Archive - Oct 16, 2013

After eight years at the helm of "America's secret cyber army", NSA head Keith Alexander, has decided to spend more time with his family and less time with yours, and is stepping down. According to US officials, the director of the NSA and his deputy are expected to depart in coming months, in a move that almost certainly would not have happened without the involvement of America's most infamous whitsleblower currently self-exiled in Russia, Edward Snowden in a development which according to Reuters, "could give Obama a chance to reshape the eavesdropping agency." It is unclear what he would "reshape" it into: at last check the Stasi headquarters in Berlin did not have quite the capacity to house the Cray supercomputers needed to make sure that anyone and everyone caught selling stocks gets a lifetime audit guarantee from the IRS. We are confident, however, that with the surge in government-employed architects coming back to "work" from their 17 days paid vacation, someone will have an idea or two.

UPDATE: There will be two votes by the Senate on the deal by 8pm. One on cloture (requires 60 votes), and one on final passage (simple majority)... then it's on to the house...

*SENATE VOTES 83-16 TO ADVANCE ACCORD TO END U.S. SHUTDOWN (cloture)

*SENATE HAS ENOUGH VOTES TO PASS MEASURE ENDING FISCAL IMPASSE (Deal Done)

We assume there will be the normal grandstanding with every Senator wanting to get their soundbite in for saving the world... but the vote is about to occur (expected around 6pm) before sending it to the House for apparent rubber-stamping... we will see of course...

As we noted two days ago, this story is just further proof of the complete and total mess that has been made of the Indian gold market over of the course of this year due to government intervention. The other part of the problem is that when you are dealing in physical supplies you can’t just deliver paper contracts. Somehow we don’t think that would cut it for Indians on festival days or their daughters’ weddings.

Judging by the plunge in IBM stock after hours (accounting for a major portion of the Dow Jones Non-industrial Average Index), the CFO can't pay shareholders with hopium and rumors. The reason: while IBM beat EPS modestly with a very adjusted bottom line of $3.99, beating estimates of $3.96, driven mostly by this: "IBM’s tax rate was 16.0 percent, down 8.6 points year over year" (assuming a flat tax rate Y/Y, GAAP EPS would plunge from $3.68 to $3.30), it was revenues - that ongoing 2013 horror story for the "stawk" and economic "recovery" - that was the problem, because instead of printing at $24.74 billion where it was expected, sales missed by a whopping $1 billion, or $23.72 billion. Of note: while America revenues of $10.3 billion dropped just 1%, and Europe was actually up 1%, it was the all important China and Japan, i.e. Asia-Pacific, where revenues cratered by an unprecedented 15%! So much for both Abenomics and the Chinese "recovery." And what's worse, the Emerging Market callamity of Q3 finally took a big bite: "Revenues in the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — were down 15 percent." Time to push the global recovery myth to the 4th half of 2013 (the third half is where the government shutdown will be squeezed).

The Russell 2000 made a new all-time record high and the S&P 500 gets close as rumor turned into almost news and expectations of a done deal by 11pm tonight. The rumor was bought on the back of JPY-carry surging once again, the "news" was sold - smacking the S&P down around 8 points to VWAP, and then the ubiquitous closing ramp lifted stock back near their highs. The kicking the can left USA CDS wider on the day, put a bid under T-Bills (though the Feb Bills underperformed), lifted gold and silver off their lows, and while the USD was sent scurrying lower (after an early surge), Treasury Bonds ripped lower in yield (10Y _8bps from its highs early on). Spot VIX was crushed back below 15% (down 20% - the most in 2013) and while the rest of the VIX term structure was bid, the Feb/Mar maturities were less exuberant.

House Speaker Boehner explains in a statement how the GOP will keep fighting the good fight...

"The House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country's debt and providing fairness for the American people under ObamaCare.  That fight will continue...

I continue to read pieces in the media claiming the QE should not be stopped because it will hurt the recovery. I don’t understand this claim because there is literally no historical evidence that QE creates jobs in the first place.

Apparently the IRS has fallen on hard times in light of all this government shutdown and sequestration nonsense. Too bad. According to a recent report from the Treasury Department, ‘enforcement revenue’ at the IRS has fallen for the second straight year. Tax enforcement is one of the only ‘money makers’ for the US government; according to the IRS, every dollar spent on tax enforcement generates six dollars in additional tax revenue.  Unfortunately for the IRS, though, the agency’s head count has been thinning. They no longer have enough people, and enforcement revenue has been declining. Ordinarily the IRS supplements its ranks with legions of unpaid spies in the financial sector. Starting July 1, 2014, though, the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) will give the IRS a new addition in its ever-growing list of unpaid spies. You.

By now the general public has long made up its mind about Obamacare, aka the ACA, either positive or negative, and as such any anecdotes about its impact on the broader economy are usually covered by layers of political and ideological bias. One place, however, where the views on the ACA should be impartial is the Federal Reserve. Which is why we were surprised to note that in the just released Beige Book, whose market-moving impact is now absolutely irrelevant as the importance of fundamentals in a time of central planning is "modest to moderate" at best, there were no less than eight instances of "Affordable Care Act."  So in order to further the discussion and debate of Obamacare's impact on the economy from a purportedly apolitical entity, here is what the latest Beige Book had to say about Obama's crowning achievement.

One of these lines represents the return due to the wisdom of the Oracle of Omaha, the unquestionable "what he says is law" asset manager who adds so much value to everything he does.. and the other is the S&P 500...

Q. How worried are you that one morning the bond market has moved against the United States?

A. It’s virtually assured, the question is when and how. I don't know if it will be two years of five years but it will happen. It is a matter of time, the United States can’t borrow indefinitely. Over hundred years bankruptcies of country after country who thought they could get away with it because they had the reserve currency and the military power of the world. We are going to have fiscal discipline. It’s imposed upon us or we do the right thing and do it to ourselves the right way.... America knows the way, it doesn't have the will.

While the House looks set to vote for the Senate bill and kick the can just a little down the road, the Washington Post reports that at least one tea party group is calling for Republicans to hold their ground.

"The Senate deal is a complete sellout.  Speaker Boehner and the House should stand firm and reject this deal to reign in the executive branch’s power before it is too late,” Tea Party Patriots head Jenny Beth Martin said.

We noted earlier that T-Bills have merely sloshed the risk bucket from Oct/Nov to Feb and it seems CDS markets have apparently not gotten the memo. Joking aside, either CDS traders have gotten really slow or as a result of the recent fiasco US default risk has been repriced to a permanently higher baseline, some 50% higher than where it was one short month ago.