by Chris Becker
Its hard not to use superlatives when describing the first trading week of the year – probably best not to use “oh my Dog, we’re all going to die”, but more of looking at the charts from 2007 and thinking “we’ve been here before…..”
Fridays session reinforced the notion that a secular bear market is upon us with 1% plus falls across stocks and energy commodities as the fallout from the Chinese devaluation rolled into a stonking non-farm payroll report from the US, embiggening the Fed to keep raising rates into this maelstrom. Bonds were the rush to safety move, while gold slipped a little but is also returning to its usefulness as a currency hedge.