Mid Term

With banks still in crisis, are tech sector stocks a beneficiary?

With banks still in crisis, are tech sector stocks a beneficiary?

Ok, so Dan Ives is talking his book (or sector at least) but he still raises an interesting point. (Dan Ives is a Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst covering the Technology sector at Wedbush Securities since 2018.) With bank stocks in particular and the financial sector in general in turmoil, will investors looking for steady earnings turn to tech stocks? (Well maybe not all tech stocks but how about Apple (AAPL) and Microsoft (MSFT)?

Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead expect…

Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead expect…

The Federal Reserve will meet on Wednesday, March 22 to set interest rates. There are three things to watch from that meeting. First, whether the Fed will raise interest rates or not and by 25 basis points, 50 basis points, or not at all. Second, we will get the first update of the Dot Plot since the December 14 meeting that projects what Fed officials think interest rates, inflation, unemployment, and GDP growth will be at the end of 2023 and 2024. Third, the financial market reaction to the news out of the meeting will tell us if the Fed (as I’d argue) has lost control of the interest rate narrative and that the bond market is now calling the direction and pace of changes in interest rates.

Sure smaller regional banks are most at risk from big unrealized bond losses, but the biggest losses are at much bigger banks–like Bank of America

Sure smaller regional banks are most at risk from big unrealized bond losses, but the biggest losses are at much bigger banks–like Bank of America

Yesterday, March 14, Moody’s Investors Service placed First Republic Bank (FRC) and five other US lenders on review for downgrade because of worries over uninsured deposit funding and unrealized losses in their asset portfolios. (the other banks include Western Alliance Bancorp (WAL), Intrust Financial, UMB Financial (UMBF)., Zions Bancorp (ZION), and Comerica (CMA).) But these smaller banks aren’t the companies in the sector sitting on the biggest bond portfolios with unrealized losses.

Where’s the contagion? Signature Bank’s shutdown was due to its crypto exposure but the biggest negative effects will be in the commercial real estate market

Where’s the contagion? Signature Bank’s shutdown was due to its crypto exposure but the biggest negative effects will be in the commercial real estate market

One of the lessons of the subprime mortgage crisis is that it’s hard to predict exactly how problems will ripple out from bad bets on one asset class to a crisis in a seemingly unrelated part of the financial market. That’s one reason that the current set of bank collapses–Silvergate Capital, Silicon Valley Bank, and New York’s Signature Bank–is so unsettling. We know–we think–how these institutions got into trouble. But we don’t know what other banks or sectors of the financial markets might be dragged into the problem.

Does China’s debt crisis make a rate cut from the People’s Bank more likely?

Does China’s debt crisis make a rate cut from the People’s Bank more likely?

The debt crisis at China’s local governments will be top of the agenda when China’s leaders gather in Beijing for the annual parliament next week.m (The nation’s legislators and top leaders meet from this Sunday to approve key economic targets for 2023, including a new local bond quota, the budget, and also monetary policy.) A majority of regional governments — at least 17 out of 31 — are facing a serious funding squeeze, with outstanding borrowing exceeding 120% of income in 2022

Please watch my new YouTube video: Netflix, Inflation, and Demand Destruction”

Please watch my new YouTube video: Netflix, Inflation, and Demand Destruction”

My one-hundredth-and-twenty-third YouTube video “Netflix, Inflation, and Demand Destruction” went up today. Today I’m covering Netflix’s (NFLX) crash after releasing its subscriber numbers showing the loss of 200K subscribers for the quarter and predicting a loss of ten times that many for next quarter. I think we are starting to see signs of demand destruction due to ongoing inflation. That demand destruction will only get more severe as the Fed continues to raise rates.

Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead watch…

Saturday Night Quarterback says, For the week ahead watch…

I’m looking for more downgrades on projections for global economic growth as war in Ukraine gets hotter again with shift in fighting to eastern Ukraine. There’s certainly no indication that the war is about to wind down. We’ve already seen a set of lower forecasts for global economic growth. And we are likely to see another round of lower projections in the coming week or two.

Please watch my new YouTube video: Another Global Financial Crisis?

Please watch my new YouTube video: Another Global Financial Crisis?

My one-hundredth-and-twenty-first YouTube video “Another Global Financial Crisis?” went up today. In this week’s video, I’m looking at Sri Lanka’s announcement that it will default on its foreign debt as the canary in the coal mine for a new global financial crisis. A number of negative trends are lining up against emerging markets: the economic fallout of reduced tourism from the pandemic, rising costs for food and fuel, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We’ve seen political turmoil in developing markets surge recently, and I think this is an important area to watch with potential implications for a larger financial crisis. The ProShares Short MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EUM), which inversely tracks emerging markets, is both a way to keep your eye on these developments as well as a possible hedge against the fallout.