Daily Highlights: 7.29.09
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/29/2009 - 07:52- Home Prices in US cities post monthly rise; consumer confidence declines.
- Japan stocks edge up amid corporate earnings, investors await US GDP data.
- Shanghai's index fell by 5% on disappointing corporate profits, lower commodity prices.
- US dollar mostly higher, gold falls in European morning trading.
- Akzo Nobel 2nd quarter net profit down 13 percent to $220M, shares rise on margins.
Frontrunning: July 29
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/29/2009 - 07:43- June Durable Goods down -2.5% on expectations of -0.5%
- Let's break up the Federal Reserve (WSJ)
- Americans rate Fed worst among 9 key agencies (SignOnSD, h/t Bob)
- CRE companies drooling at taxpayer generosity, plan to raise a whopping $3 billion via TALF in September, only $3.997 trillion to go (Bloomberg)
- China banks to slow lending with low targets (Reuters, h/t Gilgamesh)
Washington’s Gimmick For the Easily Sold- a Zero Hedge Glimpse at “Cash for Clunkers”
Submitted by Travis on 07/29/2009 - 04:54While some would debate they’ve bailed-out the auto industry enough, the United States government gets into the often gimmicky, very corny and highly questionable art of selling cars. With $1 billion on the table, it’s soon to be a new model year- and Uncle Sam wants… your shitty old car!
From GE Commercial Finance to Zero Hedge, With Love
Submitted by sacrilege on 07/28/2009 - 19:46GE Commercial Finance, Stamford Connecticut:
On behalf of the Zero Hedge staff, I want to take a minute to apologize for our filtering your 439 packets today at our firewall.
Paul Tudor Jones Video (v.2)
Submitted by Marla Singer on 07/28/2009 - 17:59~120 minutes of PTJ goodness. (Torrent file attached). We hear from the Zero Hedge Legal Team that we've been contacted by Agents of Mr. Paul Tudor Jones, who has asked us to remove the content we are not actually in possession of.
Quick Note On NAHB HMI
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 17:43Certain anonymous bloggers have made odd allegations about the quality content of our recent piece The End Of The End Of The Recession (which for some odd reason has been lumped into the category of a "housing analysis"). It would behoove said blogger to realize there are numerous other components to a holistic report (and the economy) than merely housing (i.e., consumer, business, manufacturing and industry, and many, many more).
Daily Credit Summary: July 28 - Down Day
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 16:46Spreads were broadly wider in the US (for the first time in over a week) as all the indices deteriorated. Indices typically underperformed single-names (but IG and HY both made wider tights and wider wides than yesterday) with skews widening in general as IG underperformed but narrowed the skew, HVOL underperformed but narrowed the skew, ExHVOL outperformed pushing the skew wider, XO's skew increased as the index outperformed, and HY's skew widened as it underperformed.
Citi Arb Revisited, Or Here Comes Max Pain
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 16:21
Been a while since we looked at the Citi Arb chart (7.29x common - 1 Pfd): looks like the pummeling for the HFs who hold the arb is again reaching VOW max pain proportions, and with one billion shares traded to the upside today, the game theory among the fund managers who are still involved is about to get quite "defective" in a big hurry.
Fitch: Financial Companies Hold 99.7% Of All Derivative Contracts
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 15:12Fitch has released a comprehensive study on derivatives held by various corporations and has come out with some disturbing results: as Zero Hedge's recent disclosure of data from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency confirmed, the bulk of the derivative risk is concentrated not merely in the "financial company" category (99.7%) but in a subset of just five companies, which account for an "overwhelming majority" of derivative assets and liabilities.
Joe Saluzzi Discusses HFT On Fox Business
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 15:10Impressive how much more informative Joe can be when he is not caught avoiding the book pitches of assorted blonde HFT "specialists" on CNBC.
Project Mayhem Research: Multiple Anomalies Detected In Silver ETFs
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 13:18During our research into the inventory lists of the iShares SLV and London-based ETFS physical silver funds, we discovered multiple anomalies which cannot be easily dismissed. These included the presence of internal duplicates, rough internal duplicates, weight duplicates, statistical clustering, and cross-reference duplicates. Taken together, these anomalies are cause for concern, and we suggest that more capable teams conduct further research into these issues, as they effect price discovery within the precious metals market, as these ETF shares are being used for settlement and possibly pricesuppression on the COMEX.
If these problems are caused by accounting errors, they are disturbing and perhaps profoundly incompetent, and we suggest both these funds should have their senior management replaced.
In our opinions, the only way for all of these anomalies to occur together as noted in this paper, is via systemic fraud or gross accounting error bordering on jaw-dropping incompetence.
Bond Selloff Accelerates
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 12:47
The selloff across the bond curve picks up, with the 10 Year about to go red for the day, even as equities have fooled the T-800 army to bid stocks up amongst each other.
Janet Yellen On The Outlook For The US Economy And Community Banks
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 12:37In summation, credit needs to flow or the beast will starve:
"Although my message is that you should plan for the worst and exercise caution, I want to stress that it is also critical that you continue to make loans to creditworthy borrowers. The profits that quality loans generate will serve you well as you safeguard capital. They are the core earning assets that will power bank profitability as we head out of this recession. And, of course, the credit provided by prudent, well-functioning depository institutions will play an important role in supporting the broader economic recovery that now seems to be on the horizon.
BXP's Mort Zuckerman: "The Economy Is Worse Than It Looks"
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 07/28/2009 - 11:57One would think that if anyone had an interest in painting an overly optimistic picture for the economy in general, and commercial real estate in particular, the Chairman of office uber-REIT Boston Properties would be it. Nope.
