Archive - Aug 1, 2011

As we pointed out last week, the broad flattening in the Treasury curve, and especially in the short-end continues, with the 2s5s just dropping to 97.6 bps earlier closing below the 104 support line on Friday. Why is this important? Because as Citi chief technical strategist Tom Fitzpatrick wrote in a note released to clients, this is a "concerning development" as it is one of those "other" metrics watched by the Fed in determining when "intervention" is required (not like Goldman's note from Friday had anything to do with it). He adds: "2/5 broke below this level first week of August last year, the result of increasing guidance that QE2 was on the way. Here we do not have any such guidance and instead the curve reflects increasing concerns with the U.S. economy/slowdown." We may add that since cause and effect do not really matter much, it is only a matter of time before the Fed assumes that the market is pricing in not economic weakness but precisely another QE event and reacts accordingly. Citi concludes: "2/5 decline may continue, and could be a negative augur for stock market." It will be... until the Fed proceeds to do what it does best: monetize. Which, assuming today's debt deal passes before midnight, it will just have gotten permission to do. To the tune of about ~$2.5 trillion.

German daily Der Spiegel has conducted a rather unexpected interview with Mark Meckler, co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, or about as right as they come, in which he discusses the US debt ceiling, the radical right's "uncompromising fight against the national debt" and the "complete economic disaster" he claims President Barack Obama has created. Naturally, the bottom line should not come as a surprise to anyone: the great reset is overdue, and it is all Obama's fault. What is curious is that Germany is giving such a prominent soapbox to one of the US administration's biggest critics. Is Germany becoming more actively involved in doing what ECB's Trichet and Noyer have done over the past month, namely deflecting Europe's own problems by pointing out the country which Europeans have said has even worse credit fundamentals? Will ridiculing America be the dominant theme in Europe's media over the next few weeks even as the second European bailout falls apart (Intesa Sanpaolo was halted again earlier, for the n^th time). Is the game of G-8 scapegoating about to take on a whole new dimension? And what does that mean for future consensus in an organization that has for now been largely submissive to every US whim? We will find out in the coming months.

NPAs and devalued sovereign debt infect bank balance sheets, which are bailed out by sovereigns who assume too much debt for the bailouts, thus dropping the value of their bonds, further stressing bank balance sheets, thereby increasing the need for bailouts. Wash-Rinse-Repeat. Hey, he who panics first, panics best!

The melodrama is not over yet. Here is what we have to look forward to out of DC on the debt ceiling crisis today, one day ahead of the Treasury running out of cash. The market assumes the deal is done. The market did the same with the "3 page termsheet" Tarp 0. Perhaps a real market flush is what is needed to really generate a "grand compromise."

Markets reacted positively to news that the White House and senior Congressional leadership had agreed, in principle, a deal to raise the US debt ceiling, which provided support to European equities, and weighed on Bunds, whereas the Eurozone peripheral 10-year government bond yield spreads narrowed across the board. A renewed appetite for risk provided strength to WTI and Brent crude futures, and spot Gold prices came under pressure. Elsewhere, commodity-linked currencies, including AUD, NZD and CAD, remained the prominent beneficiaries at the cost of safe-haven currencies, such as CHF, JPY and USD. In other forex news, GBP came under extensive pressure after manufacturing PMI data from the UK demonstrated a contraction, and reached its lowest level since Jun'09. Moving into the North American open, the economic calendar remains thin, however markets look ahead to the ISM manufacturing data from the US. With regards to the US debt debate, focus now shifts to whether the US debt ceiling deal can go through the House and Senate before an August 2nd deadline, and any reaction from major rating agencies pertaining to US's sovereign ratings.

Debt-Limit Deal to Get Congress Vote Today (Bloomberg)
Debt compromise favours Republican demands (FT)
An Agreement Is Struck, but the Deficit Isn't Solved (WSJ)
Hedge fund firm Lansdowne sells Goldman stake (Reuters)
China’s Official PMI Falls (WSJ)
Asia’s Economic ‘Soft Patch’ Jars With Inflation, Posing Dilemma on Rates (Bloomberg)
Lagarde Warns EU to Speak with one Voice (FT)
An Uncomfortable Final Stretch for Trichet (FT)

One of the most entertaining if absolutely flawed fables we have heard over the past several months is that Japan is currently undergoing some mythical V-shaped recovery, based on some even more mythical surge in car production and sales. Courtesy of a thing called "facts", summarized by Reuters, we can now effectively ignore this growth strawman for good. "New vehicle sales in Japan fell by a record in July, battered by production disruptions from the March 11 earthquake, while South Korean rivals extended their winning streak to report strong global sales. Sales of new vehicles, excluding 660cc minicars, in Japan fell 27.6 percent to 241,472 vehicles, with Toyota Motor Corp leading the decline. "Looking at the trend from April onwards, the situation hasn't changed much from June," said Michiro Saito, general manager at the Japan Automobile Dealers Association. "Vehicle supply won't return right away and we're looking forward to the production recovery at automakers from around September." Toyota's sales fell 37 percent, while Honda Motor Co's dropped 33.2 percent. Nissan Motor Co , which has been less impacted by the March earthquake and tsunami, fared better with a 17.6 percent fall." Incidentally, it is time to get an update of our own nationalized, taxpayer-subsidized union blackhole: Government Motors and specifically its record channel stuffing shennanigans due out shortly.

Today's ISM will almost certainly be a major disappointment based on regression analyses, although it will be largely ignored in the major headline onslaught, as the soap opera continues even though at this point the most it can do is lead to a massive market drop since the market has already priced in a successful, if short term, "debt man walking" (thank you Bill Gross) solution.

News from last night out of China, coupled with early morning news from Europe confirmed what many speculated: namely that global manufacturing is now in a toxic spiral and absent another stimulus kick from various monetary and fiscal authorities there is no catalyst on the horizon to put the global economy into second gear. As Reuters observes, factories in Asia and Europe all but stagnated in July, according to business surveys that showed the weakest rates of growth since major industrial powers were struggling through the 2009 recession. While stock markets rose on signs of a last minute solution that would avoid a U.S. debt default, manufacturing purchasing managers indexes (PMIs) provided the latest evidence of a slowing global economy. The euro zone manufacturing PMI, which gauges the activities of thousands of businesses, fell to 50.4 in July from 52.0 in June -- its worst showing since September 2009 and barely above the 50 mark dividing growth and contraction. Perhaps more worryingly, China's official government PMI dropped to 50.7 from 50.9 in June, its weakest in more than two years, while the HSBC PMI fell below the 50 mark for the first time in a year -- to 49.3 in July from 51.6. Following Friday's horrendous GDP and Chicago PMI readings these are hardly a surprise. Needless to say, the reverse decoupling thesis will be tested once again today after the July ISM is released with consensus looking for a 54.9 print, and Zero Hedge looking for number just a tad above 50. But none of this matters. As Bloomberg's James Halloway points out, "Markets are for now shrugging off Friday’s poor U.S. GDP report, softening PMI prints in China and Germany, contractionary PMI readings for Ireland, Spain, U.K." One couldn't have put the idiocy of the market any better. Oh, and did we mention there is actually still no deal on the debt ceiling. It is merely priced in. As was Tarp 1 before the vote, leading to the biggest then historical collapse in the Dow once the market realized it had gotten ahead of itself. Deja vu coming up?

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