Friday, August 25, 2006

Bullish on Bonds

When do we see bullish action in the T-bond pits ?
The bullish Treasury action has been occuring for 2 months and will continue as Retail Sales and Housing #'s continue to soften . The consumer is choking on debt and is spent , and as the consumer goes so does the economy ( 70% of GDP is consumption- source BEA ) . A slowing consumer will lead to slower GDP which will lead to lessened inflationary expectations . The yield on the 10-year hovers near 4.80% , and the TIPS has a "real" inflation risk of 2.55% , barely higher than December 2005's final tally of 2.33% .
--Check the futures activity of " smart money " , which gets posted on the commodities exchanges data library .... they are now showing that "large noncommercial " traders ( speculators/hedgies ) added 63,000 contracts to their existing long position, bringing their collective net long to 261,215 contracts, the second-highest tally ever. The high water mark of 263,723 was set March 21
-- Or check the commodity floors ... today a Very bullish trader sold 20k December 105 Treasury puts
-- Housing is finished , it was too much $ chasing bubble dreams and it has popped ......... speculation + too much money = bubble prices ........
New Homes Sales ---- DOWN
Housing Starts ---- DOWN
the Mortgage Bankers Association's purchase application index has DROPPED to 385.9 from 425...........
so how do you play this as an investor ???? ..... stay long the 10- and 30-year , stay short the Homebuilders and start shorting the big S&L's

No comments: