Hot Topics

Dollar Dominance on Strong Retail Sales

Investors bought U.S. dollars after retail sales rose for the third month in a row. The increase in demand was widely anticipated but the increase in overall spending along with spending ex autos beat expectations.  This means that while higher prices certainly played a role in the gains, consumers were not discouraged by price hikes to spend more on electronics, sporting goods, books and musical instruments.  Spending at clothing stores declined modestly from the previous month but that will change in November and December with holiday shopping.  Economists expect a strong holiday season with many retailers starting sales extra early this year in anticipation of shipping delays. 

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AMC – the Popcorn is Getting Stale

AMC, one of the great meme stock stories of the year remains relatively close to its mania highs but forward progress has come to a grinding halt and the longer that dynamic lasts the more likely the stock is to fall. 

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Yield Harvesting the RSX

Oil continues to hover near multi year highs with yesterday’s surprise inventory draw numbers only adding to the bullish posture of the market. Although the Biden administration has made several attempts to jawbone the price of oil lower, first by appealing to OPEC to increase production and them hinting that it may release some stockpiles from the SPR reserve most analysts believe that crude and the whole hydrocarbon complex will at very minimum remain steadily bid for the foreseeable future.

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Has Tesla Jumped the Shark?

Tesla’s shares are down more than -7% in early European trade today after Elon Musk polled his followers on Twitter if he should sell 10% of his stock. The typical Musk theatrics aside, the key question going forward for investors is whether Tesla stock may have peaked for the near term, setting it up for a nasty correction. The answer may be yes.

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Dovish Fed Taper, Could BoE Hike?

Once the dust settled, the dollar ended the day virtually unchanged (slightly lower) from its pre-FOMC levels against other the major currencies. Stocks and bond yields ended higher which should benefit the Yen crosses.

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