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DAILY DIARY

Doug Kass

United Airlines Is Flying High

"Just one more thing."

- Lt Columbo

Great beat at United Airlines (UAL) and good guidance.

More tomorrow.

Position: Long UAL; short UAL calls

Nasty Nestor!

My eyes are on the market, but my heart is in the Bronx -- for this afternoon's final game in the N.Y. Yankees/Cleveland Guardians series.

Let's go (on three days rest) Nasty Nestor!

Thanks for reading my Diary.

Enjoy the evening.

Be safe.

And GO YANKEES!

P.S.: Pedro Martinez, despite his allegiance to the Boston Red Sox, knows his stuff and is an astounding announcer.

Position: None

Apple

I can't say whether this is true, but high above the Alps here is where my Gnome got the Apple "information":

"Less than two weeks after the debut of the iPhone 14 Plus, supply chain sources say Apple is cutting production, telling at least one manufacturer in China to halt production of components while Apple reevaluates demand leels for the new product."

TheInformation

Position: None

TLT

Nice recovery in (TLT) - close to day's high.

Position: None

Let's Go!

My fave sectors - banks, airlines and cannabis - are performing well in today's trading session.

Giddy up!

Position: Long BAC, C, WFC, PNC, JPM, UAL, DAL, MSOS Et al., Short MSOS calls

High Above The Alps

I can't say whether this is true, but high above the Alps my Gnome is hearing more production cut stories at Apple (AAPL) .

This story is likely contributing to the small market selloff that just occurred.

Position: None

Market Breadth

At 2:20 pm:Solid Breath

View Chart »View in New Window »

Biggest Movers

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Heat Map

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Position: None

A Short Straddle

I just sold a short straddle - January (SPY) $370 puts and calls shorted/sold. 

To remind you, a short straddle is selling a put and call option with the identical strike price and expiration date. 

I am doing this with an elevated VIX - which, to me, gives me an opportunity.

Position: Long SPY, Short SPY calls and puts

Cannabis Move

I am out of my (TLRY) investment - I placed the proceeds of the sale into (GTBIF) .

Position: Long GTBIF

Carvana

Carvana (CVNA) short is the gift that keeps on giving.

Position: Short CVNA

FGEN High

New 52 week high for FibroGen (FGEN) .

Position: None

All Investment Roads Lead to Interest Rates

The yield on the two year US Note has turned lower by -2 basis points (4.44%). 

And stocks recover from the gap filled an hour or so ago.

Position: Long Treasuries, SPY, QQQ, Short SPY calls, QQQ calls

Subscriber Comment of the Day

I do sometimes use technicals and this is what got me to add to Index longs this morning: 

Randy

Phil D. Gap

Position: Long SPY, QQQ, Short SPY calls, QQQ calls

Midday Musings From Sir Arthur Cashin

As I just told Carl Quintanilla and Morgan Brennan on CNBC's Squawk on the Street, there is some hope that this bear market bounce can have some legs to it, maybe even lasting a couple of weeks as hoped for and projected by the astute Katie Stockton and, if I understand correctly, also Mike Wilson, who has had a hot hand this year.

You remember two weeks ago, we had a very hot Monday/Tuesday, but that wound up fading. As I told the Squawk on the Street team, I think a key reversal may have happened last Thursday when we had what looked like a washout reversal. Now, because of the potential for black swans, particularly in London and then later in Japan, those rallies did not wind up with a long shelf life, but we hope that this one can happen.

That will make today and tomorrow kind of critical. They don't have to close at the top, but they do have to close with respectability. We are going to keep watching the dollar. It has weakened somewhat from the recent strength. Some of that strength was attributable to fear of a black swan. The dollar is the ultimate reserve currency and people hunker down in the currency if they think things are going to come apart somewhere around the world.

So, the softness in the dollar is certainly a bit of a good sign. Certainly not an all clear, but a decent sign. The other thing we will keep watching is yields.

So, let's see if the markets fade after Europe closes around 11:30 EDT. We will hope that they can hold the bulk of the rally and, in fact, maybe even build on it over the next day or two rather than have it erased within three days as almost every rally we have seen this year.

Let's cross our fingers and see where we go.

Stay safe and alert.

