Global Market Comments
May 31, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or WHY I LOVE INFLATION),
(SPY), (TLT), (TBT), (GOOGL),
(AAPL), (MSFT), (BRKB), (NVDA), (V)
Tag Archive for: (AAPL)
I love inflation.
Thanks to the relentless increase in prices, the value of my home has risen by $4 million over the last ten years, and $2 million over the last three years alone.
And I’m not the only one.
Some 66% of Americans own their own homes and may have seen similar price increases or more.
So, what if the price of a gallon of milk goes up by $1? I’ll happily pay that if it means my largest personal investment appreciates at triple-digit rates. Besides, I’m lactose intolerant anyway, and all my kids have grown up.
I’ll tell you what else inflation does. It makes stocks really cheap. That’s because investors fear that the Fed will raise interest rates by too much, destroy company earnings, and trigger a recession.
This is counterintuitive because companies actually benefit from inflation because they can get away with faster price increases more often, boosting profits. I took my kids out to a graduation dinner yesterday and practically had to take out a second mortgage to do so.
Personally, I believe that such a stock market bottom is close. But while the last bottom was within 10%, or 200 S&P 500 (SPX) points in terms of price, it is only 50% in terms of time. That signals a great new bull market for stocks beginning sometime this summer. Then anything you touch will double in three years.
You will look like a genius….again!
You can see who agrees with me by looking at which stocks are already getting bought up. Coca-Cola (KO), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), and Procter & Gamble (PG) are the kind of safe, dividend-paying, brand name stocks that very long-term investors like pension funds love to own. They tend to buy and hold….forever.
No meme stocks here.
It isn’t just the Fed that is raising interest rates, which can only control overnight rates. The US budget deficit is falling at the fastest rate since WWII, possibly taking us to a budget surplus by year-end. As a result, the money supply is shrinking at the fastest rate in 60 years.
QT, or quantitative tightening, will fan the flames when it starts on January 1, ultimately taking up to $9 trillion out of the financial system.
Remember all that liquidity from QE, near-zero rates, and massive government spending that saved the economy from Armageddon? Play for movie in reverse and you get the oppositive result, i.e. falling share prices….at least for a while.
The battle as to who is right about the direction of the economy continues unabated. Is it bonds or stocks? At the rates that stocks have been plunging, stocks are essentially anticipating another Great Depression.
Ten-year US Treasury yields that soared from 1.33% to 3.12% in a mere six months are proclaiming that happy days are here again and will last forever. Since January, the average monthly mortgage payment has jumped by $450 a month. If that isn’t recessionary, I don’t know what is.
As a 53-year veteran of these markets, I can tell you that the bond market is always right. That’s because the money spent on equity research has shrunk to a shadow of its former self in recent decades, while bond research is as strong as ever.
Always listen to the guy with the $10 million budget and ignore the one with the $500,000 budget, which means that in the coming months, equity prognosticators will realize the error of their ways and come over to my way of thinking once again.
The Fed Minutes were not so horrible, downplaying the risk of a full 1% rate rise, triggering a 1,000-point rally in the Dow. With five up days in a row, this is starting to look like THE bottom. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel?
Q1 GDP dives 1.5% in its final read. It’s the worst quarter since the pandemic began during Q2 2022. Weekly Jobless Claims dropped 8,000 to 210,000.
NVIDIA Rips, surprising to the upside on almost every front, sending the stock up $30, or 18.75%. Mad Hedge followers bought (NVDA) last week. This is one of the best-run companies in the world. I expect the shares to rise from the current $178.51 to $1,000 in five years. Buy (NVDA) on dips.
The Consumer will keep driving the economy, says Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan. Betting against the American consumer has always been a fool’s errand. I’m with Brian. Cash levels this high were never followed by recessions.
Only 18% of Americans will increase stockholdings this year, which is usually what you get at market bottoms. It was closer to 100% at the December top. Yet another signal that we are approaching the bottom in price, if not time.
New Home Sales dive in April, down 16.6% on a signed contract basis, the weakest in two years. The macro is definitely conspiring against the market. It’s all about interest rates. The average monthly mortgage payment has rocketed by $450 a month since January. Inventories have also soared from 6 to 9 months.
Advertising is in free fall, especially the online version, a usual pre-recession indicator. It is the easiest and first expense companies cut when they expect flagging sales. Look no further than yesterday’s astonishing 43% collapse in Snap (SNAP). Notice that TV commercials are getting endlessly repeated as the number of advertisers and ad rates fall. If I see one more ad for Interactive Brokers, I’ll shoot myself.
