DHUnplugged Podcast

• DHUnplugged #749: Fed UP And OUT

  CEOs Selling stock Fed Put in question - Powell under Fire from White House - Markets FED UP! Earnings Season - VERY CLOUDY USD Weak - what are investors thinking? PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter  Warm-Up - Chaos - What next? - Rates - moving in the wrong direction again - USD Weak - what are investors thinking? - A moment for Pope Francis - CEOs - Selling stock Markets - Markets have had it - Done with this nonsense - Fed Put in question - Powell under Fire from White House - Markets FED UP! - Earnings Season - VERY CLOUDY - VIX - back above 30 again (~35) - HyperScalers - not so Hyper... Update One Time Competition - Put Lyrics to Music - The Tariff Blues (DHUnplugged Shirt and Song Play) - We have a clear winner from all of the entries and will announce and play at end of the show - I think it is awesome! ECB The Governing Council today decided to lower the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points. In particular, the decision to lower the deposit facility rate -- the rate through which the Governing Council steers the monetary policy stance -- is based on its updated assessment of the inflation outlook, the dynamics of underlying inflation and the strength of monetary policy transmission. Powell Under Fire - President Trump says "The ECB is expected to cut interest rates for the 7th time, and yet, “too late” Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always too late and wrong.....Too Late should have lowered interest rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!" - President Trump says he is "not happy" with Fed Chair Jerome Powell; says he thinks Mr. Powell would leave if he asks him to do so - Is he going to ask - will he leave???????? - How will markets react? --- STOP THE PRESSES - Already did a 180 on that..."No intention of firing Powell" Flurry of Deal Comments Tuesday - As expected, most contradict the other - Confusion as to how long - general happy thoughts - nothing concrete - Markets reacted positively then came off highs Pentagon in Chaos? - White House looking for a new Secretary of Defense, according to NPR - Will he now have a Podcast or go back to Fox and Friends? - Of course the White House press secretary is denying Skinny Minny - Eli Lilly soaring after announcing positive late-stage trial results for its oral weight-loss and diabetes drug, orforglipron, paving the way for a possible launch by the end of 2025 - Novo Nordisk is looking for FDA approval of their pill-form Wegovy weight loss medication Some Eco - April Philadelphia Fed Index -26.4 vs. 10.0 Briefing.com consensus; prior 12.5 - March Building Permits 1.482 mln vs. 1.455 mln Briefing.com consensus; prior revised to 1.459 mln from 1.456 mln - March Housing Starts 1.324 mln vs. 1.418 mln Briefing.com consensus; prior revised to 1.494 mln for 1.501 mln - March Leading Indicators -0.7% vs. -0.4% Briefing.com consensus; prior revised to -0.2% from -0.3% IMF - Downgrades US ECO - The US growth forecast for this year has been given the biggest downgrade among advanced economies by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a result of uncertainty caused by trade tariffs. - Growth is now expected to be 1.8% this year, down from the IMF's estimate of 2.7% for the US in January. - The sharp increase in tariffs and uncertainty will lead to a "significant slowdown" in global growth, the Fund predicts. NVDA - NVIDIA breaks below $100 as China-based rival Huawei reportedly preps updated AI chip for mass shipment - Last week, NVDA gapped lower after writing down its inventory by around $5.5 bln,

  --------  

  1:00:49
• DHUnplugged #748: Who’s to Blame?

