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20 June 2020
Big Picture Long Term June 19th 2020
Eoin Treacy's view
A link to this week's Big Picture Long-Term video commentary is posted in the Subscriber's Area.
The Anatomy of a Rally
Thanks to a subscriber for this memo by Howard Marks for Oaktree which may be of interest. Here is a section:
Questions like these can’t tell us for a fact whether an advance has been reasonable and current asset prices are justified. Buy they can assist in that assessment. They lead me to conclude that the powerful rally we’ve seen has been built on optimism; has incorporated positive expectation and overlooked potential negative; and has bene driven largely by the Fed’s injections of liquidity and the Treasury’s stimulus payments, which investors assume will bridge to a fundamental recovery and be free from highly negative second-order consequences.
A bounce from the depressed levels of late March was warranted at some point, but it came surprisingly early and quickly went incredibly far. The S&P500 closed last night at 3,133, down only 8% from an all-time high struck in troubled-free times. As such, it seems to me that the potential for further gains from things turning out better than expected or valuations continuing to expand doesn’t fully compensate for the risk of decline from events disappointing or multiples contracting.
In other words, the fundamental outlook may be positive on balance, but with listed security process where that are, the odds aren’t in investors’ favor.
Eoin Treacy's view
The rise of earnings-agnostic investing has been a trend which has defined the bull market since 2008. Every major bull market thrives on a financial innovation. It would be tempting to think that in this case it was cryptocurrencies, but the answer is probably more mundane. ETFs have enabled factor investing and promoted the acceptance of Modern Monetary Theory. They have allowed companies like Blackrock and Vanguard to become titans of Wall Street on the back of value-agnostic investing.
The Curious Case of COMEX Gold Deliveries in April and June
Thanks to a subscriber for this article by Ronan Manly for bullionstar.com which may be of interest. Here is a section:
Switzerland never normally exports gold to the US. In fact, the US usually exports gold to Switzerland gold to Switzerland – to be refined. Why was 153.3 tonnes rushed into New York during late March and April. Were these COMEX deliveries known about in advance?
Another coincidence is that the amount of gold that has flowed into COMEX since early April that is reported as eligible for the new COMEX 400 oz gold futures contract totals 155.67 tonnes of gold. Very similar to the total amount of gold ready to be delivered for the June 100 oz contract.
The next article will look at the flows into the COMEX gold vaults since 23 March, which have totaled a huge 694 tonnes, comprising 363 tonnes in eligible and 331 tonnes in registered. This has brought registered stocks up to 387 tonnes and eligible stocks to 578 tonnes, for a combined total of 965 tonnes.
Could it be that the entity or entities that were looking for gold in London on 23-24 March and didn’t get it, switched their attention back to the COMEX and demanded delivery through futures, the delivery of which is now panning out? A trans-Atlantic shock that left bullion banks scrambling.
Eoin Treacy's view
Ensuring there is enough gold on hand to supply a newer larger contract size is just part of doing business as a commodities exchange. The spike in the spread between London and New York gold prices witnessed in March and April was probably a result of trying to source this supply during the lockdowns. The bigger questions will be if investors are now willing to take delivery, rather than roll their contracts, will that reduce supply in the physical market and where will those tons of gold be stored?
Johnson Says Time for Less Covid Fear as U.K. Lowers Alert Level
This article by Stuart Biggs for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:
Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for people to be “less apprehensive” about Covid-19 as the U.K.
lowered the pandemic alert level and he promised to get all students back to school by September.
The new Level 3 alert indicates the virus is no longer spreading exponentially after almost three months of lockdown, and the guidance allows for some relaxation of social-distancing
measures.
Johnson hinted the rule that people should stay 2 meters (6 feet, 7 inches) apart may be relaxed to 1 meter for pupils -- as Northern Ireland has done -- to help re-open schools in England. He also said the track and trace system, and a new treatment for the virus, means the pandemic is entering a new phase.
“We’ve got to start thinking about a world in which we are less apprehensive about this disease,” Johnson told broadcasters on Friday. “On the social-distancing measures, watch this space, we will be putting in place further changes as the science allows.”
Eoin Treacy's view
We have a lot more testing so the number of cases continues to rise. The protest movements that sprang up at the end of May and the end of lockdowns have also both contributed to the increasing pace of the spread of the coronavirus. The big question we all need to answer is does it matter?