The EV Shortage worsens, with wait times for a new Tesla extending beyond a year. I can sell my Model X for more than I paid for it three years ago. Gasoline at $6.00 is converting a lot of drivers, and gas lines this summer loom. Big three dealers are price gouging on the few EVs they have, charging well over list. Good luck finding a Rivian pick-up; that’s a two-year wait. Maybe that makes (TSLA) a “BUY” down here?
My Ten-Year View
When we come out the other side of pandemic, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates still historically cheap, oil peaking out soon, and technology hyper-accelerating, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 800% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The American coming out the other side of the pandemic will be far more efficient and profitable than the old. Dow 240,000 here we come!
With some of the greatest market volatility seen since 1987, my May month-to-date performance recovered to +8.80%.
My 2022 year-to-date performance exploded to 38.98%, a new high. The Dow Average is down -9.30% so far in 2022. It is the greatest outperformance on an index since Mad Hedge Fund Trader started 14 years ago. My trailing one-year return maintains a sky-high 61.22%.
Last week was a quiet one, with me using the monster rally to add new shorts in Apple (AAPL) and the S&P 500 (SPY).
That brings my 14-year total return to 551.54%, some 2.40 times the S&P 500 (SPX) over the same period and a new all-time high. My average annualized return has ratcheted up to 43.54%, easily the highest in the industry.
We need to keep an eye on the number of US Coronavirus cases at 84 million, up 1.5million in a week, and deaths topping 1,004,000 and have only increased by 2,000 in the past week. You can find the data here.
On Monday, May 30, markets are closed for Memorial Day.
On Tuesday, May 31 at 9:00 AM EST, the S&P Case Shiller National Home Price Index for March is released.
On Wednesday, June 1 at 10:00 AM, JOLTS Job Openings for April are published.
On Thursday, June 2 at 8:30 AM, Weekly Jobless Claims are out. We also learn the ADP Private Employment Report for May.
On Friday, June 3 at 8:30 AM, the big Nonfarm Payroll Report for May is disclosed. At 2:00 the Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count is out.
As for me, as a lifetime oenophile, or wine lover, I long searched for the Holy Grail of the perfect bottle. I finally found my quarry in 1989.
During the 19th century, Russia was still an emerging country that sought to import advanced European technology. So, they sent agents to the top wine-growing regions of the continent to bring back grapevine cuttings to create a domestic wine industry. They succeeded beyond all expectations building a major wine industry in Crimea on the Black Sea.
Then the Russian Revolution broke out in 1918.
Czar Nicholas II and his family were executed, and eventually, the wine industry was taken over by the Soviet state. They kept it going because wine exports brought in valuable foreign exchange with which the government could use to industrialize the country.
Then the Germans invaded in 1941.
Not wanting the enemy to capture a 100-year stockpile of fine wine, the managers of the Massandra winery dug a 100-yard-deep cave, moved their bottles in, bricked up the entrance, and hid it with shrubs. Then everyone involved in storing the wine was killed in the war.
Some 45 years later, looking to expand the facility, some Massandra workers stumbled across the entrance to the cave. Inside, they found a million bottles dating back to the 1850s kept in perfect storage conditions. It was a sensation in the wine collecting world.
To cash in, they hired Sotheby’s in London to repackage and auction off the wine one case at a time. It was the auction event of the year. For years afterwards, you could buy glasses of 100-year-old ports and sherries from the Czar’s own private stock at your local neighborhood restaurant for $5, the deal of the century.
I attended the auction at Sotheby’s packed Bond Street offices. The superstars of the wine collecting world were there with open checkbooks. I sat there with my paddle number 138 but was outbid repeatedly and wondered if I would get anything. In the end, I managed to pick up some of the less popular cases, a 1915 Madeira, a 1936 white port, and a 1938 sherry for about $25 a bottle each.
For years, these were my special occasion wines. I opened one when I was appointed a director of Morgan Stanley. Others went to favored clients at Christmas. My 50th, 60th, and 70th birthdays ate into the inventory. So did the birth of children number four and five. Several high school fundraisers saw bottles earn $1,000 each.
One of the 1915’s met its end when I came home from the Gulf War in 1992. Hey, the last Czar didn’t drink it and looked what happened to him! Another one bit the dust when I sold my hedge fund at the absolute market top in 1999. So did capturing 6,000 new subscribers for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader in 2010.
It turns out that the empties were quite nice too, 100-year-old hand-blown green glass, each one is a sculpture in its own right.
I am now reaching the end of the road and only have a half dozen bottles left. I could always sell them on eBay where they now fetch up to $1,000 a bottle.
But you know what? I’d rather have six more celebrations than take in a few grand.
Any suggestions?
