Careful chasing Natural Gas parabola’s

When prices go parabolic and reach extreme levels…..why should we expect a different outcome in Natural Gas prices this time?

The chart below shows you moments when the Henry Hub Natural Gas price has traded at 2.5 standard deviations above its weekly and registered a weekly Overbought reading on its RSI.

Furthermore, I’ve thrown in the percentages Natural Gas had traded above its 200 week moving average.

This tells me that one shouldn’t be chasing a long position in this rarified air.

While it’s a sellers market, not a buyers one….it doesn’t mean, I’m going to ‘short’ it either….

Today, Natural Gas is trading at $9.33.

I’ll look for it to top out around $10.60 or so.

I’ll look for notably lower prices before considering a ‘new long’ position.

August 24, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Australian steel prices to stay elevated

Did you know that the price of Australian Premium Coking Coal has more than halved in the past 5 months?

The chart below shows it now reaching Oversold levels (on a weekly basis) and it has mean reverted to its 200 week moving average.

For the buyers of this coal (steel companies), this is good news. Their input prices are cheaper.

When you combine that with the price of shipping (as per the Baltic Dry Index) and Iron ore have both fallen 60% in the past 3 months…..then these cheaper ‘inputs’ bode well for steel producers.

However, the lower price being achieved for coking coal is carrying weight in the decisions of mining companies such as Australian headquartered, South 32, who has decided against proceeding spending $700 million to extend and expand the life at an existing metallurgical coal mine in New South Wales.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-22/south32-abandons-plans-for-australian-metallurgical-coal-mine?sref=qLOW1ygh

This follows its January 2021 decision to not develop a project in Queensland. It is now looking for a buyer of its 50% interest.

In both cases, South32 cited the allocation of capital didn’t support an adequate return nor making the projects financially viable.

Instead, they are opting to focus on North American projects, which is a ‘friendlier’ jurisdiction.

Beyond the ESG and political landscape, I also speculate the greatest risk comes from how the projects would be financed.

Furthermore, combine less supply of coking coal for local steel manufacturers, Australian tariffs on steel imports, China’s tariffs on its steel exports and a tight labour market…….domestic Australian steel prices aren’t about to decline anytime soon.

August 24, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Inflation for some and not for others

In 2018, the price of retail electricity in Spain was 24 cents per kilowatt/hour.

Tomorrow, the Spanish news on TV tells me it will be 43.6 cents per kw/h.

In Germany, it will be 62.4 cents kw/h

In Western Australia, I was also paying 24 cent kw/h in 2018.

Today, my retail electricity bill is 26.6 cents kw/h.

August 24, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Embracing German pessimism

The pessimism in Europe is not unwarranted, however the stock market is discounting much.

Around February 26 – March 8, 2022, the DAX equity index triggered a ‘trifecta oversold’ buy signal which bodes well for the longer term investor.

Around the price of 13,200 (similar to today’s level), the DAX registered an Oversold RSI level below 30, traded 2.5 standard deviations below its weekly mean and was below its 200 week moving average.

August 23, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending August 19, 2022)

The following assets (on a weekly timeframe) 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)

AUD/GBP (2nd consecutive week)

Nikkei 225

Overbought (RSI > 70)

Dutch TTF Gas

Japan Korean LNG Marker price

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

Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST)



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

Japanese 10 year government bond yields

U.S. 10 year minus 5 year government yield spread

Oversold (RSI < 30)

U.S. 5 year minus U.S.3 month government bond yield ‘spread’

Hot Rolled Coiled Steel

Tin

Oats

EUR/USD

DKK/USD

KRW/USD

INR/USD

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

Chinese 10 year government bond yields 

Notes & Ideas:

The big news over the past week included; gas and coal prices extending their rise while many other commodities continued to weaken and the surge in the U.S. Dollar, as we saw various currency crosses return to the extreme list.

The larger currency drops occurred in the Kiwi, the Aussie, the Pound Stirling and the Chilean Peso.

We saw a petering of the equity rally amongst small capitalised U.S. stocks. This was timed with my recent notes that this rally ‘may be done’ and one that it to be rented and not owned.

The U.S. yield curve moved out of Oversold territory, moving from last weeks close of 0.42% (the intra-week low was -0.51%) to its current -0.26% level. 

Another notable higher move in yields was the Japanese 10’s rising from 0.16% to 0.19%. I’d count a 21% move as notable.

The Copper /Gold ratio is worth watching a barometer of the health of the economy.

On a weekly basis, we may see the early start of a weaker trend in Gasoline although that’s not confirmed.

Oats fell enough to be Oversold and mean revert to its 200 week moving average.

Lumber have given up two-thirds of last week’s 23% advance.

Sugar had a outside bearish reversal week.

The TAIEX has registered a rare 7 consecutive weekly advance.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of; 

Australian Coking Coal 9.5%, Rotterdam Coal 5.9%, China Coal 2.5%, U.S. Dollar Index 2.3%, Gasoil 4%, Copper/Gold Ratio 2.9%, Heating Oil 5.2%, JKM KNG9.9%, Natural Gas 6.5%, Cotton 4.6%, Dutch TTF Gas 18.7%, Istanbul BIST 5.1% and Australia’s ASX 200 rose 1.2%. 

The group of decliners included;

Aluminium (2.1%), Baltic Dry Index (13.4%), WTI Crude (1.8%), Gold (2.9%), Lean Hogs (6.9%), Hot Rolled Coil Steel (3.1%), Coffee (4.1%), Lumber (14.6%), Orange Juice (6.2%), Palladium (4%), Platinum (7.4%), Silver (8.5%), Brent Crude (2.1%), Silver in AUD (5.2%), Gold (3.1%), Corn (2.2%), Oats (9.4%), Soybean (3.5%), Wheat (4.3%), AUD/USD (3.4%), EUR/USD (2.2%), GBP/USD (2.5%), NZD/USD (4.3%), CLP/USD (7.9%), KBW Bank Index (2.4%), DAX (1.8%), DJ Transports (2.5%), MIB (1.9%), HSCEI (2%), HSI (2%), Nasdaq 100 (2.4%), Russell 2000 (2.9%), SOX (3.7%), Nasdaq Biotech Index (3.8%) and the Nasdaq Composite fell (2.6%)

August 21 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au  

Crude Oil leads

Moves in Crude Oil seems to lead the next move in Australian inflation and the Australian 2 year bond yield.

August 17, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Copper/Gold ratio lows match those in stocks

Oversold moments in the Copper/Gold ratio synchronises with buying ‘troughs’ in the S&P 500 Index.

If you remember the extreme pessimism felt through May and June 2022, the Copper/Gold ratio is one tool to add to your analysis arsenal which can help quantify that subjective ‘sinking’ feeling, when it arises again.

August 16, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

The Americas are drilling, ROW are not

Canadian rig count leaps 30% on the month.

In fact, over the past 2 months, the Canadians have doubled the amount of rigs put to work.

Even with that effort, the Canadians are still 25% below its February 2020 peak.

While if we only look at the U.S. and Latin America, they are a whisker away from its February 2020 number.

Uncannily, Europe, Africa and the Middle East all have approximately 29% less rigs cranking away than seen in February 2020.

Globally we’ve seen 2 consecutive months of a 4% increase in rigs (count) deployed.

Total global rig count is closing in on the March 2020 figure, not close to February 2020 and still some way to go towards any month back to 2017. 

So, the Americas are trying but the rest of world is tempered.

August 15, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending August 12, 2022)

The following assets (on a weekly timeframe) 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)

AUD/GBP

Overbought (RSI > 70)

Dutch TTF Gas

Japan Korean LNG Marker price

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

Istanbul Stock Exchange



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

Japanese 10 year government bond yields

U.S. 10 year minus 5 year government yield spread

Oversold (RSI < 30)

U.S. 10 year minus U.S. 2 year government bond yield ‘spread’

U.S. 5 year minus U.S.3 month government bond yield ‘spread’

Hot Rolled Coiled Steel

Tin

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

None

Notes & Ideas:

This big news over the past week was an extension in the equities advance which was mainly appearing in North American markets and the strength in many commodities.

The feature in the latter was amongst the energy complex.

In last week’s edition of Macro Extremes, I wrote,

“Now that Gasoil and Crude prices have fallen 30% from their recent highs, Crude Oil specifically is near an interim low and due for a ‘bounce’.

I’ll look for WTI Crude and Brent to trade down to $85.50 and $92.00 respectively.”

That bounce did occur over this past week and WTI Crude and Brent traded near but not quite down to those targets. For example, Brent touched $93.07.

Resilient to recent energy price retracement has selected gas prices.

Over the past 12 weeks, the Japan Korean LNG Marker has risen 137% while the Dutch (European) TTF Gas price has climbed 150% in only 9 weeks.

Lately, I have been writing about how the lows of this recent trading rally were seen in mid June 2022 and Buy signals were appearing in Small and Mid Cap indices.

Since then, the MidCap 400 has rallied 19% and the Russell 2000 has soared 23%, of which 5% occurred in this past week. This adds to the argument of being careful chasing momentum at the tail end of what I see as an interim wave.

Incidentally, that Russell 2000 is still 18% below its November 8, 2021 peak.

This also comes from the playbook that small caps peaked early and likely ‘troughed’ first. There was much damage done in the small caps.

Lastly, the U.S. yield curve remains inverted for the 6th week in a row and Oversold for 4 consecutive weeks.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of; 

Australian Coking Coal 5.8%, Rotterdam Coal 11.8%, Bloomberg Commodity Index 4.5%, Baltic Dry Index 2.1%, Cocoa 3.9%, China Coal 9%, WTI Crude 3.5%, Gasoil 5.6%, Copper 3.3%, Heating Oil 9.4%, JKM 16.2%, Coffee 6.2%, Lumber 22.9%, Natural Gas 8.7%, Palladium 4.3%, Platinum 3.8%, Gasoline 6.7%, Sugar 3.7%, Silver 4.6%, Cotton 12.6%, Dutch TTF Gas 5%, Brent Crude 3.7%, Corn 4.8%, Oats 5.4%, Soybean 3.2%, Wheat 3.9%, KBW Banking Index 5.8%, Dow Jones Industrials 3%, DJ Transports 3.7%, IBEX 2.9%, BOVESPA 5.9%, S&P Midcap 400 4.5%, Nasdaq 2.7%, Helsinki 2%, Russell 2000 4.9%, Sensex 1.8%, S&P 500 3.3%, TAIEX 1.7%, Toronto’s TSX 2.9%, S&P SmallCap 600 3.9%, Nasdaq Composite 3.1% while Australia’a ASX 200 only rose 0.24%.  

The group of decliners included;

Nickel (2.5%), Urea (U.S. Gulf) (2.5%)

August 14, 2022

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au  

ASX 200 short term rally is done

The short-term rally in the ASX 200 is done (or almost).


It looks exhausted at its current price of 7.057 points.
I may give a 10-20% probability of an additional 2.2% spurt up to 7,215, but the 10% rally from its June 20, 2022 low has satisfied my milestones and targets and I think the ‘fat part’ of the trade has been had.

I’ll wait for a retracement to between 6.740 and 6,820 and check on the velocity of the pullback before considering re-entering this Index.

August 11, 2022
by Rob Zdravevski
rob@karriasset.com.au