Oversold Inflation Rates is a signal to buy Commodities

When the U.S. Inflation Rate is Oversold whilst also trading below its 50 month moving average, then it’s time to ponder accumulating commodities.

I’ve circled the 8 notable moments this has happened over the past 40 years.

We may be approaching another such moment.

My recent writings muses that U.S. inflation may have one more dive to the 3.5% region in the coming monthly reports and this should be enough for the stars to align.

The chart below plots the U.S. Inflation Rate (blue) against the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index “SPGSCI” (orange).

July 4, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

Commodities are back on my radar

I use this ratio (in blue), being the Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index divided by the S&P Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (SPGSCI) to help identify when equities are either cheap or expensive relative to commodities.

Readers may piece together that I have bearish on commodities for the past 15 months or so.

I have circled 13 notable periods over the past 30 years when this ratio was overbought on a weekly basis.

Commodities are now entering such a period of being relatively attractive compared to equities.

July, 4, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending June 30, 2023)

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.

Extremes “above” the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations)

Nasdaq Transports

USD/CNH

Overbought (RSI > 70)

Australia 2 year government bond yields 

British 2, 3 & 5 year government bond yields

U.S. 3 month bill yields

Cocoa 

EUR/JPY

GBP/JPY

Nasdaq Composite 

Nasdaq 100

Nikkei 225

And Russia’s MOEX equity index

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

None

Extremes “below” the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations)

Aluminium 

Coffee

Rice

THB/USD

Shanghai Composite

And Thailand’s SET Index

Oversold (RSI < 30)

Australian 10 year minus 2 year bond yield spread 

Brazil 10 year government bond yields 

CNH/USD

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

None 

Notes & Ideas:

After taking a break last week, Equities were mainly higher around the world.

The Nasdaq Composite joined the Nasdaq 100 in overbought territory.

European bourses performed well along with American transports along the small and mid caps.

In last week’s commentary, I wrote that Japan’s Nikkei 225 ended its 10 consecutive week of gains. It still remains overbought.

While we saw some consecutive weekly rising streaks come to an end over the past 2 weeks, their upward trends aren’t broken.

The S&P 500 and the SOX are attempting a new march towards overbought territory.

Australia’s (XSO) Small Cap index rose 1.9% which disproved last week’s note about the bearish outside reversal week it posted. However, it is worthy to watch as it’s one of the few indices which is in a downward trend.

Speaking of outside reversal week’s, the following indices performed bullish one’s; France’s CAC 40, the Dow Jones Industrials, Spain’s IBEX, the Nasdaq Composite, the S&P 500 and Chile’s IGPA and IPSA indices.

Most Government bond yields rose

Australian 2 & 3 year bond yields closed at their highest point since July 2011.

The U.S. 2’s saw their highest closing yield since June 2007 but it’s intra-week high is yet to breach the ‘higher high’ of 5.09%, seen in early March of 2023.

While the U.K. 2’s and 3’s continue to barrel higher and make ’ higher highs. They are now at their highest yields since June 2008.

U.S. 10 year yield minus U.S. 2 year yield spread is approaching oversold territory, which means something. 

The U.S. 3 month bill yield made a return to overbought territory. 

The U.S. 10 year minus U.S. 5 year yield spread registered its 8th consecutive ‘losing’ week.

Commodities were mixed with a slight bias towards weakness.

Energy prices generally rose and prevented the commodity indices from posting a larger losing week than they did.

Lean Hogs and Oats aren’t overbought this week.

Inversely, Lithium Hydroxide and Urea have left oversold territory. Both jumped 11% for the week. 

The former has soared 29% over the past 8 weeks.

U.S. Midwest Hot Rolled Coil Steel is into a 5 week losing streak.

Corn and Wheat had a shocker of a week.

Tin and Nickel are stealthy falling.

Gold closed at its lowest price since March 6, 2023.

Coffee has lost 15% over the past 3 weeks, while Palladium has seen the same decline in only 2 weeks.