Arthur

Position: None

SPY, QQQ

I just added to (SPY) $368.41 and (QQQ) $269.71.

Position: Long SPY, QQQ, Short SPY calls, QQQ calls

More on Housing

Hat Tip Mikey (Comments Section):

Position: None

Unsupportive Bonds

Bonds are not doing it and, for now, are unsupportive of a further rally in equities. 

The two year US note yield is -3 bps and the ten year is unchanged.

Position: None

Cannabis Tweet of the Day

Bill Miller is buying more (GTBIF) - the stock is my largest holding in the cannabis sector.

Position: Long GTBIF

Boockvar on Housing

Look at the charts, housing is in a rough place - see Futures column charts this morning. While only a few percentage points contribution to GDP, the sector hits above the belt, "a multiplier effect":

More from Peter: 

The NAHB home builder index for October plunged further to 38. That's down from 46 in September and 5 pts below expectations with 50 the breakeven between expansion and contraction. The Present situation dropped 9 pts to under 50 at 45 while the Future outlook component was down by 11 pts m/o/m to 35. Prospective Buyers Traffic is now down to just 25 from 31 last month. It was last above 50 in May.

With this index now down for 10 straight months and at the lowest since August 2012, we are clear on why. The NAHB stated, "High mortgage rates approaching 7% have significantly weakened demand, particularly for first time and first generation prospective home buyers. This situation is unhealthy and unsustainable."

They added, "This will be the first year since 2011 to see a decline for single family starts. And given expectations for ongoing elevated interest rates due to actions by the Fed, 2023 is forecasted to see additional single family building declines as the housing contraction continues." As a result, we'll see a further drop in the homeownership rate "as higher interest rates and ongoing construction costs continue to price out a large number of prospective buyers."

Nothing more to add other than to say again, the only question is to what extent do home prices fall from here because the supply of existing homes will still remain tight as many stay in their 3%ish type mortgages.

NAHB

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Prospective Buyers Traffic

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Position: None

Why I Remain Optimistic on Both Bonds and Stocks

* Tactically speaking it's time to look higher, not lower...

On October 4th I wrote a column in my Diary entitled "Why I Have Turned More Bullish". 

In that missive, as previously noted, I wrote that "2022 has been among the most difficult stock markets to navigate in history." And it still remains challenging! 

My lengthy column and analysis was an adaption of a letter that I previously sent out to the Limited Partners of my hedge fund, Seabreeze Capital Partners LP, and included some of my comments made in a Bloomberg interview I had with Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney. 

What follows is another adaptation from an email I sent to my investors at Seabreeze over the past weekend - which continues to emphasize my more bullish market view on the capital markets.
__________ 

The proverbial saying, "silence is golden," is often used in circumstances where it is thought that saying nothing is preferable to speaking. Silence, unfortunately, is all too often the province of the hedge fund industry. 

Silence and opaqueness are not endorsed at Seabreeze - we endeavor to be transparent in outlook and in the composition and positioning of our portfolio. Sometimes, we go overboard, as we did in last month's 22 page commentary - but you can always go to the summary! 

I take my charge of managing a portion of my Limited Partners' hard earned capital seriously and believe they are "owed" full explanations of our views and the arrangement of Seabreeze's investments - regardless of the time of the month. 

I strongly feel more transparency is better, particularly in the recent regime of heightened market volatility and given the unprecedented declines in both equities and bonds this year. 

With that in mind I sent some additional comments to my investors over the weekend - but this time I made my comments brief and on point. 

To begin with, despite the market carnage and startling daily volatility, Seabreeze's investment returns are slightly positive for the year- compared to the average share price decline on the New York Stock Exchange of approximately -30%, the S&P Index's drop of -25% and the Nasdaq Index's decrease of -35%. (Past performance is no guarantee of future results.) 

There are several things I am more certain of that influence my current investment strategy. I shared them with my investors on Saturday and now I share them with our subs in my Diary today: 

* Lower stock prices are the friend of the rational buyer. They provide a better intermediate term upside reward vs. downside risk and sow the seeds for superior investment performance when stocks resume an upwards trajectory. 

* Warren Buffett famously professed that "investors should be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful." Fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind. But it is logic of argument and analysis - not fear or greed (the two emotions that drive markets) - which should guide our investment process. Though times like this are challenging, being unemotional when others are losing their heads, remains an integral part of my investment methodology. 

* It is my view that the historic drop in stock prices has provided an opportunity to buy great companies at good prices - but not yet great companies at great prices. 

* Though there are currently expanding concerns about financial stress, especially in Europe, I believe that those concerns are overblown as most financial stress indexes put too much weight on the appreciation of the U.S. dollar than actual balance sheet considerations. On the latter score, I do not see excessive conditions - similar to previous cycles as in mortgage and finance - that suggest a systemic breakdown.

The banking industry is in great shape, with strong capital bases and well reserved for losses - just look at this week's stellar results -  private and public companies' balance sheets are healthy and the consumer possesses excess savings and has been deleveraging for nearly two decades. Moreover, many individuals and corporations have refinanced at very low rates. While the current economic recovery is losing strength, there has been little time to accumulate credit problems. 

* Though equities are growing more attractive, as noted in my Diary's commentary over the last two months, there are existing headwinds: 

  1. Goods inflation and the prices of durables, automobiles and housing, are moderating rapidly - but wage inflation will likely remain sticky. 
  1. A too strong U.S. dollar and rising interest rates ("all roads lead to interest rates!") remain our biggest investment concerns. An elevated risk-free rate of return is particularly concerning. The two-year U.S. note yields about 4.5% - it is not only a strong alternative to equities but is an important part of the calculus used in valuing stocks in a dividend discount model. (DDM is a quantitative method used for predicting the price of a company's stock based on the theory that its present-day price is worth the sum of all its future dividend payments when discounted back to their present value). As such, higher interest rates diminish the value of stocks, especially high growth, Nasdaq names. 
  1. Warren Buffett also once said "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked." In economic terms, the transition from too easy to much tighter monetary conditions has been a tide going out, which has revealed the incompetence and lack of quality leadership of our fiscal and monetary authorities. The monetary tide, in particular, has been "guided" by a bunch of academicians (armed with 400 PhDs) at the Federal Reserve who erroneously determined, through ex ante analysis, that inflation would be transitory - marking the single largest mistake in The Fed's 109 years of history. The Fed is now following up with another mistake, based on ex post analysis, by tightening too aggressively. 
  1. While traders and investors remain in a quagmire of uncertainty with numerous economic and market outcomes, some of them adverse - I reminded my investors that bull markets arise from bad news (March 2009, December 2018 and April 2020) - while bear markets are borne out of good news (late 1999/early 2000, September 2007 and December 2021). 
  1. There is little question that the evolution of market structure from active to passive investing - which has delivered a false sense of diversification - has been a contributing factor to the pace of the recent market decline. Quantitative products and strategies, that generally worship at the altar of price momentum, know everything about price and very little about value. As such, they, like lower stock prices, are our allies as their role in distorting stock prices and markets provide us with attractive entry points. 

A few years ago, I was invited by Warren Buffett to sit on the dais with him and his partner Charlie Munger at Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska - in front of 40,000 Berkshire devotees. Warren had grown tired of the same old questions year after year. I was picked by The Oracle of Omaha to be the "Credential Bear" and my charge was to ask hard-hitting questions. 

The experience was one of the thrills of my lifetime, especially since I was accompanied by my son, Dr. Noah Kass. 

At the time Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) had an unusually large cash position - much like my hedge fund has had throughout most of 2022. 

During lunch I sat between Microsoft's Bill Gates and Charlie Munger. While munching on a cheeseburger and sipping cherry Coke, Charlie confidentially told us that "it takes character to sit with all that cash and to do nothing. I didn't get to the top where I am by going after mediocre opportunities."

For reasons enumerated in my Diary and in my regular monthly commentaries to my Limited Partners, I have felt the same way - and, taking the cue from Charlie, Seabreeze has husbanded our cash this year. 

My current cash reserves position me to opportunistically take advantage of the expanding investment opportunities that may now be developing - just as Berkshire Hathaway has recently increased the size of its equity holdings and has reduced its massive cash hoard.

