Today's edition of all is not well in the bond market.
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The Move (the "VIX of the bond market") closed today at 158.12. This is its second highest print in 13 years.
Since 2009, the only day higher was March 9, 2020, arguably the worst market day of the pandemic.
2/7
Every time the MOVE gets above 155, the Fed is having emergency meetings (to cut to 0% or print), bailouts are being constructed, and/or bond traders are running around with their hair on fire.
Given this, is it safe to assume all is well this time around?
3/7
Add to the mix that liquidity is worsening, as measured by Bloomberg.
This level of illiquidity occurs when the bond market is dysfunctional.
4/7
And BofA's Financial Stress Indicator is getting materially worse by the day.
Again, is/should this be a concern?
5/7
As noted above, in the past, when this was the backdrop, the Fed was cutting to zero and printing like mad.
Now, however, we have ongoing QT and the market STILL pricing in a 75 bps hike at the next FOMC meeting (Nov 2).
6/7
The bond market is very big, very opaque, and very complicated. This is why it blows up regularly (GFC 2008, repo 2019, COVID 2020, now???). What have been the warning signs trouble is brewing? The tweets above!
The bond market seems to see this, note the blue line!
7/7
So I ask again, is this tweet thread a bunch of things that are not concerning this time around? if so, why?
Or does this tweet thread tell us there are big problems under the surface?
Q: Is this why the S&P 500 has been in a relentless decline over the last few weeks?
EVERYONE, PLEASE DISREGARD MY TWEET THREAD ABOVE ABOUT CONCERNS IN THE BOND MARKET.
I JUST LEARNED THAT JANET YELLEN SPOKE EXACTLY ONE HOUR AGO, AND ALL IS WELL, NOTHING TO SEE HERE.
Yesterday, AI-related stocks hit a high as a percentage of the S&P 500.
The AI influence on the stock market has never been larger.
🧵
2/5
What are the AI-Stocks?
I use the list that J.P. Morgan's Michael Cemblast made last fall.
Here is a table with its details.
3/5
Note that the list above does NOT include SpaceX (which has Xai, or Grok), Anthropic, and OpenAI. SpaceX's IPO is expected around June 12.
So, when will they be included in the S&P 500, allowing AI to account for over 50% of the S&P 500?
Last week, S&P proposed changing its rules so that mega-cap IPOs could become eligible for S&P 500 inclusion after six months, rather than the usual one-year seasoning period.
The proposal would also relax some standard hurdles for these companies, including minimum public float and profitability requirements.
But S&P emphasized that eligibility does not mean automatic inclusion—the Index Committee would still make the final decision.
The immediate pushback is familiar: this “supply shock” will hurt real growth, so the Fed should cut rates.
This well-known economist has been making exactly that argument.
3/4
That is only half the equation. A supply shock hurts growth, but it also raises inflation, so the real question is which side dominates.
In 2022, inflation rose more than real growth fell: the blue CPI line and arrow moved sharply higher while the green real-GDP bars and arrow moved modestly lower. The bottom panel shows the Fed’s answer: hikes, not cuts, as the federal funds rate moved from near zero in early 2022 to above 4% by year-end 2022.
Why? When inflation rises faster than growth falls, nominal growth (real GDP plus inflation) rises. If today’s oil shock does the same thing as 2022, the correct takeaway is not automatic cuts. It is possible that the Fed may have to stand pat or even consider hiking.
Ten seafarers have now been killed in 13 attacks on merchant vessels since the Iran conflict erupted on February 28 — more than the 7 U.S. servicemen killed in the war.
The focal point is shifting: can the Strait of Hormuz be reopened? Is the Administration pivoting to that mission?
Every day without a visible path to reopening, the market will price in more risk.
A 10% increase in energy prices that persists for a year would push global inflation up by 40 basis points and slow economic growth by 0.1-0.2%, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.
So, what price measures "persists for a year?"
🧵
2/5
As the table below shows, crude oil futures prices for delivery into 2027 are trading in extreme backwardation.
3/5
Below is the calendar spread between the first contract (now April) and the 6th contract (now September).
As the bottom panel shows, this spread is -25%, a record since the mid-1990s when the contract specifications were last changed.