Stay Healthy,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
Mad Hedge Technology Letter
May 23, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(ONSHORING GETS CLOSER)
(AAPL), (AMZN)
The end of globalization is accelerating as the iPhone company, Apple (AAPL), has indicated to close sources that they no longer wish to manufacture products in mainland China.
If many might remember, it was Apple CEO Tim Cook who often visited China for a victory lap while simultaneously keeping his mouth shut about the atrocities occurring in the Muslim region of China.
Not only that, zero covid policy in China has served as a political stage for something that appears much more insidious brewing in the Middle Kingdom.
Cook and many other multinational CEOs, selling out their own country, might have finally realized that doing business in totalitarian countries is a bad idea.
Starbucks even shut down in Russia.
There are network costs and brand damage that are hard to recover from.
Truth be told, Apple laughed all the way to the bank with this China arrangement, and their stock price is an indication the strategy worked like clockwork.
Well, it works until it doesn’t.
China was also a great place to live, until it’s not.
Also, China was a great place to manufacture cheap products, until it’s not.
That’s what happens in a country that presides over arbitrary laws which in fact means that the country has no laws.
Now Chinese residents are locked up with robot police dogs barking out orders to stay inside from the street.
What does this mean for Apple’s stock?
Short-term lower if interest rates continue to rise, but very positive long term.
Also, Apple’s equipment might not secure a proper “exit visa.” We also left our military equipment in Afghanistan too.
At least Tim Cook wasn’t locked inside an Apple factory in China like some American CEOs in the past.
At a product level, Apple phones will become more expensive because Apple won’t be able to ignore worker rights and pay them peanuts in producing these shiny gadgets.
Materials will also be harder to source in large quantities.
Remember, China has access to nickel and cobalt.
If they are able to produce in a poorer country like Cambodia, there are transitional costs along with slippage costs.
China’s Foxconn and Pegatron facilities will suffer the fate of many other trade war pawns and I believe this is the end of offshoring for America inc.
Here's another idea, get Foxconn to build an Apple factory in Phoenix and deliver work visas to the best Chinese workers.
Tell them they don’t even need to sleep on the factory floor and don’t need to work 14-hour shifts too. They would take the next plane to the desert.
Apple production partners like Foxconn have already established facilities in India to help produce iPhones for the domestic market there. A further expansion would see iPhones made in India and then exported for global sale.
However, is India sustainable as well? They banned wheat exports to the chagrin of the American government and even worse, they refused to ban Russian energy.
India’s behavior suggests they are working for themselves and not for Ukraine which can be perceived in many coastal American cities as undemocratic.
Either way, Apple’s stock is around 22% from its highs and that’s a victory when we consider stocks like Amazon (AMZN) are down around 45%.
Even if Apple’s stock sustains 30% losses at the time the US Fed starts to lower rates, possibly in 2023, then I would also consider that a resounding success.
Long term, manufacturing in America makes sense not only politically, but economically.
Automation is getting that good too which will soften the blow.
Apple does $365 billion in sales and the natural growth rates suggest it will break half a trillion in sales in 3 years.
However, if Apple wants to do $1 trillion of annual sales, they are going to have to produce the literal iPad on wheels, the Apple EV.
If Apple can pull off an Apple EV while maintaining the high level of quality they are known for, they are guaranteed to clock $1 trillion per year in sales no questions asked meaning the stock should go to $300 per share.
Global Market Comments
May 23, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT)
(SPY), (TLT), (TBT), (GOOGL), (AAPL), (MSFT), (BRKB), (NVDA), (JPM), (BAC), (WFC), ($BTCUSD)
When I first joined Morgan Stanley in 1983, a number of my clients were old enough to have experienced the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed.
One was Sir John Templeton, who confided in me over lunch at his antebellum-style mansion at Lyford Cay in the Bahamas, that his long career started with a lot of excitement, and then became incredibly boring for a decade.
It looks like we entered the incredibly boring phase on January 4, when the stock market began its current downtrend. Last week brought the longest weekly losing streak since 1923, some eight weeks so far.
The market is actually down a lot more than it looks, meaning that we are a lot closer to the bottom than you think. Some 87% of the S&P 500 is down more than 10% and 61% is down 20%. The damage is far worse with the NASDAQ, with some 93% of shares down 10%, and a gut-punching 73% down 20% or more.
While tech has already gone down a lot, some 32% so far this year, it is still trading at an 18% premium to the main market. Remember, in this business, timing is everything. If you invested in tech at the Dotcom peak in 1999, it took you 14 years to break even. Latecomers in this cycle could suffer a similar duration of pain and suffering.
And while these are the kind of moves that usually precede a recession, there is still an overwhelming amount of data that says it won’t happen. We here at Mad Hedge Fund Trader analyze, dissect, and examine data all day long.
