Watch those Oil extremes

Crude Oil has fallen 11% over the past 15 hours.

Avid readers of my work will have noticed that this weekends edition of Macro Extremes featured Brent and WTI Crude Oil at overbought extremes.

This note is not about entering any type of Short Oil trade.

I’m saying that it wasn’t time to chase Oil prices higher.

My June 13, 2025 note titled, “I’m not buying Oil on the sound of cannons“, warned that it was too late to buy Oil AND the point to buy was at the $54-$55 level suggested in my prior writings.

The ‘fat part’ of the trade had been seen and there was risk and probability of a decline.

It’s important to not get torched chasing the momentum when extremes are being observed.

June 24,. 2025

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending June 20, 2025)

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)

Czech 10 year government bond yield * 

Brent Crude Oil *

WTI Crude Oil *

Heating Oil *

Silver

Gasoil 

Uranium

BRL/USD

Oats

Overbought (RSI > 70) 

U.S. Mid West Hot Rolled Coil Steel

Hungary’s BUX index

Norway’s OBX index

And the ASX 200 Industrials index

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

Platinum * 

KOSPI *

Extremes below the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations)

Arabica Coffee

Oversold (RSI < 30)

Lithium Carbonate *

Lithium Hydroxide *

HKD/USD *

And Thailand’s SET equity index *

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

Robusta Coffee

Notes & Ideas:

Government bond yields generally fell, again.

Swiss 10’s bucked that week’s mood and rose.

Then BB rated U.S. corporate bond yield mean reverted.

The yields of Chilean 2’s, British 30’s, Russian 10’s and Japanese 5’s & 10’s have all declined for 4 straight weeks.

Italian 10 year bond yields also mean reverted.

Indonesian 10 year bond yields broke their 4 week losing streak.

Indian 10’s rose for the 3rd week and left oversold territory.

And U.S. 10 year minus U.S. 5 year yield spread are nearly overbought again.

Equities were mixed.

A few new names joined the overbought extreme list this week.

Indonesias IDX is in a 4 week losing streak.

Thailand’s SET index has declined for 6 consecutive weeks.

Inversely, Norway’s and South Korea’s main indices are in 4 week winning streaks.

The latter is at a quinella of extremes.

And Australia’s Financials, ASX Small Caps and ASX 200 indices broke their 5 week winning streaks.

Commodities were mixed.

Oils and Distillates continue to be in the news.

Brent Crude, Heating Oil and JKM LNG prices have risen 21%, 23.5% and 13% respectively over the past 3 weeks.

Gasoil (diesel) rose 11% for the week, notwithstanding Friday’s 5% decline.

The Baltic Dry Index fell 14%, giving up a third of the 40% advance seen over the previous 3 weeks.

Silver remains overbought, while Gold isn’t.

Platinum records a quinella overbought reading,

The largest winners were Oils and Distillates, Palm Oil, Urea, Uranium and Platinum.

The notable losers included Cocoa, Coffee, Orange Juice, oats, Corn, and Shipping Rates.

U.S. Hot Rolled Coil Steel returns to being overbought.
Sugar prices have fallen for the past 6 weeks.

Robusta Coffee is in a 8 week losing streak.

And Rice broke its 5 week winning streak.

Currencies were subdued.

A host of currencies from last weeks list have left extreme territory.

The Aussie rose against most pairs.

The CAD fell except vs the JPY which is in a 4 week winning streak.

The CHF/JPY, EUR/JPY and USD/INR have risen for 4 straight weeks too.

The U.S. Dollar rose.

The Filipino Peso has fallen for 4 straight weeks against the USD.

And the BRL/USD is in overbought territory.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of;

Brent Crude 3.8%, WTI Crude Oil 3.3%, Palm Oil 5%, Lean Hogs 3%, Heating Oil 7%, JKM LNG 6.5%, JKM in Yen 12.6%, Newcastle Coal 3.2%, Natural Gas 7.4%, Platinum 4.3%, Gasoline 4.4%, S&P GSCI 2.2%, Dutch TTF Gas 2.1%, Urea Gulf 2.9%, Gasoil 10.9%. Uranium 10.4%, Wheat 4.3%, KBW Banks Index 3.3%, BUX 3.4%, KOSPI 4.4%, Nikkei 225 1.5%, NIFTY 1.6%, SOX 1.9% and Vietnam’s VN Index rose 2.6%.

The group of largest decliners from the week included;

Australian Coking Coal (2.3%), Baltic Dry Index (14.2%), Cocoa (8.8%), Cotton (1.7%), Arabica Coffee (9%), Lumber (1.7%), Tin (1.7%), Orange Juice (14.9%), Robusta Coffee (12.4%), Gold in USD (1.8%), Corn (3.5%), Oats (6.7%), IDX (4.5%), Egypt (7%), IBB (2%), Mexico (2%), NBI (2%), Copenhagen (4%), SET (4.9%), SMI (2.3%) and the ASX Industrials fell 4.3%.

