Global Market Comments
October 3, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(TAKING A LOOK AT GENERAL ELECTRIC LEAPS), (GE),
(TEN SURPRISES THAT WOULD DESTROY THIS MARKET),
(USO), (AMZN), (MCD), (WMT), (TGT)
Tag Archive for: (USO)
Global Market Comments
August 24, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(AUGUST 22 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(BIDU), (BABA), (VIX), (EEM), (SPY), (GLD), (GDX), (BITCOIN),
(SQM), (HD), (TBT), (JWN), (AMZN), (USO), (NFLX), (PIN),
(TAKING A BITE OUT OF STEALTH INFLATION)
Below please find subscribers’ Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader August 22 Global Strategy Webinar with my guest and 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: How do you think the trade talks will resolve?
A: There will be no resolution this next round of trade talks. China has sent only their most hawkish negotiators who believe that China has done nothing wrong, so don’t expect results any time soon.
Also, because of the arrests in Washington, China is more inclined to just wait out Donald Trump, whether that’s 6 months or 6 1/2 years. They believe they have the upper hand now, sensing weakness in Washington, and in any case, many of the American requests are ridiculous.
Trade talks will likely overhang the market for the rest of this year and you don’t want to go running back into those China Tech plays, like Alibaba (BABA) and Baidu (BIDU) too soon. However, they are offering fantastic value at these levels.
Q: Will the Washington political storm bring down the market?
A: No, it won’t. Even in the case of impeachment, all that will happen is the market will stall and go sideways for a while until it’s over. The market went straight up during the Clinton impeachment, but that was during the tail end of the Dotcom Boom.
Q: Is Alibaba oversold here at 177?
A: Absolutely, it is a great buy. There is a double in this stock over the long term. But, be prepared for more volatility until the trade wars end, especially with China, which could be quite some time.
Q: What would you do with the Volatility Index (VIX) now?
A: Buy at 11 and buy more at 10. It’s a great hedge against your existing long portfolio. It’s at $12 right now.
Q: Are the emerging markets (EEM) a place to be again right now or do you see more carnage?
A: I see more carnage. As long as the dollar is strong, U.S. interest rates are rising, and we have trade wars, the worst victims of all of that are emerging markets as you can see in the charts. Anything emerging market, whether you’re looking at the stocks, bonds or currency, has been a disaster.
Q: Is it time to go short or neutral in the S&P 500 (SPY)?
A: Keep a minimal long just so you have some participation if the slow-motion melt-up continues, but that is it. I’m keeping risks to a minimum now. I only really have one position to prove that I’m not dead or retired. If it were up to me I’d be 100% cash right now.
Q: Would you buy Bitcoin here around $6,500?
A: No, I would not. There still is a 50/50 chance that Bitcoin goes to zero. It’s looking more and more like a Ponzi scheme every day. If we do break the $6,000 level again, look for $4,000 very quickly. Overall, there are too many better fish to fry.
Q: Is it time to buy gold (GLD) and gold miners (GDX)?
A: No, as long as the U.S. is raising interest rates, you don’t want to go anywhere near the precious metals. No yield plays do well in the current environment, and gold is part of that.
Q: What do you think about Lithium?
A: Lithium has been dragged down all year, just like the rest of the commodities. You would think that with rising electric car production around the world, and with Tesla building a second Gigafactory in Nevada, there would be a high demand for Lithium.
But, it turns out Lithium is not that rare; it’s actually one of the most common elements in the world. What is rare is cheap labor and the lack of environmental controls in the processing.
However, it’s not a terrible idea to buy a position in Sociedad Química y Minera (SQM), the major Chilean Lithium producer, but only if you have a nice long-term view, like well into next year. (SQM) was an old favorite of mine during the last commodity boom, when we caught a few doubles. (Check our research data base).
Q: How can the U.S. debt be resolved? Or can we continue on indefinitely with this level of debt?
A: Actually, we can go on indefinitely with this level of debt; what we can’t do is keep adding a trillion dollars a year, which the current federal budget is guaranteed to deliver. At some point the government will crowd out private borrowers, including you and me, out of the market, which will eventually cause the next recession.
