January 2, 2017, 4:00pm EST

Happy New Year!  We’re off to what will be a very exciting year for markets and the economy.  And make no mistake, there will be profound differences in the world this year, with the inauguration of a new, pro-growth U.S. President, at a time where the world desperately needs growth.

I’ve talked a lot about the “Trump effect.”  Clearly, when you come in slashing the corporate tax rate, creating incentives for trillions of dollars of capital to come home, and eliminating overhead and hurdles associated with regulation, you’ll get hiring, you’ll get spending, you’ll get investment and you’ll get growth.

But there’s more to it.  Ray Dalio, one of the richest, best and brightest investors in the world has said, there is a clear shift in the environment, “from one that makes profit makers villains with limited power, to one that makes them heroes with significant power.”

The latter has been diminished over the past 10 years.

Clearly, we entered the past decade in an economic and structural mess. But while monetary policy makers were doing everything in their power (and then some) to avert the apocalypse and, later, fuel a recovery, it was being undone by law makers and a lack of fiscal support, swinging the pendulum too far in the direction of punishment and scapegoating.

With that, despite the continued wealth creation of the 1% over the past decade, and the widening of the inequality gap, the power of the wealth creators has been diminished in the crisis period – certainly, the public’s favor toward the rich has diminished.  And most importantly, the incentives for creating value and creating wealth have been diminished.

With all of the nuances of change that are coming, and the many opinions on what it all means, that statement by billionaire Ray Dalio might be the most simple and clear point made.

Another good point that has been made by Dalio, as he’s reflected on the “Trump effect.”  It’s the element that economists and analysts can’t predict, and can’t quantify.  The prospects of the return of “animal spirits.”  This is what has been destroyed over the past decade, driven primarily by the fear of indebtedness (which is typical of a debt crisis) and mis-trust of the system.
All along the way, throughout the recovery period, and throughout a tripling of the stock market off of the bottom, people have continually been waiting for another shoe to drop.  The breaking of this emotional mindset appears to finally be underway.  And that gives way to a return of animal spirits, which haven’t been calibrated in all of the forecasts for 2017 and beyond.

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As we near the year end and near a new administration and policy stance, the geopolitical risks have risen.

I’ve talked about the China threat quite a bit.  China’s currency regime was at the core of global economic crisis, and is inching us all toward what looks like an ultimate military crisis.  The seizure of an American drone by the Chinese on Friday was another step toward that end.

Remember, back in January, I talked about six global market themes that would rule for 2016.  Among those, I said “China’s currency manipulation will come home to roost…..China’s currency manipulation (i.e. keeping their currency weak relative to the rest of the world, to corner the world’s export business) was a big contributor to the global credit bubble and subsequent economic crisis. Only after being persistently pressured by key trading partners (namely the U.S.) have they allowed their currency to slowly appreciate over the past several years. But now their economy is slowing, a dangerous scenario for China. Meanwhile, China is losing export prowess to Japan, a country that has weakened its currency by almost 35% in the past two years. The easy fix, in the minds of the Chinese, is to jumpstart exports. How do they do it? Weaken the currency, which is precisely what they have started doing (beginning in August of last year). But, longer term, expect such a reversal on formerly agreed to concessions by China, to be an act of economic war, which may, over the next decade or two, lead to military war (U.S., Europe, Japan v China, Russia, N. Korea).”

Since January (when I discussed the above) China has continued to weaken it’s currency.  They’ve blamed it on capital flight.  But with the economy still running at recession speed, they want and need a weaker currency, and they are walking it down.  They know what works.  A cheap currency drives exports.  Exports have drive prosperity in China.

But they’ve run into new leadership in the U.S. that is talking tough and has the credibility to act (unlike the outgoing administration).  That has money in China seeking the exit doors as more bumps appear to be ahead for the economy (not the least of which are threats of tariffs).  And with that uptick in money leaving the country, the monetary authorities have clamped down on capital controls, more onerously restricting the movement of money out of China.

A weaker currency, tightening capital controls, and an eroding confidence in doing business in China all reinforces a weaker and weaker economy.

