Thursday, December 4, 2025

The Morning Call--Pay attention to Japanese rates

 

The Morning Call

 

12/4/25

 

The Market

         

    Technical

 

            Wednesday in the charts.

            https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-bonds-bitcoin-bid-bad-jobs-data-lifts-rate-cut-odds

 

            Wednesday in the technical stats.

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/momentum

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/sectors/rankings

            https://www.barchart.com/stocks/signals/new-recommendations

 

            Goodbye bull market.

            https://www.marketwatch.com/story/goodbye-bull-market-this-spot-on-indicator-is-saying-what-you-dont-want-to-hear-dd7afeff?st=sZRkAx

 

            How big is the AI bubble and is it really a bubble?

            https://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2025/12/how-big-is-ai-bubble-and-is-it-really.html

 

    Fundamental

 

       Headlines

 

              The Economy

 

                        US

 

Weekly initial jobless claims totaled 191,000 versus projections of 220,000.

                          https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/no-hire-no-fire-economy-confirmed-us-jobless-claims-hiring-plans-plummet

 

September industrial production was up 0.1%, in line; capacity utilization was 75.9% versus 77.4%.

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2025/12/03/recession-indicators-industrial-production-september-2025

 

The November services PMI was 54.1 versus estimates of 55.0; the composite PMI was 54.2 versus 54.8.

https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2025/12/03/sp-global-services-pmi-november-2025

 

The November ISM services index was 52.6 versus expectations of 52.3.

                           https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2025/12/03/ism-services-pmi-november-2025

 

                        International

 

                          October EU retail sales were flat versus consensus of up 0.3%.

 

The November EU construction PMI was 45.4 versus predictions of 45.1; the November German construction PMI was 45.2 versus 44.0; the November UK construction PMI was 39.4 versus 45.0.

 

                        Other

 

                          Heavy truck sales collapsed in October/November.

                          https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2025/12/heavy-truck-sales-collapsed-in-october.html

 

                          On the other hand, light vehicle sales increased.

                          https://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2025/12/light-vehicle-sales-increased-to-156.html

 

            Overnight News

 

Vladimir Putin said Russia didn’t agree with some points of the US peace proposal for Ukraine, Tass reported, citing his interview with a local media outlet. Earlier, Trump called the meeting between Steve Witkoff and Putin “reasonably good” but next steps remain unclear.

 

US President Trump said they will either let the USMCA expire or maybe work out another deal with Mexico and Canada.

 

US halted plans to sanction the Chinese spy agency to maintain the trade truce, and the Trump administration will also not enact any major new export controls against China, while the Trump admin is preparing to hold a high-level meeting to decide whether to provide licenses to allow NVIDIA (NVDA) to export the H200 to China.

 

Chinese Commerce Ministry, on rare earth export controls, said as long are export license applications are for civilian use, they will be approved.

 

            Monetary Policy

 

The central bank cannot create jobs or growth (a little extreme; they can do it, but it is probably not worth the cost in inflation).

https://talkmarkets.com/content/us-markets/central-banks-cannot-create-jobs-or-growth?post=542373

 

 

            Inflation

 

              Services’ inflation role in the EU CPI.

              https://wolfstreet.com/2025/12/02/services-inflation-accelerated-further-in-the-euro-area-drives-overall-core-cpi-higher/

 

              Electricity rates surge.

              https://mishtalk.com/economics/electricity-costs-surge-6-7-percent-from-year-ago-residential-consumers-hammered/

 

            Tariffs

 

Some companies are lining up for refunds if Supreme Court rules against Trump (what this article fails to mention is the many alternative laws already passed by congress that could be used to justify the tariffs).

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/03/business/supreme-court-tariff-ruling-refunds.html

 

            The Financial System

 

Four myths about private credit. (Keep in mind that this article was written by the CEO of a private credit lender. While I agree that a disaster in the private credit market would be less disruptive than if the lender were a bank, he fails to mention that insurance companies are big private credit buyers. So if there was a disaster, the solvency, i.e., ability to meet their contractual obligations, of that industry could be put in question. I also can’t help wondering why a company would go the private credit route when [a] the interest cost is higher and [b] the due diligence process for private credit is more onerous {per the author} than for public credit.)

              https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-12-03/private-credit-is-safe-and-makes-the-financial-system-stronger?srnd=homepage-americas

 

                          Morgan Stanley considering selling a portion of its AI exposed debt.

             https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/morgan-stanley-quietly-offloading-data-center-exposure-significant-risk-transfers

 

     Investing

 

            Quality stocks are mispriced.

            https://www.advisorperspectives.com/commentaries/2025/12/03/quality-stocks-mispriced

 

            High beta stocks remain the best performers in 2025.

            https://www.capitalspectator.com/high-beta-risk-remains-top-performing-equity-factor-in-2025/

 

            The wall of worry?

            https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/deckchairs-titanic

 

            Plus, charts keeping us awake at night.

            https://www.zerohedge.com/the-market-ear/charts-keeping-us-awake-night

 

More on the perils of rising Japanese bond yields. This is the fourth article I have posted regarding this development. The important point is that investors/speculators borrow cheap money (low Japanese rates) and use the money to invest in other assets (read: US stocks/bonds). At some point (higher Japanese rates) the economics of this traded don’t make sense and those investors/speculators sell (read: US stocks/bonds), creating downward pressure on US security prices. At the moment, this doesn’t seem to be a problem; but investors need to be aware of the potential consequences, i.e., be careful chasing stock prices up and have a strategy for selling any trading positions.

            https://www.zerohedge.com/the-market-ear/widowmaker-awakens-jgb-panic-yen-surge-and-global-deleveraging-trap

 

    News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

 

General Dynamics (GD) declared $1.50/share quarterly dividend, in line with previous.

 

 

What I am reading today

 

           

 

 

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