Vital Statistics:
| Last | Change | |
| S&P futures | 4,733 | 18.2 |
| Oil (WTI) | 73.47 | -0.38 |
| 10 year government bond yield | 1.48% | |
| 30 year fixed rate mortgage | 3.35% |
Stocks are higher this morning on no real news. Bonds and MBS are flat.
The upcoming week should be relatively quiet as many participants are on vacation or taking some time off. Economically, we don’t have much in the way of market-moving data, although we will get home price data tomorrow and pending home sales on Wednesday. The bond market will close early on Friday.
The markets are relatively sanguine over Omicron. While the variant is supposedly not as deadly as other variants, it is causing staffing shortages, and it caused about 1,000 flights to be canceled over the weekend. I suppose in the short term, this will cause additional supply chain bottlenecks which will bump up inflation.
Crypto.com will be running super bowl ads this year. I wonder if this marks some sort of top in cryptocurrencies in general. Historically, super bowl advertising has been dominated by consumer products like snacks and beer or cars. However, you do tend to see interlopers at the height of a bubble or boom. In 2006, mortgage companies were big advertisers in the super bowl. In the late 90s, it was dot.com flameouts.
In 1999, internet holding company CMGI (who’s only business was a minority stake in erstwhile search engine Lycos) bought the rights to rename Foxboro stadium to CMGI stadium. In 2001, after the bloom came off the internet bubble rose, CMGI was relegated to the pink sheets (think of it as skid row for stocks) and traders joked that the stadium should be renamed CMGIQ Stadium to represent the company’s new digs in the trash heap of bygone high-flyers.
The Daily Tearsheet 