Still, as I’ve said before, while many think Trump will provoke a military conflict, that’s far from a certainty.  With the credibility to act, however, Trump’s tough talk on China creates leverage.  And from that leverage, there may be a path to a mutually beneficial agreement, where the U.S. can win in trade with China, and China can win.  But it may get uglier before it gets better. In the end, growth solves a lot of problems.  A hotter growing U.S. economy (driven by reform and fiscal stimulus), will ultimately drive much better growth in the global economy.  And China has a lot to gain from both. Though in a fair trade environment, they won’t get as much of the pie as they’ve gotten over the past two decades. But it has the chance of leading to a more balanced and sustainable economy in China, which would also be a win for everyone.

For help building a high potential portfolio, follow me in our Billionaire’s Portfolio, where you look over my shoulder as I follow the world’s best investors into their best stocks.  Our portfolio is up 24% this year. You can join me here and get positioned for a big 2017.

 

December 12, 2016, 4:00pm EST

The last big market event of the year will be Wednesday, when the Fed decides on rates.

As we’ve discussed, from the bottom in rates earlier this year, the interest rate market has had an enormous move.  That has a lot of people worried about 1) a tightening that has already taken place in the credit markets, and 2) the potential drag it may have on what has been an improving recovery.  But remember, we headed into the Fed’s first post-crisis rate hike, last December, with the 10 year yield trading at 2.25%.

And while rates have since done a nearly 100 basis point round trip, we’ll head into this week’s meeting with the 10 year trading around 2.50%.   With that, the market has simply priced-in the rate hike this week, and importantly, is sending the message that the economy can handle it.
bp image dec 9

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However, what has been the risk, going into this meeting, is the potential for the Fed to overreact on the interest rate outlook in response to the pro-growth inititiaves coming from the Trump administration.  As we found last year, overly optimistic guidance from the Fed has a tightening effect in this environment.   People began bracing ealier this year for a slower economy, if not a Fed induced recession, after the Fed projected four rate hikes this year.

The good news is, as we discussed last week, the two voting Fed members that were marched out in front of cameras last week, both toed the line of Yellen’s communications strategy, expressing caution and a slow and reactive path of rate hikes (no hint of a bubbling up of optimism).  Again, that should keep the equities train moving in the positive direction through the year end.

In fact, both equities and oil look poised to take advantage of thin holiday markets.  We may see a few more percentage points added to stocks before New Years, especially given the catalyst of the Trump tweet.  And we may very well see a drift up to $60 in oil in a thin market.

We’ve had the first production cut from OPEC in eight years.  And as of this weekend, we have an agreement by non-OPEC producers to cut oil production too.  That gapped oil prices higher to open the week, and has confirmed a clean long term technical reversal pattern in oil.

Let’s take a look at  the chart…

dec 12 oil hs

Sources: investing.com, Billionaires Portfolio

This is a classic inverse head and shoulders pattern in oil.  The break of the neckline today projects a move to $77.  Some of the best and most informed oil traders in the world have been predicting that area for oil prices since this past summer.

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December 9, 2016, 9:00pm EST

We’ve talked a lot about the set ups for big moves in Japanese and German stocks, as these major stock markets have lagged the recovery in the U.S.

Many have yet to come to the realization that a higher growth, healthier U.S. economy is good for everyone — starting with developed marketeconomies. And it unquestionably applies to emerging market economies, despite the fears of trade constraints.

bp image dec 9

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A trillion dollars of U.S. money to be repatriated, has the dollar on a run that will likely end with USDJPY dramatically higher, and the euro dramatically lower (maybe all-time lows of 0.83 cents, before it’s said and done). This is wildly stimulative for those economies, and inflation producing for two spots in the world that have been staring down the abyss of deflation.

This currency effect, along with the higher U.S. growth effect on German and Japanese stocks will put the stock markets in these countries into aggressive catch up mode. I think the acceleration started this week.

As I said last week, Japanese stocks still haven’t yet taken out the 2015 highs. Nor have German stocks, though both made up significant ground this week. Yen hedged Nikkei was up 4.5% this week. The euro hedged Dax was up 7.6%.

What about U.S. stocks? It’s not too late. As I’ve said, it’s just getting started.

We’ve talked quite a bit about the simple fundamental and technical reasons stocks are climbing and still have a lot of upside ahead, but it’s worth reiterating. The long-term trajectory of stocks still has a large gap to close to restore the lost gains of the past nine-plus years, from the 2007 pre-crisis highs. And from a valuation standpoint, stocks are still quite cheap relative to ultra-low interest rate environments. Add to that, a boost in growth will make the stock market even cheaper. As the “E” in the P/E goes up, the ratio goes down. It all argues for much higher stocks. All we’ve needed is a catalyst. And now we have it. It’s the Trump effect.