Position: None

The Book of Boockvar

My pal Peter on the games companies play: 

In the BoA conference call yesterday, Brian Moynihan said this on deposits, "As monetary policy tightens on deposits, we see clients with excess liquidity looking for yield, with that being the global banking movements you can see moving from noninterest bearing to interest bearing accounts, or in our wealth manager business, where we saw clients shift out of brokerage suites into preferred deposits or other investment products, like treasuries, that we offer." The CFO said on a y/o/y basis "The noninterest bearing deposits are down 3%, while the interest bearing are up 4%.

So, overall, we grew our deposits" but he did say they fell less than 1% q/o/q. One thing I forgot to mention also yesterday but have stated before, if/when banks lose deposits, the US Treasury market is also losing them as buyers. On the direction of rates on savings/checking accounts, "Do we expect deposit rates to increase? Yes, of course. And we will remain both disciplined and competitive, and that is built into our asset sensitivity."

As we dig deeper into the earnings picture in the coming month plus, I am pretty confident that the earnings beat will still be around 70% and many will say how great everything turned out but this is the game every quarter where expectations fall enough going in that the bar is easy to beat. The big picture still remains the same in that earnings growth ex energy is slowing.

On the heels of the story yesterday that Germany is extending the life of its 3 remaining nuclear plants (powering about 12% of its energy needs) past the end of the year and into Q1 2023, German power prices one yr forward are down 5% today after dropping by almost 3% yesterday. At 389 euros per megawatt, that is the lowest since early August. When physics, chemistry, warmth, money and business don't matter, you get this comment from the head of the Green Party parliamentary group, "There is no objective reason for this" with regards to keeping these nuclear plants open thru the winter. This, even though nuclear is the cleanest and most reliable base load power and we remain bullish and long uranium.

The Dutch TTF natural gas price is lower too, down by almost 5% to the lowest since June, after yesterday's 12% drop and by 23% over the past week and just maybe the Europeans can make it thru the winter ok, albeit still expensively. The sentiment is so dour on Europe and the euro that if they can, there is an opportunity here in stocks and the currency there. On the other hand, European bonds still remain highly unattractive and are weaker today with yields higher.

German Power one yr forward

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Dutch TTF

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The October German ZEW investor expectations index rose to a still deeply negative -59.2 from -61.9 and that was better than the feared further decline to -66.5. The Current Situation though deteriorated again to -72.2 from -60.5, the lowest since August 2020. ZEW said simply, "Despite the slight rise in expectations, the economic outlook for Germany has thus deteriorated significantly."

German ZEW

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The FT has a story today titled "BoE set to further delay sales of government bonds until markets calm" and soon after a spokesperson for the BoE said "This morning's FT report that the BoE has decided to delay MPC gilt sales (QT) is inaccurate." The plan of the BoE is to shrink their balance sheet by 80b pounds over the next 12 months from those maturing combined with sales. Their balance sheet totals about 950b pounds. The 10 yr gilt yield is up 5 bps after falling by 36 bps yesterday. The pound is lower by .7% after yesterday's 1.7% rally. Again, UK stocks and the pound are dirt cheap.

Position: None

Tweet of the Day (Part Seven)

Another one from Bramo:

Position: None

Chart of the Day (Part Deux)

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Position: None

Tweet of the Day (Part Six)

More from Lance:

Position: None

Tweet of the Day (Part Five)

From Bramo:

Position: None

Chart of the Day

Nat gas (h/t The Divine Ms M):

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Position: None

From The Street of Dreams (Part Deux)

"There are two kinds of forecasters: those who don't know, and those who don't know they don't know."

John Kenneth Galbraith 

Short term market forecasts tell you more about the forecaster than the forecast! 

More caution from previously uber bull Marko at JPMorgan:

  • We trim risk in our model portfolio this month given increasing risks around central banks making a hawkish policy error and geopolitics. Recent developments on these fronts - namely, the increasingly hawkish rhetoric from central banks, and escalation of the war in Ukraine - are likely to delay the economic and market recovery. However, we stay with a pro risk stance overall as extremely weak investor positioning and sentiment should limit further downside (e.g., illustrated by the market's strong recovery following the CPI print last Thursday) and an expected growth recovery in Asia should support the cycle. Additionally, we expect the global expansion to continue to display resilience through the middle of next year given an unwind of adverse supply shocks, a material slowing in inflation, and a healthy private sector.