Q: Time to rotate out of stocks?
A: Not yet; all we have to do is rotate out of one kind of stock into another, i.e. out of technology and into consumer staple and value stocks. We will still get that performance, but remember we are 9.5 years into what is probably a 10-year bull market.
So, keep the positions small, rotate when the sector changes, and you’ll still make money. But, let's face it the S&P 500 isn’t 600 anymore, it’s 2,800 and the pickings are going to get a lot slimmer from here on out. Watch the movie but stay close to the exit to escape the coming flash fire.
Q: What kind of time frame does Amazon (AMZN) double?
A: The only question is whether it happens now or on the other side of the next recession. We can assume five years for sure.
Q: More upside to Home Depot (HD)?
A: Absolutely, yes. The high home prices lead to increases in home remodeling, and now that Orchard Hardware has gone out of business, all that business has gone to Home Depot. Home Depot just went over $204 a couple days ago.
Q: Do you still like India (PIN)?
A: If you want to pick an emerging market to enter, that’s the one. It’s a Hedge Fund favorite and has the largest potential for growth.
Q: What about oil stocks (USO)?
A: You don’t want to touch them at all; they look terrible. Wait for Texas tea to fall to $60 at the very least.
Q: What would you do with Netflix (NFLX)?
A: I would probably start scaling into buy right here. If you held a gun to my head, the one trade I would do now would be a deep in the money call spread in Netflix, now that they’ve had their $100 drop. And I can’t wait to see how the final season of House of Cards ends!
Q: If yields are going up, why are utilities doing so well?
A: Yields are going down right now, for the short term. We’ve backed off from 3.05% all the way to 2.81%; that’s why you’re getting this rally in the yield plays, but I think it will be a very short-lived event.
Q: Do you see retail stocks remaining strong from now through Christmas?
A: I don’t see this as part of the Christmas move going on right now; I think it’s a rotation into laggard plays, and it’s also very stock specific. Stocks like Nordstrom (JWN) and Target (TGT) are doing well, for instance, while others are getting slaughtered. I would be careful with which stocks you get into.
Good luck and good trading
John Thomas
CEO & Publisher
Diary of a Mad Hedge Fund Trader
Global Market Comments
August 22, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(WHY DOCTOR COPPER IS WAVING A RED FLAG),
($COPPER), (FCX), (USO),
(HANGING OUT WITH THE WOZ),
(AAPL)
One of my responsibilities as a global strategist is to talk about how cheap stocks are at market bottoms, and how expensive they are at market tops. In all honesty I have to tell you that 9 ½ years into a bull market, we are now much closer to a top than a bottom.
If Dr. Copper has anything to say about it the global economy is already in a recession. Since the June peak, trade wars have taken the red metal down a gut-punching 22.7%. The world’s largest copper producer Freeport-McMoRan (FCX), a Carl Icahn favorite, is off an eye-popping 30.6% during the same period.
Should we be running around with our hair on fire? Is it time to throw up on our shoes? I don’t think so…not yet anyway.
Dr. Copper achieved its vaunted status as a leading indicator of economic cycles for the simple reason that everyone uses copper. Building and construction took up 43% of the supply in 2017, followed by electronics (19%) and transportation equipment (17%).
China is far and away the world’s largest consumer of copper. In 2017, it bought 48% of total world output. However, red flags there are flying everywhere.
Back in the 2000s, when China was building a “Rome a Day,” demand for copper seemed limitless. Since then, Chinese construction has fallen to a low ebb as the greatest infrastructure build-out in history came to completion.
China has steadily moved from an export-oriented to a services-driven economy, further eroding the need for copper. I warned investors of this seven years ago. That is why the Mad Hedge Fund Trader has issued virtually NO commodities-based Trade Alerts since then.
Before the last financial crisis Chinese banks accepted copper ingots as collateral for business loans. That practice is now banned.
