Archive - Jul 27, 2010

Interesting things have been happening in the real estate markets, but does it mean we are in a real estate recovery?

The classic paradigm for thinking of the “American experience” involves the use of a “melting pot” or “patchwork” metaphor. The basic idea is that the US is a single entity comprised of a wide variety of ethnic/ social groups. This metaphor in turn is used to support the view that the US is a Democracy: a place where “your vote counts” no matter who you are.

However, to me, an examination of the real socio-political hierarchy in the US reveals that this entire “patchwork” ideology is a myth perpetuated in order to convince the general populace that they somehow matter or have an impact on the US political structure and proposed legislative policy

bcIMC is one of the largest Canadian public pension funds. Here is a brief look at its 2009-2010 results.

Everything's been solved!!!! (Oh, wait ...)

For those looking at the recent moves in the gold chart with disenchanted amusement, here are some scenarios to ponder. Below are the recent cycles associated with the S&P priced in gold (ratio format), where it is can be seen that the ratio is once again climbing to the upside, just below 0.96. That's fine, although as the chart demonstrates the lower low moves occur with greater frequency and greater downward momentum with each iteration. Yet where this chart gets interesting is when it is recreated from the perspective of the 1930s. As can be seen, the recent lows in the ratio at around 0.9 are a joke compared to the nearly 0.2 achieved in 1932... just before FDR decided to make gold ownership illegal.

In our day and age, when implied correlation is approaching 1 with each passing day, and when nuanced relationships are ignored, as every correlation somehow immediately becomes causation only to be invalidated, chewed out and left for dead, there is one certain and virtually guaranteed statistical relationship left, that not only persists day after day but has now become its own self-fulfilling prophecy. We speak of course of the (inverse) correlation between stock prices and volume: i.e., "volume up, stocks down; volume down, stocks up." Rinse, repeat, over and over and over. Rarely has this correlation been as pronounced (although we have been discussing it for well over a year) as over the past 12 weeks. Behold.

One of the odder stories of the day comes from Dow Jones, which reports that the Chinese Sovereign Wealth Fund (China Investment Corp, or CIC), has sold $138.5 million worth of Morgan Stanley shares in the past week, after dumping 4.53 million shares at $27.17 on Wednesday and 575,000 shares at $27.13 on Thursday. CIC began accumulating a massive Morgan Stanley stake in 2007, when it purchased its initial shares in the then troubled investment bank, and followed up with a June 2009 $1.2 billion investment, The reason for the sale, DJ speculates, is for the fund to avoid "additional disclosure requirements." Yet as a filing as recently as June 18 disclosed, the fund's Morgan Stanley stake was openly disclosed to be 11.64%. Surely the CIC administrator, the PM and everyone else in the front and back office were all too aware of this number. Which is odd since per both initial and follow up purchase agreements, CIC had stated it would not own more than 9.9% of MS' shares, and would remain a passive investor. That the firm would blatantly purchase 16% more than this threshold in the open market by mistake in the past year seems somewhat ludicrous. Worth recalling is that in June CIC disclosed a 10% MTM loss for the month of May, or roughly about the time it announced its above normal MS exposure. Are the two related? Has the CIC been covertly liquidating assets? It is unclear, as the one and only 13F for CIC is still the original one filed from February (covered here). One would imagine there would be at least some SEC requirement that a filer that has issued at least one 13F would be so kind to follow it up with at least a second one... eventually. In the meantime there is no official statement on the transaction: "A spokeswoman for CIC said she was unaware of the reason for the sales. A Beijing-based Morgan Stanley spokeswoman declined comment."

RANsquawk Market Wrap Up - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 27/07/10

A few days ago FOFOA drew quite a bit of attention with his post "Red Alert: Gold Backwardation", in which the topic of the GOFO rate receives prominent attention (GOFO is basically the difference between a currency lease rate, in this case dollar Libor, and the GLR, or the Gold Lease Rate, as per the LBMA). FOFOA draws several correlation between the GOFO and an implied backwardation, and asks the question: “Is the dollar bidding for gold, or maybe gold is bidding for dollars?” Indeed, while one read of the underlying material does substantiate the presented hypothesis, another is merely that there has been too much turbulence in the currency market, with Libor, not just USD, but especially EUR, surging recently, on very valid liquidity concerns out of Europe. As a result of the massive squeeze first in the dollar and then in euros, a topic much discussed here previously, one could reach a point where the GOFO is in fact negative, merely due to vol in interbank and money market, which in turn is driven by ever faster liquidations in the shadow banking system, another topic much discussed on Zero Hedge. Certainly, when both of these are in flux, it would be expected that GLR would also do some very peculiar things. Either way, FOFOA has conceived an interesting theory, and gold fans will appreciate the thought experiment of gold being in backwardation. We present Professor Antal Fekete's response to FOFOA's analysis. Both are an interesting read. (The FOFOA post can be found here).

