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Recent Posts
Meta
S&P500 Key Levels
Summary
- The selling continues as markets fret about the Trump administration’s tariff wrecking ball
- The S&P closed below its 200-day moving for the second straight day, the first time since early March
- 2722 is the key Fibo level to watch, which is above today’s low of 2728.81
- The S&P remains around 12 percent above the hairy, scary level of 2400ish that puts the secular bull into play
- Markets are giving up hope on a China trade deal and now looking to the Fed for another rescue
- The market still has considerable more downside, in our opinion
- Of course, not in a straight line
The ugly May for stocks has come and gone and the selling continues. This is all about trade worries and the market is beginning to contemplate, though hardly priced, what we have been posting for quite a while, the geopolitical and economic framework, which has driven stocks since 1982 may be on the brink.
Markets have been so invested in the ideas of globalisation, free-flowing capital, and “convergence” – the idea that the “world is flat” (as Thomas Friedman once put it) – that they can’t bear to do the work involved in changing their minds.
Note also that many in the financial industry are heavily dependent on the “buy and hold forever” model. So the message to clients is “don’t worry, markets always go up in the long run, this is just a storm in a teacup”. That encourages the creation of arguments to support the status quo, even as it is increasingly challenged.
This is why investors would rather believe that Trump is a player of 3D chess – a master strategist and negotiator, bringing his business experience into the rarefied, stuffy halls of government. – MoneyWeek
Even after the 7.63 percent sell-off from the May 1st high to today’s low, the January to May rally has only retraced about one-third of its gains and has yet to violate the key .618 Fibo at 2722.05. The S&P closed below its 200-day for the second straight day, which hasn’t happened since March 8th.
Also note, the S&P is still about 12 percent of the huge level of 2400-ish, where things get very hairy and scary. We do think that is where the market is headed albeit not in a straight line and not without the Fed trying to rescue the market.
Key ST Levels
To the upside, the 200-day at 2775.02 and the 2781.99, the first Fib retracement level of the current sell-off. The big downside level is today’s low at 2728.81 and the Key Fibo of the January-May rally at 2722.05.
Gun to head, unless a positive trade tweet with some beyond meat, a few days of chop before the 2722.05 is taken out. This said with the caveat that short-term moves are noise and a mug’s game trying to predict them.



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A life of boom and bust: Can Argentina break the cycle?
A century ago, Argentina was one of the ten richest countries in the world. But crisis after crisis has earned it the dubious distinction of being the only nation ever to regress to developing country status. With hyperinflation, devaluations and IMF bailouts now facts of life, we meet the people who have lived through a major economic crisis roughly once every decade – including a taxi driver who lost everything in the 2001 crisis and now earns more money selling antiques.
We also travel to some of the worst-hit places, where sermons from slum priest “Padre Toto” give people hope. But 2018 has once again tested Argentines’ patience. Inflation has topped 40% and the peso’s value has halved compared to the US dollar. Mauricio Macri’s government has tried to stem another crisis by signing up to the biggest bailout package in the IMF’s history. With the country’s future in limbo, the FT provides a glimpse into life in constant economic turmoil and asks: Can Argentina finally break the cycle of boom and bust?
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“Oh no no no I’m a tariff man”
And I think it’s gonna be a long long time
‘Till tariffs come down again
I’m not the man the market thinks I am
Oh no no no I’m a tariff man
– paraphrasing Rocket Man (starts tonight)
Tariff man hit me right in the gut and wallet last night. Then the Warriors lost the first game of the NBA finals. A night ruined.