But it has little to do with blindly assuming a perfect presidential run. It has everything to do with a policy sea change, in a world that has been starving (desperately needing) radical structural change to promote growth.

Not only is this catch up time for foreign stocks. But it’s catch up time for the average investor. The outlook for a sustainable and higher growth economy, along with investor and business-friendly policies is setting the table for an era of solid wealth creation, in a world that has been stagnant for too long. That stagnation has put both pension funds and individual retirement accounts in mathematically dire situations when projecting out retirement benefits. So while some folks with limited perspective continue to ask if it’s too late to get off of the sidelines and into stocks, the reality is, it’s the perfect time. For help, follow me and look over my shoulder as I follow the world’s best investors into their best stocks. Our portfolio is up more than 27% this year. You can join me here and get positioned for a big 2017.

 

December 5, 2016, 4:00pm EST

On Friday, we looked at five key charts that showed the technical breakout in stocks, interest rates, the dollar and crude oil.

All of these longer term charts argue for much higher levels to come. Remember, the big event remaining for the year is the December 14th Fed meeting. A rate hike won’t move the needle. It’s well expected at this stage.  But the projections on the path of interest rates that they will release, following the meeting, will be important.  As I said Friday, “as long as Yellen and company don’t panic, overestimate the inflation outlook and telegraph a more aggressive rate path next year, the year should end on a very positive note.”

On that note, today we had a number of Fed members out chattering about rates and where things are headed.  Did they start building expectations for a more aggressive rate path in 2017, because of the Trump effect?  Or, did they stick to the new strategy of promoting a view that underestimates the outlook for the economy and, therefore, the rate path (a strategy that was suggested by former Fed Chair Bernanke)?

The former is what Bernanke criticized the Fed as doing late last year, which he argued was an impediment to growth, as people took the cue and started positioning for a rate environment that would choke off the recovery.  The latter is what he suggested they should move to (and have moved to), sending an ultra accommodative signal, and a willingness to be behind the curve on inflation — letting the economy run hot for a while (i.e. they won’t impede the progress of recovery by tightening money).

So how did the Fed speakers today weigh in, relative to this positioning?

First, it should be said that Bernanke also recently criticized the Fed for the cacophony of chatter from Fed members between meetings. He said it was confusing and disruptive to the overall Fed communications.
So we had three speakers today.  New York Fed President William Dudley spoke in New York, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard spoke in Phoenix, and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans speaks in Chicago. Did they have a game plan today to promote a more consistent message, or was it a more of the disruptive noise we’ve heard in the past?

Fortunately, they were on message.  Only Dudley and Bullard are voting members.  Both had comments today that spanned from cautious to outright dovish.  Dudley, the Vice Chair, wasn’t taking a proactive view on the impact of fiscal stimulus — he promoted a wait and see view, while keeping the tone cautionary.  Bullard, a Fed member that is often swaying with the wind, said he envisioned ONE rate hike through 2019. That would mean, one in December, and done until 2019.  That’s an amazing statement, and one that completely (and purposely) ignores any influence of what may come from the new pro-growth policies.

This is all good news for stocks and the momentum in markets. The Fed seems to be disciplined in its strategy to stay out of the way of the positive momentum that has developed.  And that only helps their cause.  With that, if today’s chatter is a guide, we should see a very modest view in the economic projections that will come on December 14th. That should keep the stock market on track for a strong close into the end of the year.

We may be entering an incredible era for investing. An opportunity for average investors to make up ground on the meager wealth creation and retirement savings opportunities of the past decade, or more. For help, follow me in my Billionaire’s Portfolio, where you look over my shoulder as I follow the world’s best investors into their best stocks. Our portfolio is up 24% year to date. That’s more than three times the performance of the broader stock market. Join me here

 

November 30, 2016, 3:25pm EST

Over the past year we’ve talked a lot about the oil price bust and the threat it represented to the global economy.  And in past months, we’ve talked about the approaching OPEC meeting, where they had telegraphed a production cut – the first in eight years.  Still, not many were buying it.

Remember, it was OPEC created the oil price crash that started in November of 2014 when the Saudis refused a production cut.  Ultimately the price of oil fell to $26 a barrel (this past February).

Their strategy:  Kill off the emerging threat of the U.S. shale industry by forcing prices well below where they could produce profitably.  To an extent it worked.  More than 100 small oil related companies in the U.S. filed for bankruptcy over the past two years.

