Archive - Jul 2011

The picture portrayed by last week’s EBA’s stress test results on the European banks failed to re-ignite appetite for risk today, as many market participants questioned the validity of the tests, which ignored a potential Greek default scenario. Moreover, markets remained apprehensive about any concrete outcome from the Eurozone leaders’ summit this Thursday, and together with concern surrounding the successful passage of a raft of supply from Eurozone countries, such as Spain, later this week promoted risk-aversion. This prompted European equities to trade under pressure, led by financials, whereas marginal widening was observed in the Eurozone peripheral 10-year government bond yield spreads. Elsewhere, strength in the USD-index weighed upon EUR/USD, GBP/USD, and commodity-linked currencies. Moving into the North American open, the economic calendar remains thin, however the TIC flows data and NAHB housing market report from the US are due later in the session. Markets also look ahead to corporate earning results from IBM, whereas in fixed-income, French T-Bill auctions are scheduled for later.

• Reid, McConnell Push Revised Debt Measure as Obama Seeks to Avoid Default (Bloomberg)
• Fallback plan gains momentum in debt talks (RTRS)... aka the "change nothing" plan, and raise debt ceiling by $2.5 trillion
• China house price inflation slows in June (FT)
• Riksbank Members Fear Greek Failure Could Spark Real Crisis (Market News)
• European Stocks Retreat for Third Day After Bank Stress Tests (Bloomberg)
• ECB would reject defaulted Greek bonds as collateral (RTRS)
• Greek debt cut won't solve problem - ECB's Weidmann (RTRS)
• An Arrest and Scotland Yard Resignation Roil Britain (NYT)
• Japan set to ban Fukushima cattle shipments after radioactive meat scare (Guardian)
• Spain and Italy top results in stress tests (FT)

As if a global solvency crisis and a possible rekindling of the only middle-east conflict that matters were not enough, here is China to remind everyone that keeping 1.3 billion people happy is not very easy. According to AP, "Several attackers, a policeman and three others were killed Monday during an attack on a police station in China's far western Xinjiang region, state media reported. It said other police rushed to the scene and shot dead "a number of thugs." One policeman, two hostages and a civilian were also killed, Xinhua said. A woman from the information office of Xinjiang Public Security Department in Urumqi confirmed the attack, but would not give any details. As is common with Chinese officials, she refused to give her name." To be sure the official explanation is one that breaks down the conflict along ethnic lines: the last thing the Chinese need is a spark to realize that the unhappiness they may feel (especially those without access to off balance sheet bank loans to fuel their gambling habits), is all too real.

Homebuilder sentiment and capital inflows data. And lots and lots of European and other headlines.

Absolute bloodbath in Europe:

• Italian 10-Year Bonds Extend Drop; Yield Climbs to 6 Percent
• Spain 10-Year Bond Yield Surges to Euro-Era Record 6.31 Percent

And more from Bloomberg...

As expected, gold is now over $1,600, after fears about Italy are back, the EUR is tumbling, and questions over the sustainability of fiat and Keynesianism are once again front and center. Elsewhere, silver is over $40. Unless a miracle appears out of nowhere to save the Eurozone and its fake paper currency, we expect $2,000 by the end of the year in gold, while silver should promptly regain its all time nominal highs of just over $50.

First of all, Money McBags has to apologize for this column’s lack of timeliness but ever since he has gone to....

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

If we are in a deflation, why are we having inflation? But, if we are having inflation why haven’t we seen prices go crazy? I explain why inflation is just starting.

And we thought we were harsh on the EBA's second farce of so-called 'stress tests'. Enter SocGen's Hank Calenti and team: "The test does not reflect current reality, in our view; even if GIIPS sovereign are further stressed within this test, a €22bn shortfall and a relatively healthy average 6.2% core Tier 1 appear. The European banking sector is captive to politics at the moment. A political error can trigger a freeze in money markets, and a liquidity crisis could quickly turn into a solvency crisis. Only improved governance would avoid such a nasty scenario." We wonder what Calenti would say about the US in this case...

Next week is light on data, thus developments in the European and US fiscal tensions are likely to remain high on the agenda. The Eurogroup heads of state will meet on Thursday to discuss European financial stability and further aid for Greece. Expectations are for an increase in the Greek financial rescue package, alongside some form of voluntary ‘bail in’ for holders of Greek debt. More comprehensive solutions to stem contagion risk, such as secondary market purchases of EMU government bonds by the EFSF, are said to be also on the cards, but uncertainty is very large. Ahead of the statement resulting from the summit, the market may remain caught in the headlights of headline risk. Discussions over raising the debt ceiling in the US will continue. On the data front, the business surveys will be key to watch. Towards the end of the week the HSBC flash PMI for China, the Euroland flash PMIs and the Philadelphia Fed Survey will all be published. The Euroland surveys are expected to decline slightly, but the Philadelphia Fed survey is expected to rise although our forecast is for a notably smaller rise than that of the consensus.

With the market's attention over the past year exclusively focused on bank holdings of insolvent European sovereign debt, which as is now well known had been declining for months, many if not all forgot that banks also have credit exposure via far simpler conduits: retail and commercial debt. And as an analysis of the full disclosure in the EBA's second stress test exposes, banks are on the hook for literally trillions in various plain-vanilla commercial and retail loans to individuals and businesses. WSJ's David Enrich summarizes it best: "Friday's test results shed light on another potential problem for Europe's banks: huge piles of residential mortgages, small-business loans, corporate debt and commercial real-estate loans to institutions and individuals from ailing countries. As those economies struggle, the odds of rising defaults grow." Oops.