I mean wild

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Seems the Brits are a wee bit angry...

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And why hasn't this treasonous piece of **** been arrested yet?

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I sat in on a call today with the Wells Fargo CIO on a Wells Fargo Investment Institute market volatility call with several strategists and I took notes and thought I would share with you. Took notes best as I could.

Markets closed – Most indices were down about 3%. Nothing sinister happening, some things unwinding high leverage in the market and asset classes. The catalyst? Middle part of last week, bank of Japan had hawkish meeting and increased rates. Their rates are much lower than the rest of the globe. This caught everyone by surprise, and the Yen went up. With low volatility yen-funded carry trades were the most popular as investors bet Japanese interest rates would remain at rock bottom. The Bank of Japan raised rates for the second time in 17 years in its July 31st meeting and has hinted at more. Carry trade positions has everyone running for door at the same time. Selling pressure from investors who sought to repay their debt in Yen, dragged US equities lower.

The US labor market has softened with recent data. Concerns: Maybe a soft landing not possible, interest rates too high for too long, labor markets mature and consumer spending will go down. The US economy at this point is not tanking, it is only softening. Feds probably behind the curve in interest rate cut, inverted yield no longer exists, ST interest rates at or lower than LT rates.

The average retail investor not moving money, it is the institutional traders doing it as calls are made on hedged positions. Taking back some profit that has been above average.

Equity side - Eye popping numbers. S & P at 5,186, back 500 points or 10%, close to correction territory. First one of 2024. Volatility creates opportunities for disciplined investors. Companies have been planning on this for a couple of years and are strong, softer labor market creates less competition and can make hiring easier. Parts of the economy can take advantage of durable consumption. With sell-off, small caps are now more desirable at distressed level but quality not as good as large cap. Don't overweight, but probably been underweight on small cap prior to this sell off. S & P - Still in uptrend if stay above 5,000 from a technical support level. 5,000 key level to watch. Large CAP Tech – Has exceeded performance but has taken a big hit and now more attractive. The aggressive trades to small cap and financials has unwound itself. Almost 15% in a week. Back to where we were in June prior to the run up. Don't be understated now in your portfolio on this segment. Inflation is coming down, the economy is slowing, people believe Fed Funds Rate is too high. Fixed Income securities - Treasuries - Fear causes fake security in fixed income. Bond yields are not different than the beginning of the day. Treasury yields reflect fear purchasing. Consensus - Feds need to cut rates, can we wait until September? The market is telling us Feds are behind the curve. The Fed is data driven; did not believe they had the data to cut rates. Friday, we had a weak job report, that started the ball rolling. Risk in Fed moving too early, and inflation re-emerges. Monetary policy is a hard game. Some want emergency rate cuts. Rough few days, velocity of move more significant than how far the S & P is down. Fed will do it IF liquidity becomes an issue, no signs of that. Watch the data, weaker than expected employment numbers, more likely than not get to September before rate cut. Over 23 years only 7 emergency meetings. If we arrived here over 3 weeks, no one would be calling for an emergency Fed meeting. Some concern is Feds seeing something worse than what we are seeing? Labor rates impacted that view. Fed Rate cuts take time to work, takes 4 - 6 months for cuts to impact the economy.

Recession vs Soft Landing - Weak labor and economic data has people thinking recession. Bad news previously was seen as good news for rate cuts. Now bad news is bad news. The numbers are lower now than the last recession, not at recession levels for job creation. Inflation peaks during a recession, inflation has been decreasing. Consumers are down shifting on spending, even the wealthy. Bad news is bad news and was a strong knee jerk reaction. Recession is not immediately on the horizon. Labor market and consumer spending must show resiliency for soft landing to work.

Geo-politics - Materiality of Iran's strikes against Israel could impact on a go forward basis. History of Middle East over 20 years is for Iran to heavily arm proxy entities to attack Israel and the US. That all changed in April when Iran attacked Israel with missiles and drones. People believe Iran will strike back; other countries may join Iran to attack Israel at the same time. Iran must be careful in escalating this. It must be on your radar; it will be playing out in the next 2 weeks. The materiality of it could be market moving.

Equities - Don't overreact, not the time to do wholesale portfolio shifts. Be patient. We have seen our highs for the year until after the election. Pull backs in certain segments provide opportunities. First leg down, get a counter rally, pulls people in. Second buy off many times the best time to buy.

Fixed Income - Rally across high quality fixed income, we know Fed rate cuts coming in September. Imperative looking for opportunities to in other asset classes as rates go down and had defensive positions. Don't live only on the short side of the curve.