I snapped this picture on Wednesday in celebration and gratitude for free trade. True story. I paid $4.99 for my last watermelon purchase. That’s a $2.00 increase in my real income and purchasing power just from transacting in one item, folks. Add it all up and it’s real money to be spent and spread around to create more American jobs.
Who will pay the 5-25 percent prospective tariff on the watermelon? It will be the American business who imports the watermelon, who will then calculate if they can pass the additional cost of the tariff on to me depending on how sensitive my demand for watermelons is to price changes and how easy it is to substitute for non-Mexican melons. Economic geeks call this the price elasticity of demand. Either way, Americans pay 100 percent of the tariff.
Will Mexican exporters lower the price of the watermelon to compensate for the price increase in the United States and maintain their domestic price as the peso weakens? TBD.
But either way, make no mistake Americans will still pay the tariff (tax) that flows into the U.S. Treasury coffers. Trump adviser Peter Navarro is dead wrong, which is surprising given his Ph.D. in econ, or he is trying to mislead the public. We’re not having it.
By the way, I didn’t feel like a fool nor feel abused as POTUS seems to suggest when I purchased the Mexican watermelon on Wednesday.
Furthermore, my family has suffered from the dark side of immigration more than most. We completely reject the hysteria and racism this administration whips up and obsesses over and won’t seem to let go. Yes, America needs sensible and effective immigration and border policies, which strike at the root of the problem but come on, man.
No Surprise

Source: Wall St. Journal via @scottlincicome
We were not surprised about Trump’s Mexican tariff announcement, and neither should you if you have been reading the Global Macro Monitor during the past few years. We concluded early on in this administration, Trump is 1) not a free trader; 2) does not understand basic trade theory, and 3) he has no strategic plan for a trade or industrial policy.
Furthermore, we don’t believe President Trump is a free trader at heart but more of a protectionist and neo-mercantilist. There is no “Art of the Deal” – see his waffling on immigration – and no method to the administration’s madness to negotiating anything, for that matter, but only driven by impulse and myopia. — Global Macro Monitor, June 24, 2018
Anyone who works with him knows he is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making….President Trump’s impulses are generally anti-trade and anti-democratic. – Anonymous, NY Times, September 5, 2018
After all, tariff man believes “the word TARIFF is a beautiful word indeed!”
God help us.
The Delusion Of Mr. Market
The market continues to delude itself that Trump is just using the hammer and sickle of tariffs to further crack open foreign markets to U.S. exporters. Obviously, Mr. Market didn’t get the memo.

The problem is the lack of U.S. leadership in dealing with and compensating the losers from free trade — ironically not the losers from protectionism, see the $26 billion in subsidies to farmers — and has created a vacuum that Trump can fill with his impulses, which, we believe, if not checked will set the world on fire and lead to disaster.
Is It A Bluff?
Is Trump bluffing on Mexican tariffs? We don’t know and one would think so if he wants to run on the strong economy and be re-elected. That’s too rational, however.
T-minus 10 days and counting before Mexico will be forced to retaliate.
Did Mueller Buy Or Sell President Trump?

