When it gets cold outside and the pandemic throws another variant spread into the mix, Americans have proved they will come together…in virtual fashion to go shopping for fashions and more on Amazon. For the second straight post-Christmas winter, retail sales recorded by nonstore retailers ended up being far, far better than expected. According to the Census Bureau’s latest report [...]
Following up on recent changes to the eurodollar futures curve, the inversion came back (less upside down) by only a couple basis points in trading today, with most of the curve unchanged. There was only modest selling in futures toward the back end, the curve lifting a touch off yesterday’s recent low point. Far more important than that, the inversion [...]
The Treasury Department released its broad TIC data today for the month of December 2022. Omicron fears, bond yields dropping despite the Fed’s rate hikes and an accelerating US CPI. Sure enough, more than a few segments of TIC consistent with those general outlines.Let’s begin with one of those which doesn’t have an immediate explanation; or, put another way, can’t [...]
The FOMC is going to hike rates maybe even aggressively. There’s not much dispute on this assumption. Why the Committee might be doing so, that’s a whole detailed debate. The Treasury yield curve is building toward inversion while the crucial (and leading) Euro$ futures curve is already substantially upside down.Both are increasingly confident market bets against the FOMC’s position(s).Jay Powell [...]
I’ve said since it first showed up on December 1 to keep the eurodollar futures curve in the back of your mind. It wasn’t likely to change all that much in its first stage of minor inversion. The mere fact it had gone upside down at all regardless of where on the curve or by how much was already a [...]
Everyone was really confused. China was the unstoppable monster, the economic powerhouse that had quite easily, it seemed, survived the Great “Recession” with barely a scratch. Its ascent to the dominant world position had been written long ago in stone, carved macro graffiti left in place especially as the so-called developed world struggled mightily after 2009.The Chinese were widely thought [...]
The way it was told, the US and worldwide economy in 2017 and for most of 2018 was absolutely on fire. Booming. They even came up with a name for it, calling the period “globally synchronized growth.” This was so good it was, everyone claimed, in danger of becoming too good. Inflation.To stay ahead of that monster, to keep the [...]
NOTE: This post was written on Thursday, February 10. This isn’t typical. Both the speed at which this has come about and the depth to which the it has now sunk, the yield curve’s wild flattening is simply breathtaking. Today’s accelerating CPI print accelerated the distortions all over the Treasury market such that it has taken a shape along key [...]
In the earliest days of the eurodollar, its purpose was primarily as a global reserve medium to intermediate and finance trade. To surmount Triffin’s Paradox, this ledger system arose as demand for the reserve currency outstripped the Bretton Woods arrangement’s ability to supply it (because it was constrained by US gold reserves). Rebuilding first from WWII and then an explosion [...]
As a follow-up to the post-October correlation in Treasuries, it’s worth reiterating how much more compelling the flattening curve has been given the full range of circumstances otherwise all lined up directly opposed to it. There has been: 1. Accelerating CPI.2. Higher oil prices.3. Looming rate hikes.4. Outwardly favorable labor data turbocharging expectations for even more aggressive rate hikes (and [...]
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