Global Market Comments
March 24, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TEN SIGNS THE MARKET IS BOTTOMING),
(FXI), (BRK/A), (BA), (DAL), (SPX),
(INDU), (UUP), (VIX), (VXX), (AAPL)
Tag Archive for: (DAL)
I spent the morning calling some big hedge fund friends asking what they are looking for to indicate the market may be bottoming. I’ll give you a warning right now. None of the traditional fundamental or technical measures have any validity in this market.
Markets will need to see at least one, and maybe all of these before they launch into a sustainable recovery. The good news is that several have already happened and are flashing green.
1) Watch New Corona Cases in China
The pandemic started in China and it will end in China (FXI). The president of China, Xi Jinping, has already announced that the epidemic is over and that the country is returning to normal. The country is donating thousands of respirators and millions of masks to Europe and poor countries all over the world. China was able to enforce a quarantine far more severe than possible in the West, such as using the army to surround 60 million people for a month. So, the results in the Middle Kingdom may not be immediately transferable to the US.
If we do get an actual fall in the number of cases in China, that could indicate the end is near. To keep track, click here.
2) Watch Corona Cases in Italy
Italy quarantined two weeks before California so we should get an earlier answer there. The numbers are reliable, but we don’t know the true extent of their quarantine. After all, this is Italy. Also, Italy has a much older population than the US (that Mediterranean diet keeps Italians alive forever), so they will naturally suffer a higher death rate. However, a decline in cases there will be proof that a western-style shelter-in-place order will work. To keep track, click here.
3) Watch Corona Cases in California
The Golden State was the first to quarantine ten days ago, so it will be the first American state to see cases top out. On Monday, we were at 1,733 cases and 27 deaths, or one in 1.5 million. However, it is a partial quarantine at best, with maybe half of the 20 million workforce staying home. When our cases top out, which should be the week of April 13, it could be an indication that the epidemic is flagging. To keep track, click here.
4) Watch Washington
Passage of a Corona Economic Recovery Bill could take place as early as Friday and could be worth $2 trillion. Add in the massive stimulus provided by the Federal Reserve, a large multiple of the 2008-2009 efforts, and $10 trillion is about to hit the economy. Warning: don’t be short an economy that is about to be hit with $10 trillion worth of stimulus.
5) Watch the Technicals.
Yes, technicals may be worthless now but someday in the future, they won’t be. The stock market has traded 20% below the 200-day moving average only four times in the last century. The Dow Average (INDU) was 32% below the 200-day moving average at the Monday low. The next rip-your-face off short-covering rally is imminent and may initially target that down 20% level at $21,496, or 18% above the Monday low.
6) Watch for the Big Buy
Value players are back in the market for the first time in six years, the last time the S&P 500 (SPX) traded at a discount to its historical 15.5X earnings multiple and are circling targets like hungry sharks. Watch for Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A) to buy a large part of a trophy property, like a major bank or airline. He’s already stepped up his ownership in Delta Airlines (DAL). I’m sure he’s going over the books of Boeing (BA). Warren might even buy back his own stock at a discount to net asset value, down 31.4% in a month. Any move by Warren will signal confidence to the rest of the markets.
7) Watch the US Dollar
With US overnight interest rates having crashed by 1.5% in recent weeks, the US dollar (UUP) should be the weakest currency in the world. The greenback overnight became a zero-yielding currency. Instead, it has been the strongest, rocketing on a gigantic global flight to safety bid. When the foreign exchange rates return to rationality, the buck should weaken, as it has already started to do after last week’s super spike. A weak dollar will be good for American companies and their stocks.
8) Watch the (VIX)
We now know that the Volatility Index (VIX), (VXX) was artificially boosted last week by hundreds of short players covering positions with gigantic losses and going bust. Now that this is washed out, I expect volatility to decline for the rest of 2020. It has already fallen from $80 to $49 in days. This is a precursor to a strong stock market.
9) Watch the Absolute Value of the Market
There could be a magic number beyond which prices can’t fall anymore. That could be yesterday’s 18,000, 17,000, or 15,000. Some 80% of all US stocks are owned by long term holders who never sell, like pension funds, corporate crossholdings, or individuals who have owned them for decades and don’t want to pay the capital gains tax. When the ownership of that 20% is shifted to the 80%, the market runs out of sellers and stocks can’t fall anymore. That may have already happened. Similarly, a final capitulation selloff of market leaders, like Apple (AAPL) may also be a sign that the bear market is ending. (AAPL) is off 34.40% since February.
