Blog Archives

Obsessed by Curves: Yield Curves that Is

yield curves

This is going to be a short blog post, given my travel schedule last week. I have been talking for a while now about the narrowing yield curve and the prospects for it inverting. The 10-year Treasury finally went lower than the 3-month Treasury bill,

…

Read more ›



Cheap Trillion Dollar Insurance

stimulus Cheap Trillion Dollar Insurance

I’ve been pleasantly surprised so far with regard to how well our rent collections have held up since the onset of COVID and the corresponding economic carnage. On average, we’ve been collecting across our portfolio about 98% of what we have billed.

…

Read more ›



Deep Freeze Skepticism

vaccine Deep Freeze Skepticism

Last Monday’s announcement by Pfizer that its Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing the illness sent an earthquake through financial markets, eliciting the worst day in history for momentum stocks. Momentum stocks have been the best performers and investors invest in them believing that strength creates more strength which will lead to outperformance.

…

Read more ›



The China Syndrome - Contrarian Real Estate Opportunity? Perilous Times

Evergrande China Syndrome

China has been capturing a lot of headlines with the implosion of the country’s largest homebuilder, Evergrande. It has an estimated $300 billion in liabilities and approximately 1.4 million homes under construction or with deposits obligating them to build homes in the future.

Evergrande Group Insolvency

This is a big deal as a disorderly collapse of the Evergrande Group can have huge ramifications on the economy and social stability.

…

Read more ›



(de)Energized Europe

natural Gas Europe

A couple of months ago I wrote about the unfolding energy challenges related to the sharp recovery out of Covid and the transition to renewable energy sources. The article talked about coal and how the demand for it has increased significantly while supply has dropped due to Covid and the utter disdain for it as an energy source due to its carbon emissions.

…

Read more ›



Men, Women, and the Value of Doing Nothing

woman vs. men

Let us put men and women together

See which one is smarter

Some say men, but I say no

The women got the men like a puppet show

It ain’t me –

…

Read more ›



Stocks Drop and Jobs Contract

Stocks Drop and Jobs Contract

One can see from the following charts from Sentimentrader.com that the last 100 trading days have been one of the worst periods in terms of stock returns in modern history. 

Stock History 12-31-1946 12-31-2001

And while the jury is still out as to whether we will have a recession over the next year,

…

Read more ›



Going into Labor

Labor Jobs Inflation Employment 2-Year Treasury Notes

Last week I wrote about how important the 2-Year Treasury note yield was to ascertain how close the Fed was to stopping its rate hikes and how high the Federal Funds Rate may reach. Based on past cycles and declaring that the 2-Year yield had peaked at 4.73% in November,

…

Read more ›



Four Eyes on The Two-Year

Four Eyes on The 2 Year Treasury

Introductory note: I wear contacts and glasses, so that’s why I have four eyes paying close attention to the 2-Year Treasury Note yield.

The Federal Reserve has embarked on six tightening cycles since 1988, with the most recent having commenced in March 2022 and one that is still in process.

…

Read more ›



Economic Tug of War

Economic Tug of War

Are jobs a lagging indicator? That is the question as last week was a very ugly one in terms of the Apple announcement and other economic reports suggesting the global economy is slowing. At the same time, the jobs report was quite stellar as the economy produced a seasonally adjusted 312,000 jobs,

…

Read more ›



Categories

Free Insights