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UK

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Posts posted by UK

  1. 6 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

     

    Let him try, I would say.

     

    Perhaps this thing would come much faster to an end, if he did.

     

    Personally I think you as a Canadian citizen are greatly underestimating the sentiment in Northern Europe about this here.

     

    It's not a "... very high "hurdle rate" ...", here, it's simply considered a suicidal action for his part trying. The crap will simply be beat of him, if he tries.

     

    John, thanks for your comment. Yes, looking one or two years out, as soon as new Himars, F35s and other stuff will arrive (which will be very plenty) and Sweden with Finland join NATO (foregone conclusion) I am too starting to become optimistic on the ability of the region to stand on its own, even against Russia.

     

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-12-18/ukraine-conflict-brings-finland-s-troops-and-tanks-in-from-the-cold-war

    https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2022/12/16/lithuania-signs-495-million-deal-to-buy-himars-atacms/

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-30/poland-will-double-military-spending-as-war-in-ukraine-rages?leadSource=uverify wall

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-expected-buy-skorean-rocket-launchers-after-tank-howitzer-sales-2022-10-19/

     

     

     

     

  2. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-18/europe-s-1-trillion-energy-bill-only-marks-start-of-the-crisis?srnd=premium-europe

     

    Europe got hit by roughly $1 trillion from surging energy costs in the fallout of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and the deepest crisis in decades is only getting started. After this winter, the region will have to refill gas reserves with little to no deliveries from Russia, intensifying competition for tankers of the fuel. Even with more facilities to import liquefied natural gas coming online, the market is expected to remain tight until 2026, when additional production capacity from the US to Qatar becomes available. That means no respite from high prices. While governments were able to help companies and consumers absorb much of the blow with more than $700 billion in aid, according to the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, a state of emergency could last for years. With interest rates rising and economies likely already in recession, the support that cushioned the blow for millions of households and businesses is looking increasingly unaffordable.  “Once you add everything up — bailouts, subsidies — it is a ridiculously large amount of money,” said Martin Devenish, a director at consultancy S-RM. “It’s going to be a lot harder for governments to manage this crisis next year.”

  3. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-19/san-francisco-s-feeling-the-pain-of-big-tech-s-troubles-remote-work?srnd=premium-europe

     

    Covid changed all that, as many of the young workers who fueled the city's surging wealth decamped to cheaper places such as Lake Tahoe or Austin, Texas, during lockdowns. From July 2020 to July 2021, San Francisco lost the most residents by share among major US cities. And even as vaccines brought some return to normalcy, tech companies, competing for in-demand workers, had little inclination to force reluctant employees back to offices. Earlier this year, when Karen Chapple led a group of researchers examining major economic hubs, she was surprised to see that San Francisco was seemingly “frozen in time.” Its downtown activity had recovered the least of 31 large US and Canadian cities. “San Francisco really suffered from kind of doubling down on commercial office towers,” said Chapple, a regional planning academic at UC Berkeley and the University of Toronto. “They made a big bet and it failed.”

     

    “As people leave, as firms leave, that’ll ease up some of these price pressures and that will in turn check some of this out-migration that we’ve been seeing,” Ratz said, noting that the latest figures showed inflation less heated in San Francisco than elsewhere. But a new paradigm for San Francisco will take years to take effect, if it does at all. And as time goes by, the problem may less be people moving out, but fewer moving in. Liz Giorgi thought she had to move to San Francisco to launch Soona, a virtual photoshoot platform for brands. But she was able to raise about $51 million while in Colorado, and it struck her: Nobody was telling her she needed to relocate. In fact, she said, investors begged her to organize board meetings in Vail, the Rocky Mountain resort town. San Francisco “didn’t seem as powerful or as attractive to me,” Giorgi said.