In the second quarter, nonperforming loans at Chinese banks notched their biggest rise in more than a decade, according to research from Capital Economics. Corporate bond defaults are on the rise, and earlier this week, official reports showed Chinese investment growth, which has long been a driver of the economy, fell to its lowest level since the late 1990s.
The pressure on the Chinese economy is beginning to take its toll in other places, too. China’s currency, the renminbi, has fallen more than 9% against the dollar in the past six months, and China’s CSI 300 index of blue chip stocks is off 19% this year.
The net effect of all of this has been to dilute the predictive power of copper. Copper may no longer deserve its PhD in economics, perhaps only a master’s degree or an associate of arts.
Copper is not alone in predicting imminent economic disaster. Oil (USO) has also been shouting the same. Texas tea has fallen by 15.8% since copper began its swan dive two months ago.
For sure, oil has been falling for its own reasons. Iran has sidestepped American sanctions by selling its oil directly to China, and there is nothing the U.S. can do about it. Every year, global GDP growth needs less oil to grow than before thanks to alternative energy sources and conservation. A recent bout of OPEC quota cheating hasn’t helped either.
As any market strategist will tell you, falling copper and oil prices are not what sustainable bull markets in stocks are made of. I’m not saying a crash will happen tomorrow.
Personally, I believe that the bull market should spill into 2019. But when corporate earnings growth downshifts from 26% to 5% YOY, as it will in Q1 2019, watch out below!
The Big Trade War Victim
Those planning a European vacation this summer just received a big gift from the people of Italy.
Since April, the Euro (FXE) has fallen by 10%. That $1,000 Florence hotel suite now costs only $900. Mille grazie!
You can blame the political instability on the Home of Caesar, which has not had a functioning government since March. The big fear is that the extreme left would form a coalition government with the extreme right that could lead to its departure from the European Community and the Euro. Think of it as Bernie Sanders joining Donald Trump!
In fact, Italy has had 61 different governments since WWII. It changes administrations like I change luxury cars, about once a year. Welcome to European debt crisis part 27.
I can't remember the last time markets cared about what happened in Europe. It was probably the first Greek debt crisis in 2011. This month, 10-year Italian bond yields have rocketed from 1% to 3%. But they care today, big time.
Given the reaction of the global financial markets, you could have been forgiven for thinking that the world had just ended.
U.S. Treasury Bond yields (TLT) saw their biggest plunge in years, off 15 basis points to 2.75%. The Dow Average ($INDU) collapsed by $500 to $24,250, with interest sensitive banks such J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) and Bank of America (BAC) delivering the worst performance of the day.
Even oil prices collapsed for an entirely separate set of reasons - so far, the best performing commodity of 2018. The price of Texas Tea pared 10% in a week.
Saudi Arabia looks like it is about to abandon the wildly successful OPEC production quotas that have been boosting oil prices for the past year, and there are concerns that Iran will withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. The geopolitical premium is back with a vengeance.
So, if the Italian developments are a canard why are we REALLY going down?
You're not going to like the answer.
It turns out that rising inflation, interest rates, oil and commodity prices, the U.S. dollar, U.S. national debt, budget deficits, and stagnant wage growth are a TERRIBLE backdrop for risk in general and stocks specifically. And this is all happening with the major indexes at the top end of recent ranges.
In other words, it was an accident waiting to happen.
Traders are extremely nervous, global uncertainty is high, the seasonals are awful, and Washington is s ticking time bomb. If you were wondering why I was issuing so few Trade Alerts in May these are the reasons.
This all confirms my expectation that markets will remain in increasingly narrow trading ranges for the next six months until the mid-term congressional elections.
Which is creating opportunities.
If you hated bonds at a 3.12% yield from two weeks ago, you absolutely have to despise them at 2.75% today. That's why I added outright bond put options today to my model trading portfolio.
Stocks are still wildly overvalued for the short term, so I'll keep my short position there. As for oil (USO), gold (GLD), and the currencies, I don't want to touch them here.
So watch for those coming Trade Alerts. I'm not dead yet, just resting.