For reference, the S&P 500 fell 0.2% for the week.  

June 22, 2025

By Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

An overbought Australian Industrials Index

In my mid May ‘Macro Extremes’ note, 2025 Australia’s ASX Industrials (XNJ) Index registered one of my overbought readings.

One month later, the XNJ has only drifted 1% higher….

but it is now very close to registering more notable, longer term overbought extremes.

June 19, 2025

rob@karriasset.com.au

Same result, less work

If you bought the Los Angeles Lakers basketball club for $67.5 million in 1979, you could sell them today for $10 billion.

If you invested $67.5 million in the S&P 500 in 1979, it would worth $10 billion today.

That’s about an annual compounded return of 12%.

Taiwan’s TAEIX – enough for now

In the April 4, 2025 edition of my weekly Macro Extremes publication, Taiwan’s TAEIX equity index registered a quinella of oversold readings (a week prior to the broader April 7-9 lows) while also reverting down to a longer-term mean.

The TAIEX has risen 23% since then (over the past 10 weeks)…..

Momentarily, at today’s price (22,211), I think we’ve seen the ‘fat part’ of the trade as this advance looks like losing stream.

June 18, 2025

rob@karriasset.com.au

Full Euro

Soon, there will be noise about the Euro’s strength versus the USD…and it’ll be time to sell it.

Remember, all the hoopla when the Euro was falling towards parity against the U.S. Dollar and predictions of its unworthiness were common?

The EUR/USD appeared as an oversold extreme back then in January 2025 in my weekly edition of Macro Extremes.

That was when a host of forecasts were on the wrong side of it all, such as;

“”We maintain a target of $1 for the euro for Q2…..we expect the theme of broad USD strength to remain in force,”

“our view for the next few months is for the dollar to still be quite strong. Even thinking about what potential new policies could be unveiled…….it should be favoring the dollar. In some ways, there’s a flavour of ‘there is no alternative,”

https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/us-dollar-stranglehold-global-fx-sets-stage-euro-parity-2025-01-08/

Since, the USD has fallen 10% and the EUR/USD has risen 12%.

That is not the USD strength and weaker and subdued Euro.

June 17, 2025

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending June 13, 2025)

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)

Czech 10 year government bond yield * 

Rotterdam Coal

Brent Crude Oil

WTI Crude Oil

Heating Oil

Palladium

Platinum *

Silver in AUD and USD

Oats *

KOSPI *

Overbought (RSI > 70) 

Gold

CHF/USD

EUR/USD

GBP/USD

DKK/USD

SEK/USD

And Chile’s IPSA equity index 

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

KOSPI *

Extremes below the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations)

Sugar #16

Oversold (RSI < 30)

Indian 10 year government bond yield * 

Lithium Carbonate *

Lithium Hydroxide *

HKD/USD

And Thailand’s SET equity index

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

None

Notes & Ideas:

Government bond yields fell.

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

Aussie 10’s minus 2’s spread appear to be at maximum bullishness, so I look for the spread to decline. I see the same in the U.S. 10’s minus 2’s spread.

A reminder that U.S. 10’s minus U.S. 5’s recently spent time as an overbought quinella extreme.

Chilean 10’s minus 2’s are nearly overbought.

British 30 year bond yields have fallen for 3 weeks. Whilst its not a meaningful streak, I reminisce about the recent hoopla surrounding the surge in 30 year Gilts.

Danish 10’s broke their 4 week winning streak. 

Japan 2’s broke their 5 week rising streak and Korean 10 year bond yield saw their 6 week climb, come to an end.

And I’m expecting U.S. real interest rates to fall and converge toward a medium term mean.

Equities were mixed with a bias towards weakness.

But not as week as the sentiment may suggest. 

There were many small gainers and losers either side of last week’s close.

For example, the SOX managed to rise 1.5% for the week, even after falling 2.6% on Friday.

South Korea’s KOSPI is overbought.

While the DAX and IBEX fell and are no longer overbought. The latter broke an 8 weeks winning streak.

Norway’s OMX is nearly at an overbought quinella extreme reading.

Thailand’s SET is in a 5 week losing streak and os now oversold.

South African 40 broke its 4 week wining streak.

The All World Developed (ex USA) index is in a 5 week winning streak and has risen for 9 of the past 10 weeks, along with Canada’s TSX.

The FTSE 100, ASX Financials, ASX 200 and ASX Small Caps are in 5 week winning streaks and have risen in 8 of the past 9 weeks.

The FTSE 100 has also performed the latter feat.

Commodities were stronger.

The big news is the surge in oil prices. Brent Crude, Heating Oil and WTI Crude have risen 17%, 17% and 19% respectively over the past fortnight.

