Archive - Jun 2012

Central bank gold demand remains robust as central banks continue to diversify out of the euro and the dollar. Further central bank demand is confirmed in the news this morning that Kazakhstan plans to raise the share of gold in its international reserves from 12% to 15%. So announced central bank Deputy Chairman Bisengaly Tadzhiyakov to reporters today in the capital, Astana. “We’ve already signed contracts for 22 tons,” Tadzhiyakov said. Bloomberg report that immediate-delivery gold was little changed at $1.620.41 an ounce at 10:50 a.m. in Moscow, valuing 22 metric tons of gold at about $1.2 billion. “The bank is ready to buy when suppliers are ready to sell,” Tadzhiyakov said. Kazakhstan said yesterday it will cut its holdings in the euro by a sixth. It was reported in the Reuters Global Gold Forum that the central bank buys all the gold produced in Kazakhstan and owned 98.19T at the end of April, according to the IMF's most recent international finance statistics report. Meanwhile, supply issues remain and South African gold production continues to plummet. South African gold production fell 12.8% in April from a year earlier, Juan -Pierre Terblanche, a spokesman for Statistics South Africa, told Bloomberg.

Well, risk is on. Not so much because of the ECB, or BOE, both of which did nothing, but because everyone is hoping and praying that in two weeks the Princeton professor will unleash the 4th round of quantitative easing in the US (yes, Twist was a flow-shifting operation and thus QE3). And the reminder that China is not immune, and did its first rate cut since 2008 only validated the realization "that they have every idea just how bad it is", as Cramer would say. Sure enough, risk is ripping, although considering the world's 2nd largest economy just joined the monetary easing pants party, the 10 point ES response is oddly subdued. Where the reaction is yet to manifest itself is in gold: we expect the PBOC will take a little longer before it announces its meager 1000 tons of gold holdings have at least doubled following 100 ton/month gold imports as recently announced. But announce it will. In the meantime, China's aggressive step likely means that unless we get a global coordinated intervention at 9 am today, as was the case on November 30 after the last notable move by the PBOC, which was the first reserve cut also since 2008, there will be none this time around and Bernanke will be on his own. God save the markets if he does not deliver, either today at the JEC testimony at 10 am or at 2:15 pm on June 20, as the S&P has now priced in at least 75 points of NEW QE intervention.

• China Cuts Interest Rates for First Time Since 2008 (Bloomberg)
• New Risk to Europe's Growth: Banks Cut Lending to Cities (WSJ)
• Labor Faces New Challenge - Losses in Wisconsin, California Come as Ranks of Government Unions Decline (WSJ)
• Yellen argues for more Fed easing amid Europe risk (Reuters)
• Americans Cling to Jobs as U.S. Workforce Dynamism Fades (Bloomberg)
• Japan’s LDP Agrees to Talks With Noda’s DPJ on Sales Tax (Bloomberg)
• Korean Buying Spree Boosts Brent Price (FT)
• China Delays Bank Capital Rule Tightening as Economy Slows (Bloomberg)
• China CIC Chief Sees Rising Risk of Euro Breakup (WSJ)

Update: 9:00 am has come and gone... and no global bailout unlike November 30, 2011. Not a good sign for those expect a central-bank D-Day.

While minutes ago the Bank of England followed in the ECB's footsteps, it was the China central bank that stole England's thunder, announcing an unexpected rate cut moments before 7 am, and thus finally joining the global easing party: this was the first Chinese interest rate cut since 2008. As a reminder, hours before the global central bank intervention on November 30, China announced its first (50 bps) reserve requirement cut since 2008. Is today's PBOC move, which is the first cut of deposit and 1 year lending rates also since 2008, a harbinger of something much bigger to come any second now?

The video below is a great a preview of things to come in Greece. Per Bloomberg, Greek police on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for the spokesman of far-right party Golden Dawn for assaulting two left-wing politicians on live television.  Ilias Kasidiaris was shown on a live morning show jumping out of his seat and slapping Communist Party member Liana Kanelli three times after throwing a glass of water at leftist SYRIZA party member Rena Dourou. Golden Dawn, which was elected for the first time to parliament in a May 6 election, is accused of carrying out violent attacks against immigrants. Surely, being captured on live national TV beating up women will do wonders for restoring the party's image as that encouraging pacifism and peaceful resolution of problems.

