Good Thursday morning. The Feds rate cutting cycle has arrived. Going against 90% of economists predictions…who predicted a .25% rate cut…J Powell and the Fed actually got this one right by cutting by .50%.
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. It’s always great being on with Charles Payne. There aren’t many smart-money “talking heads”, but Charles is one of them. The reality is that the vast majority of media personalities know that “fear sells” so they pander to worst-case scenarios
Read MoreGood Thursday morning all.
This morning the Bank of England’s messaging made it clear that they will soon be cutting rates. The ECB is very close to that same decision. We expect both central banks to cut rates in June…
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. Just prior to publishing “The Big Bribe” in the fall of 2022 we went aggressively long the market, citing our primary base case;
We’re in the Roaring 2020’s, powered by consumers and US co’s in their strongest financial shape in decades…
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. I’m scheduled to be on Fox Business with Charles Payne this coming Monday. I think that makes 8 appearances this year. Always an honor as Charles is one of the really good guys, with a remarkable background to boot.
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. Following the parabolic move higher in each major US equity index from the 10/27 lows…just as seasonality was turning bullish…on the VRA System we now have each index hitting extreme overbought levels, but importantly this is only on our shortest term momentum oscillators. Combined with the shockingly bullish technical signals that we’ve seen over the last 8 trading days it remains our view that important lows are in place and that pullbacks from here should continue to be bought (if we have pullbacks, that is).
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. This morning's CPI report came in slightly above estimates with September prices paid for consumers rising .04% month/month vs estimates of .03%. Year over year, core CPI came in at 4.1% vs estimates of 4.1%.
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. Quick hitters this AM.
As Tyler covered in yesterday's VRA Investing Podcast, as seasonal weakness continues to weigh on stocks we’re already seeing a sharp rise in put/call ratios.
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. July CPI (consumer prices) gained 3.2% on an annual basis, less than the 3.3% consensus from economists estimates. On a month-to-month basis, inflation increased just 0.2%, which was in-line with estimates while year/year CPI came in at 4.7%, matching estimates. The report also said real average weekly earnings were unchanged last month, in another positive sign that the Fed can be less concerned about a wage price spiral.
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. A bit of air is coming out of the tech melt-up move higher this AM, post earnings reports, as Netflix (-6%), VRA 10-bagger Tesla (-4%) and IBM (-2%) are each selling off this AM. The moves higher in each has been parabolic this year and with our markets trading at extreme overbought levels on the VRA System, a shake-out does not surprise. Nasdaq is -120 in premarket.
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. So I’m working out this morning when Delta Airlines reported earnings…a record beating quarter for both revenue and earnings…which included the statement that they are ordering a massive number of new planes to keep up with soaring travel demand…
Read MoreWe started the week with each US broad market index trading at (or “very" near) our most overbought designation on the VRA Investing System; “extreme overbought on steroids”…
Read MoreGood Thursday morning. Disappointing afternoon action in the markets yesterday following the March CPI report (that was essentially in line), with talking heads reporting that the primary culprit for market weakness was FOMC minutes that forecasted a “mild recession” at the end of the year. If we listened to the talking heads we’d probably keep our heads in the sand and remain 100% in cash.
We continue to be bullish on stocks and look for a solid rest of the month which will likely include Q1 earnings that surprise to the upside. We’ll get a taste of Q1 tomorrow morning with JP Morgan and Citi earnings reports. If I didn’t dislike bank/financial stocks so much I would be a buyer here. I think they might just blow the doors off…certainly the behemoths.
This morning we got more proof that inflation continues to evolve into disinflation. Huge drop in PPI this AM. The Fed will cut rates by year end. Were it not for the Trump Economic Miracle we’d likely be in a deep recession today.
But even with this beat (to both CPI and PPI), the odds have increased that we have a “negative credit impulse” building with rising odds of a recession, certainly after the implosions of SVB and Signature Bank NY. The latest inflation reports did not capture these banking failures and potential credit crunch as it’s inherently backward looking. The CPI report is always a “fade” and I think this report is especially the case. A Fed pause and pivot should now be here. I’ll be surprised if the fed hikes again on 5/3, but we have 3 more weeks of data plus of course earnings reports of Q1.