But it soon became evident that cheap oil threatened, not just the U.S. shale industry (which also turned out to threaten the global financial system and global economy), but it threatened the solvency of OPEC member countries (the proverbial shot in the foot).

The big fish, the Saudis, have lost significant revenue from the self-induced oil price plunge, starting the clock on an economic time bomb. They derive about 80% of their revenue from oil.  With that, they’ve run up their budget deficit to more than 15% of GDP in the oil bust environment.  For context, Greece, the well known walking dead member of the euro zone was running a budget deficit of 15% at worst levels back in 2009.

So OPEC members need (have to have) higher oil prices.  Time is working against them. With that, they followed through with a cut today.  Remember, back in the 80s when OPEC merely hinted at a production cut, oil jumped 50% in 24 hours.  Today it was up as much as 10% on the news. But this cut should put a floor under oil in the mid $40s, and lead to $60-$70 oil next year.

All of this said, given the increase in supply from bringing Iran production back online, and from increasing U.S. supply, no one should be cheering more for the pro-growth Trump economy to put a fire under demand than OPEC, especially Saudi Arabia.

Now, as we discussed this week, oil has been a huge drag on global inflation.  With that, the catalyst of a first OPEC cut in eight years driving oil prices higher could put the Fed and other global central banks in a very different position next year.

Consider where the world was just months ago, with downside risks reverting back to the depths of the economic crisis.  Now we have reason to believe oil could be significantly higher next year. That alone will run inflation significantly hotter (flipping the switch on the inflation outlook). Add to that, we have a pro-growth government with a trillion dollar fiscal package and tax cuts entering the mix.

As I said yesterday, we may find that the Fed will tell us in December that they are planning to move rates more like four times next year, instead of two.

The market is already telling us that the inflation switch has been flipped. Just four months ago, the 10 year yield was trading 1.32%, at new record lows.  And as of today, we have a 10-year at 2.40% — and that’s on about a 60 basis point runup since November 8th.

With that said, there has been a shot in the arm for sentiment over the past few weeks. That’s led to the bottoming in rates, bottoming in commodities and potential cheapening of valuations in stocks (given a higher growth outlook).  As a whole, that all becomes self-reinforcing for the better growth outlook story.

And that reduces a lot of threats.  But it creates a new threat: The threat of a collapse in bond prices, runaway in market interest rates.

But what could be the Fed’s best friend, to quell that threat?  Trump’s new Treasury Secretary said today that he thinks they will see companies repatriate as much as $1 trillion.  Much of that money will find a parking place in the biggest, most liquid market in the world:  The U.S. Treasury market.  That should support bonds, and keep the climb in interest rates tame.

We may be entering an incredible era for investing. An opportunity for average investors to make up ground on the meager wealth creation and retirement savings opportunities of the past decade, or more. For help, follow me in my Billionaire’s Portfolio, where you look over my shoulder as I follow the world’s best investors into their best stocks. Our portfolio is up 24% year to date. That’s more than three times the performance of the broader stock market. Join me here.

 

November 8, 2016, 4:00pm EST

As we head into the election, everyone involved in markets is trying to predict how stocks will perform on the results.  When the Clinton email scandal bubbled up again, the stock market lost ground for nine straight days, the longest losing streak since 1980.  Since the probe has allegedly ended, stocks have been up.

Does it mean Clinton is good for stocks and Trump is bad for stocks?  Not likely.

Big institutional money managers think they have a better understanding of what the world will look like under Clinton than Trump, and therefore feel more compelled to go on with business as usual heading into the event (i.e. allocating capital across the stock market) with the expectation of a Clinton win, and conversely, they’re not as compelled to do so with the expectation that Trump might win (i.e. they sit tight and watch).

When they sit on their hands, liquidity in markets shrinks, and speculators can push the stock market around.

With that, is there any predictive value in the either moves in stocks of the past two weeks?  Not likely. No matter what the outcome, your 401k money will continue to flow to Wall Street, and stocks will be bought with that money.  Moreover, central banks have been in control and remain in control. They’ve been responsible for the global economic recovery of the past nine years, and for creating and maintaining relative economic stability. And stable to higher stocks play a big role in the coordinated strategies of the world’s biggest central banks.  Neither the economic recovery, nor the stock market recovery can be credited much to politicians.