     

    Screenshot_20221219-091218_Chrome~2.jpg

  4. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-18/fed-zooms-in-on-american-paychecks-as-it-takes-inflation-battle-into-2023

     

    As for the non-housing services that Powell has been highlighting, Omair Sharif — the founder of Inflation Insights LLC — sees plenty of evidence that wage growth hasn’t been the primary driver of inflation there. Prices in that category were mainly driven by increases in transportation and medical care in the first half of the year, which have now reversed, he says. There were a variety of causes, from a sudden surge in the demand for travel to quirks in how health insurance costs are calculated. Wages weren’t a big part of the story, Sharif says. “It’s just ingrained in everybody’s minds somehow that this is how things work.”

  5. On 12/16/2022 at 4:05 PM, dealraker said:

    Like the episode in 1969 when I went to Joe's Beach where not one of 200 people believed in the moon landing... the huge belief today as to what is real and what isn't, Cathie type promotion/success/faceplanting has been around intermittently for all time.  Back in the 1990's a two time bank robber (yes true) became Wall Street's high tech guru, with both a newsletter and mutual fund.  CNBC once a week.., and more.  He claimed 5 times his money in x period and then...

     

    ...in the end investors in his fund got 10% of their original capital back.  He, like Cathie, stood fast on his "picks" ... then, just as Cathie did and does, began to promote/bail/swap/promote/bail/swap and so forth.

     

    Life is great...if you can stand it!  Here's a brief on Michael Murphy:

     

    https://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2000/10/15/289518/index.htm

     

    Interesting story and you can not say that the guy was not at least somewhat sensible:

     

    Another explanation for Murphy's lackluster results is that he's a market timer, constantly shifting from stocks to cash in hopes of exploiting seasonal patterns he believes he's spotted. In April, after the Nasdaq crashed, Murphy told investors to get fully invested, theorizing that the battered market would skip the traditional summer slump in tech stocks. In July he reversed course, telling subscribers he was selling all his stocks to avoid an imminent 25% drop in the Nasdaq. Didn't happen. Murphy's about-face prompted a wave of angry calls and e-mail from subscribers. "Customer service," he recalls, "came to me and said, 'Can you put something on the hotline about what a moron you are? Because a lot of people are calling and saying you're a moron.'" Murphy says he's considering halting the practice of giving his subscribers market-timing advice.

     

     

  6. On 12/17/2022 at 5:14 AM, dealraker said:

    Bruce was incredibly insightful back in the early 90's up until about 2005.  He temporarily blew a fuse!  It was really bad.  But he has been a huge eye opener for me.

     

    I think it was in 2011 and I already new at that time about WB and co quite well, but Berkowitz and his thesis was also part of the reason I finally decided to invest in BAC and other US large banks in the end of that year. Those were a very good investments for me and I was very thankful for him, for educating me and everyone else on the attractiveness of big banks at that time in very plain language. (I miss this with JOE:)). And you would not believe how many mistakes I made with banks before, mainly by wrongly focusing on European banks:). So Berkowitz is my hero for this episode:)

     

  7. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/binance-faces-too-big-to-fail-worry-as-ftx-collapse-boosts-dominance?srnd=premium-europe

     

    Even for those who ostensibly support CZ and his exchange, Binance’s market supremacy in the wake of FTX’s collapse doesn’t sit well in an industry that preaches decentralization. Weakness in crypto prices that followed headlines about CZ’s company this week reinforce concern that Binance has become a “too big to fail” player in a market where, unlike traditional finance, there’s no one to stop a potential failure, offer a bailout or soothe any contagion. “I don’t think Binance is trying to cause problems, but that organization is now a risk to all of us,” said Mark Lurie, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Shipyard Software, a developer of decentralized exchanges. “Anytime you have one player controlling substantial amount of volume, there’s a lot of systematic risks.” As Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire collapsed into bankruptcy and the 30-year-old former billionaire swapped a luxury penthouse for a Bahamas jail cell, Binance has increased its market share to 52.9%, its largest ever, and grown its share of derivatives trading to 67.2%, according to CryptoCompare. Binance’s dominance came up in a Senate committee hearing on FTX on Wednesday, with Tennessee Senator Bill Hagerty saying a hypothetical similar implosion by CZ’s exchange would prove “catastrophic for the cryptocurrency industry, and it would prove catastrophic to all of the consumers that utilize the industry.”