Waiting for My Shot
Global Market Comments
May 25, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2018, AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS GLOBAL STRATEGY DINNER),
(MAY 23 BIWEEKLY STRATEGY WEBINAR Q&A),
(TLT), (SPY), (TSLA), (EEM), (USO), (NVDA),
(GILD), (GE), (PIN), (GLD), (XOM), (FCX), (VIX)
Below please find subscribers' Q&A for the Mad Hedge Fund Trader May 23 Global Strategy Webinar with my guest and 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 short Tesla here?
A: Tesla (TSLA) is on the verge of making the big leap to mass production, so they're in somewhat of an in-between time from a profit point of view, and the burden of proof is on them. Elon Musk is notorious for squeezing shorts. I would not want to bet him.
Musk has been successfully squeezing shorts for 10 years now, from the time the stock was at $16.50 all the way up to $392. So, I would not short Tesla. Buy the car but don't play in the stock; it's really a venture capital play that happens to have a stock listing because so many people are willing to back his vision of a carbon-free economy.
Q: What is your takeaway on the China trade war situation?
A: The Chinese said "no," and that is positive for economic growth. Anything that enhances international trade is good for growth and good for the stock market; anything that damages international trade is bad for corporate earnings and bad for the stock market. So, the China win in the trade war is essentially positive, but I don't think we'll see that reflected in stock prices until the end of the year.
Q: What do you think about Gilead Sciences?
A: I don't really want to touch Gilead (GILD), or the entire sector, for that matter. We shouldn't be seeing such a poor performance at this point in the market. Health care has been dead for a long time, and you would have expected a rally based purely on fundamentals; they are delivering good earnings, it's just not reflected in the price action of the stocks. I think with no new money going into the market, there's nothing to push up other sectors; it's really become a "technology on and off" market. Health care doesn't fit anywhere in that world.
Q: Do you still like Nvidia?
A: I love Nvidia (NVDA). The chip sector still has another year to go. Nvidia has the high value-added product, and I'm looking for $300 dollars a share sometime this year/next year. The reason the stock hasn't really been moving is that it's over-owned; too many people know about the Nvidia story, which continues to go "gangbusters," so to speak. The chairman has also put out negative comments on short-term inventories, which have been a drag.
Q: Treasuries (TLT) are over 3%. Will they go over 3.5% by then end of this year?
A: I would say yes. Since that is only 50 basis points away from the current market, I would say it's a pretty good bet. So, if you get any good entry points you can do LEAPS going out to next year, betting that Treasuries will not only be below $116 by the end of the year, but they'll probably be below 110. And that would give you a very good high return LEAP with a yield of 50% in the next, say 8 months. By the way, if the Treasury yield rises to 4% that takes the (TLT) down to $98!
Q: Any chance General Electric will be acquired this year?
A: Absolutely not. General Electric (GE) worth far more if you break it up into individual pieces and sell them. Some parts are very profitable like jet engines and Baker Hughes, while other parts, like their medical insurance exposure, are awful.
Q: What do you see about the India ETF?
A: The one I follow is the PowerShares India Portfolio ETF (PIN) and we love it long term. Short term, they can take some pain with the rest of the emerging markets.
Q: What should I do with my January 2019 Gold calls?
A: I would sell them. It's not worth hanging on to here with too many other better things to do in stocks.
Q: Would you continue to hold ExxonMobile?
A: I would not. If you were lucky enough to get in at the bottom on ExxonMobile (XOM). I would be taking profits here. I'm not sure how long this energy rally will last, especially if the global economic slowdown continues.
Q: Is Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) a buy?
A: Yes, but only buy the dip in the recent range, so you don't get stopped out when the price goes against you. Commodities are the best performing asset class this year and that should continue.
Q: How high is oil (USO) headed?
A: I think we're probably peaking out short of $80 a barrel currently unless we get a major geopolitical event. Then it could go up to $100 very quickly and trigger a recession.
Q: Are you looking to buy the Volatility Index here?
A: Buy the next dip, but the trick with (VIX) is buying after it sits on a bottom for about five days. You also want to buy it when stocks (SPY) are at the top of a range, like yesterday.
