Archive - Aug 2012

While every investor you ask is vehemently concerned about any and every risk and sentiment surveys suggest there is a 'wall of worry' to climb, once again the truth is in the positioning. Based on DTCC data, via Morgan Stanley, investors' net bullish CDS positioning in European investment grade credit has never been higher - having surged recently. Critically, note that that investment grade credit index has a major exposure to European financials. Adding to the reality of positioning and self-deceiving biases of all those so afraid to miss the CB rally or look like fools in the face of momentum, bond markets are even more ebullient (as European bond spreads trade back under CDS spreads) and European credit implied volatility trades below realized vol - an even more unusual occurrence than in VIX currently. It seems the real pain trade is a risk flare in European financials once again - as opposed to all those who 'hear' everyone's bearish.

GROSS: Do bond markets take heart from Ryan selection? Not me. He talks lower deficits but really believes in lower taxes – exact opposite.

— PIMCO (@PIMCO) August 13, 2012

As the 'new' normal limps on, PIMCO's Mohamed El-Erian focuses his attention on the political dysfunction that roils the 'new new' normal in an excellent op-ed in Foreign Policy today. The economic and financial system risks breakages that the political system will be increasingly incapable of mending rapidly enough," he opines as he fears sluggishness in economic growth, unacceptably high youth unemployment and long-term joblessness, redoubled debt and deficit concerns, and worsening inequalities between rich and poor leading the US down a path towards Europe's disruption. Sadly, neither Obama nor Romney has yet offered a meaningful, forward-looking economic reform program to address problems such as a malfunctioning labor market, unsustainable public finances, a broken credit system, inadequate infrastructure, and a lagging education system. The warning bells are ringing, and they are ringing loudly. We've already allowed bad economics to lead to bad politics. Now, it's high time to put a stop to the cycle where bad politics undermines an already fragile economy.

Another day, another LCH margin hike on Spanish and Italian bonds. Spanish SPGBs which will have to post more margin beginning tomorrow are all bonds with a maturity between 0.75 and 3.25 years, as well as bonds between 10 and 15 years, as well as all short-term Italian bonds between 3.25 and 7 year, in effect offsetting Draghi's "reverse Twist" house of cards. Expect to see more flattening in the Spanish and Italian 2s10s curve, followed by more promises of imminent action by the ECB, which however, may finally be realizing that for Spain to actually demand a bailout, its 10 years will have to be closer to 10% than to 5%. Finally, if this ratcheting up in asset encumbrance in Europe doesn't send the VIX to single digits nothing will.

Two years in and they are only starting now? What took them so long. Also, absolutely nothing new here, but merely the latest attempt to shift public opinion and EUR viability perceptions ever so slightly by one of Germany's most respect magazines. Those whose agenda it is to spook Germany with images of fire, brimstone, and 3-page mutual assured destruction termsheets if the Euro implodes, are now free to take the podium. One wonders: if it wasn't for the inevitable collapse of the EUR.... the inevitable collapse of the EUR.... the inevitable collapse of the EUR.... the inevitable collapse of the EUR, and of course Paul Ryan, would there be absolutely no news today?

It's not unheard of for stocks to rally when economic conditions are weak, particularly when corporate profits are doing well; Q2 marked a new all-time high run rate of S&P profits. As a result, the 13% gain in the S&P this year is not a complete anomaly. But, as Michael Cembalest of JPMorgan notes, in prior cycles, 'weak economy' stock market rallies were predicated more on the view that a private sector recovery was just around the corner, rather than the current view that more Central Bank stimulus is just around the corner. The other notable aspect of the rally is that it took place as earnings forecasts for 2012 and 2013 have been falling, and as Q2 revenue growth slowed. To paraphrase what’s going on, Cembalest believes "Bronze is the new Gold" as expectations are so low, that anything better than recessionary data can be well-received by markets. Of course, the other factor behind the recent rally is the prospect of unlimited bond purchases by the ECB to which the JPM CIO science-fictionally analogizes: "Swallowing an alien is one sure-fire way to get rid of it, but then you have to wonder what happens once it gets digested. Color me nervous how this all turns out."

Think the attempted fake suicide by Bayou Capital's Sam Israel which dominated the headlines for a few days in 2008 was strange? You ain't seen nothing yet: as the following excerpt of Octopus, The Secret Market And The World’s Wildest Con by Guy Lawson via the Daily Mail explains, that was merely the anticlimatic culmination of an amazing tale of bogus London traders, 'secret' Bond markets, frontrunning the Fed, fake CIA and MI6 spies, ponzi schemes and staged murders.

