Real Vision: Finance & Investing

Prices for assets of all kinds were up Wednesday, including stocks, commodities, and cryptocurrencies. The U.S. dollar continued to strengthen, and global bond yields marched higher. That’s despite the emergence of still more signs of underlying weakness, including Robinhood laying off 9% of its workforce. And Russia cut off natural gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria in the latest escalation of the war in Eastern Europe. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan will meet tomorrow to discuss monetary policy, as Governor Haruhiko Kuroda remains committed to an accommodative stance despite the yen’s historic weakness. China, too, is sticking with accommodation, as President Xi Jinping said the government will support major infrastructure projects in cities impacted by renewed coronavirus lockdowns. Darius Dale, founder and CEO of 42 Macro, joins Weston Nakamura to talk about financial markets, geopolitics, and the odds central banks are able to engineer a soft landing for the global economy. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3Lpk36q Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. stocks fell sharply on Tuesday, with the Nasdaq Composite leading to the downside with a 3.0% loss two hours short of the close of the day’s regular trading, the S&P 500 off 2.1%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lower by 1.6%. Today’s selling reflects concern about growth in the face of what seems to be inexorable inflation, as widespread COVID-19 testing in Beijing augurs a lockdown of the biggest city in the world’s second-largest economy. Concerning the war in Eastern Europe, Moscow will stop sending natural gas to Poland on Wednesday, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned there’s a “serious” risk of nuclear war over Ukraine. The Federal Reserve’s increasingly hawkish tone is having its effect, as mortgage rates have moved sharply higher. Home prices are still rising, but new home purchases slipped 8.6% to a 763,000 annualized pace. Mortgage refinance demand is also slowing rapidly. “But there's all this pent up demand they said... not at higher rates there isn’t,” notes Steven Van Metre. Van Metre, founder of Steven Van Metre Financial, says interest rates will eventually go down again, to new record lows, as a simple matter of supply and demand. He joins Maggie Lake for today’s Real Vision Daily Briefing to talk about growth, inflation, and the trajectory of interest rates. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3vhH31G Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The major U.S. equity indexes were mixed Monday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 in the red but the tech-heavy Nasdaq holding a modest gain on reports that Elon Musk is nearing a deal to take Twitter private. Investors continue to grapple with the fact that the Federal Reserve is aggressively tightening monetary policy into what appears to be a slowing economy. As Mark Ritchie II notes, this “feels like a potential lose-lose for riskier assets.” Ritchie II, managing partner and chief investment officer at RTM Capital Advisors, joins Maggie Lake for today’s Real Vision Daily Briefing to talk about recent price action, relative strength, and whether the Fed will be able to engineer a soft landing. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3k8eqxw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Using hedge fund strategies and venture strategies to construct client portfolios. Thanks for watching The Interview, the premier business and finance interview series in the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seasoned investor, Mish Schneider, joins Maggie to discuss her career paths in both trading and teaching, becoming one of the first female traders on the New York Stock Exchange, and so much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yesterday, Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that the Federal Reserve will tighten monetary policy aggressively to fight inflation, noting that a 50-basis-point hike is on the table for the May Federal Open Market Committee meeting. U.S. stocks, still processing the Fed’s hawkish pivot, are well in the red Friday, with the major equity indexes all down nearly 2%. According to Jared Dillian, “The curve will continue to flatten in such fashion until 2s are at 3% and 10s are at 2% (or thereabouts) and we will have a massively inverted curve at the end of this.” Dillian, editor of The Daily Dirtnap, thinks we’re headed for recession. He joins Maggie Lake for today’s Real Vision Daily Briefing to talk about the bond market, central banking, and the economy. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3s6Xpsb Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. dollar climbed to a fresh two-decade peak to the Japanese yen on Wednesday, this latest move catalyzed by Federal Reserve officials pushing for more aggressive interest rate hikes. Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan continues to defend its ultra-accommodative policy. Policymakers there believe inflation is indeed transitory and that capping interest rates remains the wise course. But this divergence is creating unprecedented tension in the bond and forex markets. According to Jim Bianco, president and founder of Bianco Research, “The bond market, the banking system, and the financial system are not really designed to have the entire bond market lose 10% of its value in four months. Every other time we’ve seen this we have run into problems.” Bianco joins Real Vision’s Maggie Lake for today’s Daily Briefing to talk about the Japanese yen’s systemic significance, the Fed’s fight against inflation, and the trajectory of the U.S. and the global economy. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3Mn1Syk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Is the Bank of Japan brewing up a Netflix-blockbuster-level disaster with its dogged adherence to “yield curve control”? Is Netflix itself a blockbuster-level disaster with its declining subscriber numbers? The U.S. dollar hit a 20-year high against the Japanese yen, as the Bank of Japan announced it would buy an unlimited amount of fixed-rate 10-year Japanese government bonds at 0.25% from April 21 through April 26. And shares of the pandemic-era stock market darling plunged 37% today after management reported a 200,000 decline in paying customers during its most recent quarter. The BoJ is desperate to hold interest rates down as other global central banks push for tighter monetary conditions. Netflix is desperate to boost revenue growth; it’ll crack down on password-sharing and consider a lower-priced ad-supported tier. Darius Dale, founder and CEO of 42 Macro, joins Real Vision’s Weston Nakamura to talk about Japan, Netflix, and markets in general on today’s Daily Briefing. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3vwOfG3 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The major U.S. equity indexes were all up more than 1% late in Monday’s regular trading session, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite leading the way with a 1.85% gain. Stocks today seem to reflect a strong start to earnings reporting season. According to Bloomberg, 38 of the 48 S&P 500 components that have reported so far have posted positive surprises. Earlier in the day, the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note touched 2.93%, a level the benchmark rate hasn’t seen since 2018, as bond investors continue to price in the impact of Federal Reserve efforts to fight inflation. U.S. natural gas prices eased off after hitting 13-year highs ahead of an unusual April snowstorm in the Northeast. Crude oil slid nearly 5% on Tuesday, as the International Monetary Fund cut its 2022 and 2023 global growth forecasts. And broader concerns about global resource constraints amid the war in Eastern Europe linger. Thomas Thornton, founder of Hedge Fund Telemetry, joins Warren Pies, founder of 3Fourteen Research, for today’s Real Vision Daily Briefing to talk about the stock market rally, commodities, energy, and inflation, and the problem the Federal Reserve faces in trying to stabilize prices without triggering a recession. Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3vsVH5c. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“The Fed has been in the business of suppressing volatility in financial assets for most of the post-Global Financial Crisis period,” notes Bill Zox, “but they are out of that business now.” According to Zox, co-portfolio manager at Brandywine Capital, tighter financial conditions to contain inflation mean wider credit spreads and lower equity prices. Zox joins Maggie Lake for today’s Real Vision Daily Briefing to talk about opportunities for investors in the high-yield bond market amid unprecedented uncertainty at the macro level. War in Eastern Europe has only added to global inflationary pressures. But close to 20% of high-yield is in energy companies and other commodities producers that benefit from an inflationary environment. And inflation is good for credit quality, as the value of fixed-rate debt declines and principal and interest payments are made in inflated dollars. As Zox explains, high-yield can be hit particularly hard by volatility and illiquidity. But, as long as you can hold through these periods, “this is what creates the long-term opportunity.” Want to submit questions? Drop them right here on the Exchange: https://rvtv.io/3MexfLo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices