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Disinflation

THREE WORDS THAT YOU SHOULD KNOW. NATTY GOES CRAZYNatty is a slang term for 'natural gas' or natural gas futures. Natural gas is among the most-volatile commodities, especially in contracts for prompt delivery. A big reason why is the demand for natural gas varies considerably based on the weather as it's primarily a heating fuel; though it's increasingly used in electricity production and that can also make it subject to swings on hot summer weather due to air conditioning demand. Increasingly, LNG demand also dictates the price of natural gas. Forecasters from Atmospheric G2 said last Thursday that above-average temperatures are expected for the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. from Feb. 6 to 10. Natural gas prices are also under pressure after the Freeport LNG natural gas export terminal in Texas announced in January, 2024 that it would close one of its three production units for a month for repairs after extreme cold in Texas damaged equipment. The closure of one of the power units will limit the export of natural gas from the United States and increase its supply. Front NYMEX:NGH2024 Natural Gas futures contract recently fell to all-time low, below $1.900 mark. An unusually mild winter reduced demand for natural gas and kept U.S. inventories high. Forecasters at Maxar Technologies said last Wednesday that weather is forecast to become warmer over the next two weeks from the Rockies to the Midwest. According to BNEF, Lower 48 States Dry Natural Gas production on Wednesday amounted to 104.2 bcf per day (+4.2% y/y). Demand for Lower 48 States Dry Natural Gas was 93.1 bcfas of Wednesday, according to BNEF. (+8.9% y/y), and net LNG flows to US LNG export terminals declined to 13.5 bcf as of Wednesday. (-4.2% by weight). Reduced U.S. electricity production will negatively impact demand for natural gas from utility providers. The Edison Electrical Institute reported Wednesday that total U.S. electricity production fell -8.1% year-over-year for the week ending Feb. 3, and total electricity production in the US for the 52-week period ending February 3 fell by -0.4%. The US Climate Prediction Center said there is a more than 55% chance that current El Niño weather conditions will remain strong in the Northern Hemisphere through March, keeping temperatures above average and putting pressure on natural gas prices. AccuWeather predicts also El Niño will limit snowfall in Canada this season and also cause above-normal temperatures in North America. Gas storage facilities in Europe were 71% full as of January 29, above the five-year seasonal average of 58 percent for this time of year. Baker Hughes reported a week ago on Friday that the number of active U.S. natural gas drilling rigs fell by -1 rig to 119 rigs for the week ended Jan. 26, just above the two-year low of 113 rigs recorded on Sept. 8. Rising to a 4.5-year high of 166 rigs in September 2022 from the pandemic-era low of 68 rigs recorded in July 2020 (data dating back to 1987), rigs number decreases again, since Q4'22. Recent EIA report showed in full accordance with expectations, a decrease in reserves of -75 bcf that is much less than the 5-year average for this time of year of -193 bcf. The main technical chart is for United States Natural Gas Fund LP AMEX:UNG ETF that offers straightforward exposure to front-month natural gas futures Basically this graph clear illustrates that disinflation era is still exists, as bearish sentiment is still prevails in the market since the Q4'022, after a key 5yrs SMA breakthrough. Perhaps this is the end, and market capitulation is almost right there, as it typically happens each time in long-term downward market trends.