  8. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/china-s-care-homes-rush-to-protect-elderly-from-covid-surge

     

    The same hunkering down is taking place across China, as its under-vaccinated elderly suddenly find themselves surrounded by infection after three years of little threat. In cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing, local governments are enforcing on care homes the same closed-loop system that factories adopted during earlier outbreaks. No one comes, and no one goes. Time is running out. Evidence from around the world shows that facilities for seniors often see the biggest waves of deaths, which is why countries prioritized vaccinating care home occupants first. That’s not been the case in China, where 38,000 homes provide beds for 8.2 million seniors according to 2020 data. Only 42% of those aged over 80 have had booster shots. That’s well below the levels seen in other countries that reopened after abandoning strict approaches toward the virus.  “It’s just the start of a real tough time,” read a statement from Pudong Shinan Nursing Home in Shanghai explaining its new rules this week. “When the experts say 80-90% of the population will eventually get infected, we are scared!”

    National Health Commission officials last week gave rudimentary advice to care homes facing potential outbreaks of Covid. Minimize the risk of infection by improving ventilation, practicing hand hygiene, wearing masks and avoiding gatherings. They also urged the elderly to get vaccinated, without making shots mandatory. Persuading the elderly has proven to be a tough task. Many older Chinese are reluctant to get vaccinated, said Feng Wang, a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine. Forcing them to get vaccinated risks creating a backlash in a society that traditionally has emphasized respecting seniors, he said. “It’s a tremendous gamble,” said Wang. “If an elderly person resists, I’m pretty sure there will be a lot of reluctance among the nurses, the local neighborhood committees and officials to force elderly people to take the vaccine.”

  9. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-16/covid-unleashed-in-beijing-shows-rest-of-china-what-comes-next

     

    Beijing’s rapidly spreading Covid outbreak has turned the Chinese capital of 22 million people into a virtual ghost town as stores close and restaurants empty, underscoring the cost of President Xi Jinping’s sudden pivot away from Covid Zero. Bucking expectations for a managed and gradual transition, Xi’s government is now allowing the virus to run rampant. While officials have abandoned efforts to track case numbers, anecdotal evidence suggests entire families and offices in Beijing have become infected in the span of just days — a potential harbinger of worse things to come in other parts of China with less-developed health care systems. 

     

    Beijing residents are hunkering down at home, either because they’re scared of catching the virus or because they already have it. While many grocery stores are still open to provide essentials, delivery services for food and other goods are facing delays with workers out sick. The retrenchment suggests China’s economy is likely to get worse before the benefits of exiting Covid Zero start to kick in next year. “My whole office is positive and down,” said one Beijing resident, a project manager named Emile, who asked not to identified by his full name. “It seems everyone in the city has a fever or headache. Beijing looks like a ghost town.”

     

    Infected or not, the abrupt change of policies has caught the country by surprise and many are frustrated after years of being told by China’s state media that Covid had to be stamped out by whatever means necessary. With the pathogen running rampant, the Communist Party is still insisting that Xi’s strategy will “stand the test of history” even as the president himself remains silent on the dramatic shift. 

  10. Copper was mentioned in the discussion but it relates to other types of commodities and their ability to store value over long term as well. In a sense, that using them as a store of value you aren't you also making some bet against human ingenuity? Basically you own something that a. does not produce any interest, rent or fcf, but b. at the same time still carries some risk of being disrupted (produced cheaper etc). This is more philosophical / long term idea, not some forecast on any particular commodity price, but isn't it right? Now, well run businesses, involved in producing commodities, especial if they do this by being cost efficient or adding value another way, is completely different and much better bet in my opinion. For another, maybe somewhat crazy, example consider results of tobacco vs tobacco companies over history:)?