I will once again repeat what my UCLA math professor told me a half-century ago. “Statistics are like a bikini bathing suit; what they reveal is fascinating, but what they conceal is essential.”
For a start, 3.6% unemployment rates are not what recessions are made of. Double-digit ones are. The next jobless rate print in June is likely to be down, not up. The country in fact is suffering its worst worker shortage in 80 years. There are currently 6 million more jobs than workers. And wages are rising, putting more money in the pockets of consumers.
Last month, airline ticket prices rose by 25%. Good luck trying to get a plane anywhere as all are full. Last winter, I bought a first-class round-trip ticket from San Francisco to London for $6,000. Today, the same ticket is $10,000. During recessions, planes fly empty, routes get cancelled, and staff laid off. Airlines also go bust and are not subject to the takeover wars we are seeing now.
Recessions also bring dramatic credit crises. Rising default rates force banks to retreat from lending, FICO scores tank, and debt markets dry up. It’s all quiet on the western front now, with all fixed income and liquidity indicators are solidly in the green. And while interest rates are higher, they are nowhere near the peaks seen during past recessions.
All this may explain that after the horrific market moves we have already seen but we may be only 4% from the final bottom in this bear move to an S&P 500 at $3,600, or 7% from an (SPX) of $3,500. That means it is time to start scaling into long-term positions now in the best quality names.
That’s why I have been aggressively piling on call spreads in technology that are 10%-20% in the money with only 19 days to expiration, making money hand over fist.
An interesting headline caught my attention last week. The Russians were stealing farm equipment from Ukraine on an epic scale. When they couldn’t steal it, such as when the electronics were disabled, they were destroying it.
That means the Russians didn’t invade Ukraine to get more beachfront territory on the Black Sea, although that is definitely a plus. They want to destroy a competitor’s agricultural production in order to raise the value of their own output.
Yes, this is the beginning of the Resource Wars that could continue for the rest of this century. Resource producers like the US, Russia, Canada, Australia, and Ukraine will be the big winners. Resource consumers like China, India, and the Middle East will be the big losers.
JP Morgan cuts US GDP Forecasts, with the second half marked down from 3% to 2.4% and 2023 from 2.1% to 1.5%. This means no recession, which requires two back-to-back negative quarters.
China’s Industrial Production collapses by 2.9%, and Retail Sales fell by a shocking 11.1%. The Shanghai shutdown is to blame. It means longer supply chain disruptions for longer and another drag on our own economy. If Tesla has a bad quarter, it will be because of a shortage of vehicles in China. So, will the end of Covid in China bring the bull market back in the US?
The US Budget Deficit is in free fall, putting our hefty bond shorts at risk. While Trump was president the national debt exploded by $4 trillion, a dream come true for bond shorts. Since Biden became president, the annual budget deficit has plunged from $3.1 trillion to $360 billion for the first seven months of fiscal 2022, and we could approach zero by yearend. An exploding economy has sent tax revenues soaring, and taxpayers still have to pay a gigantic bill for last year’s monster capital gains in the stock market. Biden has also been unable to get many spending bills through the Senate, where he lacks a clear majority.
India Bans Food Exports. Climate change is destroying its output with heat waves, while the Ukraine War has eliminated 13% of the world’s calories. This is a problem when you have 1.2 billion to feed. Expect food inflation to worsen.
Consumer Sentiment hits an 11-year low according to the University of Michigan, dipping from 64 to 59.1. Record gas prices and soaring inflation are the reasons, but spending remains strong off the super strong jobs market.
Homebuilder Sentiment hits a two-year low, down from 77 to 69 in May, according to the National Association of Homebuilders. Recession fears and soaring interest rates are the big reasons.
Building Permits dive in April by 3.2%, and single family permits were down 4.6%. The onslaught of bad news for housing continues. Avoid.
Target implodes on terrible earnings, taking the stock down 25%, the worst in 40 years. They finally got the inventory they wanted. Too bad consumers are too poor to buy it with $6.00 a gallon.
Commodities send Battery Costs soaring by 22%. Who knew you were going long copper, lithium, and chromium when you bought your Tesla? It’s a good thing you did. Now you can give the middle finger salute when you drive past gas stations.
Average Household now spending $5,000 a year on gasoline, which is $5,000 they’re not spending on anything else. Just ask Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT).
My Ten-Year View
When we come out the other side of pandemic, we will be perfectly poised to launch into my new American Golden Age, or the next Roaring Twenties. With interest rates still historically cheap, oil peaking out soon, and technology hyper-accelerating, there will be no reason not to. The Dow Average will rise by 800% to 240,000 or more in the coming decade. The America coming out the other side of the pandemic will be far more efficient and profitable than the old. Dow 240,000 here we come!