AMEX:UNG
by Pandorra
5
What Disinflation - Beef Price Went Up 64 percent in 5 YearsCME: Live Cattle ( CME:LE1! ), Lean Hog ( CME:HE1! ) Last month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that US inflation on food items was 5.7% in June, exactly half of its peak of 11.4% in August 2022. Food inflation is at its lowest level since November 2021. Under the sub-category “Meats, poultry, fish, and eggs” from Food-at-home, the BLS data shows a negative 0.2%, meaning that meat prices declined in the past year. The official data contradicts my own experience. Anyone who has been shopping knows that the grocery bill gets bigger every month. Last weekend, I surveyed the Beef section at a local Walmart and found the following: • Beef cuts with the USDA Choice label price between $12-$18 per pound. • A primal loin, for example, costs $16.99/lb. Next to Beef is the Pork section. • A full slack of spareribs prices at $1.89/lb. • This is back to the pre-Covid price level. Why is beef so pricy? Will consumers get some relief as food inflation goes down? In this report, I attempt to find out what drives the beef/cattle price up. The Cash Cattle Market According to the National Daily Cattle & Beef Summary published by the USDA, Choice Beef averaged $301.79/cwt (per 100 pounds) nationwide on August 4th. Primal loin cutouts averaged $4.11/lb. This is so much lower than the retail price. But why? The USDA reports transactions occurred at meatpackers, where cattle farmers sell their beef cows. The report shows the value chain throughout the packing process: • Live Cattle: Steer (male cow), 187.55/cwt; Heifer (young female), $187.26/cwt; • Beef Carcass: $284.86 (Choice); • Primal Flank: $214.84 (Choice); • Primal Rib: $457.54 (Choice); • It also lists prices for Chuck, Round, Brisket, Short Plate, Trimmings, etc. From the packing plant, beef goes through cold storage, wholesale, and retail distribution before consumers pick up their favorite meat at the grocery store. During the inflationary period, labor and energy become more costly, driving up the cost of each stage of processing and distribution. Higher interest rates also raise the cost of business overhead. These together widen the price spread between live cattle and retail beef cutout significantly. In the beef cattle value chain, it takes farmers two years to raise the cows, while processing and distribution take maybe two weeks to complete. However, farmers receive only about 20% of the final sales price. The Cattle Cycle and A Shrinking Herd Cattle cycle is the process in which the size of the national cattle herd changes over time, from low point to low point. The cattle cycle averages 8–12 years and is influenced by the cattle prices, input costs that drive producer profitability, the gestation period, the time needed for raising calves to market weight, and climate conditions. If cattle prices and producer profits are expected to rise, producers may expand their herds; if prices are expected to decline, producers will reduce their herds by culling older cows and keeping fewer heifers to replace older cows. Cow-calf producers’ response to price fluctuations may be delayed because of the lengthy gestation period for cattle relative to hogs and poultry. The total number of beef cattle in the United States is highly dependent on the stage in the cattle cycle. Last month, the USDA reported that the latest herd inventory for all cows and calves was 95.9 million, down 3% year-over-year. Beef cow inventory was 29.4 million, also down 3%. The decline in beef cow supply is the main driver for higher beef prices. Over the past 50 years, the US cattle herd has shrunk significantly. • Inventory for all cows and calves peaked at 132 million in 1975. We have lost over 36 million cows or 27% of all cattle supply. • Beef cattle inventory peaked at 45.7 million. We now have 2/3 of peak herd size. A counter argument is that, with technology advancements, we need fewer cows for the same amount of beef supply. The production time gets shorter, and the cows gets bigger. People now have healthier diets and take in less red meat. According to USDA data, per capita beef consumption was 63.3 pounds in 1960. It declined to 59.1 pounds in 2021, down 6.6%. But look at the huge population growth for people. The US had 203.2 million people according to the 1970 Census. US population grew to 331.4 million in the 2020 Census, up 63%. Beef demand clearly outpaced supply as US population grows. Beef Export and Import Interestingly, the US both exports and imports beef. In 2021, the US exported 3.43 billion pounds of beef while imported 3.35 billion pounds. Beef export was mainly higher-grade beef cutouts. And import was lower-grade beef for processing into ground beef. The US used to be a net import country for beef. In 2020, China signed a trade agreement with the US and opened its vast market for US beef import. This resulted in China buying four times as much beef the following year. More export reduces domestic beef supply. This is another factor driving up beef prices. In conclusion, the days of lower priced beef are long gone. Beef prices are expected to remain high, even though food inflation goes down. Cattle and Hog Spread Trade – A Revisit How could we make use of this analysis? On May 15th, I published an idea about a spread trade between CME Live Cattle Futures ( NASDAQ:LE ) and Lean Hog Futures ( NYSE:HE ). The 20-year chart shows that the price spread between live cattle (LE) and lean hog (HE) broadly stays in the range of $20-$60 per 100 pounds but