Markets: Down Syndrome

Looked earlier this morning like the market would drop another 45, or so, at the open this morning. 

Part of that is because what had been a global loosening of money has now ended, at least for a while, and that means that the Fed Meeting that begins today (announcement tomorrow) will be filled with the usual selection of carefully chosen words, but nothing will change.

I like the use of words that imply superiority…these are often used in government monetary pronouncements of monetary policy worldwide.

“The Committee judged…” is one of my favorites.  Implied is that we should “all rise” to the bait.  A closely related one (“blah, blah, reviewed the evidence…”) also gets pulled out.

A third and fourth are “concluded” (as in that’s the end of it) and “determined.”

If you’re any good with Excel, you can build your own Fed Statement generator.  Use the Random Number function to generate a word picker, which is run against a data table where the Language of FedSpeak as been carefully compiled.

Then use test handling functions (like concatenate) to build the statement.

The Federal Reserve today announced no change in its rate policy.  The Committee (word_lookup_1) the data and (word_lookup_2) that in  keeping with our (ran dom_policy_cite_1) the best possible course would be no action at this time.

Going forward, the Committee will closely watch (worry_item_1) and (worry_item_2) for any indication of deviation from target rates.

It’s actually only slightly more complicated, but you get the idea.

Which leaves the average investor (me and you) trying to figure out what to make of it.   Marty Zweig famously advised “don’t Fight the Fed”  and since Interplanet Janet (IJ)  has been doing astronomical things with the money supply, we she speaks, we listen.

You don’t need a strategic trader’s mindset, under theory Z…just listen to the Fed.  If they say overprices, then sell and go to cash, or go short.  When IJ’S FedSpeak turns to “fairly priced” then it’s time to invest again on the long side.

It’s never THAT simple.  There are all kinds of billionaires running around trying to shave money from everyone’s take (except their own) and that means things like whipping up the War Machine and so forth. 

Then there’s the whole matter of trying to blow up Greece…someone’s got to make an example of what happens when you cross the bankster because the Irish sort of won, and the Icelanders did for sure,. so at some point, the banksters need to hand out a beat down to gain back their ill-deserved “respect.”

As for actual data?  Who needs it…this is a con game, after all…but if’n you do….

Housing Start Data

Just out from Census:

“The U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly announced the following new residential
construction statistics for May 2015:
BUILDING PERMITS
Privately-owned housing units authorized by building permits in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,275,000. This is
11.8 percent (±1.8%) above the revised April rate of 1,140,000 and is 25.4 percent (±2.1%) above the May 2014 estimate of 1,017,000.
Single-family authorizations in May were at a rate of 683,000; this is 2.6 percent (±1.2%) above the revised April figure of 666,000.
Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 557,000 in May.
HOUSING STARTS
Privately-owned housing starts in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,036,000. This is 11.1 percent (±10.4%) below the
revised April estimate of 1,165,000, but is 5.1 percent (±11.2%)* above the May 2014 rate of 986,000.
Single-family housing starts in May were at a rate of 680,000; this is 5.4 percent (±7.0%)* below the revised April figure of 719,000.
The May rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 349,000.
HOUSING COMPLETIONS
Privately-owned housing completions in May were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1,034,000. This is 4.7 percent (±13.8%)*
above the revised April estimate of 988,000 and is 14.5 percent (±14.4%) above the May 2014 rate of 903,000.

Here is the annual start rate data over the longer term, courtesy of the Federal Reserve chart system  with an arrow toward this this morning’s data….

R’arff Rover, roll over, boy….lock the refi or forever hold ure debt.

Will the REAL Long Wave Please Stand Up?

There’s a really good piece on CNBC that you need to read if you are trying to keep up with the market and its long-term trend.

Specifically, there are some who believe that the Fed is in a position where they are trying to avoid the problem of prematurely raising rates, as one analyst thinks happened in 1937.

It’s an interesting notion.  Just wrong.

You see, I keep a history of the Fed discount rate handy just as a fact check and here’s how it looked from the middle of the Depression to the start of WW II:

Here’s the Historical Fed Discount Rate per Minneapolis Fed Data Set:

So when an analyst says he believes that the Fed is trying to avoid the same problems of 1937, sorry Charlie.,..but that’s not the right data, the way I read it..  The Record says the fed actually lowered rates in 1937.  Hello?

The upper horizontal arrow in the following chart is where I think this current decline will stop.

So, no, I don’t buy it.  I hold that the real deal is we are late in the analog to 1927 and while we may have a modest decline, it won’t be the end of the world.  And within a year we ought top be screaming past new highs if the replay of earlier times continues.  So line up the bottom of 2009 with the last market break in 1921 and you will be astounded as what’s  possibly ahead:

Normally, I don’t whip out a Peoplenomics® chart, but this screams for rebuttal, but there’s the replay the way I see it…so yeah, I don’t see 1937.  And if the Fed sees it as a replay of ‘37, they’re even dumber than me.  (Which would be going a fair piece…)

The mechanics of the blow off are simple:  When rates begin to rise, we will see some of the $37-trillion in bonds go chasing $20 trillion in stocks and the bubble will result.  I will get rich, then I will go short, and then  I will move up to a bigger airplane. When the Fed raises rates this fall, you’ll see…gold will go toward 3,000 and OMG it should be fun.

Simple as that, lol…’least on paper!

Good Shooting

Drone got AQ #2

Bad Shooting

Feds are now working with NYPD to trace back the source of guns used in the latest outburst of Gotham gun crimes.

A Confusing Discrimination Case

The head of the NAACP Spokane, WA office has resigned…but that’s just the tip of the raceberg.  More details over here…

Now let’s talk about climate, shall we?