     

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-27/this-startup-may-have-the-key-to-unlock-millions-of-tons-of-copper

     

    In what could prove a game changer for global supply, a US startup says it’s solved a puzzle that has frustrated the mining world for decades. If successful, the discovery by Jetti Resources could unlock millions of tons of new copper to feed power grids, building sites and car fleets around the globe, narrowing and possibly even closing the deficit. At its simplest, Jetti’s technology is focused on a common type of ore that traps copper behind a thin film, making it too costly and difficult to extract. The result is that vast quantities of metal have been left stranded over the decades in mine-waste piles on the surface, as well as in untapped deposits. To crack the code, Jetti has developed a specialized catalyst to disrupt the layer, allowing rock-eating microbes to go to work at releasing the trapped copper.The technology still needs to be proven on a large scale. But the riches at stake are pulling in some of the industry’s most powerful players.BHP Group, the biggest mining company, is already an investor and has now spent months negotiating for a trial plant at its crown jewel copper mine, Escondida in Chile, according to people familiar with the matter. US miner Freeport-McMoRan Inc. began implementing Jetti’s technology at an Arizona mine this year, while rival Rio Tinto Group is planning to roll out a competing but similar process.

     

  11. 1 hour ago, dealraker said:

    Spooky Parsad has bought some of the big tech, you may get him to clarifly what, he may have already done that a while back.  I have $ in Google and Meta but I'm done with those as to adding.  And things like Microsoft don't interest me whatsoever.  I'm anti-cloud focused all the way at this point, to me the theme has the entire world chasing it endlessly.  The asset managers are obsessed upon too.  I like homebuilding and banks, but these aren't continual performers of course...they aren't the sustainable types.  But Joe may be.  Joe is exceptionally stimulating to me these days.  I'm trying to read some each day about Joe and let it add up.  I began following Bruce Berkowitz by early 1991 when he worked for Smith Barney and was chanting up the value stuff big time.  I was an original investor in his mutual fund (the only fund I ever bought) and got a 3x outcome.  But his foray into stuff, particularly his hiring of his bro-in-law and the ponytail...then his multi-swapping of stocks...AIG and such,  lost me and I got out.  But we all stray and I think Bruce with Joe may be on to the game again.

     

    Rambling.  I'll add to all the exchanges and rails should time and price come around.  Then those insurance brokers are always out there and continually messing with my limits of belief- to prove me dead wrong yet again!

     

    Very interesting, thanks!

  12. 1 hour ago, mattee2264 said:

     

    Well currently at just below 4000 markets are placing a 20x multiple on current earnings. That is a pretty generous multiple when the Fed is telling us rates will hit 5% in 2023 and there seems to be a lot more downside for earnings as the full impact of rate hikes hasn't been felt, inflation is still more of a tailwind than a headwind to nominal earnings and the consumer has been able to stretch to continue spending and the jobs market is still holding up well.

     

    With a soft landing type scenario I think markets will trade in the 3400-3800 range with modestly declining earnings weighing on the indices but somewhat offset by speculation that the pause/pivot is coming closer and cheer about falling inflation figures. But I do not expect a V shaped recovery. The economic strength of 2021 was a mirage and even with a pivot credit wouldn't be easy enough to make financial engineering as easy as it used to be. On the other hand inflation is quite helpful in easing the burden (if the market goes sideways in nominal terms but inflation stays in the mid single digits then over a few years valuations become more reasonable). 

     

    I think the possibilities of this (for the USA at least) are quite high perhaps as much as 50%. So far it does look more like a slowdown as the unprecedented stimulus wears off and consumers and businesses cut back in response to higher costs. That should produce a mild if not brief recession. 

     

    In a hard landing offset by a pivot/pause/decline in the terminal rate you probably get a slightly lower bottom (maybe 3200) but a faster recovery because it will once again confirm the Fed put which makes it impossible for sentiment to get bearish enough to make proper bear market lows. As in a hard landing scenario inflation probably comes down quite rapidly in 2023 I can see the Fed pivoting pretty damn quickly. I would put this at a 40% probability. 

     

    I think to go 3000 or below you would need a hard landing AND a Fed which refuses to budge OR some kind of financial crisis. All seems fairly unlikely. Maybe 10% probability. 

