TNX
US Dollar Index & RatesThis circular relationship is leaving many analysts puzzled as to what's next for the Dollar. Weight of the evidence points to a lower Dollar for now.
A truly weak US Dollar means the clocks ticking on the current bull market in Bonds and subsequently the upward trend in equities.
S&P How spot market recovery & what markets to buy & sellZones created using crossovers of Monthly 20 MA on VIX close & 20 MA of same. Like end of crash in 02 & 09 some bulls and bears think this crash will only be confirmed over when TNX closes month above 1.34. See what happened to OIL, GOLD, and DOLLAR last time (green verticals). White verticals denote VIX peak (no guarantee reached that yet). Caveat small sample size & my arbitrary choice of two key TNX levels which just appeared to make this analysis work to perfection on two previous occassions. NOT ADVICE. DYOR.
Yields and Bonds - Where are real interest rates going?3/3/20. Weekly Charts of TLT (20 yr bond ETF) vs TNX (10 Yr Treasury yield) compared.
In order to crush high inflation, They raised interest % in late 70's - early 80's. As a result, the rate peaked in 1981 and 10 Yr Yield was near 16% and mortgage rate was 17-18%. People were getting 9% interest on simple CD from the banks. Today, 3/3/20, The 10 Yr yield briefly nose dived below 1% but then came right back up. Bond funds like TLT has been great investment so far but to think the ride is going to last much longer is not practical. Some people talk of negative yields and I always try to remind myself that I must assess Risk vs Reward, not what people say, and I also know that I live in a reality, not a fairy land. Creditors are going to want more return on their money soon or later.
US 10-year yield could retest former low of 1.34 pctThere is a map of a consolidation for US 10-year yield.
The range is quite volatile between 1.50 and 2.00.
The wave B should complete with a drop to the 1.50 and then wave C could unfold up to 2.00.
After that the drop should resume to retest 1.34.
AbsurdityMore sideways is highly highly unlikely. Boom or bust! US market cap to GDP 157% (LOL). Perhaps the most ridiculous thing of the last 11 years is when the moving monkeys on CNBC repeat "this time is different".
For that to be true, the market should have no problem going to 180% of GDP. Think about that. Good luck.
Yields rise, it tightens credit conditions. Equity falls.
Yields fall, its a deflationary feedback loop. Equity falls.
Good luck everyone. Be careful.
Will Interest Rates be Spiking?If you follow my work, I have said that stocks will continue to move higher because there is nowhere to go for yield. Central banks have suppressed interest rates where equities are the only place to go. The time to sell stocks will be when interest rates SPIKE. Likely in the double digits.
This chart of the ten year US yield, is very important as the 10 year yield essentially is the base for other rates in mortgages, credit and loans etc.
You can see that we were at 16% back in the 80's, and we are not about to retest the lows again which was set in 2012,2016 and seems like it will occur this year. Setting up a triple bottom, or a range after a very extended downtrend with multiple swings.
Remember, bonds and yield are inverse so when yield drops, bond prices move up. This is still likely to happen. Why? Because in a risk off environment, you run into bonds. Meaning bonds go up, and yields go down.
Now think that you are institutional fund or even a pension fund that needs to chase yield. Pension funds were historically into fixed income but have now had to switch to equities to chase yield. Institutions, or other larger funds, that follow asset allocation or rebalancing generally sell stocks when overpriced and move into bonds and vice versa.
Well we are in an environment where BOTH stocks and bonds are at highs. Some would say overpriced.
What does this mean? It means bonds are not held for yield, but are held for trades. Finding a greater fool who would buy the bond and loss money holding it until the duration of the bond. This is apparent in Europe and Japan where yields are negative. However, bonds still are traded because many think yields will be cut deeper into the negative!
In the US and other western nations, many think cuts will go to 0, and perhaps even into the negative. This means bond prices will go up. Again, a trade and not really held for yield.
One day it will make no sense to hold bonds for yield...just for trades...which is likely what we are already seeing. Don't believe my analysis? Listen to someone more wealthier and more smarter than me, Ray Dalio. He is warning of a paradigm shift where interest rates must go higher...unless bond markets are killed.
So central banks cannot control longer term interest rates, they can actively control short term interest rates. QE was a way for central banks to buy longer term bonds to suppress long term interest rates. Essentially taking away the capitalist free market price mechanism for interest rates. We are in managed debt markets. Europe and Japan can be in negative rates because they killed their bond markets. Because of negative rates it really is the ECB or the BoJ that is at the auctions.
This is why many are saying that central banks have run out of tools. They can only do QE forever and can never allow interest rates to ever normalize because it would wreak (rekt) people. This is the confidence crisis that is upcoming. Soon markets will realize that central banks are stuck. That QE, which was a desperate policy to prevent another 1920's-30's like global depression, is now the norm and will continue forever because it did not actually work for the recovery.
Central banks need to keep this system propped, meaning rates will be dropping. When I checked the yield curve today, the inversion is coming back. I am expecting a rate cut to happen well before the market expectations of a cut in Fall of 2020.
So where do you go in this type of macro environment? Where do you go in a risk off environment? Gold is looking pretty attractive...