

Weekly Market Pulse: Inevitable?

By |2022-05-22T11:51:23-04:00May 22nd, 2022|Alhambra Portfolios, Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Markets, Real Estate, Stocks|

Inevitable adjective incapable of being avoided or evaded I heard that word a lot last week. There is now a fully formed consensus that the US, and indeed the world, now faces an inevitable recession. It can't be avoided. Central banks will have to keep hiking rates because that's the only way to kill inflation. Yes, the inflation is due [...]

T-bills Targeted Target

By |2022-05-19T20:00:57-04:00May 19th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Yesterday’s market “volatility” spilled (way) over into this morning’s trading. It ended up being a very striking example, perhaps the clearest and most alarming yet, of a scramble for collateral. The 4-week T-bill, well, the chart speaks for itself:During past scrambles, such as those last year, they didn’t look like this. They would hit, stick around for an hour, maybe [...]

Looking Back At Chaotic March Through TIC

By |2022-05-18T20:30:35-04:00May 18th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

March ended up being a pretty wild ride. Lost amidst the furor over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the month began with a couple clear “collateral days. T-bill rates along with repo fails echoed that same shortfall before the yield curve then joined the eurodollar futures curve being inverted. It really hasn’t been the same since.Looking back on it using the [...]

One More For Euro$ #5: The Mainstream Downgrade Parade

By |2022-04-26T17:55:30-04:00April 26th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It wouldn’t be Euro$ #5 without perhaps the last of its rituals completed: the mainstream downgrades. Go back in time to each of the prior episodes, markets change, the data inflects, and then only later do surprised, shocked Economists at whichever establishment outpost begin to recalculate their DSGE outputs. Every time.Way back in 2015, it took the IMF’s semi-annual World [...]

China, Japan, And The Relative Pre-March Euro$ Calm In February

By |2022-04-20T19:50:24-04:00April 20th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The month of February 2022, the calm before the latest storm. Russians went into Ukraine toward the month’s end, collateral shortage became scarcity, maybe a run right at February’s final day, and then serious escalations all throughout March – right down to pure US Treasury yield curve inversion.Given that setup, it was unsurprising to find Treasury’s February TIC data mostly [...]

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