With investors fleeing almost every asset class this year, the amount of cash sitting on the sidelines has reached a 10-year high according to our estimates, indicating a support for not only equities but also bonds going forward. As such, we trim the size of both our equity OW and bond UW, but remain overall OW equities and commodities vs. UW bonds.

Our commodity OW continues to serve as a hedge for geopolitical risks and inflation, and we stay long the dollar as a hedge to a hawkish Fed in the near-term. Because of our portfolio hedges, i.e., UW of bonds in the face of central bank hawkishness, UW in credit, and OW in commodities, our model portfolio has outperformed its benchmark this year in seven out of nine months.

Position: None

Tweet of the Day (Part Four)

From my pal Lance:

Position: None

Themes and Sectors

This chart is a valuable resource for short-term traders:

View Chart »View in New Window »

Position: None

Tweet of the Day (Part Trois)

Position: None

From The Street of Dreams

Buy high, sell low?

Uber bull (JPMorgan's) Dubravko sounds like he is toning down his bullishness:


US Equity Strategy

Earnings Update and Sentiment Insights Using NLP

By Dubravko Lakos-BujasAC, Bhupinder Singh, Kamal Tamboli, Narendra Singh, Arun Jain, Marko Kolanovic, PhD

With peak global central bank hawkishness forcing valuation sharply lower across asset classes (S&P 500 P/E is ~7x lower), the focus is now shifting to earnings as the next key driver of equities. While macro and corporate sentiment data (see NLP analysis below) suggest growth is clearly decelerating, healthy pricing and demand should remain largely intact through year-end. 3Q and 4Q earnings should confirm fundamentals remain anchored in resilient labor market and Covid reopening. Equity valuation will likely remain tied to global central bank rhetoric and rates, which is turning incrementally less negative. As such, we see equities primed for upside into year-end on resilient 2H22 earnings, low equity positioning, very negative sentiment and given more reasonable valuation (see Equity Valuation). Next year, however, we expect a more challenging earnings backdrop relative to current expectations (flat EPS growth vs. +8% consensus). JPM QMI (business cycle indicator, Figure 1), JPM Corporate Sentiment Index (Figure 2), and Corporate guidance activity (Figure 6) all suggest growth is slowing but it is not yet at levels suggesting contraction.

We are keeping our non-consensus positive outlook on 2022 EPS of $225 (+8% y/y, consensus EPS of $222.58), which in our view is very healthy considering USD headwind is expected to be strongest during 2H22 (every ~2% increase in trade-weighted USD is ~1% headwind for EPS). However, we are revising down 2023 EPS by $15 to $225 (consensus $239.80), which implies flat earnings growth for next year. The lagged effects of monetary policy, tighter financial conditions, lower savings, and elevated geopolitical risks suggest slower revenue growth next year due on lower demand and pricing (3% vs. consensus of 5% and CPI of 4%). As for margins, we expect further margin compression of -35bp next year (vs. consensus +50bp margin expansion) due to negative operating leverage, inventory surplus risk, rising costs (wages, interest expense), and record high trade-weighted USD. Our 2023 EPS estimate also assumes -$3 EPS headwind from IRA (see Inflation Reduction Act and discussed below). If there is a recession in 2023, the start, depth, and length of the contraction will ultimately determine the magnitude of earnings decline. If the timeline of the recession is earlier and deeper, S&P 500 EPS could collapse to $200 or lower if the contraction is accompanied by a deflationary spiral and private credit cycle.

Position: None

Tweet of the Day (Part Deux)

From Charlie:

Position: None

More Night Moves: A Quick Look at Overnight Futures

* In the market without memory from day to day, there was no follow thru from Friday's very weak session in either Monday's trading session or in the overnight futures session on Monday night. Bears are off sides, for now -- some strategists, like Goldman Sachs, are digging in their bearish heels. (More on my current market thoughts in this morning's opener)

* For a while last night's futures session was downright ebullient, with stock futures soaring -- they have given 40% of the gain back in the last hour.

