Archive - Feb 5, 2013

As UBS' Art Cashin points out, the weekend talk shows were filled with talk of immigration reform, and yet, as he exclaims, no discussion of Social Security. The avuncular arbitrageur, however, sees immigration reform from a different and insightful perspective noting that while immigration reform may finally get the undocumented worker a fairer break, Social Security will lose significantly...

Unfortunately, the spectacular rise of Wall Street’s securitization machine will likely forever frustrate attempts to ascertain the extent to which the Fed is responsible for what happened to the U.S. housing market and financial system in 2008.  After all, it wouldn’t be fair to short sell (no pun intended) all the Special Purpose Vehicle sponsors, CDO asset managers, investors, and ratings agencies who, for at least five years, worked so hard to collapse the system.

It is only logical that the catalyst that has pushed the entire market higher, that would be the "all critical" Spanish Service PMI which soared very credibly a few short hours ago, would be doubled down when its US cousin came out. Sure enough, moments ago the Institute for Supply Management revealed that the February non-manufacturing ISM declined from 55.7 to 55.2, but was just above the expected 55.0, which was enough to send the headline scanners into full blown liftathon mode and the S&P to intraday highs. Ignored was that the key New Orders series actually declined from 58.3 to 54.4, yet offset by a jump in Employment from 55.3 to 57.5. What was amusing was the jump in New Export Orders to 55.5 from a contractionary reading. We can't wait to learn just whom the US is exporting its mission critical services to these days. Finally, and perhaps most relevant, was one of the healtcare related respondents who said the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth on the issue of Obamacare: "Healthcare reform causing continued slowdown and less investment." That's only the beginning.

The last time prices reached only $95 a barrel WTI the Whitehouse started talking up the SPR release only six months ago.  Now that gas prices are higher than ever for this time of year and set to go higher, and we haven`t heard a single mention of the SPRs? 

Back in December, as always happens every year for the past 3, a margin call driven liquidation wave pushed the price of the gold to multi-month lows, providing merely yet another lowball buying opportunity (for which let's all thank John Paulson, again). One buyer who certainly would love to thank whichever marginal seller was liquidating their gold, is none other than China, which as was reported a few hours ago, imported an all time record 114.4 tons of gold in the month of December, or more than all the gold held by the Greek central bank (assuming it hasn't been confiscated by ze Germans or the ECB, or deposited in G-Pap or Venizelos' private HSBC safe in Geneva yet: a very aggressive assumption).

With a modest premium over yesterday's closing price (and 25% premium to Jan 11th price), and thanks to a big hand from Microsoft (with a bridge not an equity participation), Michael Dell (and Silver Lake) are taking Dell private.

• *DELL TO BE ACQUIRED BY MICHAEL DELL-SILVER LAKE FOR $13.65-SHR
• *DELL TO BE BOUGHT IN DEAL VALUED AT $24.4 BILLION :DELL US
• *DELL DEAL TO BE FINANCED BY FUNDS INCLUDING $2B MICROSOFT LOAN
• *DELL SAYS THERE IS NO FINANCING CONDITION :DELL US
• *DELL PACT PROVIDES GO SHOP PERIOD FOR 45 DAYS         :DELL US

Funding by BofAML, Barclays, CS, and RBC - better hope the CLO demand keeps up. Full PR below:

With yields compressed to record low levels, thanks to Bernanke's repression, and a consensus expecting margin stability and a huge hockey-stick in earnings going forward, the question is why aren't there more LBOs? Earnings yields relative to high-yield financing is back up at levels seen during the LBO Boom of 2003-7 and Private Equity shops appear full of money on the sidelines, so why aren't there more LBOs? At its simplest level, an LBO is enabled by a relative mis-pricing between debt and equity ‘costs’ that a private equity firm can utilize to fund the deal (cheap credit relative to equity in the WACC). These factors appear defensible but the main fear we have is their sustainability.

Bob Janjuah may nt have rvrted to his RBS wrtng style of yore, yet, but the New Nrml appears to also fnly b getting to 1 of our fvrte strategists, who has finally gone bold, ALL CAPS. "IF I AM WRONG AND WE TRULY HAVE FOUND ECONOMIC AND MARKET NIRVANA SIMPLY THROUGH THE CENTRAL BANK PRINTING PRESS AND ENORMOUS INDEBTEDNESS, THEN I WILL HAVE NO HESITATION IN ENJOYING THE FUTURE, THINKING ABOUT THE FUNNY MONEY MIRACLE, NEVER NEEDING TO WORRY ABOUT ECONOMIES OR GROWTH EVER AGAIN (all hints of sarcasm entirely intentional)....Real wealth can only be created by innovation and hard work in the private sector, with policymakers, the financial sector and financial markets there to aid and encourage/incentivise. Real wealth is not created by the printing press and by excessive government spending. We simply cannot turn wine into water – after all, if it were that easy, why have we not done this before (with any lasting success, as opposed to abject failure, for which there is plenty of evidence)! "

The financial world is used to bubbles. We like to speak about them, point to them, bet upon their comings and goings and wave facts and figures about them like wild men when we appear in the media. It is the way of the markets. We have had bubbles in Real Estate, dot.com, bonds, stock markets and all kinds of other singular spaces. What we are faced with now is also a bubble but one unlike we have ever seen before because all of the major central banks have acted in concert which pumped money in from everywhere while, at the same time, limited what could be done with our new found small bits of paper because they playing field was leveled by distortion en masse. I would say that the entire financial system, every market, every space is in a bubble as a result of what they central banks have done.

It seems the world may have been this close to World War III as recently as last week. Kyodo reports that a Chinese warship last week directed "fire-control" radar against Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel in the East China Sea, where Japan and China are involved in a dispute over the ownership of a group of uninhabited islands, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Tuesday. The Japanese government lodged a protest with China on Tuesday afternoon as the radar was for taking aim at a firing target.  "Beaming of radar for firing is very abnormal, and it could have put us in a very grave situation if things went wrong," Onodera told a press conference, urging the Chinese side to refrain from taking such aggressive moves.

In case there was any doubt that the European circus could get any more ridiculous, here comes Spain's uber-unpopular Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, already embroiled in a massive kickback political scandal, with a quote that just blows everyone away: "I repeat what I said Saturday: everything that has been said about me and my colleagues in the party is untrue, except for some things that have been published by some media outlets." And scene as your frontal lobe explodes.

• Obama to meet with Goldman's Blankfein, other CEOs Tuesday (Reuters)
• Chinese Firms Shrug at Rising Debt (WSJ)
• McGraw-Hill, S&P Sued by U.S. Over Mortgage-Bond Ratings (BBG)... but not Moody's or Fitch
• Dime a Dozen: Dollar Stores Pinched by Rapid Expansion (WSJ)
• Dell Board Said to Vote Monday Night on $24 Billion LBO (BBG)
• BOJ Governor Shirakawa to step down on March 19 (Reuters)
• Alberta may offer more to smooth way for Keystone (Reuters)
• Facebook Is Said to Create Mobile Location-Tracking App (BBG)
• Barclays takes another $1.6 billion hit for mis-selling (Reuters)
• Apple App Advantage Eroded as Google Narrows IPhone Lead (BBG)
• Texas School-Finance System Unconstitutional, Judge Rules (BBG)
• World Risks ‘Perfect Storm’ on Capital Flows, Carstens Says (BBG)

Just when one thought the old overnight futures levitation on a surging EURUSD regime was over, and was replaced by some semblance of normalcy, here comes Europe, sending the EURUSD screeching higher by some 100 pips from a support threatening 1.3460 on no news, with absolutely nothing changed, and pushing US futures to virtually unchanged from yesterday morning wiping out the entire day's losses in 3 short hours of near-zero volume overnight trading.

It’s curious, isn’t it?  So-called “paper gold” (a futures contract) has a price that is not only very close to physical gold, but it remains locked to it.  This is despite the fact that “paper gold” is reviled in the gold community.  Why?  What is this mysterious force that binds them tightly together?