Archive - Jun 24, 2011

Good and bad news from the May durable goods data, where as expected transportation contributed the major portion, with the total number coming at 1.9% on expectations of 1.5%, up from an upward revised -2.7% (previously -3.6%). However, take out transportation and the change was only 0.6%, below consensus of 0.9%. From the release: "Transportation equipment, also up two of the last three months, had the largest increase, $2.7 billion or 5.8 percent to $49.6 billion. This was due to nondefense aircraft and parts which increased $2.7 billion. Shipments of manufactured durable goods in May, up five of the last six months, increased $0.6 billion or 0.3 percent to $194.6 billion. This followed a 1.4 percent April decrease. Machinery, up three of the last four months, had the largest increase, $0.5 billion or 2.0 percent to $28.3 billion." The surprise was a jump in machinery orders which had a 3.4% rise in May, to $108.7 billion: "This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 3.7 percent April increase." Another all time record comes from a good old standby: inventories: "Inventories of manufactured durable goods in May, up seventeen consecutive months, increased $4.1 billion or 1.2 percent to $355.4 billion. This was at the highest level since the series was first published on a NAICS basis in 1992 and followed a 1.2 percent April increase."

• Greece reached a deal on extra tax rises and spending cuts with the EU/IMF to plug a EUR 3.8bln funding gap
• Better than expected German IFO data promoted risk-appetite, which supported EUR
• Shares in Italian banks, including Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, got suspended, partly due to market talk that some Italian banks had failed stress tests
• Moody’s changed its outlook on 13 mid-sized and smaller Italian banks to negative, and warned them of a potential downgrade. However, Italian PM said Italian banks are well capitalised, and is not worried about Moody’s warning
• ECB’s Gonzalez-Paramo said the Eurozone crisis is not over and will not end soon
• Greece's PASOK lawmaker, Robopoulos, said that he may vote against the mid-term fiscal plan

Today's durable goods and second GDP revision will be largely non-market moving with all the headlines coming out of Europe and the EURUSD as is now standard.

• Bernanke Public Approval Falls to Lowest (Bloomberg)
• On Governments as Portfolio Managers (El-Erian) - good read on the distinction between good and bad inflation
• Of Wealth and Incomes: Why Americans are so unhappy with this economic recovery (WSJ Editorial)
• Wen Says China Succeeding in Inflation Battle with Price Gains Set to Slow (Bloomberg)
• EU Halts New Greek Backtrack (WSJ)
• Greek Austerity Measures Still Unclear (Market News)
• Greek Default Insurance Costs Drop (WSJ).... yes, sub 1 point profit taking in 20 pts up CDS is now headline worthy
• Feds to Launch Probe of Google (WSJ)
• Italy’s Draghi Appointed to Succeed Trichet as ECB President (Bloomberg)

Have you ever looked beneath the hood of the big European banks? It's scary for the average layperson & it even scarier if you actually understand what it is you are looking at. What we have hear is EXACTLY what I found in early 2008, INSOLVENCY - laid out plainly for all to see - at least all who ever bothered to take a look! Throw Kilo after Kilo of leveraged fiat currency meat into the insolvent sovereign PIIGS' maw & you won't ever see it again:

Exposing the truth on Quebec's $175 million Absolute Return Fund...

While EU leaders look forward to a multitude of emergency meetings until July 20, when Greece has to pay back a government bond with a volume of €6.6 billion, the fate of Greece's bailout may ultimately lie in the hands of the Green party in the dwarf nation Austria. Austria's Green Party sent an open (German language) letter to the country's chancellor Werner Faymann on Thursday, threatening to boycott a vote in the Austrian parliament where a 2/3 majority is needed for a change of the constitution that would allow Austria to participate in the €138 billion bailout package for the Hellenic peninsula. As a Euro member Austria has the obligation to take part in the bailout that is hugely unpopular with voters/taxpayers.

Fukushima, which has yet to be wrapped up into the world's most surreal Christo project, has now entered the realm of the sitcom farce. According to Dow Jones, "A small 8.2 kilogram drone aircraft gathering data from heavily damaged areas of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant lost control Friday and landed on the roof of the No. 2 reactor building, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501.TO) said. The vehicle, known as a T-Hawk, is about 50 centimeters in diameter and looks like a small jet pack. It is used primarily by the military for reconnaissance work in dangerous areas. It has been used at Fukushima Daiichi since mid-April to assist in damage assessment." What next: Getco's SkyNet bots take control of the Johnny 5's crawling and snapping pics inside the damaged reactors and all commit ritual suicide in the spent fuel rod pool (while churning shares of GM stock of course).

There has been a decidedly bearish turn to risk sentiment in Europe, where the EURUSD briefly touched over 1.43 just under two hours ago, only to see virtually all the gains from the Greece "bailout acceptance" non-news wiped out, and dipping by over 100 pips in the span of a little over an hour. The reason for this dramatic change in mood is attributed to a trading halt in Italian banks UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo both of which tumbled by 8% earlier before being halted. Among the reasons for the plunge cited by traders are rumors for a cap increase for UniCredit due to risk of not passing the stress test. There is also speculation that there was a major selling program advertised by Goldman several minute before the Moody's headlines of putting Italian banks on downgrade review. Attached is Reuters take. Bottom line - Europe is so jittery that no matter how the Greek hole is plugged, the law of connected vessels merely will mean that vigilantes will next focus their attention to one of the next two dominoes: Spain and Italy.

A snapshot of the European Morning Briefing covering Stocks, Bonds, FX, etc.
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