10) Watch John Thomas
I am watching all of the above 24/7. So rather than chase down all these data points every day, just watch for my next trade alert. I am confined to my home office for the duration, probably for months, so I have nothing else to do. No trips to Switzerland, the Taj Mahal, or the Great Pyramids of Egypt for me this year. It will just be nose to the grindstone.
Stay Healthy and we’ll back a killing on the back nine.
John Thomas
Global Market Comments
February 10, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, or BATTLING THE CORONAVIRUS),
(SPY), (CCL), (RCL), (WYNN), (DAL), (VIX), (VXX)
I am writing this to you from the first-class cabin of Quantas Airlines on the nonstop flight from Melbourne, Australia to San Francisco, a 14-hour flight. While my flight from the US to the Land Down Under was packed, the return was half empty, great for free upgrades.
It has been a daunting day. I was originally scheduled to transfer on my flight from Perth to Sydney. But my plane there was found to be contaminated with Coronavirus and had to be decontaminated. I quickly rerouted.
I ended up sitting next to a research doctor who worked for San Francisco based-Gilead Sciences (GILD) and was returning from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the virus. Since all flights from China to the US are now banned, he had to route his return home via Australia.
What he told me was alarming.
The Chinese are wildly understating the spread of the Coronavirus by perhaps 90% to minimize embarrassment to the government, which kept the outbreak secret for a full six months.
Bodies are piling up outside of hospitals faster than they can be buried. Police are going door to door arresting victims and placing them in gigantic quarantine centers. Every covered public space in the city is filled with beds and the roads are empty. Smaller cities and villages have set up barriers to bar outsiders.
He expected it would be many months before the pandemic peaked. It won’t end until the number of deaths hits the tens of thousands in China and at least the hundreds in the US.
The good news is that Gilead Sciences has an antiviral agent it developed for the other Coronaviruses, MERS and SARS, years ago which may be effective against the present epidemic. The company has already sent a planeload of the drug to China for immediate testing, which my new friend escorted.
The world has learned a lot since the West African Ebola outbreak of 2013. The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) set up in response to that disease is now leading the charge against Corona.
A lab in Australia was able to isolate the virus in a month. The AIDS virus took ten years. It only required another day to sequence the genome. That has greatly shortened the time for the development of a vaccine and a cure. It will take a year to mass produce enough vaccine to inoculate the world. That will be too late to save the many in China who have already perished.
Needless to say, the impact on the global economy will be immense. As we learned from the trade war, take China out of the equation and many things don’t work anymore.
The country’s GDP growth rate is expected to plunge from 6% to 2% this quarter, and possibly zero. Factories have closed, disrupting supply chains globally. The car industry is most affected, with Hyundai in South Korea already shutting down production for lack of parts.
Travel and tourism shares, like airlines (DAL), casinos (WYNN), and cruise lines (CCL), (RCL) have also been hard hit.
US stocks are taking notice, but slowly. It seems that massive Quantitive Easing by the Federal Reserve is enough to head off even a global pandemic, at least for now. This will not last. We have already seen one 600-point down day and a (VIX) spike to $21. There will be more.
Despite the fact that we may be facing the end of the world, the Mad Hedge Trader Alert Service managed to catapult to new all-time highs.
My long volatility positions I picked up when the Volatility Index (VIX), (VXX) was a lowly $12, brought in a double or a triple for most holders in a mere two weeks.
My Global Trading Dispatch performance rose to a new high at +358.96% for the past ten years. My trailing one-year return rose to +48.59%. We closed out January with a respectable +3.11% profit. My ten-year average annualized profit ground back up to +35.31%.
All eyes will be focused on Corona, the virus, not the beer. The weekly economic data are virtually irrelevant now.
On Monday, February 10 at 1:00 PM, US Consumer Inflation Expectations are out.
On Tuesday, February 11 at 12:00 PM, JOLTS Job Openings for December are released.
On Wednesday, February 12, at 12:00 PM, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell testifies in front of congress.
On Thursday, February 13 at 8:30 AM, Weekly Jobless Claims come out. US Core Inflation for January is published.
On Friday, February 14 at 10:30 AM, Retail Sales for January are printed. The Baker Hughes Rig Count follows at 2:00 PM.
As for me, after my epic voyage home, I’ll be catching up on my sleep, dealing with the 16 hours of jet lag from Western Australia.