With some of the greatest market volatility seen since 1987, my May month-to-date performance recovered to +4.79%.
My 2022 year-to-date performance exploded to 34.97%, a new high. The Dow Average is down -16.4% so far in 2022. It is the greatest outperformance on an index since Mad Hedge Fund Trader started 14 years ago. My trailing one-year return maintains a sky-high 62.99%.
This week, I added new long positions in Visa (V) and Microsoft (MSFT) when the Volatility Index (VIX) was in the mid $30s. I also did a nice round trip on an Apple (AAPL) short which brought in $1,740. I also took profits on two longs in the (SPY) and two shorts in the (TLT). Overall, it was a great week!
That brings my 14-year total return to 547.53%, some 2.40 times the S&P 500 (SPX) over the same period and a new all-time high. My average annualized return has ratcheted up to 43.78%, easily the highest in the industry.
We need to keep an eye on the number of US Coronavirus cases at 82.5 million, up 300,000 in a week and deaths topping 1,000,000 and have only increased by 2,000 in the past week. You can find the data here.
On Monday, May 23 at 8:30 AM EST, the Chicago Fed National Activity Index for April is out.
On Tuesday, May 24 at 8:30 AM, New Home Sales for April are released.
On Wednesday, May 25 at 8:30 AM, Durable Goods for April are published.
On Thursday, May 26 at 8:30 AM, Weekly Jobless Claims are disclosed. The first look at Q2 GDP is printed.
On Friday, May 27 at 8:30 AM, Personal Income & Spending is out. At 2:00 the Baker Hughes Oil Rig Count is out.
As for me, one of my fondest memories takes me back to England in 1984 for the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of France. On June 6, 160,000 Americans stormed Utah and Omaha beaches, paving the way for the end of WWII.
My own Uncle Al was a participant and used to thrill me with his hair-raising D-Day experiences. When he passed away, I inherited the P-38 Walther he captured from a German officer that day.
The British government wanted to go all out to make this celebration a big one as this was expected to be the last when most veterans, now in their late fifties and sixties, were in reasonable health. President Ronald Reagan and prime minister Margaret Thatcher were to be the keynote speakers.
The Royal Air Force was planning a fly past of their entire fleet that started over Buckingham Palace, went on the to the debarkation ports at Southampton and Portsmouth, and then over the invasion beaches. It was to be led by a WWII Lancaster bomber, two Supermarine Spitfire, and two Hawker Hurricane fighters.
The only thing missing was American aircraft. The Naval and Military Club in London, where I am still a member, wondered if I would be willing to participate with my own US-registered twin-engine plane?
“Hell yes,” was my response.
Of course, the big concern was the weather, as it was in 1944. Our prayers were answered with a crystal clear day and a gentle westerly wind. The entire RAF was in the air, and I found myself the tail end Charlie following 175 planes. I was joined by my uncle, Medal of Honor winner Colonel Mitchell Paige.
We flew 500 feet right over the Palace. I could clearly see the Queen, a WWII veteran herself, Prince Philip, Lady Diana, and her family waving from the front balcony. Massive shoulder-to-shoulder crowds packed St. James Park in front.
As I passed over the coast, much of the Royal Navy were out letting their horns go full blast. Then it was southeast to the beaches. I flew over Pont du Hoc, which after 40 years still looked like a green moonscape, after a very heavy bombardment.
In one of the most courageous acts in American history, a company of Army Rangers battled their way up 100-foot sheer cliffs. After losing a third of their men, they discovered that the heavy guns they were supposed to disable turned out to be telephone poles. The real guns had been moved inland 400 yards.
We peeled off from the air armada and landed at Caen Aerodrome. Taxiing to my parking space, I drove over the rails for a German V2 launching pad. I took a car to the Normandy American Cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer where Reagan and Thatcher were making their speeches in front of 9,400 neatly manicured graves.
There were thousands of veterans present from all the participating countries, some wearing period uniforms, most wearing ribbons. At one point, men from the 101st Airborne Division parachuted overhead from vintage DC-3’s and landed near the cemetery.
Even though some men were in their sixties and seventies, they still made successful jumps, landing with big grins on their faces. The task was made far easier without the 100 pounds of gear they carried in 1944.
The 78th anniversary of the D-Day invasion is coming up shortly. I won’t be attending this time but will remember my own fine day there so many years ago.
Stay Healthy,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Pont du Hoc
Global Market Comments
May 20, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MAY 18 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(C), (FXI), (BABA), (TSLA), (AAPL), (AMZN), (TGT), (FLR), (QQQ),
(FB), (ARKK), (TSLA), (WYNN), (UAL), (ALK), (DAL)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the May 18 Mad Hedge Fund Trader Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Silicon Valley.