As growth slows, the market is more likely to get tripped up by something. If labor and unemployment numbers worsen fast, that is a big concern. A drop to a 1.5% growth rate could signal recession. Rate cuts can fuel growth in 2025. If growth slows, go to where growth resides, it will not be widespread in the economy.

Knew it was just a matter of time before the leftist authoritarians came out with something like this. Sure it's not going to happen yet but this is the opening salvo leftist have traditionally used to convince the easily manipulated to support the removal of more individual freedoms.

We need some over the top, preseason hype!! QB2 opinions? RB2 thoughts? How is LB and Safety shaking out?

Free

tomorrow AM. I can't wait. I miss Central Texas. These carnival barkers in Colorado are a weird bunch.

Why Oklahoma State football has big opportunity to become face of new-look Big 12​

Joe Mussatto
The Oklahoman

Alabama was the face of the SEC. Now it’s Georgia. In the Big Ten it’s long been Ohio State, and still is despite Michigan’s resurgence. The ACC? Florida State before Clemson’s decade-plus run of dominance, but the title might be swinging back to the Seminoles. In the former Pac-12, Southern Cal was by far the biggest brand.

Oklahoma, of course, was the face of Big 12 football until the Sooners officially joined the SEC on July 1, leaving a vacancy on the conference throne.

Obviously winning conference championships and being the “face of the conference” go hand-in-hand, but the latter is long lasting — spanning decades rather than the ebbs and flows of single seasons.

Only a handful of programs, OSU among them, have the equity to claim such a label, and whichever team wins the new-look Big 12 in Year 1 could have an outsized status advantage.

So, is there any value in being the face of the conference?

“I think we all want to have success and try to establish ourselves,” OSU coach Mike Gundy said Saturday at OSU media day. “There’s so many teams in this league now, and it’s so new …”

Which is why it’s a ripe time for a leader to emerge, whether it’s OSU or Utah, Kansas State or TCU. Or some other school. The Big 12 doesn’t have the bluebloods of the SEC or Big Ten, or even the ACC, but it’s littered with B-listers.

“For example, two seasons ago TCU had a season that nobody would’ve predicted,” Gundy said.

The Horned Frogs became the first Big 12 team to win a College Football Playoff game.

“And then last year they didn’t fare as well as they wanted to,” Gundy said, “and nobody would’ve predicted that.”

Granted, nobody thought the Horned Frogs would make another playoff run, but they were picked to finish a solid fifth in the Big 12. TCU was even worse than that, going 3-6 and finishing tied for ninth in the Big 12.


“But TCU, when I look at them and what they have on paper, if they get good quarterback play they’re gonna be pretty good,” Gundy said.

OSU plays at TCU on Nov. 9. Not a game any of us are circling, but maybe Gundy will be proven right in his optimism for TCU, which was picked to finish 10th in the Big 12.

Utah was picked to win the league. Kansas State, OSU, Kansas and Arizona rounded out the top-five.

“So it’s hard to predict how you can establish yourself,” Gundy said. “The only thing I would say is this: From Day 1 when I was lucky enough to get this job I said that our goal, my goal personally, was to make sure that we put a product on the field, that we could fill this stadium every Saturday, and people knew if we played well we could win the game.”



As Gundy noted, that hadn’t always been the case at OSU.

Before he got the job in 2005, OSU’s all-time winning percentage was .489. In the 19 years since, OSU’s winning percentage is .678.

“Whether we’re the face of the league, I don’t know,” Gundy said. “My goal is to put a product out there that the fans can come and enjoy their Saturday and tailgate and say, ‘You know what? We might win this game.’”


This season Gundy (102) will likely pass Bill Snyder (104) for the most Big 12 coaching wins. Bob Stoops holds the record with 121.

In Big 12 history (1996 to present), OU has the highest winning percentage in conference games (.746) followed by Nebraska (.675), Texas (.667), Kansas State (.586) and Oklahoma State (.555).

With TCU (.546), Texas A&M (.527), and Colorado (.500), those are the eight Big 12 teams, throughout its history, that have won at least half its games.

With OU and Texas gone, Kansas State has the best Big 12 winning percentage among current teams. OSU is next, then TCU, then Colorado — back for its second stint in the Big 12.

Of the legacy Big 12 members, OSU and Kansas State are best positioned to be the face of the conference. Of the newbies, only Utah has a reasonable case.

Utah had a .575 winning percentage in the Pac-12, which it joined in 2011.

Led by Kyle Whittingham, who’s been at Utah as long as Gundy has been at OSU, the Utes have won 10-plus games in three of the last five seasons. They were Pac-12 champs in 2021 and 2022.

Utah’s first-ever Big 12 game? Sept. 21 in Stillwater.

An early chance for OSU to assert control of the conference, both for this season and the future.

