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The surprise production cut announcement from OPEC+ on Sunday caught us off guard! With oil prices surging close to 7%, the question arises: will this trend persist? To put the production cut into perspective, the unexpected 1.16 million barrels per day reduction is a continuation of the cuts announced last October. In total, these cuts will represent roughly...

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Having covered Gold & the Equity Index last week, this week we will look at how we could leverage both to trade on the move we’re watching! Quite a happening market we first covered Gold two weeks ago. Firstly, the interest rates market had a sizeable correction, with the 10Y-2Y yield now trading at close to -0.45% instead of the -1% range just 3 weeks ago....

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UBS buys Credit Suisse, central banks liquidity provision, and a massive repricing in rates marked a significantly volatile week. As the storm of bank contagion continues to brew, one index in particular is trading unlike the others! We’re talking about the Nasdaq here. Trading higher while its peer indexes get beaten down in a somewhat unusual fashion. ...

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Just when we thought the hawkish narrative was pretty much priced in, SVB’s fallout basically threw a spanner into the hiking cycle. You’ve probably read quite a lot about the whole SVB debacle since Thursday’s trading session so we won’t harp on that. We instead want to turn your attention to two other markets that moved significantly since the SVB episode....

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You know the “It’s Corn” song trending on TikTok? It brings a smile to our face every time we hear it. But if you look at Corn’s price chart and fundamental outlook, that’s a whole other story… Corn’s recent breakout of a symmetrical triangle towards the downside caught our attention. With the clear break and an ensuing retest, Corn is now trading right on...

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While it might not be the subprime/GFC “SELL” kind of situation, the real estate sector is undoubtedly facing headwinds. With the most recent Fed’s preferred inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) printing higher than consensus, maybe it’s about time we take the Fed’s hawkish commentary more seriously. To review, let us look at...

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With price and “commodity premiums” that we track showing signs of a structural shift, we think these represents potential tradeable set-up in the mid to long term as supply and demand finds some way to normalization after the pandemic & war shocks over the past 2 years. Hence, we think commodities will continue to be where the actions at. With winter just about...

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Jumping straight into the technicals, we see a head and shoulder pattern on the daily Soybean Oil chart. With the neckline now broken, it seems a bearish set-up might be possible. While the technicals are important, understanding where the current price level of soybean oil is in context to other products could help us build further conviction on this idea....

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This week, we thought it will be interesting to review the trade from last week given the reaction post-FOMC, as well as discuss an alternative way to set up this trade. Firstly, let’s review the post-FOMC/employment data reaction. - Nonfarm Payrolls surprised to the upside, as over half a million jobs were added way above the estimates of a sub 200K...

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Those who have been reading our past 2 ideas will know we’ve been harping on and on about expected rate path and policy timelines. Why the recent obsession you ask? Because we think we’re on the cusp of major turning points. So, for the third time, let’s look at the market’s expected policy rate path. With FOMC coming up this week, we are expecting a 25bps...

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It’s been a while since we looked at the Russell 2000. For the uninitiated, the Russell 2000 index is a small-cap stock market index that is made up of the smallest 2000 stocks in the Russell 3000 Index. The small-cap nature means a few things, volatility tends to be higher for one. And capturing this downside volatility using the Russell 2000 as compared with...

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We hope everyone had a great start to the year! As we think about the year ahead and some of the major themes that might play out, the EU vs US inflation story is among those catching our eyes now in particular. “Inflation” & “Rate Hikes” were the main talking points for the US Economy in 2022 as the US Federal Reserve (Fed) reacted and adjusted to stubborn...

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As we approach Christmas, for yet another year, we wonder if Santa is real, or rather if the Santa Claus Rally is real. Some hypotheses about the Santa Claus rally include the lowered Institutional liquidity as traders go on holiday (just like us, soon!). That leaves the retail crowd, proven to be bullish on just about anything, pushing markets higher. There...

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Last week, while the Federal Reserve changed its rhetoric from ‘hiking to fight inflation at all cost’ to ‘slow the pace of rate hike’, seismic waves rolled over the markets. As we approach the last central bank meetings of the year, the ECB meets on (15th Dec), Fed on the (14th Dec). A temperature check on the expected path of rates for the 2 major central...

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Something weird is bubbling in the energy space. Before we delve in, let us briefly explain what the S&P Energy Select Sector Index represents. Some of you might already be familiar with XLE, the ETF which tracks the S&P Energy Select Sector Index (IXE). This Index seeks to represent the Energy sector by aggregating a basket of names in the sector. A...

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With all the chatter on the Fed Pivot, we think it’s worth exploring, what happens after a Fed Pivot or Fed Pause. Let’s break down the discussion into two camps, a Fed Pause, defined as a pause in policy rate hikes, and a Fed Pivot, loosely defined as reversal of policy rates aka rate cuts. To keep things in context, we will look at the effect of the Fed’s...

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Continuing the topic of spreads between related commodities, the Hard Red Winter Wheat – Soft Red Winter Wheat spread is another one trading at an extreme level now. A brief explanation on the different types of wheat we are referring to here: 1) The Hard Red Winter Wheat (HRW) is the most widely grown class of wheat. A high protein product, used for breads,...

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This chart caught our attention recently. The Crude Palm Oil – Soybean Oil Spread (in USD per Metric Ton) is trading close to an all-time high now. This spells trading opportunity for us as Palm Oil and Soybean Oil are generally considered substitute products, which means, at a large enough price difference, buyers may hop over to buy the cheaper one....