Yesterday’s CPI was somewhat of a yawner (inflation coming in a little hotter than expected), so I didn’t expect much from the PPI. Well……….
That’s right: annualized Core PPI is at 12% and month-over-month, annualized, comes in at 16.8%. Hey, didn’t the administration say inflation had been conquered? I guess not.
In a rational world, the Dow would be down 5,000 points right about now, but instead equities futures simply inched lower. Indeed, the /NQ is still green! As for the /ES, shown below, it has spent the past week playing jump-rope with the red line. This is why I’m focused on individual equities and not broad indexes right now.
Volatility, which pushed higher yesterday due to the obvious reality that the war is anything but over, sank through the night but got a bit of a goose from the shocking inflation data.
Whereas my new anchor position, bonds (by way of TLT puts) is enjoying a nice, steady, persistent slide.
I also have not lost faith in my Bitcoin short. This bugger keeps trying to freak me out every single night, but its attempts to rip higher are weaker with every effort.
Oh, and if the war is already “won“, someone might want to mention it to crude oil, which must not have received the memo.
My portfolio is spread among 25 different short positions, and I have a commitment level of 111%. Any serious downturn probably will not happen until the mega-IPOs (SpaceX, Anthropic) are behind us. What I’m saying is that any serious shellacking probably won’t happen until, I dunno, September, but until then, I’m having fun carving off profits here and there from wack-a-loon securities.
