A roundup of what The Globe and Mail's market strategist Scott Barlow is reading today on the Web
The technology stocks that have led global markets are weaker early Tuesday ahead of Alphabet and Amazon.com earnings reports. U.S. industrials, ex- general Electric, are higher after strong earnings reports from 3M and United Technologies.
"Tech Stocks Are Sinking Ahead of Google and Amazon Earnings" – Bloomberg
Me, on video game stocks: "This market sector's return is three times the index" – Barlow, Inside the Market
"United Tech beats Street, lifts forecasts again" – Reuters
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Former Treasury Department economist Mark Dow wrote an important chart-heavy piece predicting imminent volatility in currency markets that will see the U.S. dollar rally against the loonie,
"the patterns suggest the dollar is on the verge of busting a move higher… The Canadian dollar is not exactly a funding currency, but the one-year chart of USDCAD looks very bid .. [precious metals prices] appear to be breaking down .. The bottom line here is that bonds and bond proxies are overbought and investors are structurally short dollars."
"Tax cuts, fed chair, the dollar and bonds. en garde." – Dow, Behavioral Macro
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The futures curve for West Texas Intermediate crude is almost in backwardation – longer term prices below the spot price – and this is very bullish for the commodity price. An inverted futures curve means producers will sell physical oil, reducing inventories, rather than sell at higher, forward prices for future delivery.
"@JKempEnergy BACKWARDATION beckons for WTI: the contango from month 1 to month 7 is now down to just 21 cents (narrowest since 2014)" – (chart) Twitter
"Oil Just Isn't That Important to Petrocurrencies Right Now" – Bloomberg (includes loonie)
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Tweet of the Day: "@JavierBlas2 With an important message from IMF boss @Lagarde: "In 50 years time, #oil will be a secondary commodity" -- #OOTT #FII2017 " – Twitter
Diversion: "George Clooney and Matt Damon speak out about what they knew about Harvey Weinstein: 'He was a womanizer'" – Business Insider