Topley’s Top 10 – September 8, 2022

1. Behind the Markets Podcast with Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel and co-host Jeremy Schwartz –  Featuring Matthew Topley

Wharton Finance Professor and author of Stocks for the Long Run, Jeremy Siegel and co-host Jeremy Schwartz, Global Chief Investment Officer at WisdomTree, discuss the how and why of market performance with leading economists and market strategists so you know what’s ahead for the economy and your portfolio.

I am honored to be featured on the show! Thank you Jeremy Schwartz and Jeremy Siegal! And thank you all for listening!

Please reach out with any questions or to discuss any of the topics in more detail.

2. Institutional Traders Net Speculative Put Hedging Last Week was 3x More Than 2008

@sentimentrader

Sometimes, there’s a chart that just blows your hair back. In 22 years of doing this, none stand out like this one. Last week, institutional traders bought $8.1 billion worth of put options. They bought less than $1 billion in calls. This is 3x more extreme than 2008.

https://twitter.com/sentimentrader

3. International Equity Panic?….Net Outflows from International Stocks 20 Weeks in a Row

From Dave Lutz Jones Trading “Everybody is slowing down, but the U.S., because of the continuing strength of the jobs market, still seems to be slowing more slowly” – Investors have added money to U.S. equity-focused stock and mutual funds for four of the past six weeks, according to Refinitiv Lipper data, while yanking money from international stock funds for 20 consecutive weeks. That’s the longest streak since a 22-week run of outflows that ended in October 2019, WSJ reports.

4. European Central Bank Well Behind U.S….Rates Barely Positive and Inflation 9.1%

Inflation in the Eurozone jumped to 9.1% in August, a new record in the Eurozone data going back to 1997, according to preliminary data released today by Eurostat. It topped out at 25.2% in Estonia. Germany hit at a record 8.8%.

https://wolfstreet.com/2022/08/31/runaway-inflation-in-the-eurozone-which-kicked-off-in-mid-2021-sets-new-record-wakes-up-even-ridiculously-reckless-ecb/

5. $11B Invested in Solar and Wind for 2022….Passing Oil for First Time Ever.

WSJBy Miriam Gottfried

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blackstone-carlyle-take-different-sides-on-oil-and-gas-investment-11662024781?mod=itp_wsj&ru=yahoo

6. Spread in One-Year Performance Between Small Cap Growth and Large Cap Value Hits Internet Bubble Levels

Bespoke Investment Group

https://www.bespokepremium.com/interactive/posts/think-big-blog/historic-small-cap-volatility

7. Retail Trading Volume Drops to Pre-Covid Levels

Zerohedge-A better indicator of retail capitulation comes from Vanda’s tracker of total retail investors’ traded value in US securities, which has dropped to pre-Covid levels, or around $11BN per day…

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/retail-traders-throw-towel

8. 77% of Single Family Home Renter Renewed Rental Leases…Record Amount.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnburns7/

9. U.S. Labor Day holiday air passengers exceed 2019 levels – TSA

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON, Sept 6 (Reuters) – U.S. officials screened 8.76 million air travelers over the four-day Labor Day weekend, marking the first time holiday weekend screening volume has exceeded 2019 pre-pandemic levels.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said Tuesday the four-day period topped the 8.24 million passengers screened over the Labor Day weekend in 2019, which traditionally marks the end of the busy U.S. summer travel season.

A space launch in Florida that could have impacted air travel over the weekend was scrubbed. On Monday, U.S. airlines canceled 108 flights and delayed 4,075, according to FlightAware.

Overall, U.S. summer travel did not meet early expectations as U.S. airlines trimmed summer capacity by 16% and adjusted staffing models to account for the time it takes to hire and train new employees.

On Thursday, the Transportation Department (USDOT) said the largest U.S. airlines had made “significant changes” to customer service plans with nearly all agreeing to offer passengers meals and overnight stays for delays within their control after a rough summer for travel, during which hundreds of thousands of flights were canceled or delayed.

Reuters reported that many of the changes to the customer service plans came after Secretary Pete Buttigieg told airlines Aug. 19 that he would publish a “dashboard” comparing customer protections airlines that were offering ahead of the busy U.S. Labor Day travel weekend.

Buttigieg said in the first six months, roughly 24% of U.S. airlines domestic flights were delayed and 3.2% were canceled.

“Americans have experienced an unacceptable level of flight — of flight delays and cancellations this year due to airline issues,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday.

Airlines argue that the commitments largely reflect what they were doing even if it was not in writing. The White House says the written commitments made the promises enforceable by the Department of Transportation.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-labor-day-holiday-air-passengers-topped-2019-levels-tsa-2022-09-06/

10. Farnam Street Small Thoughts

he funny thing about teenagers is that very often the best of them, the most interesting and curious, are rather lousy high school students. They have other things on their minds than geeking out every single point on the AP U.S. history exam. They are very often readers, and preparation for elite-college admission does not allow one to be a reader; it’s far too time consuming. These “lousy” students were often among my favorites, and I never feared that they were going to lose a chance at a great education because they didn’t have the stuff of an “elite” admission. They themselves were smart. They didn’t need some Ferrari of a college nudging them along the path to a great education; they were going to get one wherever they went.”

— Caitlin Flanagan

“The problem isn’t that you’re too busy. You are too busy, but that’s not the problem. If you view being busy as the problem, there is no solution. You will always be too busy, and that will never change. As Andy Grove once noted: “A manager’s work is never done. There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.” The problem is that you’re acting like a firefighter instead of a fire marshal.”

— Ed Batista

https://fs.blog