Indices 15/07, page-25

The modern world is awash with incompetence. Due to a lowering of standards across the board, I think that incompetence is now a serious threat to the viability of this civilisation. Examples can be found everywhere.

e.g. Many traders are apparently currently experiencing issues with a change to charts in Iress. I can attest that it is not fully fixed yet after two and a half weeks.

e.g. Incompetent security services failed to prevent Trump assassination attempt that even a fool could apparently have prevented.

e.g. Would-be assassin failed. So incompetent that they apparently didn't even think of using an appropriately accurate rifle.

e.g. Crypto. Too many flaws to ever replace conventional currencies. Yet, because of mass incompetence, it has millions of enthusiastic supporters who keep the dream alive. Similar to the enthusiasm for motor cars since they were invented, except that motor cars perform useful purposes.

e.g. RBA. Words fail. For comparison, UK annual inflation has now been at 2% for two months.

Although USA tech stocks fell sharply overnight, the XJO today so far is down much less than the S&P500. Nasdaq futures appear to have turned upwards again. Assuming that USA markets remain generally flat or bullish for a while, then I predict that the XJO will remain bullish until 31 July when the next round of CPI figures will be released.

If the CPI numbers suggest that the RBA has got interest rates wrong then I expect that the XJO will change from bull into bear.