Good luck and good trading.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Global Market Comments
January 24, 2020
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(LAST CHANCE TO ATTEND THE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7 PERTH, AUSTRALIA STRATEGY LUNCHEON)
(JANUARY 22 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(BA), (IBM), (DAL), (RCL), (WFC),
(JPM), (USO), (UNG), (KOL), (XLF),
(SEE YOU IN TWO WEEKS)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader January 22 Global Strategy Webinar broadcast from Silicon Valley, CA with my guest and co-host Bill Davis of the Mad Day Trader. Keep those questions coming!
Q: Are you concerned about a kitchen sink earnings report on Boeing (BA) next week?
A: No, every DAY has been a kitchen sink for Boeing for the past year! Everyone is expecting the worst, and I think we’re probably going to try to hold around the $300 level. You can’t imagine a company with more bad news than Boeing and it's actually acting as a serious drag on the entire economy since Boeing accounts for about 3% of US GDP. If (BA) doesn’t break $300, you should buy it with both hands as all the bad news will be priced in. That's why I am long Boeing.
Q: Do you think IBM is turning around with its latest earnings report?
A: They may be—They could have finally figured out the cloud, which they are only 20 years late getting into. They’ve been a lagging technology stock for years. If they can figure out the cloud, then they may have a future. They obviously poured a lot into AI but have been unable to make any money off of it. Lots of PR but no profits. People are looking for cheap stuff with the market this high and (IBM) certainly qualifies.
Q: Will the travel stocks like airlines and cruise companies get hurt by the coronavirus?
A: Absolutely, yes; and you’re seeing some pretty terrible stock performance in these companies, like Delta (DAL), the cruise companies like Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL), and the transports, which have all suffered major hits.
Q: Will the Wells Fargo (WFC) shares ever rebound? They are the cheapest of the major banks.
A: Someday, but they still have major management problems to deal with, and it seems like they’re getting $100 million fines every other month. I would stay away. There are better fish to fry, even in this sector, like JP Morgan (JPM).
Q: Will a decrease in foreign direct investment hurt global growth this year?
A: For sure. The total CEO loss of confidence in the economy triggered by the trade war brought capital investment worldwide to a complete halt last year. That will likely continue this year and will keep economic growth slow. We’re right around a 2% level right now and will probably see lower this quarter once we get the next set of numbers. To see the stock market rise in the face of falling capital spending is nothing short of amazing.
Q: Do you think regulation is getting too cumbersome for corporations?
A: No, regulation is at a 20-year low for corporations, especially if you’re an oil (USO), gas (UNG) or coal producer (KOL), or in the financial industry (XLF). That’s one of the reasons that these stocks are rising as quickly as they have been. What follows a huge round of deregulation? A financial crisis, a crashing stock market, and a huge number of bankruptcies.
Global Market Comments
April 8, 2019
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(MARKET OUTLOOK FOR THE WEEK AHEAD, OR THE FLIP-FLOPPING MARKET),
(SPY), (TLT), (TSLA), (BA), (LUV), (DAL)
Easy come easy go.
Flip flop, flip flop.
Up until March 25, the bond market was discounting a 2019 recession. Bonds soared and stocks ground sideways. Exactly on that day, it pushed that recession out a year to 2020.
For that was the day that bond prices hit a multiyear peak and ten-year US Treasury yields (TLT) plunged all the way to 2.33%. Since then, interest rates have gone straight up, to 2.52% as of today.
There was also another interesting turn of the calendar. Markets now seem to be discounting economic activity a quarter ahead. So, the 20% nosedive we saw in stocks in Q4 anticipated a melting Q1 for the economy, which is thought to come in under 1%.
What happens next? A rebounding stock market in Q2 is expecting an economic bounce back in Q2 and Q3. What follows is anyone’s guess. Either continuing trade wars drag us back into a global recession and the stock market gives up the $4,500 points it just gained.
Or the wars end and we continue with a slow 2% GDP growth rate and the market grinds up slowly, maybe 5% a year.
Which leads us to the current quandary besieging strategists and economists around the world. Why is the government pressing for large interest rate cuts in the face of a growing economy and joblessness at record lows?
Of course, you have to ask the question of “what does the president know that we don’t.” The only conceivable reason for a sharp cut in interest rates during “the strongest economy in American history” is that the China trade talks are not going as well as advertised.
In fact, they might not be happening at all. Witness the ever-failing deadlines that always seem just beyond grasp. The proposed rate cut might be damage control in advance of failed trade talks that would certainly lead to a stock market crash, the only known measure of the administration view of the economy.
