Thursday, April 23, 2026

The Morning Call---Supply chains will change as a result of the war.

 

The Morning Call

 

4/23/26

 

The Market

         

    Technical

 

            Wednesday in the charts.

            https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/stocks-shrug-surging-oil-prices-bitcoin-rips-tehran-turbocharges-tensions-trump

 

Summary: Ceasefire schmeasefire' - oil prices are back above yesterday's highs after Iran struck 3 ships in the Strait, but stocks continue to dream of post-conflict 'good times' based on solid earnings (hope), despite very narrow breadth. Bonds also shrugged off oil's angst as big-tech and bitcoin ripped higher. Gold and the dollar were unch.

 

Wednesday in the technical stats.

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

https://www.barchart.com/stocks/market-performance

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

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

 

            The easy part is behind us.

                        https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/were-final-innings-systematic-support-stocks-goldman-delta-one-desk-head-warns-easy-part

 

Summary: Month end pension rebalancing here will be sizeable with our first cut of estimates +$20bn for sale (still a bit early to worry about this). So yes, there is still hope around earnings, and the economy is holding in, but the market is also beginning to ask harder questions about terminal valuation and forward multiples. The key point now is that the forced buying is much further along. If you are chasing from here, you really have to believe the benign outcome is not just probable but durable…the easy part of the rebound looks largely behind us.

 

 

            Gold and silver going higher.

            (3) Gold And Silver Prices "Going Much Higher"

 

            Gold and silver going lower.

            https://talkmarkets.com/article/worse-for-gold-than-active-war-1776876929

 

            Traders abandon bullish dollar bets.

            https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/3092e90b-be01-49f7-bda8-569ad08d8403

 

Thursday morning setup: US equity futures are lower, but rapidly rising and now at premarket highs after a CCTV report that talks between Iran and the US in Pakistan may see a breakthrough "tonight or tomorrow"; still the optimism of recent days is being tested, with peace talks in limbo, software concerns reemerging and the bond market flashing warning signals. As of 8:15am ET, S&P 500 futures, and Nasdaq 100 contract both fell 0.1%, recovering almost all of their 0.8% overnight drop. Pre-market, Mag 7 are mostly lower with TSLA (-2.8%) and MSFT (-1.6%) lagging. Overnight, we saw a slew of positive semi earnings in Asia: SK Hynix sets record quarterly profits. Oil traffic through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt after Iran fired on commercial ships and said it had seized at least two vessels, while the US military intercepted two Iranian oil supertankers that tried to evade its blockade. Brent rose 0.9% to around $103 a barrel as the US and Iran kept blocking the Strait of Hormuz. The dollar advanced 0.2%, while Treasury yields climbed across the curve. Precious metals are recovering overnight losses and base metals are all higher. In premarket trading, Mag 7 stocks are all lower: Tesla (TSLA) falls 3% after the electric-vehicle maker boosted its capital expenditures to more than $25 billion for the year to support Elon Musk’s ambition to transform his firm into an AI and robotics company (Microsoft -1.9%, Amazon -0.4%, Nvidia -0.5%, Meta -1.5%, Alphabet -0.5%, Apple -0.1%)

 

    Fundamental

 

       Headlines

           

              The Economy

 

                        US

 

Weekly initial jobless claims totaled 214,000 versus consensus of 212,000.

 

The March Chicago national activity index came in at -0.2 versus expectations of +0.2.  

 

                        International

 

The Q2 UK business optimism index was -61 versus estimates of -23; the April industrial trends orders index was -38 versus -30.

 

The April Japanese flash manufacturing PMI was 54.9 versus expectations    of 51.2; the flash services PMI was 51.2 versus 52.0; the flash composite PMI was 52.4 versus 51.2; the April German flash manufacturing PMI was 51.2 versus 51.3; the flash services PMI was 46.9 versus 50.3; the flash composite PMI was 48.3 versus 51.1; the April EU flash manufacturing PMI was 52.2 versus 50.8; the flash services PMI was 47.4 versus 49.9; the flash composite PMI was 48.1 versus 50.2; the April UK flash manufacturing PMI was 53.6 versus 49.9; the flash services PMI was 52.0 versus 50.0; the flash composite PMI was 52.0 versus 49.8.

 

                        Other

 

                          A different kind of GDP nowcast.

                          https://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2026/04/climbing-limo-gdp-forecast-for-2026-q1.html

 

                          A deep dive into Tuesday’s retail sales figures.

  https://wolfstreet.com/2026/04/21/as-gasoline-prices-spiked-did-americans-scrimp-at-other-retailers-to-buy-gas-nope-not-americans-born-to-splurge/

 

                          Update on big four recession indicators.

                          https://www.advisorperspectives.com/dshort/updates/2026/04/21/the-big-four-recession-indicators

           

                          Updating the long leading indicators.

                          https://bonddad.blogspot.com/2026/04/updating-long-leading-indicators.html

 

            Iran

 

              Overnight news:

              https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-intercepts-iranian-tankers-tehran-keeps-hormuz-chokepoint-shut

 

              Supply chains will change as a result of the war.

  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-22/iran-war-to-impact-shipping-long-after-it-ends-japan-s-mol-says?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc3Njg3OTEzMywiZXhwIjoxNzc3NDgzOTMzLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJURFczVVpLSkg2VzEwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJCMzFCNTRDQTI3MTE0NjAxOUQxMURCN0IxRUM4NTE2MyJ9.-qjr6o-OKDww3emLCd0qxqL9UkncdcrG3aHcjIGCWwg

                       

 

            Monetary Policy

           

              One way to know if Warsh is up to the job.

  https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/opinion/jerome-powell-fed-kevin-warsh-hearings.html?unlocked_article_code=1.c1A.3rpE.thNI3FJNCz82&smid=url-share

 

            Fiscal Policy

 

Government spending doesn’t cause rising prices; it is the Fed’s monetization of that spending that does.

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2026/04/22/market_prices_dont_much_care_about_democrats_and_republicans_1177842.html

 

            Tariffs

 

Update on the tariff war. (Bear in mind that there were noneconomic reasons [not mentioned] behind the tariffs. Still the economic analysis is spot on.)

https://ritholtz.com/2026/04/post-scotus-tariff-war-update/

 

     Investing

 

    News on Stocks in Our Portfolios

 

 

 

What I am reading today

 

            Who was Mary Magdalene?

            Was Mary Magdalene actually a rich woman? | National Geographic

 

 

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