Archive - Jan 8, 2013

If corporate earnings have topped out, what will push the stock market higher? The usual answer is "central bank intervention," but history suggests that in the long run, the market eventually correlates to corporate earnings. Earnings up, market up; earnings down, market down.

As if Yum Brands were not suffering enough this morning - as they forecast China comp sales to drop 6% (more than the forecast 4% decline), it seems the UK has their next PR disaster waiting to happen, courtesy of their KFC brand. After a 19-year-old Brit found a "horrible wrinkled foreign body" in his fried chicken meal, KFC has apologized (rather magnanimously) saying "while there was no health risk, we agree it was unsightly." Judge for yourself just how puke-worthy and generally emotionally scarred you would have been after biting into this 'brain-looking' image. KFC clarifies: "Although we haven't received the product, it appears from a photograph that unfortunately on this occasion a kidney, and not a brain as claimed, was not removed in the preparation process." Oh, just a kidney? Pass the salt then.

Today's Sesame Street market moment is brought to you by the word "hope" and by the number '-0.025%'. For the last five months, Goldman notes that the US equity markets have rerated their economic growth view as hope remains for a future full of unicorns and faerie-fart-powered autos. However, the reality is that, as Goldman's macro-economic Swirlogram shows, that the data is no longer indicating expansion and in fact in December shifted into a 'slowdown' mode. Once again we are left, as we head into earnings season where headline numbers have been slashed to make the bar low for beats (but stocks have not re-rated yet), with a divergence between macro (and micro) reality and the nominal equity index implied reality that so many managers hope is true.

It is widely recognized that the agreement to mitigate the fiscal cliff neither puts the US on a sustainable fiscal path nor lifts much policy uncertainty. At the same time, minutes from the latest FOMC meeting showed that several members anticipate ending QE3+ before the end of the year, seemed to cloud the outlook. Seeking to avoid partisanship of the heated debates, we offer the following overview of the outlook for US policy, free of hyperbole.

We were wondering how long until the latest lunatic idea out of the "serious economist" mainstream would get the proper comedic treatment it so rightfully deserves. That time finally came last night when Stephen Colbert gave it the 3 minutes of attention it almost deserves. Oh well, now that it has made the comic circuit it is time to officially forget about this idiotic idea... At least until the next debt ceiling crisis in a year or so when like a bad sequel to Weekend at Bennie's Bernie's, it is resurrected once more.

Sometimes you just have to laugh - or you will cry. In what could well have been Tuesday Humor if it wasn't so real, the AIG board (fulfilling its shareholder fiduciary duty) is considering joining Hank Greenberg's suit against the government over the cruel-and-unusual bailout that saved the company. The $25bn lawsuit, as NY Times reports, based not on the basis that help was needed but that the onerous nature "taking what became a 92% stake in the company with high interest rates and funneling billions to the insurer's Wall Street clients" deprived shareholders of tens of billions of dollars and violated the Fifth Amendment (prohibiting the taking of private property for "public use, without just compensation"). The 'audacious display of ingratitude' comes weeks after the firm has repaid the $182 billion bailout funneled to it and its clients by an overly generous Treasury. The firm has asked for 16 million pages of government documentation, this "slap in the face of the government" portends a question of whether the government will sue The Fed for enabling the recovery that strengthened Greenberg's case that the bailout was so harsh. Happy retirement Tim Geithner.

Reuters report that Asia's physical market has picked up so far this year, with buyers tempted by last week's big drop in prices -- when prices retreated to as low as 1,626 per ounce -- and on demand ahead of the Lunar New Year, traders said. The trading volume on the Shanghai Gold Exchange's 99.99 gold physical contract shot through the roof on Monday, hitting a record of 19,504.8 kilograms, after double-counting transactions in both directions.  "Physical demand is very strong," said a Beijing-based trader. "It's a combination of the attraction of lower prices as well as pre-holiday demand." But such appetite could waver if prices recover towards $1,700, he added.

Equity markets recovered from a lower open following press reports overnight by eKathimerini that the country’s main banks are considering requesting additional funds for their recapitalization and edged higher throughout the session after sources at Hellenic Financial Stability Fund said that there no indications that Greek banks need more recap funds. In addition to that, Xinhua reported that chance of China RRR cut is increasing for January, citing industry insiders for RRR cut forecast. This follows on from the reports in ChinaDaily last week, which suggested that a small interest rate cut at the right time could substantially decrease financing costs and improve expectations for profitability, citing researchers from the China Development Bank, the State Information Center and the Shanghai Securities News who have worked together to forecast key economic indicators and policies in 2013. The risk sentiment was also supported by well subscribed debt auctions from the Netherlands, Austria, Greece and Belgium. As a result, peripheral bond yield spreads are tighter by around 5bps in 10s. Going forward, market participants will get to digest the latest NFIB, IBD/TIPP and Consumer Credit reports. The Fed is due to conduct Treasury op targeting Oct'18-Dec'19 (USD 3.00-3.75bln) and the US Treasury is also set to auction USD 32bln in 3y notes.

You read that right: SocGen, the second largest French bank, not only has labor unions, but they have just announced a one-day national strike to protect their jobs. Which is odd, because it was our impression that in socialist France nobody is allowed to lose their job ever again. Perhaps that excludes bankers: the confusion surrounding the Fairness Doctrine, which may or may not tax millionaires at a 75% tax rate continues to grow.

• London Quantitative Hedge Funds Report Second Year of Losses (BBG)
• Berlusconi Forms Alliance in Comeback Bid (WSJ)
• Japan to Buy ESM Bonds Using FX Reserves to Help Weaken Yen (BBG)
• Japan Mulling BOJ Accord Linked to Employment, Mainichi Says (BBG)
• Samsung Expects Record Operating Profit (WSJ)
• Boeing 787 Dreamliner Fire Probed, Blaze Adds to Setbacks (BBG)
• BOJ's Shirai: Open to Firmer Inflation Target (WSJ)
• HSBC N.J. Client Admits Conspiracy in Offshore Tax Case (BBG)
• Lampert to Assume CEO Role at Sears (WSJ)
• Abe prepares fresh stimulus measures (FT)
• U.S. Set for Biggest State-Local Jobs Boost Since 2007 (BBG)
• Pakistan Seen Needing IMF Bailout as Rupee Drops Before Vote (BBG)

The biggest highlight of the day is the launch of Q4 earnings season with Alcoa after the close. The question is by how much will the ES/SPY correlation have dragged individual stock prices higher from far lower cash flow implied valuations - we will get a glimpse this week, as well as get a sense of how Q1 is shaping up, this week but mostly next week as earnings reports start coming in earnest. There was the usual non-event newsflow out of Europe, which has no impact on risk levels, now driven solely by every twitch of Mario Draghi's face, and best summarized by this from SocGen: "In the wake of September's 3 point VAT increase in Spain, which saw a significant bringing forward of consumption to beat the tax hike, euro area activity in Q4 has been genuinely awful."

If you ever wondered how just a few thousand bankers could impose their Ponzi global banking scheme upon 7 billion people, here is "The 9 Step Process Bankers Use to Force Global Slavery Upon Humanity."