Q: When do you see the banks returning to glory?
A: When recession fears go away, which should happen this summer. A recession will either have come and gone, or we will have confirmation by the end of summer that there is no recession in sight for the next few years at least. This will likely trigger a monster rally in the banks, which could all jump 50% from here. Obviously, Warren Buffet is putting his money where his mouth is by loading up on Citibank (C) yesterday. This would take us to new all-time highs by the end of the year. So, again, use these down-1000-point days to go cherry-picking among the generals who have been executed. If that’s not mixing metaphors, I don’t know what is!
Q: Should I listen to CNBC?
A: No, do not listen to the talking heads on TV. They are on TV because they don’t know how to make money. If they did know how to make money, they’d be locked up in a dark basement somewhere like me, grinding out millions for their firms. In fact, watching TV is the perfect money destruction machine because on down days, they bring out the uber bears, and on up days they bring up the hyper bulls. They are trying to egg you to get you to do the exact opposite of what you should be doing. They’re not interested in you making money; they’re interested in getting traffic on their websites and making money for themselves. CNBC can be highly dangerous to your financial health.
Q: Will we get stagflation?
A: No, because I think that once the year-on-year comparisons kick in—literally in a month or two—inflation will drop from the current 8.3% to down maybe 4% by the end of the year. That also is another factor in your monster second-half rally.
Q: Do you think the bounce in the market yesterday is the beginning of an upward trend or a dead cat bounce?
A: Definitely a dead cat bounce. I expect we’ll keep chopping around in the current range for the next 3, 4, and 5 months, and then we catapult into a monster year-end rally. That is a typical bottoming-type process.
Q: Is the wisdom “Go away in May” still alive or is your best bet that this year may prove different and the market goes up in the latter part of the year?
A: Actually, you should have gone away in November. That’s when all tech stocks peaked; only energy went up after that. If you’d gone away in November and said “come back in August” that would have been a good strategy because I think that’s when the year-end rally begins. If anything, May could be the bottom of the entire move.
Q: Is it time for LEAPS (Long Term Equity Anticipation Securities)?
A: Not yet—it’s too soon for LEAPS territory. You only want to do LEAPS when you are on a sustained long-term uptrend in a stock. We are nowhere near sustained anything, we are still in a bottoming phase, and could be there for months. At the end of those months is when we’ll be looking at LEAPS, where you can double your money every 6 months.
Q: Is it time to start nibbling on China stocks (FXI) now that COVID news is marginally better?
A: I’m going to avoid Chinese stocks because the American ones are so much better. You want to buy the quality at the discount, not the marginal, high-risk political footballs at a discount. And China will remain high-risk as long as they are abandoning capitalism. If you have to buy one Chinese stock, I would say Alibaba (BABA); you could get a double on that. But remember it is a high-risk trade—if the Chinese government wants to roll Jack Ma up in a carpet and kidnap him to Western Chinese re-education camp, the stock will get slaughtered. And that’s been happening increasingly with the heads of major companies in the Middle Kingdom.
Q: When this current route comes to an end, should we look to enter the market with 50% margin on stocks like Tesla (TSLA)?
A: It’s never sensible to go to 50% margin because if the stocks drop 50%, you are completely wiped out—you’ve lost everything. Plus, coming back from a loss is one thing; coming back from zero is impossible. So, I would not recommend that. You might do a safe stock like Apple (APPL), with a 2% dividend, and then at least you’re getting a double dividend. You only do the 50% margin on the safest, high dividend stocks.
Q: Amazon (AMZN) is on its way down. What is your expectation for the $3200/$3400 vertical bull call spread in January 2023?
A: I think you could make money on that. It may not be the full amount of the spread, but you’ll definitely get a big increase from current levels, because when we do get a second half rally, it will be tech-led, and Amazon has already had a horrific decline. What you might consider is rolling your strike down, taking the loss on the 3200/3400 and rolling down to like a $2,000/$2,200 in twice the size, and you’ll make your money back that way.
Q: For those of us thinking about LEAPS, how should we start to buy in—20, 30, 50% right now?
A: Well, first of all, you only do them on down days like today, when the market is down 800, and you scale in. 20% now, 20% higher or lower, and 20% again higher or lower. But you really want to be saving cash for days like this because You want to feel smarter than everybody else, and they absolutely will hit any bid on a down day, and that's where your LEAPS fills are really excellent, is on a down day like this.
Q: Can the Fed avoid another policy mistake? Because it seems that not only are they heading for high inflation, but layoffs are coming as well, and even with that I’m sure they will perform a soft landing of sorts.
A: For sure, when you take massive amounts of stimulus out of the economy, as we have in the last year, that is recessionary. In fact, the US government is close to running a balance budget right now because Biden can’t get anything through Congress other than money for Ukraine. Good for Ukraine economy, not for ours. And yes, they can do a soft landing, but has it ever been done before? No. Though this is the Fed that just keeps on surprising, so who knows. In the meantime, I'm willing to trade the ranges, and that may be all you get to do for a while.
Q: Target (TGT) shares are down 25%, as they cited higher costs that will result in rising prices for their customers. Would you buy the dip?
A: No, I generally don’t like retailers anyway. It’s a business that operates on a 2% profit margin. I like 40 or 50% profit margin businesses—those tend to be technology stocks.
Q: Would you buy retailers going into a recession?
A: No, that’s the worst thing in the world to own.
Q: Could Fluor Corp (FLR) be a Ukraine infrastructure stock?
A: Yes, once the war ends there will be a massive effort to rebuild Ukraine. Every company in the world will be involved, and Fluor and Bechtel will be the biggest, though Fluor is the only one where you can buy the stock. We already have the money to do this with all of the money that was seized from Russia. I predict discount sales on mega yachts.
Q: Why do you think all that money is going to Ukraine?
A: Because a weakened Russia is in the national interest of the United States, and it’s better that their soldiers are doing the dying than ours. I’ve done the latter and definitely prefer the former, using the other country's’soldiers as cannon fodder.
Q: On down days like today, should I be putting on one-month trades like the June options?
A: Yes, because the minimizes your risk and cuts the cost of mistakes. Waiting for the second half of the year when we get a prolonged uptrend to look at LEAPS—that is the correct way to do it.
Q: Over the next 12 months, do you think the S&P 500 will outperform Nasdaq?
A: No—for the next 3 months the S&P 500 will outperform NASDAQ. After that, NASDAQ will become an enormous outperformer for the rest of the decade. So, choose your entry points wisely.
Q: Do you think that housing is peaking out and will start to decline?
A: No, we still have a long-term structural shortage of 10 million homes in the US and I think we will flatline housing for years until we catch up with that shortfall.
Q: What are your thoughts on the Metaverse?
A: Too soon. Right now, the Metaverse involves spending only—no revenues. It could be years before you actually see any profits. So that’s why I'm avoiding Meta or Facebook (FB). But then, you could have made the same argument about the internet 25 years ago and semiconductors 50 years ago. If you waited long enough, however, you obviously made a fortune.
Q: China is hoarding 69% of their wheat reserves. Is this because they plan to invade Taiwan?
A: No, it’s because there’s a global food crisis going on. Many countries, like India, have banned exports of food to protect themselves. People miss this about China: China will never have a war or invade anybody, because the second they do, their food supplies get cut off by us, who are the world’s largest producer of food. Plus, their trade would get shut off to pay for it, so they can’t buy it from somewhere else, and that’s done with us also. So, they need to be in our good graces in order to eat. That's the bottom line and that’s why Taiwan will never get invaded. Russia’s economy can operate independently for a while, but China’s can’t.
Q: Is the baby food shortage further evidence of a food crisis?
A: No, the baby formula crisis is being caused by a monopoly of three companies that control 100% of the baby food market; and the largest of these companies, accounting for a 40% market share of the baby food making, is producing baby food that is poisonous. That's why they got shut down. This has been going on for years, and for some reason, they got a free pass on regulation and inspections by the previous administration, which is ending now, and all of a sudden we’re finding out that 40% of the country’s baby food is contaminated and is being pulled off the market. So, it really has nothing to do with the global food crisis. That’s more related to Climate change—surprise, surprise—as it’s not raining in the right places like California, the war in Ukraine, which removed 13% of the world’s calories practically overnight.
Q: Should I bet the farm here with the ARK Innovation Fund (ARKK)? I like Cathie Woods’ bet on innovation or five-year time horizon. It’s a great thing, don’t you think?
A: Not so great when you drop 70% in the last year. And it is a high-risk bet that of her ten largest holding companies, you only need one of them to work for the fund to bring in a decent return. Of course, you may have to write off nine other companies to do that. But yes, it’s a great thing to own on the way up, not so great on the way down. I know some people who started scaling into ARK in November and came to regret it. I would wait on it—this is your highest leverage technology play, and if you really want some punishment, there’s a hedge fund that’s bringing out a 2X long ARK fund in the next couple of months. Then it’s basically option money you’re throwing out. If you want to put some money in that, you could get a 10x on the 2x ETF if you’re playing a recovery in ARK. So watch it; don’t touch it now because ARK is having another heart attack today, but something to consider if you like gambling.
Q: I am full up with a thousand shares of PayPal (PYPL). It’s now down 76%. What should I do?
