rob zdravevski's blog

U.S. Mortgage Rate in a rare move

I think that the U.S. 30 year mortgage rate is making ‘shapes’ not seen 1977.

September 1, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au

We haven’t been in troubled times

For over 32 years (since 1993), I have never read or heard anyone say to me, either;

“We are living in certain times” or “Things are awfully certain”

The omnipresent vernacular has been the opposite.

It has continues to cause investor fear, abstinence and paralysis.

My advice to long term investors is to stop watching or reading the news.

p.s. many residential homes have not risen 700% over that time and the real reason many have made money is such an asset class is because they have been leveraged at least 4 to 1…..i.e. 20% deposit to borrow the other 80%.

And it’s because of the leverage, which is why Australian’s worry when they hear real estate prices may fall 15%.

August 31, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au

It wasn’t the most difficult of predictions

In January 2026, I was telling readers, this is how the SPR was going be replenished………

How to refill the SPR on the cheap

I think he’s reading my blog posts.

Macro Extremes (week ending August 28, 2026)

A weekly Macro, Cross Asset review of prices trading at extremes which may generate future investment ideas and opportunities.

The following assets (on a weekly timeframe) either registered an Overbought or Oversold reading and/or have traded more than 2.5 standard deviations above or below its rolling mean.

n.b. pricing of (commodity) futures contracts is only considering the immediate front month. 

* denotes multiple week inclusion

Extremes above the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations) 

Palm Oil *

Gold Volatility Index

Sugar #16 *

Uranium

Soybeans

AUD/CAD

ASX Materials Index

Overbought (RSI > 70)  

Japanese 2, 5 and 10-year bond yields *

U.S. 5-year bond yield minus 5-year inflation breakeven rate spread

Cocoa

U.S. Midwest Hot Rolled Coiled Steel *

Rubber

Rice *

Heating Oil Crack Spread *

CNH/USD *

Austria’s ATX Index

Hungary’s BUX Index

IBB Biotech Index *

Singapore’s Strait Times Index *

Canada’s TSX Index *

And Poland’s WIG Index *

The Overbought Quinella (Both Overbought and Traded at > 2.5 standard deviations above the weekly mean) 

Cotton

North European Rolled Steel *

Sugar *

Corn

Wheat

AUD/CHF *

AUD/THB

Extremes below the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations) 

USD/MXN *

USD/ZAR

Oversold (RSI < 30) 

USD/CNH

The Oversold Quinella (Both Oversold and Traded at < 2.5 standard deviations below the weekly mean) 

CHF/AUD *

Notes & Ideas:

Government bond yields rose, again.

Except for Korean 10’s along with longer dated U.S. maturities.

While U.S. corporate bond yields fell.

Australian 3-, 5- and 10-year yields, along with Japanese 2’s are in a 4-week winning streak.

And the U.S. 10-year minus 2-year yield spread tanked.

Equities were quieter.

The Saudi Tadawul, Filipino PSI and Türkiye’s BIST are in 4-week winning streaks.

OMX Copenhagen has closed higher for 5 consecutive weeks.

OMX Helsinki has risen for 6 weeks.

The OBX is in a 7-week winning streak.

While the ASX Materials Index has risen for 5 of the past 6 weeks.

Commodities prices were firmer.

Agriculture, Coal, Gases, Iron Ore and Urea were the notable gainers.

Oil, Distillates, Coffee, Silver, Gold and Platinum were amongst the largest decliners.

Corn has soared 21% over 3 weeks, while Rice has risen 11% and Soybeans has climbed 8% over the past fortnight.

Brent Crude, LNG JKM is nearly overbought.

Australian Coking Coal and Wheat prices have risen for 4 weeks.

The former’s forward month is nearing an overbought quinella.

Cotton and Uranium are in a 6-week winning streak.

Cattle have fallen for 4 weeks.

Lean Hogs rose and snapped a 5-week losing streak.

Currencies were subdued.

The Aussie was firmer, again.

AUD/SGD, AUD/EUR and AUD/JPY are working a 4-week winning streak.

The AUD/USD fell and broke its 8-week winning streak.

The Loonie was weaker.

The CAD/USD fell and snapped its 4-week winning streak.

Swissie was weaker and the Euro was flat.

The Euro was stronger having climbed for 4 weeks against the USD.

The Colombian Peso fell, performing a bearish outside reversal week and snapped its 5-week winning streak in amongst an advance of 13 weeks over the past 15.

The USD rose and broke its 4 weeks of losses against the DKK.

It also rose against the Mexican Peso to end 5 weeks of lower travel.

