All summer and fall, we saw market analysts claim the Fed won the war on inflation. This week, the Core PCE remained stubbornly high. Some claim we’re heading for stagflation. We should pay attention to that warning. 3Q GDP came in below last quarter. Even worse, this economic “growth” is really value-destroying government spending pushing … Read more
Published to the Deep Knowledge Investing blog on November 3rd, 2024. I have been writing less about the macro-economic environment lately. That’s been for two reasons. The primary one is in 2022 and through much of 2023, it was macro considerations that were driving the market. Understanding what was happening with inflation and the Federal … Read more
We’ve now entered earnings season. Las Vegas Sands $LVS misses the headline numbers, but looking a bit deeper, it was a great quarter. Starbucks $SBUX misses badly. DKI thinks they’re focused on too many things that don’t affect the customer experience. Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller are avoiding owning bonds joining DKI in our … Read more
Central banks shatter irony meters as a Fed Governor insists they have unlimited dollars, but it’s Bitcoin that has no value. Not to be outdone, the European Central Bank lowers interest rates and at the same time, warns of coming higher inflation. They’d be better off admitting they’re trapped than saying nonsensical things in public. … Read more
Overview: Today, we got the September Consumer Price Index (CPI) report which showed an overall increase of 2.4% for the last year and 0.2% for the month. That’s slightly below last month’s 2.5% and above expectations by 0.1%. The 0.2% monthly increase was above the 0.1% expected. The Core CPI which excludes food and energy … Read more
Bank of America $BAC has an outage with customers showing balances of zero. The customers are horrified. Want to know why the Bitcoin community finds this hilarious? The answer is hubris. Japan communicates it is dedicated to keeping ultra-low interest rates. The yen predictably declines again. Costco $COST made a fortune selling gold bars. Now … Read more
Years ago, President Trump talked about a change in tax rates that he described as “big league”. It was misinterpreted as “bigly” and a new word entered the lexicon. Last week, the Fed pivoted and cut the fed funds rate. This cut was more than two years after Fed doves and asset gatherers started begging … Read more
Overview: The Federal Reserve completed its September meeting and decided to cut the fed funds rate by 50bp (.5%). Significant items: The market knew the Fed would pivot and cut at this meeting. There was substantial debate regarding the size of the cut. I had expected 25bp (.25%). The doves in the crowd calling … Read more
The long-awaited pivot is here. The Federal Reserve is going to cut the fed funds rate this week. Asset gatherers celebrate the opportunity to blow up another asset bubble. The rest of the country should prepare for more misery-causing inflation. Russia talks about limiting exports of uranium during a multi-year supply shortage. Multiple people pinged … Read more
