target

Prices As Curative Punishment

By |2022-06-10T18:14:54-04:00June 10th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It wasn’t exactly a secret, though the raw data doesn’t ever tell you why something might’ve changed in it. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, confirmed by industry sources, US new car sales absolutely tanked in May 2022. At a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 12.7 million, it was a quarter fewer than sales put down in May 2021 and [...]

“Inflation” Not Inflation, Through The Eyes of Inventory

By |2022-06-07T18:48:32-04:00June 7th, 2022|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

It isn’t just semantics, nor some trivial, egotistical use of quotation marks. There is an actual and vast difference between inflation and “inflation.” And in the final results, that difference isn’t strictly or even mainly about consumer prices.Who cares, most people wonder. After all, what does it really matter why prices are going up so far? The pain this causes [...]

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 [...]

Headwinds Of The Negative Feedback

By |2017-03-01T17:45:19-05:00March 1st, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

As oil prices remain as they are in relation to where they were one year ago, measured inflation rates have come back up, some faster than others. This does mimic the real world situation where consumers are paying more now for gasoline than they did last year. Even though they are paying less than three years ago for the same [...]

A Detailed Look At Target Is A Familiar Review of More Than Target

By |2017-02-28T19:31:31-05:00February 28th, 2017|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Target announced both bad results as well as distressing guidance. The retail giant has been under pressure, and its quarterly update for its Q4 only confirmed the concerns. The company first reported the worst comparable store sales numbers (-1.5%) in three years. It was the third straight quarterly contraction for its comparables. For stores open at least a year, same [...]

Cisco And Target Are Not Really About Cisco Or Target

By |2016-08-17T12:48:59-04:00August 17th, 2016|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The words of the day are apparently “sluggish” and “challenging.” Overnight both Target and Cisco, bellwethers in retail and tech, respectively, were both the subject of intense scrutiny. Target released earnings that “beat” while revenues and really same store comps were particularly weak. Year-over-year, sales declined 7.2% total (revenues from Q2 2015 include Target’s pharmacy business which was sold to [...]

A Tale of Two Recoveries; And The Visible End of One

By |2015-10-26T15:52:57-04:00October 26th, 2015|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

If central banks are now almost exclusively on the defensive, we have no shortage of anecdotes and data to explain it. For a good long while economists and commentary managed to keep the US safely “decoupled” from the “overseas” maelstrom, but the deluge locally has become far too much to ignore. This is far, far deeper than just some indistinct [...]

No Oil ‘Windfall’ Either

By |2015-02-11T17:33:07-05:00February 11th, 2015|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The problem with a high rate of inventory build is that it eventually has to go somewhere. In an actual economic “boom” that isn’t much of a concern as businesses remain relatively confident that even if inventory is high in one month it will be easily disposed, profitably, in the next. That is the dominant narrative that seems to be [...]

Less Than Burgers

By |2014-10-21T15:28:55-04:00October 21st, 2014|Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

With all of the credit market fireworks that leaked into stocks, the pace of economic reassurance from “authorities” has been rather steady and a bit more emphatic. Despite the attempts at managing perceptions, there has been very little actual success in persuading. In many ways this is like the unfolding ebola drama in that there is a palpable disconnect between [...]

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