David Tepper E-Mails Joe Kernen, Says Powell Put ‘Dead’, Cash ‘Good’, People ‘Tight’

If it’s not Jeff Gundlach it’s going to be David Tepper, apparently.

On Monday, Jeff managed to catalyze a selloff simply by opening his mouth at the urging of a fawning Scott Wapner.

According to Gundlach’s proprietary “truth” indicators (which exist only in his brain and on his cartoonish @TruthGundlach Twitter feed), we’re probably in a “long-term bear market”, a contention that became more “truth”-y simply by him having said it.

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Jeff Gundlach Gets Loose, Tells CNBC We’re In A Bear Market, Says Your SPY Is Crap

Fast forward to Thursday morning and CNBC is out with a series of quotes from Tepper which came courtesy of an actual e-mail David sent to Joe Kernen.

I wish I were kidding, but I’m not. Here is CNBC to explain:

A day after the Fed raised interest rates for the fourth time this year, the influential investor made the following points in an email to Joe Kernen and CNBC’s Squawk Box:

“1. Powell basically told you the Fed put is dead.

2. Everyone is tight. Chinese money growth plummeting. ECB cutting the last of QE. And Fed still in tightening mode.

3. The net biggest issuance of Treasuries and worldwide fixed income is coming next year. Something is going to get crowded out. Bonds stocks etc.

4. Oh and there is this trade war question. I think we should be having a fight with China on different issues. But it is not conducive to confidence. Freezing some worldwide activity.

5. Cash is not so bad. ”

I hesitate to even highlight this for two reasons. First, CNBC is clearly just chasing headlines with these (likely solicited) “brand name” soundbites. Second, there isn’t anything new in those bullet points.

Here’s a fun chart:

(Bloomberg)

As far as the Powell put being “dead”, that assumes it ever existed in the first place. Obviously, you can argue that ol’ Jay’s November 28 walk back of “long way from neutral” was the first sighting of the elusive “Powell put”, but you could also pretty easily argue that what we’ve seen over the past several months is the Fed restriking its put as part of a broader strategy.

Anyway, Tepper is obviously right to note that liquidity is an issue and there’s no question that “cash” is “not so bad”. In fact, it looks pretty “good” when you consider that Libor is now higher than the yield on global FI.

(Bloomberg) 

Anyway, you get the idea – another big name investor tells CNBC that stocks are falling, that liquidity is drying up and that cash is now a viable alternative (i.e., “TINA” is dead).

Do let us know if David Tepper sends you an e-mail and we’ll be happy to post the bullet points so we can spark a selloff.

Oh, and “Go Panthers!”