Monday, July 20, 2015

Commodities vs Stocks

There are counterforces going on in the markets.  You had a huge flush out in gold overnight during the Asian session, and oil seems like it wants to just keep grinding lower and chew up and spit out the bottom pickers.  Bonds are a choppy mess, refusing to go down much despite equities rocketing higher.  The Bund is back in fashion, as we see the Bund-Treasury spread back towards 161 bps.  We have the Treasury flattener back in vogue.

This all looks like we took a time machine back towards late 2014/early 2015.  With commodities so weak, the Fed has its hands tied, not to mention the softer economic data over the past few weeks.

The market doesn't seem like it can go much higher, we have gotten back near all time highs, and the fund managers are not too willing to dive in to buy near the top after a V bottom.  They have learned their lesson since early this year.  They will wait for a dip to buy.

It makes for a chop fest in bonds, and stocks are going to make the VIX at 11 look too expensive.  It should be a boring summer.  Neutral on almost everything.

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