“And as set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.
We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime… It explains that under long-standing Department policy, a President cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional.” – Robert Mueller, May 29, 2019
” Since it is the policy of Shitibank we cannot issue sell recommendations, we conclude that Bestla is not not a sell.” – Hypothetical “Bestla” Stock Analyst (see below)
He said what?
Whatever you want him to say. After all, we now live in a world of double negatives, alternative facts, and Orwellian doublespeak. There is no truth, no real facts. You make your own reality, no?
We don’t believe that stier scheisse, not for one second, and never will.
Making Money In The Political Minefields
We’re not afraid of the political minefields if our analysis is going to help us make money. We warned way ahead of time about the risks to a China trade deal and that the U.S. negotiating team was too optimistic about what was ultimately doable. See our February post here.
We also wrote of the coming domestic political instability, warning of the Summer of Discontent in both the U.S. and the United Kingdom.
In both cases, we took incoming that we are not on the home team’s side or that our analysis was all partisan nonsense. To that, we say nonsense to the nonsense comments. We now speak in double negatives.
What Did Mueller Say Today
So what was it that Mueller said today?
There are two major takeaway issues from today’s Mueller presser, which are very clear and unambiguous.
- The Russian military launched a “concerted attack” on the 2016 presidential election “to damage a presidential candidate,”
.
I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments — that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interference in our election. That allegation deserves the attention of every American. – Robert Mueller, May 29, 2018
. - Mueller never believed, ex-ante or ex-post the investigation, that he and his team could ever conclude or charge President Trump of committing a crime and were constrained by the “principles under which we [they] operated.” He clearly stated,
.
And as set forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so.
We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the president did commit a crime. The introduction to the volume two of our report explains that decision. It explains that under long-standing Department policy, a President cannot be charged with a federal crime while he is in office. That is unconstitutional…The special counsel’s office is part of the Department of Justice and by regulation it was bound by that Department policy. Charging the president with a crime was, therefore, not an option we could consider. – Robert Mueller, May 29, 2019
Seeing And Hearing Mueller As A Financial Analyst
Because we view almost everything from an economic and financial perspective let us set up how we see it. We interpret Mueller with the following financial analogy:
For illustrious purposes, assume we are stock analysts at Shitibank and have just completed an exhaustive two-year study of Bestla, a domestic motorcycle manufacturer. The investment community is becoming very impatient and greatly anticipates our buy or sell recommendation.
Our conclusion,
Since it is the policy of Shitibank we cannot issue sell recommendations, we conclude that Bestla is not not a sell.
Let the tweets from Bestla CEO, Milon Eusk, begin.
Upshot
There you have it, folks, it’s up to you and Congress to interpret the special counsel’s double negative. If you have trouble, a symbolic logic course may help.
The impeachment market continues to march higher. Stock market volatility is picking up and the S&P is breaking down.
The Summer of Discontent is here. You were warned.
International Trade Balance As A Percent Of State GDP
Our last post, Trade As Percent Of State GDP (2018), which illustrated the openness of each state to international trade normalized by the state’s GDP, provoked our curiosity about which states run the largest trade deficits with the rest of the world.
Of course, California, which is, by far, the country’s largest economy with a state GDP of over $3 trillion (14.5 percent of U.S. GDP with Texas a distant second at 8.7 percent ), ran a $260 trade deficit in 2018, or about 30 percent of the $879 billion trade deficit. Given the size of California’s economy, the trade balance-to-state GDP came in at -8.6 percent, however.
Data Caveats
There are a ton of caveats with the data but it does give a sense of the zip codes where states live when it comes to contributing to the overall U.S. trade deficit.
Trade data is not calculated on a value-added basis as is the GDP data. For example, we suspect much of Michigan’s imports consist of auto parts and used to produce exports in the automobile industry.
Moreover, a couple of years ago we posted the list of foreign suppliers in the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which is manufactured/assembled in South Carolina.
Assembly is just a small part of the Dreamliner’s manufacturing value chain. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted in a recent working paper,
More than 70 percent of the plane’s value is not generated by Boeing. – IMF.The Post and Courier wrote yesterday the jetliner is…”comprised of more than 2.3 million parts made around the world.” — GMM, Feb 2017
Thus many of South Carolina’s imports go into assembling the Boeing 787 and then exported though only the valued-added of assembly is calculated in state GDP. Consequently, some countries have nonsensical export-to-GDP ratios which exceed 100 percent.
U.S.-China Trade Balance
The problem with how exports and imports are calculated also distorts the U.S. trade deficit with China. For example, the iPhone, which is assembled in China and only account for a small fraction of its value added, are counted at their final value in U.S. imports. See here.

Nonetheless, the data, though imperfect, are very interesting and enlightening.


Trade As Percent Of State GDP (2018)
Who would have thunk it?
Lousiana (petrol products and soybeans), Kentucky (aircraft), Michigan (auto & parts), Texas (oil), South Carolina (aircraft & auto), and Tennessee (medical equipment, aircraft & auto, parts), the states most engaged in international trade (i.e., > 30 percent of state GDP). Note, the state parentheticals reference only exports.
The Machiavelli in me thinks Trump understands, ex. Michigan, these are deep red states and will support him regardless if they get hurt in an escalation of protectionism and de-globalization.
The realist in me thinks Trump & Co. do not play the long game and think only in the now.
Upshot
Logic almost always missing in politics.
Yes, very simplistic-off-the cuff formulation of opinion. Show us yours?

Hat Tip: Mark J. Perry @Mark_J_Perry
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