  If this wasn't idiotic it would be funny President Miyagi at it again - Tariff on - Tariff Off Winning - We are Winning so much. Too much winning! Earnings season rolls on PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter  Warm-Up - If this wasn't idiotic it would be funny - President Miyagi at it again - Tariff on - Tariff Off - Winning - We are Winning so much. Too much winning! - Earnings season rolls on - Need a new CTP stock Markets - Key Reversal Indicator - 1st Green cluster bottom on Monday and Tuesday - Called the near-term bottom - Stock markets slammed - President Trump discussing stocks - Economic Pissing Match - Even more tariffs, or bluffs - VIX HITS 60 back UNDER 30 ANNOUNCING - One Time Competition - Put Lyrics to Music - The Tariff Blues (DHUnplugged Shirt and Song Play) Nice end to the week! - Markets gave some hope to the idea that more exceptions were coming - Across the board, markets gained for the week in highly volatile trade - Last week and the week before saw extreme movements - Bond yields (10 yr) swung between 3.7% and 4.5% (add that to historic records) - At one point equity futures were swinging 1% every 10 minutes in average during height of volatility Wild Ride VIX - Moving lower as things settle down a bit - This is something that everyone should understand - VIX does not stay elevated forever... - VIX moves lower as shocks expire - Great tool for risk management and trading during wild market moves --- Get in and out... Not Inflationary..(wink) - China increased tariffs to 125% - US Increased China tariffs to 145% --- Speaking with colleagues and business owners - they are raising prices as cannot absorb thee levels Tariffs - Are we sick of this discussion yet? - hares of automakers jumped during midday trading Monday following President Donald Trump saying he's looking to "help some of the car companies." --- Auto companies are expecting to see a drop in vehicle sales in the millions, higher new and used vehicle prices, and increased costs of more than $100 billion for the industry, according to research reports from Wall Street and automotive analysts. - BCG expects tariffs to add $110 billion to $160 billion on an annual run rate basis in costs to the industry, which could impact 20% of U.S. new-vehicle market revenues, increasing production costs for both U.S. and non-U.S. manufacturers. - Weekend - Some exemptions are being made for semi's, smartphones and other electronics (Shares jumped Monday) Workaround - Apple airlifted $2 bln worth of iPhones from India ahead of tariffs Boeing - Chinese airlines have been ordered not to take any further deliveries of Boeing aircraft in response to the U.S. imposing 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, Bloomberg News reports. Zero Day - Newsline: Wild intraday gyrations in stocks since "liberation day" have put investors more on edge than ever, and the popularity of zero-day-to-expiration options is partly to blame. - Zero-day-to-expiration options are contracts that expire the same day that they're traded. - The trading volume of 0DTE options tied to the S&P 500 surged to 8.5 million in April, a 23% jump since the beginning of the year and accounting for roughly 7% of the total volume in U.S. option markets, according to data from JPMorgan. NVDA - News Drop - Nvidia said on Tuesday that it will take a quarterly charge of about $5.5 billion tied to exporting H20 graphics processing units to China and other destinations. - The H20 is an AI chip for China that was designed to comply with U.S. export restrictions. It generated an estimated $12 billion to $15 billion in revenue in 2024.

