MAD Macro - Mean Kids Club - NBC
I Am Black Balling Ronna. Chuck, We Agree
Et Tu Rachel- But We Were Friends In High School
NBC has figured out how to create some buzz around their news programing. Not sure it’s the type of buzz they wanted, but it’s become a fun story about mean kids. The club did not like the new kid so they voted her out. Chuck Todd was the first to black ball Ronna then the other kids joined in on the fun. The playground monitor intervened and let the mean kids have their way. Not sure Ronna would have fit in anyway. It’s a shame because Ronna and Rachel look like they could have been good friends in high school. Somehow after graduating from high school Rachel lost her smile.
The Tin Man has a very big fund raising event at Radio City Music Hall in NYC tonight. They are raising $25 million. That’s almost as big as a Robin Hood charity event. It sounds like a good time. Stephen Colbert will be moderating a conversation with the Tin Man, Obama and Clinton. The Tin Man is older than both ex-presidents. It should be a good test for the Tin Man to see if he can follow the teleprompter. It’s a good thing the Radio City Rockettes are not in town, Clinton might have gotten lost in the dressing rooms back stage. The Orange Mad King I is not invited, which is another good thing given his history of dressing room problems.
Xi rolled out the red carpet in the Great Hall yesterday for U.S. business leaders. He wants to trick them into investing in China again. Or maybe they all showed up to see if they can get their money out of China. Ray Dalio has posted a long essay about China on LinkedIn. I have not had time to read it but I will get to it later today. The headline says Ray is suggesting that Xi needs to fix his debt problem. Funny, I wonder what Ray thinks about our debt problem. Just guessing, but I bet Ray is still kissing up to the Chinese. This is quarter end and Ray needs to keep all of his CCP investors. Bridgewater was reportedly up for the quarter through the end of February. It will be interesting to see their performance for the quarter and how many investors redeem.
Today is quarter end and we get the weekly jobless claims number this morning and the important PCE number tomorrow, when markets are closed. Christopher Waller is another Fed governor that did not get the memo from the Tin Man and Janet Yellen. He told the NY Economics Club that the Fed should not ease until they get some better inflation news. Janet should give him a call to let him know, the fix is in. They will be easing, starting in June and two more times this year to juice the economy for the election. Markets are unchanged to lower and interest rates and the dollar are higher. I guess the markets believe Waller. Gold is higher. Maybe gold traders know the fix is in and the Fed is going to ease, the hell with controlling inflation. Democracy is more important.
I updated the U.S. Dollar Index, U.S. 10yr yield, WTI crude oil, spot gold, bitcoin, S&P futures and NASDAQ 100 futures charts below.
The dollar is higher and testing the highs of the year. Interest rates are a little higher on Waller’s comments.
Crude oil, gold and bitcoin are all higher today despite the stronger dollar. Gold, by the way, made a new all-time closing high yesterday and nobody noticed. It’s back above $2,200 this morning.
S&P and NASDAQ 100 futures are unchanged this morning after a strong rally late yesterday.
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S&P 500 futures are a type of derivative contract that provides a buyer with an investment priced based on the expectation of the S&P 500 Index’s future value. Nasdaq 100 futures are commodities futures products traded within the equity futures sector. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil is a benchmark used by oil markets, representing oil produced in the U.S. Brent Crude Oil is a blend of crude oil recovered from the North Sea in the early 1960s, whose price is used as a benchmark for the commodity's prices. The U.S. dollar index (USDX) is a measure of the value of the U.S. dollar relative to the value of a basket of currencies of the majority of the U.S.'s most significant trading partners. UBS Bloomberg Constant Maturity Commodity Index is a total return rules-based composite benchmark index diversified across commodity components from within specific sectors.
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