Q: How long do you think the market will be range-bound for?
A: My bet is at least three months, and possibly four or five. We should start to anticipate the outcome of the midterm congressional elections in September/October; that's when you get your upside breakout.
Q: Is Gold (GLD) not worth buying since Bitcoin has taken over market share from Gold buyers?
A: Essentially, yes. That's probably why you're not getting these big spikes in Gold like you're used to. Instead, you're getting them in Bitcoin. Bitcoin is clearly stealing Gold's thunder. That's a major reason why we haven't been chasing Gold this year.
Q: After the emerging market sell-off, is it a good time to go in?
A: No, I think the emerging market (EEM) sell-off is being created by rising interest rates and a strong dollar. I don't see that ending anytime soon. In a year let's take another look in emerging markets. By then overnight Fed funds should be at 2.50% to 2.75%.
Global Market Comments
May 22, 2018
Fiat Lux
Featured Trade:
(DON'T MISS THE MAY 23 GLOBAL STRATEGY WEBINAR),
(CHINA'S BIG TRADE WIN),
(SPY), (TLT), (UUP), (USO), (GLD), (SOYB),
(HOW TO USE YOUR CELL PHONE ABROAD)
My phone started ringing on Sunday afternoon as soon as the futures markets opened in Asia. The U.S. had reached agreement with China on trade and the Dow futures were up 200 points.
Had the next leg of the bull market begun? ?Was it time to buy?
I asked what were the specifics of the deal. There weren't any. I asked about generalities. Those were absent as well.
All they knew was that the U.S. was suspending threatened tariff increases in exchange for a vague Chinese promise to buy more U.S. exports over the long term.
It was in effect a big Chinese win. The development allows the Middle Kingdom to do nothing but stall for time until the next U.S. administration comes to power regardless of which party wins. The Chinese think in terms of centuries, so waiting three more years for a better negotiating backdrop is no big deal.
It vindicates my own call on how the Chinese trade war would play out. After a lot of threats and saber rattling, the administration would achieve nothing, declare victory, and go home.
Traders should NOT be buying this pop in stock prices on pain of death. All that will happen is that stocks will trade back up to the top of the recent range, and then stall out once again as we slide back into slow summer trading. In fact, all we have accomplished is to revisit last week's high in stocks.
Stocks (SPY) weren't buying this trade agreement for two seconds, nor were bonds (TLT), foreign exchange (UUP), gold (GLD), or energy (USO). Not even the agricultural markets were believing it. Soybeans (SOYB), the commodity most affected by the China trade, were up a measly 2.45%. If markets really believed something substantial was afoot they would be limit up three days in a row. I've seen this happen.
It was obvious that little was accomplished when you saw the endless parade of administration officials praising the deals merits. My half century of trading experience has taught me when someone is working so hard to sell you a bridge, you look the other way.
And here is the problem. Beyond cutting-edge technology, there's nothing that China HAS to buy from the U.S. China's largest imports are in energy and foodstuffs, both globally traded commodities.
The oil and gas coming out of America looks pretty much like the Saudi Arabian and Russian kind. U.S. energy infrastructure is already groaning at the seams as it approaches 11 million barrels a day.
To double that from current levels just to fill the trade gap with China would require a multi-decade effort financed with trillions of dollars in private capital just to produce more oil with prices at a three-year high. In other words, it isn't going to happen.
The same is true with agriculture. I doubt there is a single farmer in the country willing to risk his own money to increase production on the back of the China deal. Rainfall is a much bigger concern.
In the end, stocks will eventually rise to new highs by the end of the year, just not right now. And they will do so on the back of the prodigious earnings growth of U.S. companies, which has been expanding at a breakneck pace for nearly a decade.
It is notable that the only major index that hit new highs today was the small cap Russell 2000 (IWM) where the constituent companies essentially do NO trade with China.
To believe otherwise would be giving the cock the credit for the sun rising, which happens every morning like clockwork.
It Worked Again!