First day of Oklahoma State fall football camp: VIP observations (July 31)​

Oklahoma State football started its 2024 fall camp Wednesday. Here are our takeaways.​

McClain BaxleyJul 31st, 4:48 PM

STILLWATER, Okla. — It was hot in Stillwater Wednesday, but that didn't stop Oklahoma State from getting in their first practice of the fall season.

141 players were on the roster handed out to media members prior to the 15-minute viewing session we were able to see.

Here are my takeaways from what I saw in those 15 minutes of Oklahoma State's first fall practice.

1. It was really hot, even in the indoor facility. Talking with one of the assistants, they said they opted to practice in the afternoon as opposed to mornings to get adjusted to the heat for the season opener next month. Oklahoma State-South Dakota State has a 1 p.m. kick and practice began just before 3 p.m. Wednesday where it was above 100 degrees through the duration.

2. As the bulk of the team went through stretching, the quarterbacks worked out by themselves. All five of them were with quarterbacks coach Tim Rattay, going through some agility drills before doing some throws. The rotation in these drills, and for the rest of the portion we were able to see, was Alan Bowman -> Garret Rangel -> Zane Flores -> Maealiuaki Smith -> Garret Wilson. Now, there was a bit where Bowman and Flores were working by themselves as the other three did a different drill to the side, as you can see in the video below. I wouldn't look too deep into that, as Rangel went second/was next to Bowman in every drill I saw (handoffs, over the shoulder pass and taking snaps with a center).

3. Seeing Indiana transfer running back Trent Howland in person was a sight to behold. Ollie Gordon is a tall running back and in helmet and cleats, Howland is noticeably taller than him. He looked healthy and had a nice burst in one of the handoff drills I saw.

4. Outside, a handful of players were working on fielding punts. Brennan Presley led the group. Other players who were catching punts: Oklahoma WR transfer Gavin Freeman, Virginia Tech WR transfer Da'Wain Lofton, WR Kyler Pearson, freshman safety Talon Kendrick. Running backs coach John Wozniak was running this brief drill.

5. UTEP safety transfer Kobe Hylton was running with the first team safeties, alongside Lyrik Rawls and Trey Rucker. I think we'll be seeing a good bit of Hylton this season.

6. Because of the time constraints, we weren't able to see many periods of practice where players can be truly evaluated -- 7-on-7s, 11-on-11s, etc. and that will likely be the case for the other practice we're able to attend on Saturday.

7. The Texas Bowl Champions banner has been hung alongside the 2011 Big 12 Champions and 2022 Guaranteed Rate Bowl banners inside the facility.

8. I know several times this spring and offseason that freshman defensive lineman Armstrong Nnodim is a guy that was mentioned as an early standout and it's true. He's got good size and has certainly taken an early understanding to the defense. But a freshman that stood out to me today was fellow defensive lineman Luke Webb. He was strong on the sled and was very big, listed at 6-foot-4, 290 pounds. Both those defensive linemen should be interesting to see develop from now through next fall camp.

9. A note on the kickers: Oklahoma State has added a few. Drake Tabor, who kicked at FCS St. Thomas (MN), is on the roster now. As is freshman David Arriaga from Midwest City. Get the sense that Logan Ward will be the full time kicker for the Cowboys this season.

10. Oklahoma State's deepest and most-talented room — wide receivers — is deeper than I thought it'd be. They added Freeman and Lofton, as well as 6-foot-4, 215-pound Ayo Shotomide-King from Snow College and a couple more freshmen walk-ons. De'Zhaun Stribling is full-go and looks really good, probably faster than last season based on the few reps I saw.

Is the implosion of the Israeli society. What else can you expect from a dysfunctional ideology like Zionism?

So what should we do about it? The first and most important thing to do is recognize what the real threat is.

I choose libertarianism.

Tired of getting his shyte pushed in on this board, I suppose.

Jackson Holliday is 7-for-18 with a double, two homers, and 7 RBI. He’s had multiple hits in each of his last three games.

Looks like we will be wearing a 99 patch for Leslie O'Neil's introduction into the Ring of Honor. The players were wearing the orange jerseys for media day on Saturday.

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I'll just leave this here without comment.

Good to see a Big 12 golfer win in the Olympics.

… read the book’s description.

They want to make it about racism and sexism, but it’s really about conservativism versus liberalism.

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/zerlina-maxwell/the-end-of-white-politics/9780306873638/

Just saw the fall football roster. This kid (Ayo Shotomide-King) was listed under WR:

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Looks like an athlete. I assume he walked on at OSU but his social account listed some smaller school offers.

He looks the part and at 6’4 215 he is the biggest WR listed on the roster. His highlight video shows some impressive catches. Listed as a sophomore maybe he can develop and get some time one day.