Lock Watch for the Week of 10/1/2018
Volatility-O-Meter:
Lots of FOMC member speeches throughout the week and the jobs report on Friday.
Economicalendar (all times are Pacific):
Mon, 10/1: PMI Mfg Index (6:45am), ISM Mfg Index and Construction Spending (7am).
Tues, 10/2: Quiet.
Weds, 10/3: ADP Employment Report (5:15am), PMI Services Index (6:45am) and ISM Non-Mfg Index (7am).
Thurs, 10/4: Jobless Claims (5:30am) and Factory Orders (7am).
Fri, 10/5: Employment Situation and International Trade (5:30am).
10-Year Treasury History
3.09% Today's Open
3.08% One Week Ago
2.86% One Month Ago
2.34% One Year Ago
Lost at Sea
I'm not sure how many of you caught the recent story about an Indonesian teenager who survived 49 days at sea, and after his motorless fishing raft lost its moorings in the open ocean and cast him adrift with just a week's worth of supplies, food and water. One can only imagine the range of emotions he experienced up to the point when the image of a Japanese ship (that proved not to be a sunburn and dehydration-induced hallucination) appeared and actually noticed him and plucked him from the waters off of Guam. I have always been fascinated by the stories of those lost at sea and here are a few of the more incredible of them:
Steven Callahan was an experienced sailor on a voyage across the Atlantic when his boat hit either a whale or a shark and caused it to capsize it in a storm. He managed to salvage the life raft and some supplies and good thing, too. He drifted for 75 more days until being spotted and rescued by sailors near the West Indies (having set sail off the coast of Europe).
Poon Lim holds the record for his 133 days spent on a life raft. His ordeal began when a German U-boat sank the boat on which he was traveling en route from South Africa to NY. Somehow despite 3+ months bobbing in the seas off of Brazil, Mr. Lim's resourcefulness allowed him to maintain enough health that he was able to walk out of the hospital on his own power, but only after amazing the medical staff by the fact that he'd lost only 20 pounds during his time at sea.
Fisherman Jose Salvador Alvarenga was adrift for 438 days --- a solo record. While achieving it, he essentially crossed the Pacific from Mexico to the Marshall Islands. After more than a year, Jose spotted land and swam for it, eventually stumbling upon a beach house where the owners summarily shuttled him to a local hospital, where he made a full recovery.
All of the stories above share similar elements of survival. Birds, fish, turtles and other sea creatures all became sources of food, often caught by hand. Collecting fresh water was a monumental and ever-present challenge and to rise to it, the survivors resorted to drinking the blood of the animals they caught and, often, their own urine. Sharks circled in all of their recollections and most of the survivors above watched mates perish where, by some combination of luck, will and ingenuity, they managed to survive.
If you ever think your workday is going poorly, look any of the above stories up. It's some incredible stuff.
Nor any drop to drink,
Robert J. Spinosa
Vice President of Mortgage Lending
Guaranteed Rate
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