Global Market Comments
May 21, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TUESDAY JULY 2 NEW DELHI INDIA STRATEGY LUNCHEON),
(REPORT FROM THE 2019 LAS VEGAS SALT CONFERENCE)
There is no doubt that the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas took on a different character during the first week of May.
Walking out to the pool I ran into David Rubenstein wearing his fancy jogging outfit. He is a co-founder of the Carlyle Group, the world’s preeminent private equity fund.
I listened in on a heated hallway argument between the ever-combative Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, recently retired US attorney general Jeff Sessions, and former New York governor Rudy Giuliani.
The diminutive real estate mogul Sam Zell was holding down a table of admirers for morning coffee.
Oh, and I spent an evening rocking out with legendary venture capitalist Tim Draper, listening to John Fogerty, once of Credence Clearwater Revival. John played his entire set from Woodstock 51 years ago.
The magnet drawing all of these disparate luminaries together was the 2019 SALT conference, assembled by the ever-peripatetic financial entrepreneur and showman Anthony Scaramucci.
I have known Anthony for at least a decade, founder and co-managing director of Skybridge Capital, an allocator of funds to alternative asset management strategies. You may know him as Donald Trump’s press secretary who lasted in the position all of 11 days, depending on how you count.
The mood at the conference was what you might expect in the tenth year of a bull market. Most were bullish, but nervous, as new uncertainties pile up.
As in past years, Anthony delivered a lineup of speakers that was nothing less than blue chip. They included my old friend, USMC general John Kelley, most recently the president’s chief of staff, former Obama advisor Valerie Jarret, artificial intelligence wizard Kai-Fu Lee, Broadcast.com founder and well known “shark” Mark Cuban, and Dr. Nouriel Roubini, otherwise known as “Dr. Doom”, who lived up to his reputation as usual.
Strolling through the coffee lounge between sessions a number of incredibly beautiful young women suddenly found me very attractive. Perhaps they noticed the words “hedge fund” on my name tag. It turned out they were marketing back office services.
Over lunch, I listened to Drs. Bob Hariri and David S. Karow speak of the wonders of placental stem cell technology, which promises to extend our lives by decades. I was an early stem cell user, thanks to my daily hiking regime that wore out my knees. It works.
General David Petraeus and former UN Ambassador Susan Rice discussed solutions for our difficulties in the Middle East. Peter Schiff and Barry Silbert debated the safe haven characteristics of gold versus Bitcoin.
My Incline Village, Nevada neighbor Michael Milken talked about how capital drives rapid technology innovation. I thanked Mike for paying for the town’s annual Fourth of July fireworks budget, which happens to be his birthday.
Anyone with kids knows well Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, the renown online tutoring platform. Khan originally started the project in an attempt to help his many relatives with math homework. It now assists millions across 163 countries and is funded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates. By the end of 2018, Khan Academy videos had accumulated over 1.8 billion views on Google’s YouTube.
I ran into another old friend Jon Najarian at one of the nightly pool parties. I have seen former Minnesota Viking Jon reinvent himself over the years more often than I change my socks. Most recently, he is running a family office and marketing various financial products. He still breaks a few bones every time he shakes your hand.
By Friday morning the guests were packing up and heading to McCarran Airport, or to the private jet terminal at Henderson, where I have kept a share in a plane for years for my Grand Canyon jaunts.
I noticed one of the earlier mentioned marketers buying a $695 pair of Christian Louboutin shoes, you know, the ones with the red bottoms? Clearly, they had been successful in their sales efforts.
For more about the 2019 SALT conference, please click here.
For more about Skybridge Capital, please click here.
“Your margin is my opportunity.” – Said Founder and CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
May 21, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(HUAWEI HITS THE FAN)
(HUAWEI), (MU), (NVDA), (GOOGL), (FB), (TWTR), (APPL)
If you ever needed a signal to stay away from chip stocks short-term, then the Huawei ban by the American administration was right on cue.
Huawei, the largest telecommunications company in China, is heavily dependent on U.S. semiconductor parts and would be seriously damaged without an ample supply of key U.S. components
The surgical U.S. ban may cause China and Huawei to push back its 5G network build until the ban is lifted while having an impact on many global component suppliers.
The Chinese communist party has exhibited a habit for retaliation and could target Apple (AAPL) who is squarely in their crosshairs after this provocative move.
