1. META was Trading $417 Last Night
$530 was high so -20% correction from highs.
2. Rate Watch–20-Year Treasury Bond.
A series of lower highs….50 day and 200 day sloping downward.
3. Bonds vs. Other Assets All Trending Down.
4. Japanese Stocks in Bull Market…..Yen 34-Year Low Helping Exports
YEN new lows
5. Chinese Loading Up on Gold.
From Dave Lutz at Jones GOLDEN– Huge bets by Chinese speculators on rising gold prices have helped super-charge the precious metal’s rally to an all-time high this month, in a sign that Asian traders are beginning to eclipse their western counterparts in their influence on the bullion market. Long gold positions held by futures traders on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) climbed to 295,233 contracts, equivalent to 295 tonnes of gold. That marks a rise of almost 50 per cent since late September before geopolitical tensions flared up in the Middle East. A record bullish position of 324,857 contracts was hit earlier this month, according to Bloomberg data going back to 2015, FT reports.
6. AMD -31% from high …200-day in play
Tech/AI name about to test 200day
7. Spotify Massive Free Cash Flow Growth
8. Effective Fed Funds Rate Over 5%…..Savings Accounts paying 0.5%
Make sure your cash is getting 5%
9. Big Cities Homicide Drops
WSJ
https://www.wsj.com/us-news/murder-rates-down-new-york-san-francisco-philadelphia-508b6855
10. Why is Auto Insurance Going Up? Ben Carlson
Data from Standard & Poors shows personal providers of home and auto insurance have been losing money for a few years now:
The payouts exceed the premiums earned from customers.
So what happens from here?
Used car prices are coming down after the dramatic re-pricing during the pandemic. Hopefully, that will filter through to lower prices and lower premiums now that supply chains have healed.
It’s harder to see the other problem areas improve in the years ahead.
We Americans love driving massive trucks and SUVs. With new technologies, our vehicles are becoming increasingly complex. Unless we ban smartphones while driving, I don’t see a path to a road full of better drivers until we have fully self-driving cars.
And natural disasters only seem to be increasing in their frequency and severity.1
It’s difficult to envision a scenario in which insurance rates drastically decline to levels consumers were accustomed to.
My only financial advice is to shop around when your insurance comes due and you see higher premiums.
And get used to paying higher insurance prices, especially in certain states.
Further Reading:
How Much is That $70,000 Truck Costing You
1A less severe hurricane and wildfire season would obviously help, too.
Read the full story https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2024/04/is-auto-insurance-becoming-a-crisis/