SEC Is Probing Goldman's Excess Variation Margin Demands On AIG

Sooner or later it was bound to happen: the SEC is now looking into whether Goldman's over the top variation margin demands on AIG caused an "improper distress" in the mortgage insurance market (not to mention a couple of competitors' bankruptcies here and there). Not that much will come out of it, you see, since the SEC is woefully underfunded to purchase even one copy of any Janet Tavakoli book... Although the fact that they are finally investigating it should be indicative that if you raise enough stink, even the brain dead Wall Street sycophants at the Syndicate Encouraging Corruption will stop watching pornography for a living and for a few short minutes pretend to push a few papers here and there and actually do their pathetic, anaerobic jobs (and bill taxpayers more than appropriately).

Match Made In Incompetence Heaven: John Thain Is CIT's New CEO And Chairman

CIT's gorgeous, bouncer-worthy, and recently bankrupt, 5th Avenue lobby is about to receive some golden commodes and even more taxpayer reverse golden showers if and when the government is forced to bail out John Thain for the nth time. In the meantime Thain will receive $500k and $5.5 million in stock as he prepares to destroy yet another recently bankrupt company. Read all about the latest massacre of change you can drown your sorrows in from Bloomberg. We refuse to touch this filth.

Art Cashin Discusses The STUPIDs And The Global Dollar Margin Call

We are delighted that the highly sophisticated, technical and proprietary acronym you saw here first, the STUPIDs, has now made the UBS and Art Cashin vernacular, and is set to overtake the extremely politically incorrect acronym of the PIIGS, which seems to insult Barclays, the precursors of ham, and so many more with each passing day. We are confident that our version is much more palatable. A modest suggestion - convert PIIGS to GIPSI - now that is sure to please everyone. Anyway, that, and much more from Art Cashin's Friday note.

The LBO Refi Wave Approaches: $800 Billion In Junk Debt Maturing By 2014, Adds To Multi Trillion Fixed Income Refi Cliff

After a mere $100 billion in projected debt maturities in the 2010-2011 period, the LBO wave of 2005-2007, largely financed with 5-7 year tenor bonds and loans, will set the refi scene on fire in the 2012-2014 period, when $700 billion of debt is set to mature. Should Fed Fund rates, and the yield curve begin to shift higher, the incremental cost of debt capital will destroy tens if not hundreds of billions of equity value over the next 5 years. After peaking at 19.4% in Q4, 2008, and subsequently dropping to 9.5%, Moody's expects HY bond yields to begin increasing in 2011. And while HY companies are rushing to access the current favorable HY refi window, when refi capital is still broadly available, growth capital has been extremely scarce with just 4% of last year's total HY issuance used for M&A activity (78% was for refinancing maturity extension). It would appear High Yield companies have entered "run-off" mode for credit investors, with no consideration for any residual equity value.

Guest Post: Mirabile Dictu! The First Market Rally Of 2010 That Merits More Than A Few Words

“U.S. Stocks Jump in Final Hour, Pushing Up Metal Prices; Dollar Pares Gain U.S. stocks rose in the final hour of trading on speculation the European Union may propose a solution for Greece’s budget deficit, reports Bloomberg.

This end of day soundbite provided the fodder/excuse for a short-covering rally on the Feb 5 NFP report. Traders and investors should recall that the 2009 low was set on the March 6 NFP report, that the 2010 high came on the day following the Jan 8 2010 NFP report and that the crest of June 5 2009 leading to the June swoon of 2009 came on a NFP report. Obviously, the spark for the short covering today had nothing to do whatsoever with the NFP report, but alas, how often do market buying and selling climaxes occur on NFP dates give or take a day? Plenty, and too many for me to recount to you off the top of my head, but longtime clients know to look for and expect equity buying and selling climaxes on key announcement dates such as NFP reports. End of story, period!

Art Cashin: Market Commentary - An Encore Presentation

"The “easy” part of the reflex rally is over. The market has a couple of options on where it heads next. They range all the way from resuming the January selloff to resuming the December rally. This window of uncertainty could last until about Tuesday. The market should show its hand by then. For today, the napkins again suggest early resistance at 1102/1105 with critical backup at 1112/1115. Support again looks like 1087/1092. The fall back from there would be 1070/1075. Breaking below 1070 could put the bears back in control." - Art Cashin

Guest Post: Carry Trade 2 - Extremely Long Dollar Love

Revolutions happen when broken parts of existing structures reassemble themselves in novel ways. Today’s Japanese carry trade will become something completely new: currency jettison. This coming Yen carry trade is going to fundamentally change Japan. Next time, Miho Maejima won’t be hungry for yield. She has no yen for it: the carry trade will be driven by exchange rate volatility hedging. She’ll handcuff the government to the bedpost and go for full-on dollarization. When she does, shorting yen is the best trick on the planet. Dollarization to control currency volatility happens a lot. It is not even a radically new event in Japan, but it will go viral and mutate into a radically new species of carry trade. The utter abandonment of the yen to de-risk will end any return crash. And the Japanese semi-democracy (that designation applies to all nations, not just Japan) must allow it to happen. Aging pensioners are both creditors and voters: the only possible adjustment they can make to the coming sovereign crisis is by getting entirely out of yen.