oil

Macro: Markets — Banks exit overnight trade and extend duration

By |2023-11-18T09:03:02-05:00November 16th, 2023|Bonds, Commodities, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets, Stocks|

For the first time since March we are seeing a positive correlation between bond yields and reverse repos sold by the Fed. The change started during the last week of October and has continued throughout November. The correlation in March coincided with bank failures, mainly Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. In between March and the end of October, the [...]

Macro: Sep CPI stuck at 3.7% YOY

By |2023-10-13T03:39:59-04:00October 12th, 2023|Markets|

The most anticipated release of the week came in ... "Unchanged" or sticky stuck from August at 3.7% yoy. But it's worth mentioning as we will discuss below that this is up from June CPI which was 3.09% yoy. Core CPI which excludes food and energy because of their volatility sits at 4.13% yoy down from 4.39% last month. Let's [...]

Update The Conflict of Interest Rate(s)

By |2022-06-10T20:14:48-04:00June 10th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

What changed? For over a month, the Treasury market had the Fed and its rate hiking figured out. Rising recession risks had been confirmed by almost every piece of incoming data, including, importantly, labor data. It is the jobs market where much of the official “inflation” jawboning is centered, all that Phillips Curve stuff. So, whatever might seriously undermine Phillips [...]

Is It Being Demanded?

By |2022-05-26T19:40:07-04:00May 26th, 2022|Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Shipping container rates have been dropping since early March – right around the time when we had just experienced our “collateral days” and then stood by to witness chaotic financial fireworks, inversions, the whole thing. The bane of the logistical supply-side snafu-ing, it has been container redistribution mucking the goods economy up. The recent and sharp decline in container rates, [...]

‘Unconscionably Excessive’ Denial

By |2022-05-23T17:34:06-04:00May 23rd, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

What would “unconscionably excessive” even look, legally speaking? More to the issue, who gets to decide what constitutes “excessive?” The way the phrase has been inserted, it’s as if Congress today seeks to plant its members on some incorporeal higher plane than mere physical substance, too, diving deep into the moral consciousness of the nation and economy in order justify [...]

Crude Contradictions Therefore Uncertainty And Big Volatility

By |2022-05-13T17:59:34-04:00May 13th, 2022|Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

This one took some real, well, talent. It was late morning on April 11, the crude oil market was in some distress. The price was falling faster, already down sharply over just the preceding two weeks. Going from $115 per barrel to suddenly less than $95, there was some real fear there.But what really caught my attention was the flattening [...]

Not Good Goods

By |2022-04-18T17:56:44-04:00April 18th, 2022|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The goods economy in the United States is – maybe was - the lone economic bright spot. That in and of itself should’ve provoked more caution, instead there was the red-hot recovery to sell under the cover of supply shock pricing changes. The sheer spending on goods, and how they arrived, each unabashedly artificial from the get-go.Combine those two factors, [...]

What, When, Nominal, Forward, Yes, Oil; or, Spreads Everywhere

By |2022-04-11T18:36:12-04:00April 11th, 2022|Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

February 2005, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan goes before Congress to tell the simple-minded politicians there about his “conundrum.” They and the media eat it up because somehow the guy was declared the “maestro.” Even so, he had a major problem and it was nothing more than LT Treasury yields doing what they do; that is, pricing less growth and [...]

How Can A CPI Now Above Six Price Like This?

By |2021-11-10T17:51:53-05:00November 10th, 2021|Bonds, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

The BLS said today its Consumer Price Index rose by 6.2% in October 2021 when compared to October 2020. This was the largest annual increase since Alan Greenspan was giving up on M2 three decades ago. Perhaps most concerning, after having taken a few months “off” prices re-accelerated last month reigniting fears of a 70s-style monetary runaway.But, as we saw [...]

Far Longer And Deeper Than Just The Past Few Months

By |2021-10-18T19:48:49-04:00October 18th, 2021|Bonds, Commodities, Currencies, Economy, Federal Reserve/Monetary Policy, Markets|

Hurricane Ida swept up the Gulf of Mexico and slammed into the Louisiana coastline on August 29. The storm would continue to wreak havoc even as it weakened the further inland it traversed. By September 1 and 2, the system was still causing damage and disruption into the Northeast of the United States.While absolutely tragic for those who suffered its [...]

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