Still range bound. Still calling this a possibility.
Lots of volatility, owing, in part to the massive decrease in the liquidity of the market.
Price action still shows a tug-of-war between seller anxiety and dip-buyer enthusiasm.
Anecdotally, both seem very extreme. When people sell, they're selling a lot out of fear. When people buy, they're buying a lot out of greed (and FOMO).
I mean, FB went down 60% in three trading days. And SNAP went up 94% overnight. These are not normal moves.
Market sentiment aside, I'm not seeing anything positive in charts (with the exception of BTC), earnings are coming in like warm from lots of companies (the focus on 2022 by investors is apparent).
Most telling is what we're seeing in the economic data coming in. Not a lot of good to be found.
- jobs payrolls report came in EXCEPTIONALLY high. But it was ASJUSTED payroll so the numbers are totally over exaggerated.
This report even surprised the White House who had told people to expect a low payroll number because of Covid.
Not even the President can navigate this market. Lol.
- consumer household debt has risen at the fastest rate it ever has since 2007 (lead up to the 2008 crash - not that I've researched if it's actually a correlation and why). Most of this was mortgage debt.
So that could mean people are over leveraged. Which isn't good if inflation continues and/or jobs start to falter. Could soften the housing market.
It almost certainly means that consumers will reduce discretionary spending if the economy contracts... which will then cause the economy to further contract.
Everyone is talking about interest rates in an anxiety fueled debate, wondering if the Fed will make the interest rate hike..5% instead of .25% or tapering the balance sheet faster.
But we know that's going to happen. Institutions have a plan for it.
What no one is talking about is employment being shaky (unemployment came in at 4% instead on 3.9%), the decline in sales, conservative or dim looking earnings reports, abundance of inventory of goods spiking while people still think supply chain is the problem for sales.
The real problem is that the goods are too expensive to consumers.
Jobs, profits, prices.
They're all declining. Not in a big way. But, if the trend continues down, that means we're in a recession.
And, right at this inflection point, we have a guaranteed rate hike coming in which will further restrict spending.
Massive inflation could whipsaw into a recession pretty fast.
Makes sense. Everything about the last two years has been completely extreme.