This also explains why politicization of the Fed is moving forward at an unprecedented rate. You can include political hack Stephen Moore who called for interest rate RISES during the entire eight years of the Obama administration but now wants them taken to zero in the face of an exploding national debt. There is also presidential candidate Herman Cain.
Both want the US to return to the gold standard which will almost certainly cause another Great Depression (that’s why we went off it last time, first in 1933 and finally in 1971). The problem with gold is that it’s finite. Economic growth would be tied to the amount of new gold mined every year where supplies have been FALLING for a decade.
The problem with politicization of the Fed is that once the genie is out of the bottle, it is out for good. BOTH parties will use interest rates to manipulate election outcomes in perpetuity. The independence of the Fed will be a thing of the past.
It has suddenly become a binary world. It either is, or it isn’t.
Positive China rumors lifted markets all week. Is this the upside breakout we’ve been looking for? Buy (FXI). While US markets are up 12% so far in 2019, Chinese ones have doubled that.
The Semiconductor Index, far and away the most China-sensitive sector of the market, hit a new all-time high. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a Mad Hedge favorite, soared 9% in one day. It’s the future so why not? This is in the face of semiconductor demand and prices that are still collapsing. Buy dips.
Verizon beat the world with its surprise 5G rollout. It’s really all about bragging rights as it is available only in Chicago and Minneapolis and it will take time for 5G phones to get to the store. 5G iPhones are not expected until 2020. Still, I can’t WAIT to download the next Star Wars movie on my phone in only ten seconds.
US auto sales were terrible in Q1, the worst quarter in a decade, and continue to die a horrible death. General Motors (GM) suffered a 7% decline, with Silverado pickups off 16% and Suburban SUVs plunging 25%. Is this a prelude to the Q1 GDP number? Risk is rising. You have to wonder how much electric cars are eating their lunch, which now accounts for 4% of all new US sales.
Tesla (TSLA) disappointed big time, and the stock dove $30. Q1 deliveries came in at only 63,000 as I expected, compared to 90,700 in Q4, down 30.5%. I knew it would be a bad number but got squeezed out of my short the day before for a small loss. That’s show business. It’s all about damping the volatility of profits.
By cutting the electric car subsidy by half from $7,500 in 2019 and to zero in 2020, the administration seems intent on putting Tesla out of business at any cost. I hear the company has installed a revolving door at its Fremont headquarters to facilitate the daily visits by the Justice Department and the SEC. Did I mention that the oil industry sees Tesla as an existential threat?
The March Nonfarm Payroll Report rebounded to a healthy 196,000, just under the 110-month average. Weekly Jobless Claims dropped to New 49-Year Low. Whatever the problems the economy has, it’s not with job creation. But at what cost? Of course, we have to cut interest rates!
Boeing successfully tested new software, even taking the CEO for a ride. Maybe it will work this time. Airlines will love it. (BA) shares have already made back half their $80 losses since the recent crash and we caught the entire move. Buy (BA), (DAL), and (LUV).
The Mad Hedge Fund Trader hit a new all-time high briefly, up 15.46% year to date, and beating the pants off the Dow Average. Good thing I didn’t buy the bearish argument. There’s too much cash floating around the world. However, my downside hedges in Disney and Tesla cost me some money when I stopped out. I was late by a day.
We are taking profits on a six-month peak of 13 positions across the GTD and Tech Letter services and will wait for markets to tell us what to do next.
March turned positive in a final burst, up +1.78%. April is so far down -1.76%. My 2019 year to date return retreated to +13.69%, paring my trailing one-year return back up to +26.59%.
My nine and a half year return recovered to +313.83%, pennies short of a new all-time high. The average annualized return appreciated to +33.62%. I am now 80% in cash and 20% long, and my entire portfolio expires at the April 18 option expiration day in 9 trading days.
The Mad Hedge Technology Letter has gone ballistic, with an aggressive and unhedged 40% long, rising in value almost every day. It is maintaining positions in Microsoft (MSFT), Alphabet (GOOGL), and PayPal (PYPL), and Amazon (AMZN), which are clearly going to new highs.
It’s going to be a dull week on the data front after last week’s fireworks.
On Monday, April 8 at 10:00 AM, February Factory Orders are released.
On Tuesday, April 9, 6:00 AM EST, the March NFIB Small Business Optimism Index is published.
On Wednesday, April 10 at 8:30 AM, we get the March Consumer Price Index.
