Tag: biiwii.com

Hand Off to a New Fed Chair is Well Timed

Posted on by The INO.com Team

It is as notable as a 2nd term president handing off the big problems to the next guy, as George Bush did with Barack Obama in 2008; the changing of the guard at the Fed, that is.

Alan Greenspan oversaw the making of a stock bubble in the final phase of the great bull market ended in 2000.  He then instigated a credit bubble, which launched a housing bubble, made the credit hopped consumer feel wealthy and oh yes, built unsustainable distortions into the system through diced and sliced debt derivative vehicles of all kinds.

Then in 2006 he deftly made the hand off to Ben Bernanke.  Bernanke then dealt with the Maestro’s second aftermath as it began cropping up in 2007 and now, nearly 4.5 years into a cyclical bull market that has another 6 months or so to run if it is to match the two previous cycles (not a given), it is time once again for a hand off. Continue reading "Hand Off to a New Fed Chair is Well Timed" →

Precious Metals Must Make a Stronger Statement Still

Posted on by admin

Yesterday was an impulsive looking move and something of a statement in itself.  But now technically, the metals and miners need to gather themselves (after a potential pullback on profit taking) and make a real statement.

Yesterday was the booster stage (gap up), and another leg up from here would give the precious metals complex the velocity to do some real damage with respect to upside targets.  That is because important resistance zones are now at hand.  While a pullback would be normal, gold bugs obviously do not want to see a terminal velocity situation where yesterday’s momentum erodes beyond normal profit taking. Continue reading "Precious Metals Must Make a Stronger Statement Still" →

Rates of Interest

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As the 10-year to T-bill yield curve chart makes clear, we are not in Kansas anymore.  We are in Wonderland and as you can see, in Wonderland interest rates and their interrelationships are at the center of events.

tnx.irx

Last week the bullish case reasserted itself across financial markets, but to argue that policy makers are doing anything better than pumping future distortions into the system is crazy talk along the lines of 'the world is flat' or… ‘the above chart is flat’.

Last week Ben Bernanke clarified for people that yes indeed the Fed will eventually taper its QE bond buying operation while making clear that Zero Interest Rate Policy (ZIRP) will remain as is.  I think that the average market participant is starting to settle in and get comfortable with the terms of our 'Taper to Carry'(T2C) plan, which sees the banks benefiting from borrowing short and lending longer. Continue reading "Rates of Interest" →

Taper to Carry … a Logical Chain

Posted on by The INO.com Team

Below is the opening segment of this week's edition of Notes From the Rabbit Hole (NFTRH 246).  My friend’s request for a 'simple' road map ended up a bit wordy, but I think the chain is logical.

Mail from a friend:  "I think your taper-to-carry idea has legs, but I’d really appreciate it if you went over the basic theory and how you see the dots connecting, if you decide there’s space and time in this weekend's edition at least. What I’d really want is a simple road map, the logical chain if you will. Nothing fancy, just the way it may (repeat may) play out and what its consequences might be."

When this request came in I had already been thinking about trying to put this all together in a logical sequence since 'T2C' was graduated to an actual plan from a thesis last week.

The idea was first introduced in NFTRH 241 on June 2, which was the week that the BKX-SPX ratio broke out to the upside and long-term Treasury bond yields broke up from bottoming patterns.  In the ensuing 5 weeks the macro fundamentals and technicals have only become firmer in support of T2C. Continue reading "Taper to Carry … a Logical Chain" →

Crude Oil Breakout & Some Implications

Posted on by The INO.com Team

At the moment, crude oil seems to be acting as a free agent instead of in concert with the commodity complex that would play a role in signaling the effects (or lack thereof) of the inflation to date.  The target off this formation, if it holds, is 110 or so.  But as noted in a previous post, a drive toward 110 would load a significantly higher target, which we have been charting in NFTRH over the last several weeks by monthly chart. Continue reading "Crude Oil Breakout & Some Implications" →