Juggling Dynamite

A strengthening US dollar is a headwind for S&P 500 earnings, but an even more significant shock is the evaporation in the price of oil the past 7 months: every dollar drop in energy sector earnings expectations is not being met with an equal rise in the nine other S&P sectors.

Here is a direct video link.

Consequently, energy earnings are devastating S&P earnings just as the latest Crestmont P/E marks the current valuation of US large caps at the 98th percentile of this fourteen-decade series; ie., the most expensive stocks in market history but for a few manic months near the tech peak of 2000. All good…

Danielle was a guest today with Kerry Lutz on The Financial Survival Network talking about recent developments in the world economy and markets. You can listen to an audio clip of the segment here.

This clear-eyed discussion is well worth the 26 minute listen.

Merryn Somerset Webb interviews Paul Hodges about the reality of an aging population and the global economy’s ‘Great Unwinding’.  Here is a direct video link.

“Merryn: To bring that back to the oil price, the oil price up at $100 was a function not of real demand but of stimulated demand?

Paul Hodges: It was a complete and utter charade from beginning to end. There has never been, since 2009, a single moment anywhere in the world where there was a supply shortage, a customer didn’t get the oil, the petrol, or anything else that they wanted, but it was all built on wishful thinking from the central banks. They were saying, “We can create demand by printing money.”

… You have to love honest statements. Some British humor is also much appreciated.