     

     

     

    Thanks for you answer!

  13. 9 hours ago, Gregmal said:

    Are they going to abandon their efforts to “flatten the curve”? Remember when we believed that shit? Lol

     

    Not sure how will play it but so far:

     

    "Anecdotal real-time data point to sharp drops in the use of roads and public transport as fear of the virus constrains activity in much the same way as official lockdowns. The development is a fresh blow to an economy that needs consumer demand to mitigate the chilling effect of a chronic real-estate crisis. It suggests that consumer-facing indicators, such as retail sales, are likely to fall further before herd immunity can kick in."

  14. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-12-15/us-blacklists-more-china-tech-companies-escalating-trade-fight?srnd=premium-europe

     

    There were some positive developments recently, especially on geopolitical rethorics from ccp and then this 180 turn around on covid (not sure how it will end thougt), but it seems that US just escallates more and more. And Chinas RE situation and economy is not getting better at all. Also re shareholder returns, audit solution is great, but what is interesting, that there are no major positive changes on big tech: didi, tencents games, ant ipo anything? So far seems no change on attitude in big tech from ccp?

     

    Found this / on big tech: https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-leaders-plot-pivot-back-toward-boosting-economy-11671103324?mod=hp_lead_pos7

     

    Separately, government officials in recent weeks have begun re-examining policies for the technology and education sectors—two of the hardest-hit targets of recent regulatory campaigns—and are preparing to wrap up long-running investigations against internet companies. One such move would allow ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc.’s mobile apps to be restored to domestic app stores, according to people familiar with the issue.

     

    • Like 1
  15. https://www.economist.com/zaluzhny-transcript

     

    TE: Are your allies holding you back in any way from advancing on Crimea?
    VZ: I can’t answer the question of whether they are holding back or not. I will simply state the facts. In order to reach the borders of Crimea, as of today we need to cover a distance of 84km to Melitopol. By the way, this is enough for us, because Melitopol would give us a full fire control of the land corridor, because from Melitopol we can already fire at the Crimean Isthmus, with the very same himars and so on. Why am I saying this to you? Because it goes back to my earlier point about resources. I can calculate, based on the task at hand, what kind of resource is needed to build combat capability.
    We are talking about the scale of World War One…that is what Antony Radakin [Britain’s top soldier] told me. When I told him that the British Army fired a million shells in World War One, I was told, “We will lose Europe. We will have nothing to live on if you fire that many shells.” When they say, “You get 50,000 shells”, the people who count the money faint. The biggest problem is that they really don’t have it.
    With this kind of resources I can’t conduct new big operations, even though we are working on one right now. It is on the way, but you don’t see it yet. We use a lot fewer shells.
    I know that I can beat this enemy. But I need resources. I need 300 tanks, 600-700 ifvs, 500 Howitzers. Then, I think it is completely realistic to get to the lines of February 23rd. But I can’t do it with two brigades. I get what I get, but it is less than what I need. It is not yet time to appeal to Ukrainian soldiers in the way that Mannerheim appealed to Finnish soldiers. We can and should take a lot more territory.
    TE: What do you make of Russia’s mobilisation?
    VZ: Russian mobilisation has worked. It is not true that their problems are so dire that these people will not fight. They will. A tsar tells them to go to war, and they go to war. I’ve studied the history of the two Chechen wars—it was the same. They may not be that well equipped, but they still present a problem for us. We estimate that they have a reserve of 1.2m-1.5m people… The Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops. I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv.

  16. 40 minutes ago, dealraker said:

    A neighborhool lady posted video of a fox, called it a coyote (which we have tons of), and proceeded to awfulize that her sometimes outdoor pets had been eaten.  We'd been on that neighborhood FB page suggesting she indoor the little creatures, but she had not seen a coyote and had to live it to believe it.  There's not a single outdoor pet here now in a neighborhood where we once had probably 50.  