* The U.K. and the EU's economic and financial uncertainties -- of taming inflation, on one hand, and resuscitating economic growth, on the other hand -- remain the concern du jour. As I wrote yesterday, who would have thought, several months ago, that U.K. policy would be the tail that wags the U.S. market's dog? Anyway, this results in me looking at U.K. gilt yields and the pound's value when I arise at 4 AM, even before the sports scores...

*Jeremy Hunt: British pound rises as finance minister brings forward policy announcements. The proximate cause for Monday's global market euphoria seemed to be the news that the U.K. finance minister brought forward a policy announcement that gave life to U.K. bonds (but surprisingly not so much life to U.S. bonds). The U.K. announced its intention to scrap tax cuts indefinitely. Truss, the Prime Minister, may be in power but she doesn't appear to be running things!

* As a result, on Monday, U.K. gilt notes rose in price and fell big dramatically in yield (e.g., at one point the 10-year U.K. gilt yield was -40 bps!): This morning U.K. yields have reversed modestly higher (+8 bps) and their currency is slightly weaker. Notably, U.S. yields (which were higher on Monday) remain stuck, stubbornly high (relative to its recent range). Let's keep a bead on U.S. rates, if sustained. they are likely to cap the current rally.

* Obviously the losing skein in the U.S. markets reversed mightily yesterday. Today could be number three.

* Based on the steady advance in futures throughout the evening, maintaining Monday's amazing momentum, we may have two up days in a row!

* As mentioned, I remain in the camp of a successful test in here as noted in my opening missive last Tuesday and on Bloomberg early last week -- though it doesn't have to be a straight line higher! I also had mentioned that I spoke to Lee Cooperman last Tuesday night and he mentioned that two technicians he speaks to and respects are looking for a rally over the near term. (They were solely wrong on Friday!) But very right on Monday.

* The unprecedented instability of currencies and interest rates continues to underscore the likely end of the salad days of easy financial conditions and holds the key to the prospective course of global equity markets during the near term. Higher short-term interest rates remain a market hurdle and a restriction for meaningful gains from here.

* Overnight, non-U.S. currencies, especially the pound and the Eurodollar, are slightly weaker. with little movement in yields, unlike previous days. The recent climb in overseas interest rates is the byproduct of ill-timed (2021-2022) and now hawkish monetary policy and what appear to be related reverse currency wars are moving multiple standard deviations from the mean.

* Though some strategists have turned more constructive, investor sentiment has been sour and the bears I speak to are very emboldened now -- this morning some, like Goldman Sachs, are digging in their feet. As mentioned, previous bullish strategists -- Goldman and others -- are now confidently bearish, bulls are now talking about limited downside and not so much about the upside, and put buying set a record three weeks ago Friday. AAII Bears are at March 2009 levels and the S&P oscillator remains in an oversold state (but down from 10 days ago)... but sentiment is not a good timing tool. As mentioned early last week, traders' short hedges are at records.

* All roads like to interest rates. Goodbye TINA (There Is No Alternative), hello TATA (Treasuries Are the Alternative): I believe the bond rout continues to create an opportunity in both fixed income and, in the fullness of times, in equities. Depending on one's risk profile, short-dated Treasuries are a reasonable place to be even though I expect a market rally. (More on Minding Mr. Market shortly, in my opener).

* After being a consistent buyer over the last week, I modestly sold down my long exposure near the close on Monday. (See Below)

* The yield on the U.S. 2-Year Note is unchanged this morning after advancing for most of the last month. The yield on the 10-Year is also flat -- now at 4.017% ( up by nearly 40 basis points in the last few weeks). The 10-year U.K. gilt yield is +8 basis points after some pushback of policy rhetoric overnight.

* Market inflation data have noticeably moderated, softening labor and commodities, in recent months. In the last few days I have highlighted the imminent weakness in rental and home prices (which work with a lag in the data). 7% mortgage rates will hand homeowners a bum deal and I now believe that home price drops will accelerate relative to consensus expectations. This morning soft commodities and energy product prices are lower. Brent oil is down two bits this morning.

* All day yesterday on FIN TV, commentators and analysts began to focus back on these disinflationary factors (commodities (hard and soft), housing/rental prices, etc.) that I have spent a lot of time discussing in my Diary over the last month:

From yesterday's Diary:

Oct 17, 2022 ' 07:40 AM EDT DOUG KASS

Charts of the Day (Part Trois)

I have argued recently in my Daily Diary and in my latest interview on Bloomberg Surveillance (with Tom Keene and Paul Sweeney) that rent and home prices, which are lagging indicators that created a stir in the hot CPI release, will fall more rapidly than the consensus expects:
















These charts are important.

