by David Hill | Sep 26, 2019 | Uncategorized
The sharp slide in agricultural commodity prices this year has squeezed long trades, with net non-commercial futures positioning in corn now close to neutral (bottom-left chart). Corn has suffered the most precipitous drop, with high planting rates driving futures...
by David Hill | Dec 7, 2018 | Global Economy, Uncategorized
Gold has been in a narrow range since mid-August, and is down about 6% YTD in USD terms. It has had several opportunities to sell off more given a hawkish Fed, a rising USD and speculators going net short, but tellingly it has remained quite well supported. Today...
by David Hill | Jun 14, 2018 | China, Emerging Markets
Our macro-driven model of expected industrial commodity returns (the CRB Raw Industrials Index includes non-exchange traded commodities such as burlap, rubber and lead scrap) has turned persistently negative, triggering the regime to shift to bearish from neutral (top...
by David Hill | Mar 16, 2018 | Emerging Markets
EM CPI inflation is at multi-year lows at present (top chart), with a clear divergence between world food prices and EM CPI. Food tends to be one of the main components of EM inflation baskets, on average accounting for a 30% weighting. A lot of agricultural...
by Simon White | Jun 27, 2017 | US Economy
The US and global yield curves steepened briefly last summer and steepened further after Trump’s election, but it has been rolling over almost all year. This has a negative read through to growth and key risk assets. The yield curve is one of the key things we track...
by Bill | Aug 27, 2015 | Global Economy, Monetary Policy
Stock markets are experiencing a classic crash pattern. Volatility has spiked and sharp sell offs are often being followed by powerful rallies. As with previous crash patterns, we would expect markets to continue to gyrate wildly for around the next 8 weeks,...
by Bill | Mar 13, 2014 | Featured, Tactical
About a month ago, we flagged a buy signal on spot corn for clients. Corn has rallied about 10% since then and more upside is ahead. Corn prices have been a strong downtrend since mid-2012 declining to the same levels seen in 2009-2010 before the rally in 2011....
by Bill | Nov 4, 2013 | Emerging Markets, Featured, Global Economy, Leading Indicators, US Economy
Our real narrow money index continues to decline and is sending an increasingly bearish cyclical signal for the global economy and commodity prices. Our real narrow money index has now declined for 4 months running and is now tracking below 7% for the first time since...
by Bill | Mar 30, 2012 | Global Economy
One of the simplest ways to measure macroeconomic risk is to look at the twin deficit, defined as the sum of current account and budget deficit as a percentage of GDP. Recent blow-ups like Iceland and Greece both scored highest on these fronts. Looking at twin...
