We have an extra-long version of the 5 Things this news-heavy week. The CPI rose and was above expectations. The Fed is still going to cut. There’s still no evidence of massive tariff-based inflation yet. The BLS crushes its former record for downward job revisions. They need new methodology and President Trump was right to … Read more
I write these macro updates infrequently. I try to do so when I have something significant to say that’s different from the dominant narrative. Conventional wisdom in the markets is correct more often than not. But when I find myself annoyed at the obvious falsehoods in the financial reporting and on Fin-X on a daily … Read more
Overview: Today, we got the August Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 2.9% for the last year and up 0.4% for the month (annualizes to 4.9%). The annual number is up 0.2% from July and 0.1% above expectations. The monthly is up 0.2% and 0.1% above expectations. The Core CPI … Read more
Judge Amit Mehta, an Obama appointee, determined Google was abusing an illegal monopoly. The law says he’s supposed to end the monopoly and eliminate the profits from it. Instead, he left it in place and Google is still sending Apple tens of billions of dollars a year. Revolution Wind had its wind power project stopped … Read more
MannKind is acquiring DKI portfolio position scPharmaceuticals ($SCPH) for $5.35/share in cash and a contingent value right worth up to $1.00. It’s the second medical device acquisition from the DKI portfolio in the past two years and the third acquisition premium in four years. Steel prices fall as US suppliers increase capacity. Just a couple … Read more
Hi All, Good news. As promised, we’ve implemented a new meeting feature. I’ve opened up two 30 minute slots every Monday starting after the coming holiday weekend. These are private Zoom meetings to discuss whatever is on your mind. Flying V’s Kashif has worked some cool magic here so if you’re a DKI Premium Subscriber … Read more
Chairman Powell leans dovish in his annual remarks causing risk assets including Bitcoin, gold, equities, and energy to trade up sharply. DKI disagrees with the (potential) decision to cut rates, but still profits from it. The White House will be pleased, but don’t expect the President to start praising Powell in public. Copper tariffs are … Read more
This week, we got a lower-than-expected CPI. Hooray, the Fed will cut! Then, we got a higher-than-expected PPI. Oh no, the Fed can’t cut! There’s some evidence that tariffs are raising prices for now, but not nearly as bad as the fiat economist threatened. The US puts a 15% tariff on $NVDA and $AMD chip … Read more
Bitcoin is an asset with no cash flows, no interest payments, and no fundamentals. That means explanations for short-term volatility are often little more than guesses. However, this time, there is an easy explanation for the volatility of the recent few weeks. In general, Bitcoin and gold tend to experience higher dollar prices when the … Read more
President Trump fires the head of the BLS. We immediately get performative complaining that the integrity of the BLS and the government data collection process is being threatened and politicized. Somehow, the “integrity” crowd ignores the fact that last year, there were two 800k plus revisions and we just had a 258k revision. Firing the … Read more