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US HOUSING DATA

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US FINANCIAL CONDITIONS vs. 30Y FIXED MTGE RATE

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"Workin' on our night moves
Trying to lose the awkward teenage blues
Workin' on our night moves
In the summertime
And oh the wonder
Felt the lightning
And we waited on the thunder
Waited on the thunder."

- Bob Seger, "Night Moves"

The market (and money) never sleeps -- and neither do I, it appears!

I described the importance that overnight futures trading holds for me here. It is a guidepost to my strategy in the regular trading session.

Moreover, the overnight/early morning futures hold opportunities as they are (1) inefficient, though liquid, and (2) it seems fear and greed is often exaggerated outside the regular trading session.

S&P futures were higher most of the evening -- nearly half of the gain has been erased in the last 60 minutes or so.

In recent weeks, during these volatile markets, I have kept a bead on volatility as well as currency rates. This morning VIX is +0.06 to 31.31. The VIX has been stubbornly high over the last ten days - and remains so.

Gold, which has collapsed in recent weeks, is -$6,50 this morning. I still can't work it up to buy precious metals.

Brent oil is -$0.52, at $91.10.

Bond yields continue to represent the greatest risk to equities, and with rates spiraling ahead equities grow harder to value. Bond yields, the equity market's nemesis, are likely responsible for a large portion of the market's drubbing recently. This morning yields are unchanged, though in U.K. (as noted) the yields are higher.

The S&P oscillator stands at -3.24% (its been range bound for three days despite the market's extreme volatility!). The oscillator has been a good short-term trading tool over the last few months! The oversold, lower share prices and other factors have me leaning to add -- but I was demonstrably slow in doing that over the last week given the unprecedented currency and rate movement. This has begun to change in the last four days when I got more aggressive (though I reduced small on yesterday's ramp).

Cryptocurrencies are flat again, Bitcoin is unchanged at $19,500 (and the conversation has left the asset in recent weeks). This asset class is "off the tape" and I continue to have zero interest in it.

S&P futures peaked at +75 and bottomed at +17 At 5:48 a.m. ET futures were +37 handles.

Nasdaq futures peaked at +248 and bottomed at +55. At 5:50 a.m. ET futures were +137 handles.

Here is a synopsis of some of my columns I believe were important, or in the event you were out yesterday. The principal intent is to review the logic of my market moves and other factors:

The Market Without Memory From Close to Open

The Massacre in Stocks

Trading Around Core Positions

On Short Selling

Trading and Investing Dispassionately

Booker on Cannabis

Here were Monday's trades. This section provides transparency and a further record in memorializing my good and bad investments -- frankly, there are a lot of disingenuous actors that smile and get away (in the business media) with disastrous recommendations of individual stocks and in piss poor market projections:

* I sold some out of the money calls on long Hilton (HILT) .

* Oct 17, 2022 ' 11:02 AM EDT DOUG KASS

Trading Around Core Positions

I reshorted the (QQQ) calls that I covered on Friday's weakness near the close that was discussed in the Futures post. Those were for November and January expirations.

I also sold some of the (SPY) that I purchased late Friday afternoon at good prices ( $366.40-$367.00) and sold some more SPY $366 calls (November monthlies).

Position: Long HLT, SPY, QQQ; Short HLT calls, SPY calls, QQQ calls

Tweet of the Day

Position: None
Doug Kass - Watchlist (Longs)
ContributorSymbolInitial DateReturn
Doug KassVKTX4/2/24-32.45%
Doug KassOXY12/6/23-14.21%
Doug KassCVX12/6/23+11.69%
Doug KassXOM12/6/23+14.41%
Doug KassMSOS11/1/23-22.80%
Doug KassJOE9/19/23-13.32%
Doug KassOXY9/19/23-25.70%
Doug KassELAN3/22/23+30.32%
Doug KassVTV10/20/20+66.37%
Doug KassVBR10/20/20+79.06%