Hawkish expectations

Ahead of tomorrow's FOMC decision, market expectations are turning bearish. Even as the S&P 500 consolidated sideways, defensive sectors are all starting to show signs of life by rallying through relative performance downtrends.       Hawkish fears A CNBC poll found that the consensus expects the Fed to double its taper, which would end...

The Fed’s inflation problem

Preface: Explaining our market timing models  We maintain several market timing models, each with differing time horizons. The "Ultimate Market Timing Model" is a long-term market timing model based on the research outlined in our post, Building the ultimate market timing model. This model tends to generate only a handful of signals each decade.   The Trend...

China gets rich AND old, but…

China has a well-known demographic problem: its working population is aging quickly. For years, many analysts have rhetorically asked whether China can get rich before it gets old.      We have the answer. A recent McKinsey study found that China has beaten the US to become the richest nation. McKinsey found that China’s wealth rose...

Omi-what?

Mid-week market update: The most recent stock market downdraft was sparked by the news of a new virus variant that was initially identified in South Africa and the Fed's hawkish pivot. As evidence emerged that Omicron is more transmissible but less deadly, the market staged an enormous rip-your-face-off short-covering rally. Today, Pfizer and BioNTech reported...

About that crypto crash…

Risk-off came to the crypto world on the weekend as all cryptocurrencies took a sudden tumble. Bitcoin fell as much as 20%. Prices slightly recovered and steadied, but all major coins suffered significant losses.     How should investors analyze the crypto crash and what does it mean for equity investors and other risk assets....