At a national security level, depriving Huawei of U.S. semiconductor components now is still effective as China’s chip industry is still 5 years behind the Americans.
China has a national mandate to develop and surpass the U.S. chip industry and denying them the inner guts to build out their 5G network will have long-lasting ramifications around the world.
Starting with American chip companies, they will send chip companies such as Micron (MU) and Nvidia (NVDA) into the bargain basement where investors will be able to discount shop at generational lows because of a monumental drop in annual revenue.
Even worse for these firms, Huawei anticipated this move and stocked itself full of chips for an extra 3 months, meaning they were not going to increase shipments in a meaningful way in the short-term anyway.
This kills the chip trade for the rest of the first half of 2019, and once again backs up my thesis in avoiding hardware firms with Chinese exposure.
Alphabet (GOOGL) has cut ties with cooperating with Huawei and that means software and the apps that are built around the software too.
Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and Chrome will be removed from future Huawei smartphones, and even though this doesn’t amount to much in mainland China, this is devastating for markets in Eastern Europe and Huawei smartphone owners in the European Union who absolutely rely on many of these Google-based apps and view Chinese smartphones as a viable alternative to high-end Apple phones.
Users who own an existing Huawei device with access to the Google Play Store will be able to download app updates from Google now, but these same users will not consider Huawei phones in the future when the Google Play Store is banned forcing them to go somewhere else for the new upgrade cycle.
The fallout further bifurcates the China and American tech ecosystems.
I would argue that China had already banned Google, Facebook (FB), Twitter (TWTR), and marginalized Amazon (AMZN) before the trade war even started.
The American government is merely putting in place the same measures the Chinese communist party has had in place for years against foreign competition.
The recent ban on Huawei was a proactive response to China backing away from negotiations that they already had verbally agreed upon after hawks inside the Chinese communist party gained the upper hand in the tireless fight against the reformist.
These hawks want to preserve the status quo because they benefit directly from the current system and economic structure in place.
The American administration appears to have taken on an even more aggressive tone with the Chinese, as the resulting tariffs are putting even more stress on the Chinese hawks.
However, there is only so much bending they can do until a full-scale fissure occurs and debt rated “A” which is its third-highest classification has recently been slashed to a negative outlook as the tariff headwinds pile up.
The U.S. administration could further delve into its party bag by rebanning Chinese tech firm ZTE who almost folded after the first ban of U.S. semiconductor components.
The U.S. administration is emboldened to play the hand they have now because as long as Chinese tech need U.S. chips, the ball is in the American’s court and going on the offensive now would be more effective than if they carried out the same strategy in the future.
China is clearly attempting to delay the process enough to get to the point where they can install their own in-house chips and can say adios to America and the chips they currently rely on.
It’s doubtful at the current pace of escalation if China can survive until that point in time.
How will China react?
Massive easing and dovishness by the Chinese central bank will be needed to maintain stability and remedy the economy.
The manufacturing sector will face another wave of mass layoffs and debt pressures will inch up.
Chinese exports will get slashed with international corporations looking to move elsewhere to stop the hemorrhaging and rid itself of uncertainty.
Many Chinese tech companies will have entire divisions disrupted and even shut down because of the lack of hardware needed to operate their businesses.
Imagine attempting to construct a smartphone without chips, almost like building a plane to fly without wings.
This is also an easy to decode message to corporate America letting them know that if they haven’t moved their supply chains out of China yet, then time is almost up.
Going forward, I do not envision any meaningful foreign tech supply chain that could survive operating in mainland China because nationalistic forces will aim for revenge sooner or later.
There are many positives to this story as the provocative decision has been carried out during a time when the American economy is fiercely strong and firing on all cylinders.
Unemployment is spectacularly low at 3.6%, the lowest rate since 1969, while wage growth has accelerated to 3.8% annually up from 3.4%.
The robust nature of the economy has led to stock market performance being incredibly resilient in the face of continuous global headline risk.
The positive reactions are in part based on the notion that investors expect the Fed Governor Jerome Powell to adopt an even more dovish stance towards rates.
It’s almost as if we are back to the bad news is good news narrative.
Each dip is met with a furious bout of buying and even though we are trudging along sideways, for the time being, this sets up a great second half of the year as China will be forced to fold or face mass employment or worse offering at least a short-term respite for investors to go risk on.
As for the chip sector, high inventories on semiconductor balance sheets and in the channel will continue, as well as weak end demand in nearly every semiconductor end market meaning a once-in-a-generation magnitude of memory oversupply.