On the surface, the overnight Spanish bond auction, in which the country sold a tiny €2.1 billion of 2, 4 and 10 year bonds was a success, simply because it wasn't a failure. Anywhere below the surface and things get fishy. The Treasury sold €638 million of a 2-year bond, €825 million of a four-year bond and €611 million of a benchmark 10-year bond. And while the bid-to-cover ratios were higher than at recent auctions, with the 2012, 2014 and 2022 bonds covered 4.3, 2.6 and 3.3 times respectively, so were the yields: the 2014 bond was issued at a yield of 4.335 percent, the 2016 bond at 5.353 percent and the 2022 bond at 6.044 percent, a lower price than the 6.14 percent the same maturity bond trades at in the secondary market. In other words, Spain is back to using the same tricks it did back in the fall when bonds would magically price well over 10 bps inside of fair value. Just don't ask why.  More notably, as Bloomberg reminds us, this was the lowest amount allotted to a 10 year note since 2004. In other words Spain sold the bare minimum of the longer-bond just to keep up with appearances: an amount likely recycled by its broke banks, which scrambled to get the last remaining LTRO cash and to show just how strong the demand for the country's debt is. In fact as Nicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign said, "If it wasn't for its banks' continued support at auctions, Spain would be unable to sell its debt. Right now confidence in Spain is at an all-time low." Either way, the good news is that according to Spain it has now covered 58% of its borrowing needs for 2012. the bad news: 42% remains uncovered. Especially in the aftermath of an EU announcement that not only has it not received an aid request from Spain, but that there is no EU rescue plan for Spanish banks. Europe has now completely lost the script and is making up day by day.

The end game of this global monetary crisis is the imposition of a 100% digital monetary system that would permanently end what little economic freedoms we still retain today. Educate. Resist. Fight Back. Win.

All you need to read.

While LeBeau et. al. have sung the praises of a renaissance in Auto companies and their manufacturing recovery supporting what woeful growth we have seen, we have mournfully noted the ever-increasing builds of inventory (or 'channel stuffing') at auto-dealerships and most recently pointed to China's 'debilitating price cuts to come' three weeks ago here. Bloomberg this evening is reporting that the situation is getting worse, much worse, as Chinese dealership inventory levels have exploded from under 45 days to over 60 days supply as "dealers can't shoulder the burden anymore... Their backs are broken". This should come as no surprise to ZeroHedge readers but this is forcing dealers to deepen discounts and sell cars at a loss to meet mandatory sales targets. As GM just this week crowed of its 21% rise YoY in 'sales' in China, local analyst channel checks show two-month levels of inventory for foreign brands and even worse 60-80 days worth of inventory for domestic brands adding that this much inventory "is pretty dangerous for the industry". China's largest distributors of autos are canceling debt issues and their views are scarily summed up (by them not us): "The picture we have is very different from what the automakers are painting. The sales increases they’re reporting are achieved by loading dealers with stock."

"Crowds Cheer Queen On Last Day of Jubilee" So ran the headline from Time.  Yesterday marked the end of the “Diamond Jubilee” of Queen Elizabeth II of the British monarchy.  The four day celebration was is honor of her ascendancy to the throne sixty years ago. Monarchies are supposed to be antithetical to freedom.  Under feudalistic monarchism, the notion of personal liberty took a backseat to loyalty to the king.  Those who weren’t part of or close to the nobility were referred to as subjects.  These peasants were to serve without question. Today, the only difference between the systematic malfeasance and plunder that existed under the rule of monarchs and that which defines the state is the ballot box.  Voters in a sense get to choose a small portion of their rulers.  This gives them the mirage of freedom when the nation-state they inhabit is no less than a contemporary field of serfdom lorded over by kings.  Too much of the public still behaves with the mindset of servants.  They are pathetically docile to those who hold the keys of their shackles.   What the celebration of Queen Elizabeth’s sixty year rule showed is that the people of Great Britain never really escaped from monarchy.

A month and a half after the SEC took a much-deserved break from watching taxpayer-funded pornography, and stumbled on the scene with its latest pathetic attempt to scapegoat someone, anyone, for its years of gross incompetence, corruption, and inability to prosecute any of the true perpetrators for an event that wiped out tens of trillions in US wealth, by suing Egan-Jones for "improperly" filing their NRSRO application in what was a glaring attempt to shut them up, the only rating agency with any credibility has done what nobody else in the history of modern crony capitalist-cum-socialist America has dared to do: fight back. We have only three words for Sean Egan: For. The. Win.

Remember when the retail investor was the butt of all jokes, abused by the "smart money" hedge funds and prop desks to soak up hot potatoes and even hotter grenades? Well, to quote Matthew, those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last: because the dumb money just got very smart. As the latest update from ICI shows, in the last week of May, when all the "smart" money was selling hand over fist, it was the retail investor who bottom-timed the market perfectly.