  --------  

  59:59
• DHUnplugged #747: Bluffing and Pissing Matches

  Tariffs are killing markets. A glimpse int what happens when we take a difference course Markets making some of the wort moves in decades Billionaires - all in on Trump lost billions... WAIT !!!!!! Maybe a 90-day pause on Tariffs now...Or Not... More finesse, less sledge hammer? PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Check this out and find out more at: http://www.interactivebrokers.com Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter  Warm-Up - Markets making some of the worst moves in decades - Billionaires - all in on Trump lost billions... - WAIT !!!!!! Maybe a 90-day pause on Tariffs now...Or Not... - More finesse, less sledge hammer? Markets - Key Reversal Indicator - 1st Green cluster bottom on Monday.. Oversold? - Stock markets slammed - President Trump discussing stocks - Economic Pissing Match - Even more tariffs, or bluffs - VIX HITS 60! -- A Quick Poem - Green Eggs and Navarro --- One of the gents that responded to Vietnam's desire to have zero tariffs as "not enough" DAX on Monday and other Markets - Opened up down 10% - clawed back a bunch by end of the day - European stocks down 1.5% YTD 2024 - US Stock bearing the brunt of the move - Hong Kong (after being closed Friday) - closed Monday DOWN 13%! - Monday in Japan, Markets halted, futures trading suspended as Nikkei and Topix plunge more than 5% --- Follow up - then up 6% the next day - Monday YTD US Markets: Heads Up - Just in... - Tuesday at 12:30PM - 'White House Press Secretary says 104% additional tariffs went into effect at noon eastern time because China has not removed it's retaliation. The 104% additional tariff will be collected starting tomorrow April 9th'  -Markets were trying to right themselves - up big to start the day - then this headline.... - What if  - China comes back at 200%? More: - Tuesday afternoon : White House Secretary Karoline Leavitt answers questions on trade at briefing: President Trump not considering delay in tariffs that are due to go into effect tomorrow at 12:01 AM - Where is the negotiation? Seems like a pissing match or bluff with unlimited funds. If you are interested - Rand Paul making all sorts of sense this morning - Trades are win-win. Trade does not mean that one side has to win and one lose. - https://www.cnbc.com/video/2025/04/08/sen-rand-paul-on-trump-tariffs-trade-is-an-integral-part-of-capitalism.html Stupid - Taiwan's top financial regulator said on Sunday it will impose temporary curbs on short-selling of shares to help deal with potential market turmoil from U.S. President Donald Trump's new import tariffs, and will take other steps as needed. - Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement it would limit the number of shares that can be sold short and raise the minimum short-selling margin ratio to 130% from 90%, starting from Monday and lasting until Friday. - We have seen how this plays out in the past. More references to bluffing - "I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they're playing with a pair of twos," Bessent said during an interview on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "What do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them." VIX - Hits 60 on Monday - then backs off to 45 - Not often we see a run like that. - Still at 45 shows big concerned about near-term volatility. --- S&P 500 top to bottom 7% move today - VIX was at 37 - back to 52 BREAK - IBKR Billionaires losing $$ - Do we feel bad? - Sample of losses on Liberation Day - Zuck lost $18B - Bezos lost $15B What? - Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says Americans looking to retire aren’t concerned about day...

  --------  

  1:04:45
• DHUnplugged #746: Best Deal Ever!

  Big changes - lots of year-end market S&P 500 downgrades. Recession and stagflation April - a quick look at some interesting highlights of April (historically) Bill Gates out with a big prediction The Best Deal Ever! (ELON) PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter  Warm-Up - Big changes - lots of year end market S&P 500 downgrades - Recession and stagflation - April - a quick look at some interesting highlights of April (historically) - Bill Gates out with a big prediction - The Best Deal Ever! (ELON) Markets - Corrections happen - Market jumped off the down worst levels on Monday - is worst priced in? - Earnings season starts 4/11 - JPM to report - Year end price targets - lowering - Yields DOWN - Was that the plan all along? OpenAi - OpenAI on Monday announced it had closed its $40 billion funding round, the most ever raised by a private tech company. - The deal values OpenAI at $300 billion, including the new capital. - The round comes to $30 billion from SoftBank and $10 billion from a syndicate of investors. Google Trends - Stagflation - Keyword Search hit highest point in a long time. - Lots of talk about the potential for higher inflation and softer jobs Friday is the UnEmp Report - Expectations are that the rate will tick up from 4.1% to 4.2% - 145-150k people added to the jobs rolls ---- That would till be good numbers. Tariff Day - AKA Liberation Day - April 2nd is the date that the retaliatory tariffs go on- - Facts say you? (I am not a smart man....) --- Between China and Canada, Mexico, estimates that the tariffs would bring in $150 Billion in 2025. - The US Stock market has lost $5.25 TRILLION during the same time - US GDP is $29 trillion annually - what is $150 BILLION going to do? - The U.S. federal budget deficit for fiscal year 2025 is projected to be approximately $1.9 trillion. Reagan - He is revered...ReaganOmics...... - April 25, 1987 -  Radio Address.. - " And today many economic analysts and historians argue that high tariff legislation passed back in that period called the Smoot-Hawley tariff greatly deepened the depression and prevented economic recovery. You see, at first, when someone says, Let's impose tariffs on foreign imports,' it looks like they're doing the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while it works -- but only for a short time. What eventually occurs is: First, homegrown industries start relying on government protection in the form of high tariffs. They stop competing and stop making the innovative management and technological changes they need to succeed in world markets. And then, while all this is going on, something even worse occurs. High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. The result is more and more tariffs, higher and higher trade barriers, and less and less competition. So, soon, because of the prices made artificially high by tariffs that subsidize inefficiency and poor management, people stop buying. Then the worst happens: Markets shrink and collapse; businesses and industries shut down; and millions of people lose their jobs. - https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speech/radio-address-nation-free-and-fair-trade-4 Something to Consider... - Talk on the street: " Tariffs are a negotiation tactic" (What does that mean anyway) -- Assumption: "US will win the negotiation" - - Has anyone considered: What if it does not? - The thought is that it needs to be "fair" Atlanta GDPNOW - Liked when it looks good - disregarded when looks bad - January 31 initial GDP Forecast for Q was +2.9% - Latest April 1  -3.7%