     

    In any event she eventually penned on the Watership Downs neighborhood FB page, "Charlie, I don't need your lecture."  We laughed; yes she was correct, I had given her a speech!  So I'll lecture this a.m. maybe...given I tend to do that.

     

    Prices...oh yea it is simply this, we don't like to see the quotes go down.  So along the way back in the early 2000's I bought the trading houses, CME, NDAQ, and ICE.  I generally, when in quite the "oh my...this is one heck of a good business" mode, put a whopping "should-have-done-more-in-hindsight" $30,000 or so into something like this.  And then ole dealraker just goes plum hibernate mode.

     

    And I have well into 7 figures of these businesses and basically never hear anyone ever mention them.  But they are there, still independent, and my limited brainpower says, "How do you ever find a better business than this?"   Others of course will disagree.

     

    And I didn't sell a couple of years ago- the taxable account thingy- when it looked as if the stocks may have gotten as we say "ahead of themselves" and whatnot.  But the question I ask is simply this?  Did those stocks get overpriced?  Now overpriced to me is truly long term, I tend to be the type to make fun of the cyrpto go-go gang's of today and the "Tesla's run by a mad genius and he'll dominate the world soon" types.  My view is, as was posted by someone else on the crypto forum in a positive mode, that crypto is priced by "myth" and by the current "narrative"...both the cyrpto poster considered good and permanant, yes my view is of certainty myth/narrative to change violently at some point.  But I'm old, and my great nieces were obsessed with dodgecoin and prancing about (the price had gone blisteringly up)...now only to be saddled with a house in the Triangle of NC, one they paid a lot for and the value is below that---and it has endless problems that need a-fixin...and nearly complete cryto losses.  Thus my biased lecture to them---  I had, back in the downturn of Covid suggested they buy some stocks instead of dodgecoin.  Based on the request of my sister/bro-in-law and their parents (I have no biological children and am quite close to them)- I sent them a 20 year summary of my investments.  They yawned and said, "You're cute and old and so-so-so old fashioned and out of it."

     

    But I'm off topic as ususal, not too serious (as usual), but forums are placed to vent and opine.  My view is that any time you can grab hold of a good business and "Rip" (that's Van Winkle) you are best served by doing just that.

     

    Prices will vary.  What's ole dealrakers view?  It is precisly the same as 13 years ago or so when that asshole Warren Buffett stole my Burlington Northern stock.  I had bought several hundred thousands of that puppy, even got my investment club to buy it.  They were off-the-charts delighted when Berkshire, a stock the club also owned, bought Burlington.  They licked their chops, brought out the wine, and celebrated.

     

    My view?  Well some of the guys in the club I eyeballed regularly for my life's direction (I grew up without parents and looked all around for models to go by)---- felt the same way as I did, that we got the shaft when the whiz kid came a knocking and literally stole our prize possession.  Yep, I knew the guys who thought the same as me because I was the spring chicken in the club still after years and years being the youngest.  And I listened and watched...even probed these guys endlessly because I wanted investment results like them!  I suspected they were well-off, most have died now and let's just say the proof was in their donations.  Buy and hold good businesses?

     

    Prices vary often and intensely, but good businesses...maybe well-above average businesses exist and tend to stay that way for some time.  Most think Microsoft, Meta, Google, Apple, Tesla, Amazon and such.  But there are tons of others with relatively small market caps- market caps that won't bump up against historical limits that suggest bigger market cap may be the first time in history such exists, that cloud/tech/media may have to take a time break?

     

    Growth and stock prices won't be linear but to me the prices of both ICE and CME today aren't absurd, and there are tons more.  The Buffett types come around and steal them when they can, if it is appropriate to the system and such.

     

    They weren't cheap either in the early 2000's when I bought them.  Value investing ain't just 10 pe's and such.  I'd messed around with England/London's Jardine Lloyd Thompson through the years, yet another toll booth (ole dealraker loves toll booth businesses, those brokers, trading houses, railroads that Train quoted Buffett on near 50 years ago) things over there in my ancestry land.  Jardine too got stolen from me, literally stolen, by Marsh.