While many argue that corporate profitability in the US knows no bounds as cost-cutting amid 'slow' growth will fill the gap, we offer this quite compellingly nerve-jangling chart of the increasing dependence of S&P non-financial operating profits and the weakness of the US Dollar. The negative correlation between macro-level EPS and the U.S. dollar is both theoretically and empirically clear. As Citi points out, profits earned abroad are reported in depreciating or appreciating terms, boosting or reducing profits; and as the negative correlation between the USD and global growth can result in 'double counting' of earnings influences  - this leads to too much hope at 'turning points'. What is more critical is the trend higher in the USD - whether due to EUR break-up fears and safe-haven flows OR courtesy of Draghi's EUR weakening QE/LTRO promises - is tending to push Bernanke's hand to act to weaken the USD (do NEW QE) to 'strengthen' corporate profits and the economy. However, with inflation-expectations now high and macro data stabilizing, his justification is far from clear - no matter how high the hopes and dreams have become.

Not much life. Nor conviction.

Barely a pulse.

Can you feel it?

Just as we were complaining about lack of newsflow, here comes Germany, coincidentally just as Merkel comes back from vacation, with an update from Karlsruhe that the Constitutional court, which may reject the ESM as is in its September 12th decision, will likely be delayed even more following the filing of a brand new lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the ESM.

With newsflow today non-existent, and the market acting somewhat bizarrely (i.e., not soaring on endless revenue misses and GDP forecast cuts, and in fact, selling off) we take this opportunity to share some philosophical "deep thoughts", although not from Jack Handey, but from the latest issue of the Edelweiss Journal.

Yes, there are call constraints. Yes, there are 'beta' differences. But, given the strong technicals (fund flows) and empirically high correlations between the much-more-like-stocks-than-bonds high-yield credit market and the equity market, the current divergence between equity ebullience and credit curmudgeon-ness is all-too-reminiscent of the post-LTRO2 sanity check that credit 'imposed' on equities. Not only are high-yield bonds underperforming stocks (as we warned last week), but the HYG ETF is now trading at a significant discount to intrinsic value which (back in March) was the start of a more pronounced downturn as cash bonds were force-sold into an illiquid market backdrop.

Last week we presented the aftermath of the very much unannounced "Conference of Beijing" as a result of which Africa has been slowly but surely converting to a continent controlled almost exclusively by China. However, there was one thing missing: even as China has been virtually the sole source of infrastructure funding in Africa, the continent has long been a legacy dollar preserve, which obviously means renminbi penetration and replacement would be problematic to say the least. As it turns out, this too is rapidly changing: as the WSJ reports, Africa is increasingly just saying "nein" to the USD. "African countries are trying to shoo the U.S. dollar away, even if it means threatening to throw people who use greenbacks in jail. Starting next year, Angola will require oil and gas companies to pay tax revenue and local contracts in kwanza, its currency, rather than dollars. Mozambique wants companies to exchange half of their export earnings for meticais, hoping to pull more of the wealth in vast coal and natural-gas deposits into the domestic economy. And Ghana is seeking similar ways to reinforce "the primacy of the domestic currency," after the cedi plummeted more than 17% against the dollar in the first six months of this year. The sternest steps come from Zambia, a copper-rich country in southern Africa where the central bank has banned dollar-denominated transactions. Offenders who are "quoting, paying or demanding to be paid or receiving foreign currency" can face a maximum 10 years in prison, the central bank said in a two-page directive in May." Is it time to dump the EUR in hopes of a short covering rally that continues to be elusive (just as Germany wants) and buy Zambian Kwachas instead? We will wait for Tom Stolper to advise Goldman clients to sell the Zambian currency first, but at this rate the USDZMK may well be the most profitable currency pair of the next 3-6 months.

Short-term expectations of volatility, as measured by VIX, traded down close to a 13% handle this morning as the so-called 'fear' index dropped to practically its lowest level since July 2007. As we mentioned last week, complacency is back in more ways than just the level of VIX. Realized volatility, especially after last week's small range and low volume markets, has fallen but implied volatility is now at its most 'complacent' relative to realized vol since the end of LTRO - as it appears anticipation of the fully-expected printing-press euphoria is priced into both asset and vol markets. Furthermore, the term-structure of volatility, which measures short-term concerns relative to medium-term, has fallen at its fastest pace in 5 months (again confirming short-term complacency) and has only been this steep (short-term volatility dramatically low relative to medium-term volatility) once since the March 2009 rally began - right near the post-LTRO2 highs in the S&P.

Since hope re-blossomed at the start of June and was reignited by Mario's musings, the equity markets of the US and Europe have surged in an outpouring of faith in central bank excess and policy-maker's abilities to 'fix' everything (despite decades of truth that points in the exact opposite direction). But while the market levitates on ever-increasing multiples (as earnings current and forward are dragged lower by the economic reality of a debt-deleveraging world), the true picture of what is driving stocks become clear. For the first time since the BTFD rally began in March of 2009, cyclical stocks (or economically-sensitive firms) are underperforming notably - implying notably lower expectations for a levered recovery by the consumer. As Bloomberg's Chart of the day notes, either the economy will hockey-stick back to a significant rebound or broad equity market indices will fall back to a more defensive reality - given the non-economy-helping nature of LTRO/QE, we suspect the latter. Do you believe in miracles?