If anything, politicians (both parties) have been a drag on recovery, which has lead to the threatening “stagnation forever” malaise that is saddling economies across the globe.  From mis-spending early fiscal stimulus, to ignoring central banks cries for much needed targeted spending programs, they’ve proven to be an impediment in the economic recovery.

In this environment, in the long run, the value of the new President for stocks will prove out only if there’s structural change.  And structural change can only come when the economy is strong enough to withstand the pain.  And getting the economy to that point will likely only come from some big and successfully executed fiscal stimulus.

Now, as we head into tonight’s results, as we’ve been told, a Clinton win remains the clear favorite (a known quantity).  And Trump has always represented the vote that the unknown is better than the known.

This vote for some time has looked very much like the Brexit vote (the UK’s vote to leave the European Union), and the Grexit vote (Greece’s vote against austerity). As with the Trump vote, the buildup to both Grexit and Brexit were accompanied by threats from trusted officials of draconian outcomes for the people.  But as we know, the Greek and British shocked the world by voting for the unknown, over the known.

Let’s take a look at how things looked going into those votes and how it compares to today’s election…

As we headed into the Greek vote in July of last year. It was thought to be a done deal that the Greek people would vote in favor of another bailout package from the European Union (and accept more austerity for fear of an apocalyptic outcome from voting no). The bookmakers put the “yes” vote at 71% chance of occurring. A UK bookmaker paid out those voting “yes” four days before the vote.  The “no” vote won, shocking the world with 61% of the vote.

And then there was Brexit …

The UK vote was about trade, immigration, ability to work and live in other EU countries — perhaps mostly about control and politics.

The bookmakers had the chances of a “leave” vote as slim (at about 70/30 favoring the ‘stay’ camp).  When voting day arrived, the chances of a “leave” vote had dropped to just 25%.  But the British people shocked the world, voting to leave by 52% to 48%.

Going into today’s vote, the chances they’re giving Trump are spot on with the Brexit odds going into the day of the referendum.  Of course, it’s not a popular vote.  The electoral vote creates a bigger hurdle for voting the candidate of the “unkown” in this case.

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October 10, 2016, 3:15pm EST

I talked last week about the move in oil, and the lag in natural gas.

But natural gas was knocking on the door of a technical breakout.  As you can see, that breakout looks to be underway now.

oct10 natgas

Nat gas is now at $3.25.  If history is any indication, it could be in the low $4s soon.

That’s helped by chatter today from OPEC members out vocally supporting the production cut that was agreed to two weeks ago.  And the Secretary General of OPEC piled on today by saying the sharp contraction in investments (due to low prices) poses a threat to global oil supply.  As we’ve discussed, for those that had the “oil price to zero” arguments earlier in the year, supply changes, so does demand.

With all of this, oil continues to climb higher, testing the June highs today.  Here’s another look at the chart.

oct10 oil

A break above the June highs of $51.67 would project a move to near $65 (technically speaking, it’s a C-wave).  Another big technical level above is $68.60, which is the 61.8% retracement of the move down from almost $95 in late 2014, to the lows of earlier this year.  That’s the breakdown in oil prices driven by OPEC’s 2014 refusal to cut production.  And now were on the verge of getting the first cut in eight years.  So oil is looking like higher levels are coming — it was up another 3% today.

What’s does it mean for stocks?  As we’ve discussed, for much of the year, lower oil has meant lower stocks, and higher oil has meant higher stocks.

oct10 oil v stocks

This emerging bullish technical and fundamental backdrop for energy should be very good for stocks.  Remember, higher energy prices, in this environment, removes the risk of another oil price shock-to-sentiment (good for stocks, good for the economy). And it means producers can start producing again, downstream businesses can fill capacity, and we can start seeing some of the hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs replenished that have been lost over the past two years.

Since OPEC rigged lower oil prices back in late 2014, we’ve had over 100 North American energy company bankruptcies.  Some of those have/are reorganizing and emerging with lean balance sheets into what could be a hot recovery in energy prices.  I’ll talk about some tomorrow.

The Billionaire’s Portfolio is up 23% year-to-date — that’s nearly four times the return of the S&P 500 during the same period.  We recently exited a big FDA approval stock for a quadruple, and we’ve just added a new pick to the portfolio — following Warren Buffett into one of his favorite stocks.   If you haven’t joined yet, please do.  Click here to get started and get your portfolio in line with our Billionaire’s Portfolio. 

 

October 4, 2016, 5:00pm EST

Stocks continue to chop around as we head into the big jobs report this week.  But the dollar has been a mover today, so has gold.

Let’s take a look at the chart of gold.  It has broken down technically.


You can see the longer term downtrend in gold since it topped out in 2011.  And we’ve had a corrective bounce this year, which was contained by this descending trendline.  And today we broke the trend that describes this bullish technical correction (i.e. the trend continues lower).

A lot of people own gold.  And it’s a very emotional trade.  Whenever I talk about negative scenarios for gold, the hate mail is sure to follow.

We’ve talked quite a bit about the drivers of the gold trade. I want to revisit that today.

Gold has been a core trade for a lot of people throughout the crisis period. When Lehman failed in 2008, it shook the world, global credit froze, banks were on the verge of collapse, the global economy was on the brink of implosion—people ran into gold. Gold was a fear–of–the–unknown–outcome trade.

Then the global central banks responded with massive backstops, guarantees, and unprecedented QE programs. The world stabilized, but people ran faster into gold. Gold became a hyperinflation–fear trade.

Gold went on a tear from sub–$700 bucks to over $1,900 following the onset of global QE (led by the Fed).

Gold ran up as high as 182%. That was pricing in 41% annualized inflation at one point (as a dollar for dollar hedge). Of course, inflation didn’t comply.

Still eight years after the Fed’s first round of QE (and massive global responses), we have just 13% cumulative inflation over the period.

So the gold bugs overshot in a big way.  We’ve looked at this next chart a few times over the past several months.  This tells the story on why inflation hasn’t met the expectations of the “run-away inflation” theorists.

This chart above is the velocity of money. This is the rate at which money circulates through the economy. And you can see to the far right of the chart, it hasn’t been fast. In fact, it’s at historic lows. Banks used cheap/free money from the Fed to recapitalize, not to lend. Borrowers had no appetite to borrow, because they were scarred by unemployment and overindebtedness. Bottom line: we get inflation when people are confident about their financial future, jobs, earning potential…and competing for things, buying today, thinking prices might be higher, or the widget might be gone tomorrow. It’s been the opposite for the past eight years.

When this reality of low-to-no inflation and global economic malaise became clear, even after rounds of Fed QE, there were a LOT of irresponsible people continuing to tout gold as an important place in everyone’s portfolio, even at stratospheric levels.  People bought gold at $1900 and have since lost as much as 40% on the value of their investment – an investment that was supposed to “hedge” against inflation.

On that note, today the IMF downgraded U.S. growth estimates for the year from 2.2% to just 1.6% — in a year that many were initially expecting to be a good year, nearing trend growth levels (3%-3.5%).  So eight years from the inception of the Fed’s extraordinary policies, the case for gold remains weak and an investment with more risk than reward.

The Billionaire’s Portfolio is up 23% year-to-date — that’s nearly four times the return of the S&P 500 during the same period.  We recently exited a big FDA approval stock for a quadruple, and we’ve just added a new pick to the portfolio — following Warren Buffett into one of his favorite stocks.   If you haven’t joined yet, please do.  Click here to get started and get your portfolio in line with our Billionaire’s Portfolio. 

 

September 26, 2016, 3:45pm EST

All eyes are on the Presidential debate/face-off tonight.  Heading into the event, stocks are lower, yields are lower and the dollar is lower — all a “risk-off” tone.

And the VIX (implied S&P 500 vol/an indicator of uncertainty) has popped higher from the very low levels it had returned to as of Friday.  Speculators are out today making bets on a political firework show tonight, and thus betting on more uncertainty in the outcome and in post-election policy making.

If we step back a bit though, given the difficulties in getting through the legislative process, the biggest potential market influence from the election may be more about the prospects of getting a fiscal stimulus package done, rather than the many promises that are made on an campaign trail.  Both candidates have been out promising a spending package to boost the economy.  And on the heals of a package from Japan, and the unknown risks from Brexit, the idea is becoming more politically palatable.

As we discussed on Friday, the Fed has taken a strategically more pessimistic public view on the economy, in effort to underpin the current economic drivers in place (stability, low rates and incentives to reach for risk).

Following the Fed and BOJ events last week, the 10-year yield is back in the 1.50s and sitting in a big technical level.  This will be an important chart to keep an eye on tomorrow.

sept 26 10 year yield

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