hello kitty
market vibes
March 7…)
“Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.” Karl marx didn’t mince words! (1867)
NFP this morning. Pundits are saying a weak report will reflect poorly on Trump’s policies and BLS data is too early to provide an accurate measure of the impact his policies will have on US job growth. In addition a downward update of 818k on total 2024 job growth is expected.
On Wednesday march 5, ADP reported job growth for February of 77k down from 186k in January.
In the news
Aramco cut the price of crude to Asia for April by 40 cents a barrel, a bit more than expected. China's crude imports fell 5% year on-year in January and February, after record shipments of coal and gas in 2024 created an overhang of supply, and demand for oil continued to ease.
China calls tariffs "evil" as exports reached a record $540 billion and imports fell 8%; a record trade surplus of $171 billion.
A shortage of eggs seems to have solved the age-old riddle whether too few egg-laying hens are the cause of too few eggs. Unfortunately, DOGE will preclude the necessary billions to offer a definitive answer, but it seems clear to me.
Japan is using thousands of cat-eared robots serving customers in restaurants across the country. "Meow!" A pity they can't lay eggs. Never mind. Soon enough, the kittens will scramble them.
In the markets
The dollar index fell 4% this week. Stocks tumbled, NATO crumbled, and oil fell $5.00/barrel. Gold? Extreme Fear? Lol… Unchanged for the past four sessions. Are we being played? You decide.
In other metals, Silver is pinned just below $30/share of iShares SLV ETF. PGMs are in lockstep with gold, trading unchanged since Monday. Copper is hanging around the highs of $4.80/pound. Usually, markets that cling to their highs imply unfilled buying below, but there are zero technical signs any development at all is happening on the Comex (chart below in continuous daily data).
Is it too early to say "sell in May?"
Up next a counter trend rally in oil, a closer look at DMI analysis in bonds, a bullish scenario in stocks and a little respect for bitcoin… here we go NFP!
A modest counter-trend rally is underway in May WTI.