could go up to as high as $100. On May 12th, October cattle contract (LEV3) was quoted $166.2 per 100 lbs., while October hog contract (HEV3) priced at $77.425. Thus, the price spread was $88.775. On August 4th, LEV3 settled at $183.10 while HEV3 was closed at $83.25. The spread has widened to nearly $100. The Impact of Proposition 12 In 2018, California passed an animal welfare law called Proposition 12. It requires that breeding pigs be confined to a pen with no less than 24 square feet of floor space, allowing them to fully turn around in their living area. Proposition 12 applies to not only hog farmers in California, but also any supplier selling hog and pork in the state of California. The hog industry fought hard but lost. The Supreme Court upheld the law in May, and it is finally taking effect in July. The animal welfare law significantly increases the cost of hog production nationwide. Prices of live hog, pork cutout, ham and bacon shall all go up. However, as we are now in summer, a low pork consumption season, cash market price has not yet caught up. In my opinion, the cost factor pushing pork prices up in the short run is greater than the supply-demand force that drives up beef prices in the long run. There may be room to short the cattle-hog spread, until pork prices stabilize in a new equilibrium. A Short Spread trade entails selling 1 CME Live Cattle Futures and buying 1 CME Lean Hog Futures. Both contracts are based on 40,000 pounds of meat and require $1,600 in initial margins. Happy Trading. Disclaimers *Trade ideas cited above are for illustration only, as an integral part of a case study to demonstrate the fundamental concepts in risk management under the market scenarios being discussed. They shall not be construed as investment recommendations or advice. Nor are they used to promote any specific products, or services. CME Real-time Market Data help identify trading set-ups and express my market views. If you have futures in your trading portfolio, you can check out on CME Group data plans available that suit your trading needs www.tradingview.com
Editors' picks
CME:LE1!Short
by JimHuangChicago
26
Disinflation – Fact or Fiction?CME: S&P Technology Select Sector ( CME_MINI:XAK1! ) The U.S. consumer price index (CPI) rose 0.5% in January and +6.4% year over year, reported the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Tuesday. Excluding food and energy, Core CPI increased 0.4% monthly and 5.6% yearly. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones expected the headline CPI to grow 0.4% monthly and 6.2% yearly. Expectations for core CPI changes were 0.3% and 5.5%, respectively. On Tuesday, US stocks fell at open in response to the hotter-than-expected CPI report. But major indexes recovered somewhat at the close of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 156 points, or -0.46%, after initially losing over 300 points. The S&P 500 was flat at 4,136 (-0.03%), and the Nasdaq 100 gained 68 points to 11,960. US Treasury yields ticked higher. 2-year yield went up 94 ticks to 4.628%, while 10-year yield lifted 36 points to 3.755%. Bond investors widely expected the Federal Reserve to raise rates by 25 basis points to the 4.75%-5.00% range in March. Mega Trend in US Inflation While we usually focus on the percentage changes in inflation, CPI data are constructed as indexes, each using 1982-84 price data as a baseline at 100. January CPI reading of 299.170 is 0.8% above December of 296.797. It is up 6.4% from 281.148 in January 2022 (Data in this section is from Table 1 in the January CPI release). Interpretation: Today, the average price of goods and services in the U.S. is about 3 times as high as the price level from nearly four decades ago. This translates into a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.93% for the past 38 years. Insights: Long-run inflation rate is almost one percentage point higher than the Fed policy target. With less restrictive monetary policy on one hand, but more expansive fiscal policy on the other, the 2% goal appears to be far fetching. Barring a major recession, I expect the US inflation to stay above its 3% historical average in the foreseeable future. In the past four decades, cost of many consumer goods tripled in price, including Food (+219%), Energy (+183) and Core CPI (+202%). But there are noticeable outliners: • Tobacco and smoking products, +1289% • Motor vehicle insurance, +559% • Medical care services, +502% • New vehicle, +77% • Apparel, +28% January CPI Readings Before diving into the data, we should know that when BLS releases CPI data in February, it readjusts the weighting to account for the latest changes in the cost of living. For 2023, CPI weights are updated annually based on a single calendar year of consumer expenditure data. This reflects a change from prior practice of updating weights biennially. The changes of weighting by product and service category in the January report: CPI Category Old Weight New Weight Change Housing 46.40% 44.40% +2.0% Entertainment 5.70% 5.40% +0.3% Food 14.50% 14.40% +0.1% Clothing 2.50% 2.50% 0.0% Other 2.60% 2.70% -0.1% Medical 7.70% 8.10% -0.4% Education 5.20% 5.80% -0.6% Transport 15.30% 16.70% -1.4% Rising shelter costs accounted for nearly half the monthly price increase. The component accounts for more than one-third of the index and rose 0.7% on the month and was up 7.9% from a year ago. Energy also was a significant contributor, up 2% month over month (M/M) and 8.7% annually, while food costs rose 0.5% M/M and 10.1% annually. Food: Up 