With everyone now agreeing fundamentals are completely irrelevant, the only things that could possibly matter are charts. And in this particular case, the key one on an ultrashort term momentum-driven basis likely is the ES upchannel as seen on the chart attached. Every time the support barrier is approached, a few hundred blocks appear our of the woodwork to preserve the self-fulfilling fantasy. Yet, it is getting increasingly more difficult to validate the phantom buying. Keep an eye out on this channel in the next few hours/days.

It is better to raise the hypothesis that the BP oil well is interacting with the Rigel field and have it debunked - or confirmed - than not to discuss it at all ... especially since Thad Allen has raised the issue himself.

Better yet, BP should answer Congressman Markey's questions, so that we don't have to speculate. (I know that it's a tough concept: actually responding to the demands of a U.S. congressman, but - hey - it would be good pr ...)

Last Friday we reported that the most important (and most underreported) story of the week was Bloomberg's disclosure that Chinese banks may struggle to recoup about 23 percent of the 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) they’ve lent to finance local government infrastructure projects, and that only 27 percent of the loans to the financing vehicles can be repaid in full by cash generated by the projects they funded. As this is a topic that deserves much more attention, we present the views of Goldman's Ning Ma on this critical issue, which when combined with Fitch's recent disclosure that the CDO market is ramping up in full force halfway across the world, and that China has 66 million vacant homes, should all come together in a nice and tidy confluent package of a combustible real estate-cum-credit explosion. Of course, this being Goldman, guess which way the spin is pointed: "We continue to believe systemic risks associated with such loans are limited. Key to watch: The results of restructuring and NPL recognition in 2H10 (mainly from unrecognized social projects and misused loans, but likely far less than 23% NPL ratios), and credit cost allocation among banks and local gov’ts." In other words, ignore the biased conclusion, but certainly focus on this most recent unravelling of the Chinese bubble.

European banks are already struggling to collect from fellow defaulted, sovereign (allegedly) backed banks yet we are hearing that there is no need to model in default or restructuring in the European bank stress tests. Of Iceland, Greece, Portugal, Ireland and soon Hungary are all just one-off occurrences.

Even as stocks continue pricing in QE2 (presumably some time in the next 2 years), bonds keep on laughing. The $38 billion in 2 Year Bonds just auctioned off at a 0.665% high yield, the lowest yield for a 2 Year primary issue. The bid to cover came in at 3.33, compared to 3.45 previously, and 3.15 average. Indirect participation plunged to 32.8%,compared to 41.41% previously. As the directs took down "just" 13.5%, the Primary Dealers ended up taking down a majority of the $38 billion bond auction, or 53.7%. The recycling of cheap Fed money has now fully arrived, and with an Discount Window to 2 year arb of 0.4% (0.66% - 0.25%), it shows just how bad things must be for the PDs.

Ever wonder why according to the latest economic poll published by Reuters earlier the general public's satisfaction with Obama's handling of the economy is deteriorating faster than any other issue? (not to mention that 46% of Americans believe Obama is not focused enough on job creation, and that 72% of republicans say they are certain to vote at the November congressional elections versus 49% of democrats). A part of the answer comes courtesy of a new study produced by National League of
Cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National
Association of Counties titled simply enough: "Local Governments Cutting Jobs and Services: Job losses projected to approach 500,000", showed local governments moved to cut
the equivalent of 8.6 percent of their workforces from 2009 to
2011. As a result of local government cutbacks, almost 500,000 people will lose their jobs, and the total will likely rise. The summary of the report attached below, is particularly grim: "Over the next two years, local tax bases will likely suffer from depressed property values, hard-hit household incomes and declining consumer spending. Further, reported state budget shortfalls for 2010 to 2012 exceeding $400 billion will pose a significant threat to funding for local government programs. In this current climate of fiscal distress, local governments are forced to eliminate both jobs and services." If Americans are dissatisfied with Obama's handling of the economy now, just until 2012.