At the end of March, we noted about the dollar: “In [the context] of a very likely European recession, regardless of the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine, we would expect the U.S. dollar to stage a stronger rally, particularly against the euro. Why isn’t it? And perhaps a question equally Read more…
As earnings season unfolds, we are hearing many company managements mentioning foreign exchange issues as headwinds — when you hear “currency neutral” numbers being reported, it is likely that under the hood, there are negative foreign-exchange effects to be found. A strong dollar will hurt many companies which are reliant Read more…
Last week, we wrote that commodity markets were signaling that “This Is Not a Drill,” and discussed events driving energy and industrial and precious metals. We deliberately didn’t discuss soft commodities — i.e., foods. Below are some thoughts about foods, food inflation, fertilizers, the potential consequences for food and beverage Read more…
What is Happening In China? Shanghai, and many other Chinese cities, are once again under extreme covid lockdown conditions — the most stringent since April 2020, as China pursues its apparent “zero covid” policy. The images and videos percolating through to western social media are profoundly disturbing, and prompt a Read more…
Agustin Carstens, the General Manager of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), spoke in Geneva a week ago — offering some soul-searching reflection on how the world’s financial authorities got the inflation story so terribly wrong. (The Bank of International Settlements is essentially “the central bank of central banks.”) We Read more…
Earnings season is underway. As we wrote last week, we expect a down quarter for real earnings; of most interest to us will be the tone of management forward guidance. We are already hearing a lot of talk about rising costs and ongoing supply chain issues. We’ll be listening closely Read more…
We say it often and we will say it again: earnings are the mother’s milk of stock prices. On a market-wide basis, a flat or declining earnings trend almost invariably accompanies a flat or declining trend in stock prices. This doesn’t mean that investors should go completely to cash (particularly Read more…
The points raised in our main post this week all suggest to us that the shelf-life of the traditional, indexed, 60/40 portfolio is close to expiration. Bonds were long thought to be — and long functioned as — counterweights to the equities in a portfolio, and would blunt volatility, since Read more…
Many thanks to those who joined us on our periodic conference call on March 24. We will be editing the call into bite-sized thematic sections and providing the links to you in coming days, to watch or rewatch. If you would like a copy of the slide deck that accompanied Read more…
Markets have staged a strong rally following the volatility that accompanied the start of the war in Ukraine. The S&P 500 has rallied 10% from its bottom, and the NASDAQ 15%. (The NASDAQ is still 10% down from its peak, and the S&P is down about 4% from its peak.) Read more…
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