Trade War Realities Weigh More Heavily

The Australian dollar versus the Japanese yen (AUD/JPY) is back to trading at levels last seen in the immediate wake of the financial crisis. A declining AUD/JPY helps to expose the intensifying risk-off sentiment in financial markets.

An Inescapable Truth In June, 2018, I made the following claims and observations (with fresh emphasis): “…at the end of the day, Trump is determined to drive the U.S. trade deficit as close to zero as possible. This cannot happen without some substantial economic disruptions. To the extent the market refuses to price in these … Read more

Forex Critical: The Organized Chaos of the Turkish Lira

The British pound (FXB) is not the only currency trading in well-defined chaos. The Turkish lira stumbled into the week in the wake of the political uncertainty and forex chaos caused by the cancellation of the results of Istanbul’s recent municipal elections. USD/TRY soared at one point about 3%. The renewed political uncertainty reportedly comes … Read more

Chart Review: Stock Market Fades Weigh Heavily On ACIA, MTCH, UPS

The S&P 500 (SPY) opened the trading day strong but spent the rest of the day fading to a much smaller gain. (The percentage of stocks trading above their respective 40-day moving averages (DMAs), T2108 (AT40), ended the day with an ominous loss that leaves it hanging below the 70% overbought threshold). This near day-long … Read more

No Bottom (Yet) for Bitcoin

“I will be watching for signs of the durability of this latest Bitcoin bottom. If search interest wanes quickly, I will expect the recovery phase to fizzle relatively quickly like last time. If search interest remains robust, I will accordingly expect the recovery period to last longer.” This is what I wrote on January 18, … Read more

Housing Market Review (November, 2017) – A Tax-Driven Day of Angst Transforms Into Another Unrelenting Rally

The last Housing Market Review covered data reported in October, 2017 for September, 2017. At the time, I lamented having too small an exposure to home builders while the entire sector rallied nearly non-stop. I was counting on seasonal patterns to deliver at least one buyable dip ahead of the seasonally strong period starting in … Read more