A: I recommend you learn the art of stop losses. I stopped out of this thing last fall, and it’s continued to go down virtually every day. Whenever you buy a new position, automatically enter into your spreadsheet your stop loss for that position. Because things can drop by 80 or 90% and you work too hard for your money to throw it away on these big losses.
Q: What do you think about Steve Wynn and Wynn Hotels?
A: I’d be buying down here down 62%; it was announced today that Steve Wynn has secretly been acting as an agent for the Chinese government where (WYNN) has a major part of its operations. Who knew? With all those high rollers being flown in on private jets from China, sitting at the tables in the closed rooms. So yes, this is a recovery play and it will do just as well as all other recovery plays, but remember it’s a China recovery play. And I think, in any case, his ex-wife owns a big part of the company anyway. So I don’t think Steve Wynn is that closely connected with Wynn hotels because of past transgressions with the female staff.
Q: Is it time to scale into Freeport-McMoRan (FCX)?
A: I’d say yes. On a longer-term view, I expect (FCX) to go to $100. And for those who have the May $32/$35 call spread that expires on Friday, my bet is that you get the max profit—but you may not sleep before then.
Q: What do you have to say about a post-Putin scenario and impact on the market?
A: The day Putin dies of a heart attack, you can count on the market being up 10%, if that happens right now—less if it happens at a later date. But it would be hugely bullish for the entire global stock market, and oil would also collapse, which is why I refuse to put on oil plays here. That is a risk. Putin can give up, have an accident, or get overthrown. When the Russian people see their standard of living decline by 90%, this is a country that has a long history of revolutions, putting their leaders in front of firing squads and throwing the bodies down wells. So, if I were Putin, I wouldn't be sleeping very well right now.
Q: What's the reason for air tickets (UAL), (ALK), (DAL) going up sharply?
A: 1. Shortage of airplanes 2. Soaring fuel costs 3. Labor shortages and strikes 4. It is all proof of an economy that is definitely NOT going into recession.
To watch a replay of this webinar with all the charts, bells, whistles, and classic rock music, just log in to www.madhedgefundtrader.com, go to MY ACCOUNT, click on GLOBAL TRADING DISPATCH, then WEBINARS, and all the webinars from the last 12 years are there in all their glory.
Good Luck and Stay Healthy,
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
With Lieutenant Uhuru
Global Market Comments
May 17, 2022
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(JULY 28 VENICE, ITALY STRATEGY LUNCHEON)
(WHY OUR BOND SHORTS ARE AT RISK),
(TLT), (TBT), (AAPL), (NVDA)
Our Bond Shorts are at Risk, thanks to a US Budget Deficit in Free Fall. I shall mourn this development as the loss of a close relative, particularly a rich uncle who writes me a check once a month, as selling short bonds and betting that interest rates will rise has been a huge moneymaker for me for years.
Since November, we have captured an eye-popping $42 points of downside in the United States Treasury Bond Fund (TLT). In two years, we have seized a mind-blowing $67 points. Don’t thank me, I’m just doing what you paid me to do.
While Trump was president, the national debt exploded by $4 trillion, a dream come true for bond short sellers. Trump spent a lifetime sticking lenders with hefty bills and the US government is no exception.
But all good things must come to an end. Since Biden became president, the annual budget deficit has vaporized, from $3.1 trillion in Trump's final year to a mere $360 billion for the first seven months of fiscal 2022, and we could approach zero by yearend.
An exploding economy and record employment have sent tax revenues soaring. The unemployment rate has shrunk from 25% to 3.6%. And taxpayers still had to pay a gigantic bill for last year’s monster capital gains in the stock market.
Covid spending, in the hundreds of billions last year, has been whittled down to near nothing. Biden has also been unable to get many spending bills through the Senate, where he lacks a clear majority.
Pare down government spending in a major way and you get new support for the bond market, the first since Clinton balanced the budget in 1999. Some investors are wondering if the 3.12% peak for the ten-year US Treasury bond seen last week could even be the top for this cycle. With the futures market already pricing in a 200 basis points in rate hikes this year, it’s entirely plausible.
I think we may have a shot at a 3.50% yield by next year. That equates to a (TLT) of around $100. But let’s face it, we are approaching the tag ends of this trade. Time to find better fish to fry. NVIDIA (NVDA) at $120 or Apple (AAPL) at $135 anyone?
We are seeing the same scenario play out at the state level. California saw a staggering $75 billion surplus last year. Among the luxuries Sacramento is considering are gas tax rebates for California drivers, undergrounding 20,000 miles of powerlines to prevent wildfires, and construction of a second transbay BART line.
Of course, all of this surplus wealth is temporary, as it always is. But “Laissez le bon temps roller.”