The USD/IDR has declined for 4 weeks,

And the USD/KRW has fallen for 8 of its last 9 weeks.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of; 

Australian Coking Coal 1.7%, Rotterdam Coal 5.5%, Baltic Dry Index 12.1%, Cocoa 10.2%, Cotton 3.4%, Richards Bay Coal 7.8%, HER 2.(%, Iron Ore 3.1%, LNG in Yen 4.9%, Newcastle Coal 1.6%, Natural Gas 4.2%, Palladium 5.8%, Sugar #16 1.6%, CFR Iron Ore 4%, TTF 1.7%, Urea U.S. Gulf 8.8%, Corn 10.9%, Oats 9%, Rice 2.6%, Soybeans 3.9%, Wheat 12.1%, ATX 2.3%, BUX 1.4%, DAX 1.7%, FTSE Saudi 2.7%, Bovespa 2.7%, TAIEX 2.5%, Helsinki 1.7%, Vietnam 3.6% and ASX Materials fell 2.5%.

The group of largest decliners for the week included; 

Brent Crude (6.6%), WTI Crude (4.2%), Palm Oil (2.5%), Heating Oil (3.1%), Arabica Coffee (3%), Orange Juice (6.2%), Platinum (2.2%), Robusta Coffee (1.9%), Tin (1.3%), S&P GSCI (1.6%), Gasoil (2.4%), Silver (3.7%), Gold (2.2%), Gasoil crack spread (2.6%), Gasoline crack spread (9.8%), HSCEI (1.7%), Hang Seng (1.6%), IBB (2.2%), Russell 2000 (1.4%), Kospi (1.8%), S&P MidCap 400 (1.3%), NBI (2.3%), PSE (4.5%), SET (1.6%), SOX (2.3%), XBI (2%) and Nasdaq Transports fell 2.4%.

August 29, 2026

By Rob Zdravevski 

rob@karriasset.com.au

The Fed still won’t allow natural price discovery

About the Fed’s recent meddling with the 30 year bond…..

from my note in 2020, featuring a Seth Klarman quote;

“Central banks, led by the Fed, continue to be the predominant driver of financial markets. By holding down interest rates, they influence investors to bid up the prices of securities, irrespective of the economic backdrop. By maintaining these seemingly never-ending policies and wilfully ignoring developing bubbles, the Fed has engineered a strong market recovery even as the unemployment rate tests Great Depression levels……..Investors are being infantilised by the relentless Federal Reserve activity. It’s as if the Fed considers them foolish children, unable to rationally set the prices of securities so it must intervene.

When the market has a tantrum, the benevolent Fed has a soothing yet enabling response.

As with the 30-year-olds still living in their parents’ basements, we can only wonder whether the markets will ever be expected to make it on their own.”

The Fed won’t allow natural price discovery

August 27, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au

Various times at the Austal party

I open every investment committee presentation by reminding attendees about the magnetic force of mean reversion.

It’s terrific at telling the time of any party.

Today’s example features Australian shipbuilding company, Austal. (ASX:ASB).

August 27, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au

Aussie inflation is not at dangerous levels

The Australian inflation rate is telling me that Aussie equities are still in good shape.

Whether the stated rate is true, remains a different question.

August 27, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending August 21, 2026)

A weekly Macro, Cross Asset review of prices trading at extremes which may generate future investment ideas and opportunities.

The following assets (on a weekly timeframe) either registered an Overbought or Oversold reading and/or have traded more than 2.5 standard deviations above or below its rolling mean.

n.b. pricing of (commodity) futures contracts is only considering the immediate front month. 

* denotes multiple week inclusion

Extremes above the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations) 

Australian 10 year minus 2 year government bond yield spread

Danish and Spanish 10 year government bond yields

Palm Oil

Sugar #16 *

Overbought (RSI > 70)  

Japanese 10-year bond yields *

CNH/USD *

COP/USD *

North European Rolled Steel *

U.S. Midwest Hot Rolled Coiled Steel *

Rice

Heating Oil Crack Spread *

Hungary’s BUX Index *

Singapore’s Strait Times Index *

Canada’s TSX Index *

Poland’s WIG Index *

And the XBI biotech index

The Overbought Quinella (Both Overbought and Traded at > 2.5 standard deviations above the weekly mean) 

Japanese 2 and 5-year bond yield *

Sugar

And the IBB and NBI biotech ETF’s

Extremes below the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations) 

Chinese 10 year government bond yield

CHF/AUD *

CHF/CAD *

USD/MXN

And Mexico’s IPC Index *

Oversold (RSI < 30) 

USD/CNH

Lean Hogs

Iron Ore CFR China

The Oversold Quinella (Both Oversold and Traded at < 2.5 standard deviations below the weekly mean) 

Shanghai Rebar Steel

Notes & Ideas:

Government bond yields rose.

