Archive - Jun 2012

And just as ISDA was starting to become somewhat credible again, we get this from Bloomberg:

• Spanish CDS Trigger Unlikely on Subordination, Says ISDA *Dow Jones

So..... Subordination? Thank you ISDA for confirming that the true reason of today's sell off has now been enacted.

Wait, this can't... Europe is imploding, the world economy is crashing, and the Spanish banking sector has failed, and the BBA is telling us that in over 3 months Libor has moved by at most... 3 bps, has actually been unchanged for weeks and weeks on end, and has been used by construction workers in the place of a spirit level?

While much was made of WWDC with wall-to-wall media carpeting of the event, it seems the sad reality of a new laptop with more memory and screen that needs it own Lasik Surgery procedure to read it is just not enough to support the AAPL share price. The exuberance over a cross above the 50DMA does not seem as celebrated as we cross back below it.

Where does the money for the bailouts come from? All the governments in Europe including Greece, Italy, and Spain.

And who is allowed to receive money from it? All the governments in Europe including Greece, Italy, and Spain.

How can that possibly work? It can't, but Europeans like bad ideas that sound nice!

We already know that Chinese imports of HK gold passed all records in the month of April. It appears that the precious metal is not the only hard asset that China has set its sights on.

How do you get "consensus" in politics? You horse-trade. You give everybody something they want. You cut everyone into the deal. That passes for "consensus" in politics: divide the swag. If you want to understand President Obama's failure as a leader, ask (as my friend G.F.B. did) where did he learn politics? In Chicago. Big-city politics boils down to getting the ward bosses, ethnic-neighborhood leaders, Chamber of Commerce and public unions together and making them all happy with concessions, give-aways or some other slice of swag so they all agree to to support some minor policy tweak of the Status Quo. Any constituency left out of the swag distribution squeals like a stuck pig and kills the "consensus." This "making sausage" consensus is passed off as "the only way to get anything passed," but the truth is that it's the politics of failure: nothing meaningful can possibly get done in the politics of "consensus" because 95% of any useful reform must be traded away to get everyone willingly on board.

When US equity futures, Treasury futures, and FX markets opened yesterday to a 'risk-on / reality-off' scenario, we made it clear that we suspected things would look very different by the European close. Sure enough, the markets in Europe (and US) have seen a dramatic shift in sentiment as the realization of the end-game here grows louder. It is evident that any strength, any rip, is to be sold. EURUSD rallied 1.2% at its best near the open last night but is ending 0.2% lower from Friday's close. Europe's broad equity market is closing modestly red after being up almost 2% at the open. Europe's financial credits led the equity market once again as senior spreads swung from a 20bps rally to a 10bps sell-off by the close. Italy was crushed after opened up over 4% to close down over 2.75% as Italian banks were halted all the way down. Spanish banks gave back all their gains (SAN was up almost 6% at the open and closed red). Investment grade credit notably underperformed and high-beta XOver swung from a 35bps tightening to close modestly wider. European sovereign bond spreads all opened notably tighter but were crushed by the close with Spain and Italy underperforming (+60bps and +50bps from their intraday low spreads respectively). Quite simply, Europe has swung from Spanish bailout fantasy to Europe's contagious panic reasserting - and that was after a weekend when Spain (and Spanish banks and every bullish trader out there) got everything they wanted. It would appear that the investing public has become better-educated at what is really going on in Europe and how these interim 'solutions' are all to be faded as Franco-German relations remain tense and Germany stoic. In liquidity/safety land, Swiss 2Y rates plunged 7bps to a new record -35.3bps.

One minute you have it, the next minute you don't. Nowadays you never know if the money you have in Europe is really yours or not. From instantaneous debt subordination to capital (flight) controls, things are starting to look ugly!

Here we go:

• EU SOURCES HAVE DISCUSSED IMPOSING CAPITAL CONTROLS AS WORST CASE SCENARIO IF GREECE LEAVES EUROZONE - RTRS
• IMPOSING BORDER CHECKS, LIMITING ATM WITHDRAWALS ALSO PART OF WORST-CASE SCENARIO PLANNING - EU SOURCES - RTRS
• SUSPENSION OF SCHENGEN ALSO DISCUSSED

In other words, that money you thought you had... You don't really have it. We can only hope this message was not meant to restore confidence and prevent future bank runs. Because if Europe wanted a continental bank run, it may have just gotten one.

This is getting scary very fast.

As if the news and rumor in Europe already was not enough, it seems we have a new candidate for full-retard-of-the-week. Greece's neo-nazi Golden Dawn party MP Ilia Kasidiaris (of woman-punching and water-throwing fame) has filed suit against the victims of his tirade and the TV station. Mind-blowingly, as reported by News.It, his suit claims that Antenna TV, which hosted the program, attempted "to hold him against his wishes and journalist Antonis Delatolas of abuse of power". As ekathermini notes, "Kasidiaris issued a statement over the weekend saying the incident had been staged with the aim of making him and Golden Dawn look bad." We can only assume that the next suit will be filed against Liana Kanelli's cheek for hitting his fist 3 times...

... And what Germany wants, Germany gets. Sorry Spanish bondholders.

Spanish 5Y CDS broke back above 600bps (just shy of their record 603bps level) and 35bps wider of their intrday low spread from 5 hours ago. Spanish 10Y yields are over 50bps wider/higher than their intraday lows just after the open in Europe. Italy also just broke 550bps. EURUSD is almost unch now.

This pretty much says it all:

• BOE'S POSEN SAYS TIME FOR CENTRAL BANKS, INCLUDING BOE, TO BUY PRIVATE ASSETS
• POSEN SAYS BUYING PRIVATE-SECTOR ASSETS WOULD HELP ECONOMY

Buy. Real. Assets. Now

It just gets more and more mind-numbing by the moment.The latest from Europe, which earlier confirmed that ESM loans would get preferred creditor status:

• SPANISH BANK RECAPITALIZATION LIKELY TO BE IN EFSF BONDS, SIMILAR TO GREEK RECAPITALIZATION - EU OFFICIAL
• EUROZONE MONEY FOR SPANISH BANK RECAP COULD COME FROM EFSF TO AVOID THE ESM'S PREFERRED CREDITOR PROBLEM - EU OFFICIAL
• SPANISH BAILOUT COULD LATER BE TAKEN OVER BY THE ESM, BUT EXTENDED LOANS WOULD NOT BECOME SENIOR TO OTHER DEBT

Nothing like figuring out your hare-brained bailout attempt was a failure from the beginning. Ok: Here are the problems with this band aid:

1. Unfunded
2. Temporary, and eventually will be replaced by the ESM. Markets can, luckily, still discount.
3. Negative pledge issue still exists as Finland made all too clear. Countries will demand extra security interest while under EFSF regime and until ESM priming comes in play.

Ball is in your court Europe.

After opening and surging to up 18 pts last night (to within a tick of its 200DMA), S&P 500 e-mini futures (ES) have faded the entire gain (just as we said last night) with ES now red. European financial credit is wider on the day. EURUSD has given most of its gains back and Italian and Spanish sovereign bond yields/spreads are considerably wider on the day. US major financials have turned red after opening significantly higher. Swiss 2Y rates are at new record lows at -34bps as the USD has strengthened from 0.8% lower to only 0.15% lower now - which is having an incremental impact on Gold, Silver, and Oil - all plunging at the US day session open. So apart from all that, what did the EUR100bn of #Spailout do for all of us?