My forecast (of the last 4 months) remains unchanged; the Fed will start cutting rates in the 4th quarter and by years end the 10 year yield will fall below 3%.
Financial markets and the Fed are reading from two different playbooks but as history has taught us well, the Fed never leads, they only follow.
Chart Review S&P 500
The largest and most important equity index in the world continues to flash “buy me”. From the 10/13 bear market lows…just classic capitulation…SPX has a clear series of higher highs and higher lows as it remains well above its 200 dma and has worked off its overbought levels over the last week. I expect a breakout to take place in the next 1–2 weeks which would lead to a rally to 4300 + (5% + from here).
Semis (SMH)
Full VRA System look at the chart of SMH, which has worked off its extreme overbought levels and looks ready to make its next major move higher.
Well above its 200 dma and advancing steadily from the 10/13 lows using the blue trend line as stellar support.
Check out the supporting trend lines for RSI and MFI. Again, perfection. As goes the semis, so goes the market.
Precious Metals and Miners; overbought but still flashing “BUY”
While the miners are hitting extreme overbought levels on the VRA System, our top buy signal for this group (precious metals) continues to flash strong buy.
Below is a chart of the relative strength of miners (GDX) to gold. When the miners are leading gold higher, its an extraordinarily strong buy signal.
This group has been doing exactly what it’s known for, acting as a discounting mechanism for what comes next; rate cuts and eventually more QE/money printing. The bull market of bull markets is underway for metals and miners.
Rising Housing, Transports, Semis and Bitcoin; discounting mechanisms and high probability correlations that tell us “the markets are headed higher”.
From our new book “The Big Bribe” (below). Housing is a long term bullish mega trend & should continue to propel the US economy. Housing bears are just plain wrong.
VRA Bottom Line: we remain long and strong as we’ve entered a top 2 month of the year and the best year period (pre-election years are highly bullish). As always, we’re keying off of the semis. We have been aggressively long from the 10/13 bear market lows and will likely remain long well into April, although last week we hit overbought levels that we paid attention to. We’ve now worked off those ST overbought levels and the markets reaction to Q1 earnings is “everything”. We look for the rest of April to be stellar.
Heads up; we have a target in mind for potentially taking profits on some of our ETF positions. It rhymes with “sell in May and go away”.
Until next time, thanks again for reading.
Kip
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Good Thursday morning all. A major investing theme, as taught to me in my 20’s by both of my mentors (Ted Parsons and Mike Metz, RIP gentlemen) goes like this;
Read MoreGood Friday morning all. VRA Quick hitters;
1) Weakness in European shares today as Deutsche Bank is down 15%, taking the European bank index down 5% on the day.
Read MoreAnother volatile day of trading yesterday influenced by fears of global bank runs. Of note, in the last two trading sessions the smart money hour was met with strong buying pressure (with tech leading the way).
Read MoreBreaking: Treasury yields lost momentum this AM, with stock markets reversing higher, after the Labor Department reported that initial jobless claims rose to 211K last week, up from 190K the week before and more than the 195K forecast by analysts. The 10-year yield sits at 3.96%, after trading above 4% before the data. The data indicates the labor market may be weakening (due to higher interest rates).
Read MoreThis morning we learned that weekly jobless claims came in at just 190,000, another incredibly low reading which backs up a series of economic data from the last 1–2 months that show the economy is actually accelerating, rather than slowing down.
Read MoreAs our markets complete their overbought “pause”, we believe seasonality is playing a major role as the second half of February is historically weak. It’s actually one of the worst two weeks periods of the year.
But soon, our overbought sell-off will be behind us. Based on VRA System readings, by weeks end we should be hitting oversold levels that typically mark reversals higher, especially near the birth of new bull markets.
Good Thursday morning all. Another day, another "lower open” that was met with buying pressure throughout the day, leading to another strong smart money hour and resulting in (another) troubling pattern for the bears. And it’s not just that its happened every day so far this week, it’s been the repeating pattern of 2023. Add that market internals were right at 2:1 positive…again, another repeating pattern this year…combined with another day where we had more 52 week highs than lows, an event that has taken place every day so far this year.
Read More
"Kip's VRA financial newsletter is a MUST read for every saavy investor in this country. Disregard it at your own peril. His mantra is my mantra. Kip Herriage's newsletter is my financial Bible."
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2008 Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate
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