Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Anybody Buying Yet? Where’s the Bottom?

No luck there, apparently.
Holy crap
It was crazy, right after the announcement at 75 basis points the market moved into positive territory and looked like it was ready to continue the October rally.

Then Powell started talking and buzz kill after buzz kill and the market just tanked. Nothing he said was really shocking (other than him saying he wanted to get inflation down to 2%), but it looks like he was pretty effective at stopping the rally for sure.
 
Speculation here is that he is intentionally saying things that will hurt the market as that is just at effective at possibly curbing inflation as actual tightening by the Fed on the rates.

He is very clear that his primary goal is to curb inflation and the market going down is going to help that goal.
"So uh what's our strategy on inflation?"

"beetlejuice"

"?"

"beetlejuice"

"... oh f-"

"bettle..."
 
It was crazy, right after the announcement at 75 basis points the market moved into positive territory and looked like it was ready to continue the October rally.

Then Powell started talking and buzz kill after buzz kill and the market just tanked. Nothing he said was really shocking (other than him saying he wanted to get inflation down to 2%), but it looks like he was pretty effective at stopping the rally for sure.
“I like you better when you don’t talk”
Investors to Powell
 
Nothing he said was really shocking
Yep. Same stuff he has said before. Narrative follows price action. Now we move on the Friday’s jobs report. VIX still too low given we saw a 3.5% intraday swing and still have 3 more big events over next 10days.
 
"We may ultimately move to higher levels than we thought at the time of the September meeting. The incoming data since our last meeting suggests the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected. The risks are asymmetric. If the Fed does too much, it can cut. If it doesn't tighten enough, then you’re in real trouble... It is very premature to be thinking about pausing... We think we have a ways to go."

Anyone flown an airplane before? Over-correcting makes for much less control.
Same principle here, IMO.
Not a fan of "doing [does] too much" on purpose.

 
"We may ultimately move to higher levels than we thought at the time of the September meeting. The incoming data since our last meeting suggests the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected. The risks are asymmetric. If the Fed does too much, it can cut. If it doesn't tighten enough, then you’re in real trouble... It is very premature to be thinking about pausing... We think we have a ways to go."

Anyone flown an airplane before? Over-correcting makes for much less control.
Same principle here, IMO.
Not a fan of "doing [does] too much" on purpose.

I kind of agree with both your statement and the posted quote. We have to remember that the market is not the Fed's plane. The economy is. And I argue that it lost control of the plane a long time ago by not getting off 0% faster. IT was just March when the Fed increased rates and stopped purchasing bonds. Now, I think the Fed has no idea how we get out of this without damage. I'm not sure in your analogy if the market is the air-traffic controller or a passenger. I suspect that the Fed doesn't know what it's target terminal rate is and doesn't really know how to get inflation down other than raising rates and selling bonds. But in its defense, I don't think we want the pilot to say "I don't really know how to fly the plane in this situation because there is no training for it".
 
Have we seen any indication in the data the rate hikes are having an effect? Gas has come off its highs but employment data indicates we are just humming a long. I think rates are going to have to keep going up if we are going to put the inflation genie back in the can or at least until the economy shows signs of crumbling. It’s still cooking with grease as far as I can tell.
 
Have we seen any indication in the data the rate hikes are having an effect? Gas has come off its highs but employment data indicates we are just humming a long. I think rates are going to have to keep going up if we are going to put the inflation genie back in the can or at least until the economy shows signs of crumbling. It’s still cooking with grease as far as I can tell.
Manufacturing ISM was just barely "positive" at 50.1, but employment was 50 and new orders showed contraction (49.2). Prices paid was 46.6 which is actually a good sign on inflation. Today's ISM Services was still strong 54.4, but employment component was weak while prices paid was very high at 70.7. We also have seen the impact in Housing, at least at the final product level - mortgages, new starts, etc - and seeing some layoffs in Tech. Lots of data pointing all different directions.

Tomorrow's job report will be torn apart. ADP number yesterday was strong. It seems like workers in hotels, restaurants and bars are doing well as people keep going out and have a lot in savings (see WSJ post yesterday). Are construction and higher services jobs rolling over will be the question. Anecdotally, I went to Home Depot yesterday at 10:30am and it seemed packed.
 
Interesting deal. Marathon is buying Ensign almost entirely for more inventory, the asset = ~ 1rig for 15 years extending proforma inventory for ~ 2 years.

Marathon is paying a bit more for the asset then the previous recent deals we have seen Devon- Validus and Diamondback- FireBird

After all the smash-CO's and merger of equals, it's interesting to see these kinds of purchases again.

I'm still waiting for PR to get taken out.

 
Looks like my main stock holding had good earnings while I was out in the woods and had a nice pop!

Spotted a potential unicorn sniffing does down on this bench below.
20221102_154131.jpg
Unfortunately I also spotted a hunter down there too. Worked my way down the ridge to get a better look at the buck, and heard a couple shots. One less unicorn!
Spotted another potential unicorn Thursday evening. Hiked in to the area Friday morning in the dark. Lots of tracks, no deer. Lots of wind and snow. Later coming off the mountain on a different ridge, ran into a young fit guy trucking up the ridge on snowshoes. Said he was going to retrieve a nice 5 x 5 he shot earlier that morning. He Bivied overnight on the mountain to get after the unicorns first thing in the morning. One less unicorn!
Wind was wild and snow was deep the higher up you got. It was fun, but wish I was still young!
 
I will say it is nice to (finally) earn some $$ on cash sitting on the sidelines. Upped my dollar cost averaging amounts in the indexes and selectively building positions however not putting big chunks in.
 
I will say it is nice to (finally) earn some $$ on cash sitting on the sidelines. Upped my dollar cost averaging amounts in the indexes and selectively building positions however not putting big chunks in.
Too bad your now your losing a larger amount of purchasing power with that cash. Getting paid 2.5% when inflation is 6.5% is worse than getting 0.15% when inflation is 2.5%.
 
Too bad your now your losing a larger amount of purchasing power with that cash. Getting paid 2.5% when inflation is 6.5% is worse than getting 0.15% when inflation is 2.5%.
I'm OK with things being on sale b/c I can buy some great companies at 30 and 50% off for the long haul. Dumping money in at the highs would hit me worse. Been sitting on the sidelines for a while and ready to drop more in but not quite yet.

Now if we could get components for reloading...
 
Still shorting the rips and covering the dips. I'm keeping it simple. Until macro conditions change, my strategy does not.
 
Just dropped a small hammer on AMZN, MSFT and the QQQs. Whether I agree or not with Bozos or Uncle Bill, this is about making money for me (and my family).

Who's invested in Vista Outdoor? That ship may have already sailed for me at this point in the cycle.
 
Reminds me of Nortel back around the turn of the century...except I bought at the top and it went belly up. Best thing of all is it was in Roth so I can't deduct any of it :)

Live and learn.
 
Saw them talking about this one on CNBC this morning. What a tumble it has taken.😮
Watching the companies commercials, I was fairly skeptical. Sure enough.

View attachment 248978

It's a great concept, my buddy has bought two cars from them and it has worked incredible for him. That said, it was one I was watching to short, but to chicken to play that game. The valuation + pandemic was bonkers as new inventory started to return.

Though I read this article this morning that while wholesale is down, retail still is high.

 
This isn’t intended to be political (which means it obviously is), but just saw something interesting- from a historical perspective, the scenario in which the President is Democrat and Congress is controlled by Republicans is typically very good for the market.

It looks like we are possibly headed that way, hopefully we are in for a rally. I guess gridlock equals a certain amount of security for businesses, which makes sense.
 
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