As portended in last week’s note, the latter ventured into Oversold territory this week, along with the Aluminium price.

Natural Gas has soared 27% in 4 weeks.

Sugar continues its opposite travel from extreme overbought readings by falling 6% for the week (even after Friday’s 3% pop) and confirming the previous weeks bearish outside reversal.

And Silver bounced a little after last week’s visit back to its 200 week moving average.

Currencies were benign and mixed with slight moves by many in either direction. 

The Euro was consistently stronger against its various crosses.

AUD/JPY took a break from its overbought status. This currency cross featured in last week’s commentary.

The Malaysian Ringgit moved out of oversold territory while the Chinese Yuan remains so for the 2nd consecutive week as it flirts with recent lows and making a even cheaper currency difficult to ignore amidst the shunning of globalisation in favour for ‘on-shoring’.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of;

Rotterdam Coal 7%, Brent Crude 1.9%, Cocoa 4.7%, WTI Crude 2.1%, Lean Hogs 4.8%, Heating Oil 1.7%, JKM LNG 3.4%, Lithium 11.6%, Natural Gas 2.5%, Cotton 2.2%, Dutch TTF Gas 14.1%, Urea Middle East 11.7%, Silver AUD 1.8%, Oats 5.8%, Soybeans 2.5%, AEX 2.3%, KBW Bank Index 3.4%, CAC 3.3%, DAX 2%, DJ Industrials 2%, DJ Transports 5.7%, MIB 2.6%, IBEX 3.5%, Nasdaq Composite 2.2%, S&P MidCap 400 4.4%, Nasdaq 100 1.9%, Sensex 2.8%, Oslo 1.7%, Copenhagen 1.8%, Stockholm 3.3%, Russell 2000 3.6%, Philadelphia Semiconductor Index 4.7%, S&P 500 2.4%, S&P SmallCap 600 4.3%, Nasdaq Transports 6.2%, TSX 3.8%, ASX 200 1.5%, ASX SmallCaps 1.9%, Chile 1.9% and KRE Regional Bank index climbed 3.2%.

The group of decliners included;

Baltic Dry Index (10.3%), Aluminium (2.5%), Hot Rolled Coil Steel (3.2%), Coffee (3.6%), Lumber (5.1%), Tin (3.8%), Nickel (3.9%), Palladium (4.5%), Sugar (5.8%), Urea U.S, Gulf (1.8%), Corn (15.4%), Rice (4.7%), Wheat (12.1%), Nasdaq Biotech (1.6%) and Taiwan’s TAEIX fell 1.7%. 

July 2, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Waiting for my price in AUD Gold

On March 25, 2023, I wrote a cautionary note suggesting selling AUD priced Gold. 

That observation was viewed over a weekly basis.

Gold in AUD was trading at A$3,000 at the time.

Although today’s price of A$2,882 hardly resembles a collapse, my view to not chase prices at recent highs is validated. 

Now, taking a look at a much longer timeframe……on a monthly basis

the study shows the percentages that the Gold price (in AUD) is trading above its 50 month moving average where it simultaneously traded 2.5 standard deviations above its rolling monthly mean and also registered a monthly overbought RSI reading.

There have been 6 such notable moments over the past 15 years.

Whilst the AUD Gold has never been oversold in the past 15 years, there is a case to accumulate when it touches or trades below its 50 month moving average.

The recent (and current) price action tells me to wait for the AUD Gold price to converge towards the 50 month moving average, which is somewhere around the A$2,500 region.

At that point, I’ll analyse whether Gold (as priced in AUD) will have its time in the sun, again.

Until then, I think there is little merit in entering a long position.

July 1, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

Selling British Pounds / Buying Japanese Yen

Sterling versus Yen is stretched and high

This study is a weekly chart which shows the percentage that the GBP/JPY is trading above its 200 week moving average.

It’s trading at 182.90 at the time of writing.

