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Thoughts From The Divide: Signals vs Omens – Sept 6

BY JON WEBB
Call me superstitious, but some irrational part of me can’t help but think the disappointment surrounding the Nvidia results had wider significance. Like  Mary Poppins leaving when the wind changes, sometimes it’s something mundane which, with the benefit of hindsight, signals a shift in sentiment. It’s not that Nvidia never disappoints, but it has come to feel like that recently. And since the Nvidia results, stocks do seem to have lost their mojo, in marked contrast to bonds. Read more →

Thoughts From the Divide:  Subjest to Change

BY JON WEBB
As the saying goes, “needs must when the devil drives”. We have no problem understanding the Fed’s decision to announce (at 7pm last night) that the details of the BTFP program needed to be altered. The problem was the overly juicy arbitrage, whereby banks could use the BTFP window to flip cash from the Fed into the RRP and pocket the not-insubstantial difference. We were impressed by the chutzpah involved in arbitraging two Fed facilities! Read more →

Thoughts From The Divide: Not Too Hot, Not Too Cold

BY JON WEBB
Now that the “giant global margin call” appears to have run its course, global equity markets were free to celebrate successfully navigating the potential banana skin that was US inflation data (both CPI and PPI). Inflation is tamed (at least till next month) with only the irritating exception of the shelter components (again!) and those pesky insurance premiums. Turns out that inflation has a long tail: higher auto prices beget higher insurance premiums, and that’s without considering the impact of recent hail storms. That said perhaps we should count our blessings. Both headline CPI and PPI beat (i.e., were lower than) the consensus by 0.1%, which led some economists to point to a core PCE deflator figure below the Fed’s 2% target: good enough for stocks to start celebrating a September rate cut. Read more →
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