     

    So now I look at the London Stock Exchange often, Microsoft somehow's got involved.  A long period of not such good results?  My best guess is that will change.  

     

    Lots of variants in the value investing world.  Making money is what we care about and it takes being willing to exist for long periods under other people's pricing, not yours or mine.  Life is great if you can stand it.

     

    Ranting, rambling or maybe lecturing?.  Good morning world.

     

     

     

     

     

    Thanks for sharing your perspective! I do not think it is off the topic at all.

  17. 1 hour ago, mattee2264 said:

    Investment banks are only just starting to properly slash 2023 EPS estimates. Morgan Stanley saying $195 per share. JPM saying $205 per share. Goldman Sachs $225 per share. This is all pretty consistent with the bear market being far from over with earnings providing the next leg down. 

     

    I think paying too much attention to the Fed is making markets even more short sighted than usual. People forget that markets usually bottom long after the Fed starts easing. And that doesn't seem to be on the menu for a while now even if the Fed is starting to slow the pace of easing. 

     

    The 2022 bear market was an inflation/policy shock which is subsiding. The 2023-2024 bear market will be led far more by earnings and policymakers hands are tied to a far greater extent than previous recessions this century. 

     

    What would be your view in terms of probabilities, that market will test previous lows or reach substantial new lows, say 3000 or below, in the next 6-12 month?

    • Like 1
  18. 30 minutes ago, Viking said:

    Making money (what we all really care about) for the past 10 years was really all about following the Fed. That was even more true as we began 2022. At the beginning of 2022, the Fed told everyone it was raising interest rates… and what did we get? Worst results in bonds since American independence in 1776 and a bear market in stocks. Ouch! But we all were given fair warning.
     

    So what did we learn from the Fed today? They are going to raise the Fed Funds rate to +5% and keep it there for a long time. What did financial markets do? They yawned.  Really?
     

    So as we close off 2022 we have a really interesting set up for investors. Now i could go off on a tangent and talk about conspiracy theories and UFO sightings and secret meetings… but hey… what is an investor supposed to do with that? 
     

    Lets get back to reality… So as we close off 2022 we have a really interesting set up for investors. Someone is wrong: the Fed or financial markets. 
     

    If the Fed increases the Fed Funds rate to over 5% and keeps it there for most of 2023 then stock averages are going to get torched (hello S&P500 at 3,300). Bonds? I’m not sure where yields go across the curve… short term yields rise and perhaps long term stay kind of where they are?

     

    Or maybe the bond market is right… inflation comes down aggressively and by mid-2023 the US is in a mild recession (bringing inflation down even faster - perhaps close to 2%)… and the Fed actually cuts rates in 2H 2023. Bonds rock and stocks do ok (setting the table for stocks to rock later in 2023 and  2024). 
     

    I am wondering in 2023 if we do not get a slowing economy/perhaps even a mild recession with the job market remaining relatively resilient. 
     

    So what is an investor to do? Short answer: i’m not sure. We still have a few weeks to figure it out… and we post our top ideas for 2023 🙂 

     

    I am not sure what to expect either, so my answer to this now is not to have strong opinion and to have approximately equal split between more value/short duration and more growth/long duration assets.

     

    Also re what fed has said, situation is of course somewhat different (inflation currently), but I remember very well (because I waited for more better prices and somewhat missed that opportunity), how stocks went down almost 20 per cent in the end of 2018, after fed telegraphed policy normalization and then they just changed their minds abruptly and all opportunities quickly were gone. I am no way expecting them to do the same now or in near term, but they surely can and will change their mind how much to increase and how long to hold rates higher if situation with inflation/economy/etc will be different in 6 month.

     

    But today already you can find some really good opportunities in the market I believe, especially between individual stocks. But is it a time to be very aggressive, I think it is not.

     

  19. My understanding is that Patriot systems is needed for possible balistic missille atacks, and thee could also come from Iran in the future. RE drones, they say in a video one round / 6 bullets of this "creature" is enought to take one drone down: 

     

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