The trade war will most likely turn for the worse giving investors even more beaten down prices that will turn into great entry points when the time is ripe.
“It is imperative to respect national sovereignty and refrain from seeking technological hegemony.” – Said Vice President of China Wang Qishan
Mad Hedge Hot Tips
May 20, 2019
Fiat Lux
The Five Most Important Things That Happened Today
(and what to do about them)
1) Stocks Dive on Trade War Escalation, with technology taking the biggest hit. Fears of Chinese retaliation are rampant. Click here.
2) Huawei Blacklists US Chipmakers, taking the sector down 5% across the board. A generational “BUY” is setting up for (NVDA), (MU), and (LRCX). Click here.
3) Tesla Breaks $200, as fears of Chinese tariff hikes hit its parts supply. Analysts cite other “distractions” like the SEC. Wait for the final capitulation. The “BUY” for (TSLA) is setting up. Subsidies to return on 2021. Click here.
4) Ford to Lay Off 7,000, as it struggles to cope with dislocations of the trade war. Avoid (F), they entered the electric car business too late. Click here.
5) Meet John Thomas During His 2019 World Tour
Friday, June 21 12:30 PM Auckland, New Zealand
Monday, June 24 12:30 PM Melbourne, Australia
Tuesday, June 25 12:30 PM Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, June 26 12:30 PM Brisbane, Australia
Friday, June 28 12:30 PM Perth, Australia
Sunday, June 30 12:30 PM Manila, Philippines
Tuesday, July 2 12:30 PM New Delhi, India
Friday, July 5 12:30 PM Cairo, Egypt
Monday, July 8 12:30 PM Venice, Italy
Wednesday, July 10 12:30 PM Budapest, Hungary
Friday, July 19, 3:00 PM Zermatt, Switzerland
Published today in the Mad Hedge Global Trading Dispatch and Mad Hedge Technology Letter:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, OR I’LL TAKE SOME OF THAT!)
(FXI), (CYB), (TSLA), (AAPL), (BA), (WMT), (TLT), (INTU), (GOOGL)
(THE BIG PLAY IN CISCO)
(CSCO), (JNPR), (ANET), (INTC), (GOOGL), (AMZN)
While the Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader focuses on investment over a one week to a six-month time frame, Mad Day Trader, provided by Bill Davis, will exploit money-making opportunities over a brief ten minute to three-day window. It is ideally suited for day traders, but can also be used by long-term investors to improve market timing for entry and exit points. Read more
Global Market Comments
May 20, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, OR I’LL TAKE SOME OF THAT!)
(FXI), (CYB), (TSLA), (AAPL), (BA), (WMT), (TLT), (INTU), (GOOGL)
Whatever the market is drinking right now, I’ll take some of that stuff. If you could bottle it and sell it, you’d be rich. Certainly, the Viagra business would go broke.
To see the Dow average only give up 7% in response to the worst trade war in a century is nothing less than stunning. To see it then make half of that back in the next four days is even more amazing. But then, that is the world we live in now.
When the stock market shrugs off the causes of the last great depression like it’s nothing, you have to reexamine the root causes of the bull market. It’s all about the Fed, the Fed, the Fed.
Our August central bank’s decision to cancel all interest rate rises for a year provided a major tailwind for share prices at the end of 2018. The ending of quantitative tightening six months early injected the steroids, some $50 billion in new cash for the economy per month.
We now have a free Fed put option on share prices. Even if we did enter another 4,500-point swan dive, most now believe that the Fed will counter with more interest rate cuts, thanks to extreme pressure from Washington. A high stock market is seen as crucial to winning the 2020 presidential election.
Furthermore, permabulls are poo-pooing the threat to the US economy the China (FXI) trade war presents. Some $500 billion in Chinese exports barely dent the $21.3 trillion US GDP. It’s not even a lot for China, amounting to 3.7% of their $13.4 trillion GDP, or so the argument goes.
Here’s the problem with that logic. The lack of a $5 part from China can ground the manufacture of $30 million aircraft when there are no domestic alternatives. Similarly, millions of small online businesses, mostly based in the Midwest, couldn’t survive a 25% price increase in the cost of their inventory.
As for the Chinese, while trade with us is only 3.7% of their economy, it most likely accounts for 90% of their profits. That’s why the Chinese yuan (CYB) has recently been in free fall in a desperate attempt to offset punitive tariffs with a substantially cheaper currency.