While overbought readings can stay overbought for longer than many expect and currencies do trend wonderfully, be my guest initiating a new long at these prices…..

…..for doing so isn’t the best risk/reward skew that you’ll find in capital markets.

June 30, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

Selling Euro / Buying Yen

I think that the ‘fat part’ of the Euro advance against the Yen has been seen.

Today’s price is 157.26

Not to be relied on in isolation but this study below shows the percentages which EUR/JPY is trading above its 200 week moving average……and when combined some other studies, it increases the probability of my belief.

Beyond your standard FX trade (currency conversion) this also means European customers and buyers of Japanese parts, components and product should order and pay for their Japanese products ‘tout suite’.

They should be at their cheapest prices seen in the past 3 years, even when considering Japan’s inflation rate of a ‘mere’ 3.2%.

June 30, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriaseet.com.au

In global portfolios, FX and Equity are 2 separate trades

Since January 4, 2023, the Nikkei 225 (in JPY terms) has climbed 29%.

But from that date, the Yen has weakened 12%……(or the USD has strengthened by 12%)

and so in USD terms, the Nikkei 225 has only risen 17%.

But that’s history.

The lesson for those who are unhedged is multi-faceted.

Today, sellers of Japanese assets would do well holding onto their Yen, if you’re not forced to convert back to your ‘home’ or ‘base’ currency.

i.e. The Yen is too weak (and near extremes) to convert back to your original USD, EUR, GBP, CAD or AUD.

Those not holding any JPY, may ponder buying some Yen considering it’s current (near extremes) low.

If you are not naturally owning various currencies (in to settle your foreign acquisitions) nor running a FX hedging strategy, then treating the FX and Equity as 2 seperate trades and having specific views about each of them is important.

Otherwise you could’ve stayed in the USD the whole time, for the Nasdaq 100 soared 37% since January 4, 2023.

And for ‘non-natural’ USD holders, you would’ve made a few more percent as your ‘home’ currency most likely weakened against the Greenback.

June 30, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

Inflation follows the Natural Gas price

Here is the Australian inflation rate (the orange line) laid over the U.S. Henry Hub Natural Gas price (in blue).

This is another study to support my view of abating inflation.

I introduced this correlation in a post dated September 2, 2022, which was also when we saw a peak in the Natural Gas price.

A year earlier, I was citing that the ‘halving’ of commodity prices (driven by the theory of mean reversion) will be a large factor is providing relief from rising inflation.

But keep any near-term decline in inflation within context that proposed government (infrastructure) spending, lack of industrial and energy capital expenditure, declining commodity inventories (supply), energy transition investments and increased money supply (M2 and M3) all correlate towards being inflationary.

June 29, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

Revising Australian inflation target lower

As an addendum to yesterday’s note about where I see the Australian inflation rate moving to along with interest rates;

The chart below shows the symbiotic dance between the AUD/JPY currency cross and the Australian CPI reading.

AUD/JPY has just traded at some extreme overbought. I think the gravitational pull of its 200 week moving average will see Australian CPI record a reading of somewhere around 3.5% – 3.8% in the coming months.

This revises lower the 4.8%-5% view I had written in yesterday’s note.

June 29, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au

What if Oil trades down to $51?

I’m keeping a sharp eye on the price of Crude Oil.

WTI Crude (chart below) is currently trading at $67.10.

Last week’s low of $63.64 needs to hold, then broadly the $61.50 mark.

WTI Crude Oil is in a downtrend and it has strength.

Forget about when OPEC+ made a surprise cut on April 2, 2023 and then OPEC announced more intended production cuts on June 4, 2023.

Not so good for any who paid the days tops of $82 and $75 on those respective days.

This week, WTI Crude is back, perching on its 200 week moving average and it’s not oversold.

If the strength of this downtrend accelerates and it barrels through mid $63’s and $61………..$51 may be a figure I start ogling.

June 28, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

Karri Asset Advisors

rob@karriasset.com.au