The Baltic Dry Index has surged 40% over the past 3 weeks and to its highest closing price since last September 2024.

Silver and Gold make a return to overbought extremes.

Palladium joins Platinum being overbought, while Cattle and Steel depart that stratosphere.

The largest winners were Oils and Distillates, most gases, Gold, Platinum, Aluminium and Shipping Rates (again).

The notable losers included Cocoa, Sugar, Nickel, Orange Juice, and surprisingly, Henry Hub Natural Gas.

The Copper/Gold ratio fell to reflect a ‘risk-off’ bias.

During Friday’s trading session, Platinum initially rose 2% on Israeli/Irani tensions to then reverse and fall $100 per ounce (or 7%) to finish down 5% from the previous day’s close.

U.S. Hot Rolled Coil Steel broke its 5 week winning streak and is no longer overbought.

U.S. Gulf Urea broke its 4 week losing streak.
Sugar prices have fallen for the past 5 weeks.

Robusta Coffee is in a 7 week losing streak.

While Rice has risen for 5 straight weeks.

Currencies were active.

The Aussie fell commensurately with the ‘risk-off’ sentiment.

Loonie was mixed, again.

The Swissie was stronger as was the Euro.

The U.S. (DXY) Dollar Index is nearly oversold, after all Trump did ‘want’ a weaker Dollar,

while this week sees a host of oversold USD pairs.

And the BRL/USD is near entering an upward trend.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of;

Aluminium 2.9%, Rotterdam Coal 1.8%, Bloomberg Commodity Index 1.9%, Baltic Dry Index 20.5%, Brent Crude 11.6%, WTI Crude Oil 13%, Heating Oil 10.7%, JKM LNG 4%, Lumber 3.7%, Platinum 3.8%, Gasoline 7.4%, S&P GSCI 4.3%, CRB Index 3%, Dutch TTF Gas 4.5%, Gasoil 10%, Urea Middle East 2.6%, Gold 3%, TAEIX 1.9%, KOSPI 2.9%, Oslo 2.7% and the SOX rose 1.5%.

The group of largest decliners from the week included;

Australian Coking Coal (1.5%), Cocoa (6.2%), HRC (1.8%), Arabica Coffee (2.8%), Cattle (2.9%), Natural Gas (5.4%), Nickel (2.5%), Orange Juice (3.8%), Palladium (1.7%), Sugar (2.2%), Sugar #16 (3.5%), Wheat (2%), ATX (2.1%), KBW Banks (2.6%), CAC (1.5%), DAX (3.2%), DJ Industrials (1.3%), MIB (2.9%), IBEX (2.4%), S&P SmallCaps 600 (1.3%), Nasdaq Composite (0.6%), KRE Regional Banks (3.1%), S&P MidCap 400 (1.5%), Stockholm (2.5%), Russell 2000 (1.5%), SMI (1.8%), S&P 500 (0.4%), TA35 (1.5%) and the Nasdaq Transports fell 2.5%.

June 15, 2025

By Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

I’m not buying Oil on the sound of cannons

Why y’all chasing the oil price now?…….It’s too late.

West Texas Intermediate and Brent Crude touched below $55 and $58 respectively, on 2 occasions in April and May 2025.

Today, somebody (hedge funds, oil traders, corporate treasury, speculators) paid $78. The odds (and probability) of being long oil have changed.

Today’s price action is clogged up in Israel’s attack on Iran.

The time for preparedness of entering the long oil trade was around these dates when I wrote about it;

April 4, 2024

“I need to respect the rising probability of $55 on WTI Crude.”

April 15, 2025

“It could coincide with #Brent Crude trading down to $58.”

May 8, 2025

“The prices of the 3 stocks mentioned (BP, Woodside and Occidental) recently all touched the prices mentioned in that September 4, 2024 note.”

Let’s wait until next time, for a new moment to buy Oil.

Send me an email if you’re interested in hiring my services.

June 13, 2025

rob@karriasset.com.au

Bitcoin doesn’t march to its own drum

Ya know that Bitcoin’s USD price is close correlated to the S&P 500 Index….

and when it’s not, often the SPX rises against BTC’s decline.

June 12, 2025

rob@karriasset.com.au

Dictators and their population

Typically, dictator (emperor) type behaviour and desires prevail when the broader population of the nation/empire are lowly educated and often poor.

Then comes the promise of equality to those many. That’s why socialism works for those many.

While an emperor convinces one part of the population, many others are indeed educated and wealthy.

And so, then the campaign begins to invite and convince the educated and wealthy to join the emperor’s cause and ideals, so that they a) are allowed to retain what they already have (see confiscation) and 2) gain a little more under the new and improved way of doing things.

But those poor and uneducated will all collectively pay for everything (including using a public bathroom) just for the privilege of (and giving thanks to) equality or perhaps just a loaf of bread and a quart of milk.