Mostly: Classical

[amarksp]

Hartman

"For now I believe we are in the calm before the storm. With the Holiday Shopping Season upon us, nobody wants to tip the apple cart. Everyone needs to make their numbers over the coming two weeks as we close out the year. Foreign governments don’t want to jam us up right now because they want their exporters to sell all of their goods to holiday shoppers. Once the spending dries up after the first of the year, it will be time to play some global hardball in the currency pits. I believe the gloves come off after the first of the year and we’ll get a better idea of just how vicious the currency and trade wars are going to be.

As it stands, the report today clearly demonstrated a waning appetite for U.S. assets by foreigners. In January I fully expect Treasury prices to come tumbling lower because we have a huge quarterly debt re-funding that is scheduled to take place February 8-10. The last number I remember reading was $157 billion the Treasury will need to borrow during the three-day auctions. In the last 10-year auction foreign investors only bought 9.6% of the offering when they usually buy closer to 45% of the debt. It looks to me like the U.S. will have to offer higher yields in February to sell the huge load of debt. I’ll be looking for my entry point to short bonds in the very near future."

http://www.financialsense.com/Market/daily/wednesday.htm