  --------  

  1:02:00
• DHUnplugged #745: The Lag 7

  Inflation - Transitory again.. April 2 dealing approaching! Doctor Copper! Mag 7 = Lag 7 A New Closest to The Pin! PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts! Click HERE for Show Notes and Links DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar. Love the Show? Then how about a Donation? Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter  Warm-Up - Inflation - Transitory again - End of month - March not so good for US Markets - investors may try to squeeze toward the end - Tariff waves - now there is talk of softening - April 2 is the day - next Wednesday. - A restaurant Chain at ALL-TIME highs.... - Turkey - Market Mayhem - An fun Limerick from a Listener Markets - Doctor Copper! - Mag 7 = Lag 7 - Tesla Woes- Stock bouncing but challenges still remain - March Sadness for Markets... Attention Collectors!  - The New DHUnplugged shirts are finally here! We are going to sell only 6 - the donations received by the end of the month above $250 will get a shirt - Nice white swim/light long sleeve. (The rest are reserved for winners and special occasions) - We will also have the #1 as the first shirt ever out to the public for $1,000. -  Put your address and size in the comments Tariff Day - April 2nd is the date that the retaliatory tariffs go on - Why April 2nd? Why not April 1st?????? --- Worried that is April Fool's day and no one would take them seriously? Copper Prices - 45 year high - What is this? Usually a predictor of the economic conditions - - Seems like a little inflation (China also pumping) - FYI - An average single-family home contains roughly 439 pounds (or 200 kilograms) of copper, primarily in wiring, plumbing, appliances, and hardware Doctor Copper What about Coffee? - Chart - Cents per pound - These increases are driven by climate-related impacts on major coffee-producing countries like Brazil and Vietnam, as well as financial speculation in the market - DOUBLE THE PRICE of last year Coffee Prices Housing Prices - Reports that tariff induced panic is prices of raw materials is pushing prices up - Developers are not going to get behind and this may push prices up - on average $10,000 per new home (at least) Powell on Inflation - Back to Transitory - In his latest speech/commentary last week, he hinted that he believes that the current - During his post-decision press conference last Wednesday, Powell said tariff-induced inflation could be “transitory,” or temporary. - Here we go again! Stagflation Anyone? - Fed sees higher inflation and an economy growing by less than 2% this year - The rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee downgraded its collective outlook for economic growth to 1.7%, down from the last projection of 2.1% in December. In the meantime, officials hiked their inflation outlook, seeing core prices growing at a 2.8% annual pace, up from the previous estimate of 2.5%. - In a statement, the FOMC noted the "uncertainty around the economic outlook has increased," adding that the central bank is "attentive to the risks to both sides of its dual mandate." Meanwhile... - The 3-month Treasury rate inverted against the 10-year for a bit earlier this month. - Currently they are locked at the same rate... - This is the Fed's "preferred" measure of the potential for a recession in the future. Boeing - Boeing wins $20-billion contract for Next Generation Air Dominance program - Win comes after Boeing annual loss, strike, other setbacks - On the news, Boeing's shares rise, Lockheed's fall - Lockheed has been plagued by delays in F-35 upgrade - New name of the aircraft? The F-47 ! New-Clear Energy - A nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Michigan is aiming to make history this fall by becoming the first reactor in the U.S. to restart operations after shutting down to be eventually dismantled.

  --------  

  1:05:19

More Business podcasts

Trending Business podcasts

About DHUnplugged Podcast