Good news! Powell and Clarida cleared of any wrongdoing. That was a close one!

Markets starting to rethink the doom and gloom? Earnings season colliding with rate hike worries.

Mystery Chart - impressive run.

Uber - terrible - not going to change their ways.

PLUS we are now on Spotify and Amazon Music/Podcasts!

Click HERE for Show Notes and Links

DHUnplugged is now streaming live - with listener chat. Click on link on the right sidebar.

Love the Show? Then how about a Donation?

Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter

Follow Andrew Horowitz on Twitter

Warm Up

- Earnings season begins this week

- Mystery Chart - It is UP this year!

- President Biden - No Headway during Saudi Trip

- Saying goodbye to Ivana Trump

- Heat Waves - How is your weather?

Market Update

- Reversal Alert - 0.75% < 1.00% new base and markets get excited

--- If you think its a rally but it's not - It's Chiffon? (Commercial from the 70's)

---- Its not nice to fool mother nature

- Bank Earnings - mixed bag. Hard to interpret due to loan loss provisions

- Short Squeeze / rebalance ahead of earnings

- UBER - disgusting practices

- China is easing some rules - money available

- How much more badder does the news have to get?

- Yield Curve very inverted..... 2 year higher than 30 year...

- BofA Global Fund Manager Survey revealed the lowest equity allocation since the Lehman Bros. bankruptcy and the highest cash levels since 2001.

Announcing a new Closest to the Pin!

Starting with Peak Pessimism

- Investors slashed their exposure to risk assets to levels not seen even during the global financial crisis in a sign of full capitulation amid a “dire” economic outlook, according to Bank of America Corp.’s monthly fund manager survey.

- A net 58% of fund managers said they’re taking lower than normal risks, a record that surpassed the survey’s global financial crisis levels.

- Global growth and profit expectations sank to an all-time low, while recession expectations were at their highest since the pandemic-fueled slowdown in May 2020

- C A P I T U L A T I O N  -- - They are saying...

Oil (2)

- Oil prices near $96 $94    $99 - Bounced off support and USD weakens

Coinage

- Big weekend for coins

- Bitcoin. ETH and others moving, 10, 20+%

--- Story over weekend that Coinbase shutting down affiliate programs

---- Wild speculation that COIN could be next to be under financial pressure

----- Short Squeeze getting out of positions - why the weekend rally?

Bank Earnings

- No use in trying to look at headline beats/misses

- Loan loss provisions down big then up big - over 1 year means that comparisons all screwed up

- Generally major banks looking pretty good still - NIM good and revenues looking healthy

- Concerns over economic slowdown and bad debt - co

- Could be they overshot to downside

- Goldman, Morgan look good - not much bad to say right now.

Builder Confidence

- Another story all together

- We know from Redfin - prices coming down, existing homes flooding markets, sells getting worried

- July NAHB Housing Market Index 55vs. 66 Briefing.com consensus; prior 67

- Builders confidence - see below - needs some discussion

NAHB

Mystery Chart

- This stock is up this year

- Well known, in DJIA

- TECH!

- Laggard for years...

- Earnings out last night - stock not doing so good

Mystery Chart

More Stocks...

- Single Stock ETF

- Interesting concept - but not clear who this benefits.

- Fees added to stocks that can be bought at low cost

- Probably less volume and liquidity than the stock itself

Netflix

- After several quarters of horrible performance (company and stock) company about to report July 19

- Could there be a gold mine in the advertising side? - Teamed up with Microsoft

- SIDEBAR: Heard someone talking about team ups/projects with MSFT - WHY? Because they are neutral and can be trusted as partner when building. (When did that happen?)