Archive - Aug 2011

William James saw an increasing tendency to extend the then budding scientific method of controlled experiments in the physical sciences into intractable social and political problems. He warned it would not work, perhaps as much based on his psychological understanding as his philosophical logic, that is, as the old saying goes, people will be people.

When the dust settled on gold’s volatile week, despite much “noise” from uninformed commentators, it showed that gold fell 2.96% on the week. This must be put in context. The previous week alone gold had risen 6.2%. Despite the 3% sell off last week gold remains up 11.6% in dollar terms (and by similar amounts in other currencies) so far in August with just three trading days left in the month. Meanwhile, global stock markets are down by similar amounts in August, with the FTSE down 11.7%, the DAX down 21.6%, the S&P down 8.95% and the MSCI World down 10.95%. Thus, gold has again proven its hedging and safe haven status. The data shows that sentiment in the futures market towards both gold and silver remains muted with very little evidence of participants ‘piling in’ on the long side. Indeed, it shows that the sharp margin increases seen in silver and the margin increase seen in gold last week have had the desired effect of cooling sentiment thereby making the fundamentals in both markets sounder. The COT data in conjunction with very robust physical demand globally and especially in China (see news) means that any correction is likely to be shallow and short prior to the primary trend reasserting itself.

A quick update at the liquidity conditions in Europe comes courtesy of the ECB's posting of data on the Friday Marginal lending facility (aka emergency overnight) as well as the Deposit facility (last recourse cash dump), which paints a mixed picture. Because while the Marginal Lending saw its first zero usage, down from €1 million on Thursday, the lowest since August 5, Deposit Facility usage once again rose from €104 billion to €121.2 billion. The latter is a concern as it means that the only place that European banks would be willing to allocate excess capital, is the safety of the European money printing poliburo. Next up from the ECB we get data on SMP usage, i.e., secondary debt purchases, in the past week: somewhere between €10 and 15 billion, although it could easily be greater.

Chart levels to look out for

A snapshot of the European Morning Briefing covering Stocks, Bonds, FX, etc.
Market Recaps to help improve your Trading and Global knowledge

All you need to read

That European wholesale, and particularly dollar, funding has been "problematic" in past weeks is an understatement. One merely needs to look at the Fed's recent expansion in its transatlatnic swap lines to figure out that someone, somewhere is struggling to meet their USD-denominated obligations. However, is it just one bank, as recent data out of the ECB suggest, or is this merely a symptom of a far more acute underlying cause? Alas, as Barclays' Joseph Abate confirms by looking at the transformation in funding patterns within that most fulcrum of European banking systems - that of France - the threat is far more prevalent than has been speculated. In fact, based on the rapid transition in funding from unsecured to secured lending markets within French banks in general, and one name in particular, it seems that while SocGen stock may have avoided its daily rout courtesy of the extension in the short selling ban, there is a far greater concern for the bank: one of maintaining orderly daily operation funding. And there is little that European stock market regulators can do to restore liquidity, aka confidence, once it starts evaporating. Which it has... although mostly in unsecured markets... for the time being. Should secured funding (ABCP and Repo) wilt next, then it gets really, really bad. To wit: "Bank funding worries have flared up again with the news that the Federal Reserve’s currency swap line with other central banks has been tapped at least twice this month. The trivial amounts borrowed belie significant wholesale funding stresses for some institutions in dollar markets." Let's take a look at what "some" means...

The response of the market makes sense from the perspective of Pavlovian conditioning.

Since this chart from the WSJ sums up petty much everything about the "efficient market hypothesis" or whatever it is those wacky Chicago PhD's call their multi-variable, self-similar, Lorenzian "strange attractor" equations that describe human irrationality to the dot, there is little need for commentary (those who wish to do so, can read more about it at "Fed Faces Old Foe as Hazard Returns")

Sales must increase. That is largely dependent on household formation, which in turn is dependent on growth in full time jobs. And that's not happening.