On Thursday, April 11 at 8:30 AM EST, the Weekly Jobless Claims are announced. The March Producer Price Index is printed at the same time.
On Friday, April 12 at 10:00 AM, the April Consumer Sentiment Index is published.
The Baker-Hughes Rig Count follows at 1:00 PM.
As for me, I have two hours until the next snow storm pounds the High Sierras and closes Donner Pass. So I have to pack up and head back to San Francisco.
But I have to get a haircut first.
Incline Village, Nevada is the only place in the world where you can get a haircut from a 78-year-old retired Marine Master Sargent, Louie’s First Class Barbers. Civilian barbers can never grasp the concept of “high and tight with a shadow”, a cut only combat pilots are entitled to. He’ll regale me with stories of the Old Corps the whole time he is clipping away. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
Good luck and good trading.
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
The Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Global Market Comments
May 11, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018, PHILADELPHIA, PA, GLOBAL STRATEGY LUNCHEON),
(MAY 9 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(FB), (MU), (NVDA), (AMZN), (GOOGL),
(TLT), (SPX), (MSFT), (DAL),
(MAD HEDGE DINNER WITH BEN BERNANKE)
Below please find subscribers' Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader May 9 Global Strategy Webinar with my guest co-host Bill Davis of the Mad Day Trader.
As usual, every asset class long and short was covered. You are certainly an inquisitive lot, and keep those questions coming!
Q: Would you still short Facebook (FB)?
A: Right now, no. I thought the dynamics changed off the last earnings report, so the answer is no. We have made a ton of money trading Facebook this year, and all of it has been from the long side.
Q: How will the election affect the market?
A: It will go down into the election, but you'll then get a strong rally as the uncertainty fades away. It really makes no difference who wins. It is the elimination of uncertainty that is the big issue.
Q: Do you have a price to buy Micron Technology (MU) or NVIDIA (NVDA), or do you want to wait for a crash day?
A: I want to wait for a crash day, because even though these are great companies, on the down days, they fall twice as fast as any other stock. Your entry point is very important in that situation.
Q: Do you see opportunities to sell short the U.S. Treasury bond market (TLT) again?
A: Yes. But wait for the four-point rally not the two-point rally.
Q: Rising interest rates should benefit banks - why are they such horrible performers?
A: The double in bank stocks in 2017 fully discounted this year's interest rate move. For banks to really perform interest rates have to move higher still, which they will eventually.
Q: When will the yield curve invert and what will be the implications?
A: You can take the Fed's current rate of interest rate rises (which is 25 basis points every three months) and essentially calculate that the yield curve inverts at the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019. Recessions and bear markets always follow six months after that inversion takes place. That's when interest rates start to rise very sharply as bond investors panic and unwind all their leveraged long positions.
Q: Why are you not involved with Amazon (AMZN) and Google (GOOGL)?
A: I've already taken big profits in both of these and I'm just waiting for another serious dip before I get back in again.
Q: What happens to stock buybacks?
A: While other investors are pulling out of the market, stock buybacks are doubling. But, that is only happening, essentially, in the tech stocks - they're the buyback kings. If you don't have a serious buyback program this year, your stock is falling. Companies are the sole net buyers of the market this year, and they are only buying their own stocks.
Q: What do you see the upper and lower end of the S&P 500 (SPY) range to November?
A: I think we've already got it: 2,550 on the low side, 2,800 on the high side - that a 10% range and you can expect it to get narrower and narrower going into November. After that, we get an upside breakout to new all-time highs.
Q: When will rates be negative next?
A: In the next recession, the bottom of which will be in 2 to 2.5 years; that's when interest rates in the U.S. could go negative, as they did in Japan and Europe for several years.
Q: What is your No. 1 pick in the market today?
A: We love Microsoft (MSFT) long term. However, right now the background macro picture is more important than stock selection than any single name, so we're keeping a position in Microsoft in the Mad Hedge Technology Letter, but not in Global Trading Dispatch. We're sort of hanging back, waiting for another sell-off before we touch anything on the long side in GTD. Remember, the money is made on a buy in the new position, not on the sell going out.
Q: Was the semiconductor chip sell-off overdone?
A: Absolutely - the negative report was put out by a new analyst to the industry who doesn't know what he's talking about. If you ask all the end users of the chips, all they talk about is A.I., and that means exponential growth of chip demand.
Q: Is it a good time to buy airline stocks (DAL)?
A: No, until we get a definitive peak in oil, and a speed up again in the economy, you don't want to touch economically sensitive sectors like the airlines.