The market will figure out all of this eventually on a delayed basis and probably in a few months when slowing economic growth becomes undeniable. However, the answer for now is NOT YET!
Markets can be dumb, poor sighted, and mostly deaf animals. It takes them a while to see the obvious. One of the problems with seeing things before the rest of the world does, I can be early on trades, and that can translate into losing money. So, I have to be cautious here.
When that happens, I revert to an approach I call “Trading devoid of the thought process.” When prices are high, I sell. When they are low, I buy. All other information is noise. And I keep my size small and stop out of losers lightning fast. That’s how I managed to eke out a modest 0.63% profit so far this month, despite horrendous trading conditions.
You have to trade the market you have, not what it should be, or what you wish you had. It goes without saying that the Mad Hedge Market Timing Index become an incredibly valuable tool in such conditions.
It was a volatile week, to say the least.
China retaliated, raising tariffs on US goods, ratcheting up the trade war. US markets were crushed with the Dow average down 720 intraday and Chinese plays like Apple (AAPL) and Boeing (BA) especially hard hit.
China tariffs are to cost US households $500 each in rising import costs. Don’t point at me! I buy all American with my Tesla (TSLA).
The China tariffs delivered the largest tax increases in history, some $72 billion according to US Treasury figures. With Walmart (WMT) already issuing warnings on coming price hikes, we should sit up and take notice. It is a highly regressive tax hike, with the poorest hardest hit.
The Atlanta Fed already axed growth prospects for Q2, from 3.2% to 1.1%. This trade war is getting expensive. No wonder stocks have been in a swan dive.
US Retail Sales cratered in March while Industrial Production was off 0.5%. Why is the data suddenly turning recessionary? It isn’t even reflecting the escalated trade war yet.
European auto tariff delay boosted markets in one of the administration’s daily attempts to manipulate the stock market and guarantee support of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania during the next presidential election. All government decisions are now political all the time.
Weekly Jobless Claims plunged by 16,000 to 212,000. Have you noticed how dumb support staff have recently become? I have started asking workers how long they have been at their jobs and the average so far is three months. No one knows anything. This is what a full employment economy gets you.
Four oil tankers were attacked at the Saudi port of Fujairah, sending oil soaring. America’s “two war” strategy may be put to the test, with the US attacking Iran and North Korea simultaneously.
Bitcoin topped 8,000, on a massive “RISK OFF” trade, now double its December low. The cryptocurrency is clearly replacing gold as the fear trade.
The Mad Hedge Fund Trader managed to blast through to a new all-time high last week.
Global Trading Dispatch closed the week up 16.35% year to date and is up 0.63% so far in May. My trailing one-year rose to +20.19%. We jumped in and out of short positions in bonds (TLT) for a small profit, and our tech positions appreciated.
The Mad Hedge Technology Letter did OK, making some good money with a long position in Intuit (INTU) but stopping out for a small loss in Alphabet (GOOGL).
Some 10 out of 13 Mad Hedge Technology Letter round trips have been profitable this year.
My nine and a half year profit jumped to +316.49%. The average annualized return popped to +33.21%. With the markets incredibly and dangerously volatile, I am now 80% in cash with Global Trading Dispatch and 80% cash in the Mad Hedge Tech Letter.
I’ll wait until the markets retest the bottom end of the recent range before considering another long position.
The coming week will see only one report of any real importance, the Fed Minutes on Wednesday afternoon. Q1 earnings are almost done.
On Monday, May 20 at 8:30 AM, the April Chicago Fed National Activity Index is out.
On Tuesday, May 21, 10:00 AM EST, the April Existing Home Sales is released. Home Depot (HD) announces earnings.
On Wednesday, May 22 at 2:00 PM, the minutes of the last FOMC Meeting are published. Lowes (LOW) announces earnings.
On Thursday, May 16 at 23 AM, Weekly Jobless Claims are published. Intuit (INTU) announces earnings.
On Friday, May 24 at 8:30 AM, April Durable Goods is announced.
As for me, I’ll be taking a carload of Boy Scouts to volunteer at the Oakland Food Bank to help distribute food to the poor and the homeless. Despite living in the richest and highest paid urban area in the world, some 20% of the population now lives on handouts, including many public employees and members of the military. It truly is a have, or have-not economy.
Good luck and good trading.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
