Jun 21, 2019
This week’s Bespoke Report newsletter is now available for members. In this week’s report, we cover the Fed’s dovish tilt that was met with new all-time highs for the stock market.
We cover everything you need to know as an investor in our weekly newsletter. To read the Bespoke Report and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform has to offer, start a two-week free trial to one of our three membership levels. You won’t be disappointed!
Jun 14, 2019
We’ve just published our weekly Bespoke Report newsletter, which covers all of the topics you need to be aware of as an investor. After a sharp bounce off the lows on 6/3, the S&P 500 stopped to refuel this week as it readies itself for some key events in the coming weeks that will likely help to steer the market’s direction into the end of the second quarter. The first of those events (barring any surprising tweets from the President) is next week’s FOMC meeting where Jay Powell will be forced to reconcile the differences between what members of his committee have been saying and what the market is expecting for the July meeting.
On the one hand, economic data doesn’t seem anywhere close to warranting a cut in rates, but economic data is obviously backward looking. Members of the FOMC will be forced to weigh the data with other factors like the message of the yield curve, falling inflation, and even more importantly, plummeting inflation expectations. In addition to those factors, Fed officials must also weigh what’s going on with trade. For starters, can rate cuts even do anything to offset the potential drag that comes from tariffs and a potential trade war? In addition to that, a lot of the trade tensions can easily be undone just as easily as they were put into place. What happens if the FOMC cuts rates and trade issues are worked out shortly thereafter? Confused? Just be thankful you don’t have to make the decisions!
To read our full Bespoke Report newsletter and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform has to offer, start a two-week free trial to one of our three membership levels. You won’t be disappointed!
Jun 7, 2019
This week’s Bespoke Report newsletter is now available for members. Equity markets surged despite short term interest rate markets pricing near-certainty of multiple Fed rate cuts this year. How can an economy so bad that the Fed needs to cut mean stocks go up? We take a look around for some answers. We also review just how dovish the Fed has been relative to what markets have been pricing of late. While the domestic economy has definitely slowed down from the torrid pace of 2018, even the disappointing nonfarm payrolls number today paints a different picture than assumptions of multiple cuts from the front end. The global economy is less constructive, but there’s a difference between weakness and a recession panic, as we show. Finally, we present an argument for why Fed rate cuts may not be necessary for the economy to stabilize and start to pick up again thanks to negative feedback loops.
We cover everything you need to know as an investor in this week’s Bespoke Report newsletter. To read the Bespoke Report and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform has to offer, start a two-week free trial to one of our three membership levels. You won’t be disappointed!
May 31, 2019
This week’s Bespoke Report newsletter is now available for members. In this week’s report, we cover the good, the bad, and the downright ugly when it comes to the action for equity markets lately. There’s plenty of ugly to go around like the yield curve and the technical backdrop, but there’s also some good that you may be surprised to see.
We cover everything you need to know as an investor in our weekly newsletter. To read the Bespoke Report and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform has to offer, start a two-week free trial to one of our three membership levels. You won’t be disappointed!
May 24, 2019
Hut, Hut, Cut! With weaker economic data to contend with this week on both a domestic and international basis, plus escalating tensions between the US and China, investors are increasingly pricing in a higher likelihood of rate cuts from the FOMC before the year is out. Through mid-day Friday, the Fed Fund futures market was pricing in over an 85% chance of a rate cut between now and the January 2020 meeting. Those are the kind of odds that would make James Holzhauer say “All in.”
This week’s Bespoke Report newsletter is now available for members. In this week’s report, we cover all the bases including the massive declines in semis, one of the shallowest five-week losing streaks for the DJIA on record, the shift to defensives, the disconnect between the market and the Fed, the widening gap between Internationals and Domestics, summer seasonality, sentiment updates, what the S&P 500’s flat 200-DMA means for equities, big gaps down on a daily basis, and more.
We cover everything you need to know as an investor in our weekly newsletter. To read the Bespoke Report and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform has to offer, start a two-week free trial to one of our three membership levels. You won’t be disappointed!
May 17, 2019
This week’s Bespoke Report newsletter is now available for members. Stocks started the week poorly but found excuses to rally midweek, just not enough to get all the way up to breakeven since last Friday. Global economic data continued to look mostly soggy, though not across the board. There was a lot of US data this week, but also important releases from China, Japan, and the Eurozone that we discuss in detail. We also take a look at recent earnings in Europe which have exceeded expectations modestly.
One piece of positive economic data we focus on in the week’s report is the ratio of Leading to Coincident indicators published each month by the Conference Board. As shown below, the ratio is rising again after bottoming out in January. While not at a new high, its behavior is looking distinctly different from the typical pre-recession backdrop. Ahead of recessions, the ratio plunges very consistently, a marked difference to the current sideways range. We discuss further in this week’s full report.
We cover everything you need to know as an investor in this week’s Bespoke Report newsletter. To read the Bespoke Report and access everything else Bespoke’s research platform has to offer, start a two-week free trial to one of our three membership levels. You won’t be disappointed!
