Rat Poison & Candy Castles

Traditional Markets

Friday’s Jobs report was a doozy. 

The good news is that the US unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%, its lowest reading in 18 years.

The not so great news was that wage growth came in a full percentage point less than expected. As we discussed in Friday’s update, a weaker than expected wage growth figure is actually good for stocks since it lowers the expectation of rate rises from the Fed.

The Fed was likely a bit surprised by the number though as it really destroys any semblance they had of a narrative. Until now they were saying that as unemployment goes down, wage growth will go up, which will spur inflation expectations.

Unemployment down – Check!

Inflation expectations – Check!

Wage Growth – Hey wait a minute!

Stocks quickly rallied after the report, led by Apple, which reached a brand new all-time high.

For now, the news is rather focused on some upcoming political events. Mainly, the resumption of the NAFTA trade negotiations and the expectation that Trump will pull out of the Iran nuclear agreement.

The latter has the price of oil above $70 a barrel for the first time since 2014.

Get Smart

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The idea here is to use our own big data to deliver alpha. So far, alpha has been delivered. Here you can see that since its inception six months ago, the copyfund strategy has outperformed the benchmark index by 10%.

Just as a matter of curiosity, I had a peek under the hood to see which stocks it’s currently holding at the moment.

I think that what’s missing here is actually more telling than what’s included.

Crypto Eye

While the events discussed above involving two of the wealthiest people in the world are rather entertaining, there are some much more solemn things that should also be addressed.