Measures of Primary Dealer holdings, financing and hedging are flashing warnings of an approaching stock market top. After surging for a couple of years they’re diverging from supporting bullish stock and bond market price trends. The last time this happened was in 2021, in a process that lasted around 14 months before the market reversed. Non-subscribers, click here for access.
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No two historical periods are identical. But the current divergences and signs of retrenchment have lasted almost as long as the prior instance. Once the mass psychology that fed the bullish trend begins to reverse, the deleveraging starts. That reversal then becomes self sustaining . First it happens slowly. Then it happens suddenly. We want to be on the alert to be out of long positions. We also want to position for shorts before that sudden phase hits. Non-subscribers, click here for access.
Liquidity measures set the context. They’re warning that we’re in the late stage of this bull market. It’s time to be alert to any signs of reversal in the technical indicators. For the bond market, that could be something as simple as the 10 year yield xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx. Once that happens, the potential for a hard selloff in the bond market increases. That could erupt into contagion to stocks. Non-subscribers, click here for access.
However, there’s a wild card. Come January 2, the Federal debt ceiling will be reimposed. The incoming administration will begin to deal with that on January 20. The new government has yet to tip its hand. Will it allow the clock to run until Treasury cash runs down to zero until it raises the debt limit? Non-subscribers, click here for access.
The Treasury’s practice in past episodes of debt ceiling roulette has been to use Treasury cash to pay down T-bills. Meanwhile it continues issuing coupon debt on the pre-ordained schedule. That has bullish effects for stocks, because T-bill paydown pump cash back into investor and dealer accounts. Some players then deploy that into the stock market. Non-subscribers, click here for access.
That effect would last until Treasury cash approaches zero. If that’s the policy choice, that process takes 5-6 months to reach a climax. At that point, they must raise the debt limit. Otherwise we leap into the unknown where the US government can’t pay its bills. I reveal what that would mean in this report. Non-subscribers, click here for access.
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