Category Archive: 5.) Alhambra Investments

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Copper Corroding PPI

2021-06-17

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2021-06-17

Copper Futers, Continuous Frn Month, Jan 2002 - May 2021
Yesterday, lumber. Today, copper. The “doctor” has been in reverse for better than two months now, with trading in the current session pounding the commodity to a new multi-month low. Down almost $0.19 for the day, an unusual and eye-opening loss, this brings the cumulative decline to 9.2% since the peak way back on May 11.

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Another Round of Transitory: US Retail Sales & (revised) IP

2021-06-16

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2021-06-16

U.S. Retail Sales, Jan 2016 - May 2021
Same stuff, different month. We can basically reprint both what was described yesterday about supply curves not keeping up with exaggerated demand as well as the past two months of commentary on Retail Sales plus Industrial Production each for the US. Quite on the nose, US demand for goods, anyway, is eroding if still artificially very high.

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Weekly Market Pulse (VIDEO)

2021-06-15

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2021-06-15

Weekly Market Pulse with Alhambra Investments, interview with Joe Calhoun.

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The Inflation Emotion(s)

2021-06-10

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2021-06-10

The Real GDP Problem, Jan 1988 - 2021
Inflation is more than just any old touchy subject in an age overflowing with crude, visceral debates up and down the spectrum reaching into every corner of life. It is about life itself, and not just quality. When the prices of the goods (or services) you absolutely depend upon go up, your entire world becomes that much more difficult.

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Jeff Snider Just Emailed Me…(You Won’t Believe What He Said)

2021-04-29

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Jeff Snider Just Emailed Me...(You Won't Believe What He Said)

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Weekly Market Pulse: The Market Did What??!!

2021-04-19

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2021-04-19

One of the most common complaints I hear about the markets is that they are “divorced from reality”, that they aren’t acting as the current economic data would seem to dictate. I’ve been in this business for 30 years and I think I first heard that in year one. Or maybe even before I decided to lose my mind and start managing other people’s money. Because, of course, it has always been this way.

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Weekly Market Pulse: Nothing To See Here. No, Really. Nothing.

2021-04-12

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2021-04-12

The answer to the question, “What should I do to my portfolio today (this week, this month)? is almost always nothing. Humans, and especially portfolio managers, have a hard time believing that doing nothing is the right response….to anything…or nothing. We are programmed to believe that success comes from doing things, not not doing things.

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Rechecking On Bill And His Newfound Followers

2021-04-09

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2021-04-09

The benchmark 10-year US Treasury has obtained some bids. Not long ago the certain harbinger of bond rout doom, the long end maybe has joined the rest of the world in its global pause if somewhat later than it had begun elsewhere (including, importantly, its own TIPS real yield backyard).

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Real Dollar ‘Privilege’ On Display (again)

2021-04-08

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2021-04-08

Personal Income, 2014-2021
Twenty-fifteen was an important yet completely misunderstood year. The Fed was going to have to become hawkish, according to its models, yet oil prices crashed and the dollar continued to rise. Both of those things were described as “transitory” by Janet Yellen, and that they were helpful or positive (rising dollar means cleanest dirty shirt!), but domestically American policymakers’ clear lack of conviction and courage about that rate hike regime...

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Jeff Snider On Salomon Brothers, Repo Market, Velocity, Shadow Money, Banks, FED (RCS Ep 117)

2021-04-07

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Topics- Salomon Brothers, the eurodollar market, treasuries, collateral, derivative market: Jeff tells the story of what happened in the early 90s with the Treasury, Warren Buffett, FED, Primary Dealer Banks, Repo market. Velocity: money supply, shadow money, measuring the monetary system. Repo market as a real monetary market: missing data in the FED’s measurements. FED funds rate, banking system, monetary details.

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Don’t Be the Victim of These 20 IRA Mistakes

2021-04-06

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2021-04-06

Hey! It’s just an IRA. What is there to know? You put money in and it’s a tax deduction, you get to take it out after 59 ½ without paying a penalty, and at 72 the IRS makes you take some out. What else could there be? In reality, there’s a lot more.

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Weekly Market Pulse: Buy The Rumor, Sell The News

2021-04-05

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2021-04-05

There’s an old saying on Wall Street that one should “buy the rumor, sell the news”, a pithy way to express the efficient market theorem. By the time an event arrives, whatever it may be, the market will have fully digested the news and incorporated it into current prices. And then the market will move on to anticipating the next event, large or small. What prompts this review of Wall Street folk wisdom is the most recent employment report.

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57a Jeff Snider Reacts Live to Paul Krugman Column

2021-03-17

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Will Stagnation Follow the Biden Boom? So asks New York Times columnist (and Nobel memorial prize winner) Paul Krugman. Jeff Snider listens and reacts to Krugman's lament that though the relief bill is done, recovery may be harder.

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Spending Here, Production There, and What Autos Have To Do With It

2021-03-17

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2021-03-17

US Retail Sales, 2016-2021
While the global inflation picture remains fixed at firmly normal (as in, disinflationary), US retail sales by contrast have been highly abnormal. You’d think given that, the consumer price part of the economic equation would, well, equate eventually price-wise.

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Ep 144- Yields Are Not Showing Inflation ft. Jeff Snider with Srivatsan Prakash

2021-03-16

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Jeff Snider is the Global Head of Research at Alhambra Investments, and well known for his disinflationary views and his Eurodollar University video. Here he talks about why yields' move higher isn't inflationary, why things are still not inflationary at all, and much more.

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Looking Past Gigantic Base Effects To China’s (Really) Struggling Economy

2021-03-16

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2021-03-16

China Industrial Production, 1999-2021
The Chinese were first to go down because they had been first to shut down, therefore one year further on they’ll be the first to skew all their economic results when being compared to it. These obvious base effects will, without further scrutiny, make analysis slightly more difficult.

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JOLTS Revisions: Much Better Reopening, But Why Didn’t It Last?

2021-03-12

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2021-03-12

JOLTS - Job Openings, SA 2017-2021
According to newly revised BLS benchmarks, the labor market might have been a little bit worse than previously thought during the worst of last year’s contraction. Coming out of it, the initial rebound, at least, seems to have been substantially better – either due to government checks or, more likely, American businesses in the initial reopening phase eager to get back up and running on a paying basis again.

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What Gold Says About UST Auctions

2021-03-11

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2021-03-11

US Treasury & Auction Rates, 2018-2021
The “too many” Treasury argument which ignited early in 2018 never made a whole lot of sense. It first showed up, believe it or not, in 2016. The idea in both cases was fiscal debt; Uncle Sam’s deficit monster displayed a voracious appetite never in danger of slowing down even though – Economists and central bankers claimed – it would’ve been wise to heed looming inflationary pressures to cut back first.

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4 Social Security Planning Steps BEFORE You’re Ready to Retire

2021-03-10

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2021-03-10

Social Security is an important part of almost every retirement plan, whether you’ve saved enough or not. That’s why it’s important to know as much about your Social Security situation as possible. And you don’t want to wait until you’re about to retire to gather the facts and take appropriate steps. Social Security planning needs to start 5 years before your target retirement date.

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Deja Vu: Treasury Shorts Meet Treasury Shortages

2021-03-10

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2021-03-10

UST Yield Curve, 2013
Investors like to short bonds, even Treasuries, as much as they might stocks and their ilk. It should be no surprise that profit-maximizing speculators will seek the best risk-adjusted returns wherever and whenever they might perceive them.

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