Including U.S. corporate bond yields.

This week features only a few entries, but many others are nearing overbought extremes.

Indonesian 10-year bond yields have fallen for 4 weeks.

Chinese 10-year bond yields rose and snapped 4 weeks of decline.

Japanese 2-year bond yields have risen for 6 weeks.

Equities were mixed, again.

Many of last week’s streaks have been broken.

The remaining few include.

OMX Copenhagen has closed higher for 4 consecutive weeks.

OMX Helsinki has risen for 5 weeks.

The OBX is in a 6-week winning streak.

While Singapore’s Strait Times fell and snapped its 7-week advance.

Commodities prices were firmer.

Coal, Oils, Gases, Precious Metals, Sugar and a bunch of Softs were the notable gainers.

Only Shanghai Rebar and Naptha cracks were amongst the largest decliners.

Brent Crude, LNG JKM as priced in Yen & Heating Oil have soared 12% over the past fortnight.

Cotton and Uranium are in a 5-week winning streak.

Copper, HRC Steel and Tin broke their respective streaks of 4, 6 & 7 weeks of higher prices.

While Lean Hogs have fallen for 5 weeks.

Currencies were active.

The Aussie was firmer, again.

AUD/SGD has risen for 4 weeks.

The AUD/USD is in a 7-week winning streak.

The Loonie was mixed.

While the CAD/USD is in a 4-week winning streak.

The Euro was stronger having climbed for 4 weeks against the USD.

The Colombian Peso is in a new 5-week winning streak in amongst an advance of 13 weeks over the past 14.

The Yen was notably weaker.

The USD has fallen for 4 weeks against the DKK.

It has also slumped for 5 weeks versus the Mexican Peso.

And the USD/KRW completed a mean reversion.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of; 

Australian Coking Coal 3.6%, Rotterdam Coal 2.2%, Bloomberg Commodity Index 3.8%, Brent Crude 6.6%, Cocoa 4.5%, WTI Crude 5.7%, Cotton 4.2%, Palm Oil 6.5%, Heating Oil 5.3%, JKM LNG 7.2%, Arabica Coffee 2.7%, LNG in Yen 7.3%, Newcastle Coal 4.6%, Natural Gas 1.5%, Nickel 1.9%, Orange Juice 6.6%, Palladium 1.9%, Platinum 7.9%, Gasoline 4.9%, Sugar 6.1%, Sugar #16 2.4%, S&P GSCI 4.5%, Dutch TTF Gas 7.2%, Gasoil 5.5%, Uranium 2.2%, Silver 6.6%, Gold 5.2%, Corn 5.4%, Rice 8.4%, Soybeans 3.9%, Wheat 3.6%, Gasoil crack spread 2.2%, Heating crack spread 2%, IDX 1.9%, HSCEI 3.5%, Hang Seng 3.6%, IBB 7.7%, Bovespa 2.5%, Mexico 2.1%, NBI 7.1%, South Africa 40 3.9%, IGPA 2.7%, Vietnam 2.3%, XBI 5.3%, BIST 2.4% and the ASX Materials rose 5.6%.

The group of largest decliners for the week included; 

Shanghai Rebar (3%), Naptha crack spread (26.3%), ATX (1.5%), KBW Banks (4.1%), CAC (1.8%), FCATC (2.3%), MIB (1.7%), S&P SmallCap 600 (2.1%), Russell 2000 (1.7%), Nasdaq Composite (2.1%), KRE Regional Banks (3.9%), KSE (1.6%), S&P MidCap 400 (2.4%), Nasdaq 100 (2.5%), Nikkei 225 (3.9%), SOX (5.5%), S&P 500 (1.4%), Nasdaq Transports (1.9%), ASX Financials (5.1%) and ASX Industrials fell 2.1%.

August 23, 2026

By Rob Zdravevski 

rob@karriasset.com.au

Japan’s inflation rate to head higher

For inflation watchers, today’s news is that Japan’s inflation rate for July 2026 rose to 1.9% (from June ’26’s 1.6%).

I think Japan’s inflation rate moves toward the 2.7% region.

August 21, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au

Tracking Australian consumer confidence

In July 2026, I was looking for extremes in pessimism in Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index.

There wasn’t enough pessimism.

More pessimism is required please

Today, this index rose.

It is not high enough to stifle the advance in Australian equities.

There is no hubris in Australian consumer sentiment………and so the dance with equities continues.

Allocators can stay long, for now.

August 19, 2026

rob@karriasset.com.au