0.5% M/M in January from 0.1% in December. Annualized inflation is 10.1%. Energy: Up 2.0% M/M in January from -3.1% in December. Annualized gain is 8.7%, of which, gasoline (+1.9%), diesel (+27.7%), electricity (+11.9%), and natural gas (+26.7%). Shelter: Up 0.7% M/M in January from 0.8% in December. Up 7.9% Y/Y. Transportation: Up 0.9% M/M in January from 0.6% in December. Up 14.6% Y/Y. While the headline CPI ticks down from 6.5% to 6.4% on an annualized basis, January price increase of 0.5% is significantly higher than the December reading of +0.1%. Overall inflation level is undoubtedly on the way down, but price increases from food, shelter and transportation are very sticky and don’t normally go down once moving up. Is disinflation a fact or fiction? I think we are somewhere in between, in the Twilight Zone. The US Stock Market Narratives In the past three years, the stock market narratives have changed several times: • After the initial pandemic hit in March 2020, US stocks staged a very impressive bull run. Growth drivers were US companies innovating with new products and services and catering for “work-from-home” employees and “play-at-home” consumers. • 2022 started with a major geopolitical crisis, pushing stocks sharply down. Fed rate hikes from March 2022 dragged major stock indexes into bear market territory. • Since inflation peaked in July and the Core CPI reading confirmed it in October 2022, US stock market began to rebound, centering on the notion of “Fed Pivot”. More recently, investors are caught by conflicting economic data. • Unemployment at 50-year low vs. Big Techs pushing rounds of massive lay-offs; • Lower inflation rate vs. “Eggflation” and “Shrinkflation” that consumers experience; • Whether the Fed is hawkish or dovish depends on the next dataset. While investors try to make sense of all these, stock market moves sideways. The 30-day returns for Dow and the S&P are -0.83% and +3.20%, respectively. Are we at the beginning of a new bull market? Or is it a bear relief, a temporary rebound from a bear market? To make an assessment, you need to know how many more rate hikes could be (pick a number between 1 and 4), and what the terminal rate would be (5.0%, 5.25%, 5.5%, 5.75%, or 6.0%)? I have no idea. When uncertainty becomes the dominant narrative, it’s time to explore opportunities that promise more certainties. AI - New Engine for Economic Growth One visible exception is Nasdaq 100, which gained 8.9% in the past month. S&P Technology Select Sector Index (XAK) had an even higher return at 9.5%. Most Big Tech companies were vastly overstaffed during the pandemic years. With stock prices cutting by two thirds or more, they are forced to live within their cash flow. Cutting off unprofitable divisions and laying off redundant staff help them survive in leaner years. This is certainly very painful for the tech workers and their families. To investors, Big Tech may have transformed itself from lofty Growth Stock to reasonably priced Value Stock. For Nasdaq 100, its trailing 12-month price/earnings ratio was 34 one year ago. It is 23.63 as of February 10th, according to Birinyi Associates. Technological breakthroughs have always powered the US economy to growth for the long run. Personal computers in the 1980s, Internet for the 1990s, smart phones and mobile internet in the 2000s, and electric vehicles in the 2010s, just to name a few. In my opinion, Artificial Intelligence will be our economic growth engine in 2023. While AI is nothing new, the viral success of ChatGPT has sensationally changed the game. Its popularity among mainstream consumers helps form strong support for all publicly traded companies in the AI sector, not just for OpenAI and its parent Microsoft. While writing this report, I asked ChatGPT one question: “Please show me the top-10 publicly traded stocks in the AI field.” Below is his/her/its answer: 1. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) - Google's parent company, which has been investing heavily in AI technology and applications. 2. NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) - A leading company in graphics processing units (GPUs), which are commonly used in AI training and inferencing. 3. International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) - A company that has been developing AI technologies for several years and has a range of products and services, including the Watson AI platform. 4. Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) - Microsoft has invested heavily in AI technologies, and its Azure platform provides a range of AI tools and services. 5. Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) - Amazon's AI capabilities are used in a variety of products and services, including the Alexa voice assistant and its recommendation algorithms. 6. Baidu, Inc. (BIDU) - A Chinese company that has been investing heavily in AI technologies, including natural language processing and autonomous driving. 7. Alibaba Group Holding Limited (BABA) - A Chinese company that has also invested heavily in AI technologies and has been developing AI applications for e-commerce, logistics, and finance. 8. Intel Corporation (INTC) - A company that has been developing hardware specifically for AI, including custom processors and FPGA chips. 9. Twilio Inc. (TWLO) - A company that provides cloud-based communication services and has been investing in AI technologies to improve its services. 10. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) - A company that develops CPUs and GPUs for AI applications and has been investing heavily in machine learning and other AI technologies. This is very impressive. ChatGPT not only gives me a list of the companies, but also highlights each company’s involvement in the AI field. Since ChatGPT doesn’t have data beyond 2021, we come back to our trusty TradingView to pull out 1-year return charts. What a brutal year! Only Microsoft manages to gain 5.3%. The rest in the list had negative returns from -10% to 40%. Twilio is the loss leader, yielding -66.8% in the last 12 months. This drives home the two major risks in new technology investing: Firstly, at an early stage, you have no idea which technology will win out at the end. Is it direct current (DC) or alternative current (AC)? Airship or Aircraft? VHS or Betamax? Cable TV or satellite TV? And TDMA or GSM for cellular signal? Secondly, you do not know which company will become a leader in a winner-take-all market. If you go back in time and invest in the new automobile industry in 1908, you have a 99% chance of losing money, unless you luckily picked Ford, General Motors, or Chrysler out of the 253 publicly traded automakers. Likewise, if you invested in mobile phone companies in early 2000, you likely picked Motorola, Blackberry, Ericsson, or Nokia. However, when an outsider Apple launch a breakthrough product, iPhone 1 in 2007, it knocked out all leading cellphone markers and became the ultimate winner. Right now, I predict that most electric vehicle makers will go out of business in five years, except for Tesla, and maybe BYD. The Case for S&P Technology Select Sector Index Consistently picking winners in emerging technologies is extremely difficult. Even the smartest stock picker could not beat the market. Take Cathy Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) as an example, its cumulative returns comparing to the Nasdaq 100 were: • 1-year: -42.8% vs. -12.4%; • 5-year: -2.1% vs. +85.1%; • Since Inception (8-year): +100.3% vs. +203.5%. Diversification is a very powerful concept in investing, notably in times of uncertainty. Concentrating on stock picking, many active managers tend to cloud objective assessment with their own conviction and lose sight of potential market leaders amid emerging mega trends. Passive investment via index futures focusing on the high-tech sector allows us to express our conviction and capture emerging trends. XAK is one of the 11 sector indexes in the S&P 500. Its top holdings are Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Visa (V), Mastercard (MA), Broadcom (AVGO), Cisco (CSCO), and Adobe (ADBE). My research shows that S&P Technology Select Sector (XAK) outperformed many Big Tech stocks and ETFs in both short-term and long-term. According to Fact Sheet published by S&P, as of January 31st, the annualized historical returns are -15.22% (1Y), 13.82% (3Y), 16.22% (5Y) and 18.48% (10Y). Total returns since inception are 6,425.9%. You may invest in one of the technology sector ETFs, such as SPDR XLK, iShare IYW, and Vanguard VGT. But CME E-Mini S&P Technology Select Sector Index Futures (XAK) has distinguished features over ETFs. Firstly, XAK has five quarterly contracts to choose from: March, June, September, December and March 2024. This allows us to evaluate strategies focusing on expected future value of the index, up to 1 year ahead. Secondly, you could place either Long or Short position, allowing both bullish and bearish strategies to implement. Thirdly, initial margin of placing 1 contract is approximately 35% of the notional value. This built-in leverage could enhance the returns if market moves in the right direction. Finally, by holding a long position on the quarterly futures contract and rolling it each quarter, investors could replicate the strategy of holding the stocks or the ETFs. Happy Trading. Disclaimers *Trade ideas cited above are for illustration only, as an integral part of a case study to demonstrate the fundamental concepts in risk management under the market scenarios being discussed. They shall not be construed as investment recommendations or advice. Nor are they used to promote any specific products, or services. CME Real-time Market Data help identify trade set-ups and express my market views. If you have futures in your trading portfolio, check out on CME Group data plans in TradingView that suit your trading needs www.tradingview.com
CME_MINI:XAK1!Long
by JimHuangChicago
3
SPX Likely to Push Farther UpwardI'm going to express a contrary opinion to most expressed within YouTube, Seeking Alpha, and Trading View Ideas: The S&P500 has much farther to go before we reach the "top." To be clear, this is driven exclusively by monetary policy and debt increases. The 10Y rate has been in a very strong down trajectory since the mid 1980s. This, obviously, has deviances from the norm but the rates will continue lower until the Federal Reserve tapers and allows true market forces to reign in rates and, by extension, asset prices. By my logic, the 10Y rate is in a local top and has nowhere to go but down. As can be seen from the graph, there seems to be some exponential correlation between the risk-free-rate and equity appreciation. This would mean that, if I'm right and rates go lower (which I believe is not just likely, but necessary), asset prices will continue to appreciate ever more greatly compared to the RFR. With this, a bold statement can be made: Stocks are not only going farther up, but are still cheap. Very Long. I think the shorts are going to have their lunches eaten; possibly supper, too.
SP:SPXLong
by forever_green
2