What we do have to note is the most recent parabolic run away from the 20EMA created an abnormal spike never before seen in history with a reading of 2718 or price closing $271.8 away from the 20EMA. So the next logical question becomes what do we make of this and is it the end of this massive uptrend? Our view is this is unlikely, considering the historical relationship to the 20EMA as noted before (8% of time below). In fact, we may consider a pullback to the 20EMA to be a healthy thing as it will put Gold through a re-distribution phase and allow the order flows behind it to start another run higher. But, the extreme nature of this suggests price is likely to pullback to the 20ema within the next 2mos or by year end. Across most instruments, price rarely has this kind of extreme or unstable relationship to the 20EMA and usually means the orders behind such movements have to normalize a bit before starting another run. Keep in mind, this does not have to happen with a violent sell-off and could be the result of price hanging around the $1700-$1900 range while the 20EMA catches up to current price levels.

What about less Debt?

The news out of Europe just keeps getting worse. While earlier we described how the squabbling within Merkel's own party could scuttle her political career, not to mention hopes for ongoing German funding of European bailouts, next we learn that she has not only outright rejected Finland's demands for loan collateralization out of Greece (which would in turn make Greece a selective Debtor In Possession lender, or, in other words, a prepack bankruptcy candidate 101), a move which Finland will likely balk over and very likely unilaterally exit from the second Greek bailout (remember that whole "Greek Bailout #2 is Dead on Arrival" from June 5?), but what is worse, according to Der Spiegel, tomorrow CDU coalition partner CSU will likely propose several "explosive ideas" which not only reject a common "economic government" for the eurozone (thereby slapping Sarkozy fully across the face), but also consider "creating a bankruptcy procedure to kick out of the euro countries that aren't willing to stick to the debt limits laid out in the euro zone's Stability and Growth Pact." In other words zero steps forward, and as many steps back as it takes to get us to before not only the July 22 Greek bail out, but all the way back to the beginning of the year. Only this time, the market is fully aware that both Italy and France are also on the hook: that can not be unwound with any paper.

Update: sure enough, here is Ambrose Evans-Pritchard with his own perspective on just this topic, which is oddly comparable to Zero Hedge's: "Mrs Merkel's aides say she is facing "war on every front". The next month will decide her future, Germany's destiny, and the fate of monetary union."

Every time we discuss the futility of the n^th bailout of [Greece\PIIGS\Europe\the Euro] we make it all too clear (most recently here and here) that the trade off between Germany onboarding ever more peripheral financial risk in one after another all too brief attempt to prevent the implosion of European capital markets and its currency, is not only a relentless creep higher in German default risk (and lower in the German stock market, as August has so violently demonstrated) but increasing political discontent, which after claiming countless political regimes across the world, has finally settled down on one that truly matters: that of German chancellor Angela Merkel. And as Reuters reports, Merkel's disappointing response to an ever escalating set of crises, both domestic and international, means that the beginning of her end (and by implication of the Eurozone, and of the Euro) may be as soon as September 23, when the vote over the expansion of the latest and greatest European bailout lynchpin, EFSF, will take place. 

The consumer driven recession has begun. Keeping it very simple of the four GDP components (consumer, fixed investment, government and net trade) the consumer has simply rolled over. In Q1 2011 the consumer contributed 1.46% to the 0.4% total GDP. In other words if it was not for consumer growth or even if .5% of that growth was removed the economy contracted in Q1 2011. Fast forward to Q2 where the consumer component is now 0.3%. In other words the trend of the consumer is deteriorating. Representing roughly 70% of total GDP the consumer is the economy. Confidence drives the consumer, the consumer drives demand and demand drives the economy. Well judging by the epic fall in University Of Michigan Sentiment, now at multi year lows the economy is in serious trouble. To get a sense of the economic reality facing the US look at the historic correlation between sentiment and real GDP.