March 17, 2021 Lunch - 2000 Vietnam No. 21 with Peter. Dinner - Cajun BBQ Shrimp with Rice
It was warmer today so I was able to ride but it was windy blowing steadily between 13 and 25 mph, so I only rode a couple of miles. I will hope for a better day tomorrow.
All in all it was a good day. I ate some granola, yogurt, and tropical fruit salad at 9:00 as I read my mail and paid utilities for the Romero building.
I made a plan to invite Peter over for lunch at 12:30 so at 11:45 I ordered two No. 21s to go from 2000 Vietnam and drove there to fetch the boxed lunches, returning home at 12:30.
Peter arrived at 12:40 apologizing vociferously, which I found charmingly German.
We each ate 1/2 of our boxed meal outside under the gazebo warmed by sunlight even though there was a cool breeze.
Before and after lunch we spent a few minutes looking at a large work on paper that Peter describes as an Oriental hierarchy painting that has caught his interest. During lunch I said that if he could get us our desired price for the Hierarchy piece and even the Christo Island No. 1, I would sell them and pay him a commission. I hope he can succeed as broker to sell the pieces, which is his business.
After lunch I had several call ps and then started preparing a schedule for 2020 taxes for the building on Romero and watched the market close.
Today the Market was interesting in an awful way. Interest rates for sovereign debt are still rising in the U.S. and Europe which are having a negative force on big tech stocks and a positive effect on the DOW. The day started out with my portfolio going down over 1 1/2%, so I was depressed, but starting around 12:30 Federal Reserve Chairman Powell began to speak and the downward movement of the NASDAQ reversed and started to go up with both indices ending up about 30 to 40 points by 2:00. My portfolio experienced a modest gain and I felt I had dodged a bullet.
Unfortunately, as I write this blog at 2:00 a.m. the U.S. 10 year note has shot up almost 8 basis points to 1.72%, an increase of about 1% in the last month and the prior pattern of the Dow up and the Nasdaq down has reappeared. It looks like Powell’s calming effect that all would be well as the fed monitors rates to allow just enough inflation to help the economy reach full employment while preventing excessive inflation did not quell the fears of traders and selling off high tech persists. Those advancing inflation fears, point to the price of lumber that has doubled in the last year. I am in disbelief as I see the NASDAQ plummet 1% in futures trading.. My portfolio is in for a rocky ride.
At 3:30 I rode my bike and was happy to get some exercise in the warm sunny 59 degree weather.
Suzette arrived around 5:00 saying she had eaten a bowl of Posole at 3:00 and would not be hungry for dinner for a while. I had thawed out a thick rib steak, but Suzette reminded me we had agreed to eat the PPI rice and Cajun BBQ shrimp, so I put the steak into the meat drawer in the fridge and we called Willy to change our steak dinner plans to tomorrow evening.
Finally at 8:00 we heated the BBQ Shrimp and rice and split one of the Trader Jose dark beers I bought yesterday at Trader Joe’s. The beer was surprisingly dark and slightly bitter, not the Negra Modelo style I expected. Next time I will mix it with a light Pilsner to take that bitter edge off it.
The shrimp and rice was wonderful. We watched A Japanese series on Netflix called Midnight Diner and after dinner, Trevor Noah and were in bed by 10:00.
Steak tomorrow night and hopefully onion soup after that.
Bon Appetit
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