Archive - Feb 2013

Who fares better in retirement, pensioners or folks who saved up their own respective nest eggs? If you look at the numbers, you might be surprised to learn who's really "living large" after retirement.

Think Americans are the only people in the world toiling under a gargantuan debtload, which at last check was a massive $55.3 trillion, or about $175K per person? Think again. Meet Sherry Sheng, a 29-year-old Shanghai policewoman, who bought herself a 4,000 yuan ($642) black fur jacket, splurging for the last time before she starts paying off the mortgage on her first home.

Sherry is what is known as a Chinese "housing slave."

A strange sea of red inhabits the screens of many traders and investors across the USA this evening, and all it took was for the FOMC to hint that the punchbowl will have to be taken away at some point in the future. Biggest jump in VIX in 2013; biggest plunge in Homebuilders in 8 months (as TOL misses and Starts were ugly); biggest dump in stocks in 2013; Gold plunges to $1565 and suffers Death Cross; USD soars and crosses above its 200DMA; and oil has frantic flash crash early on. Not a pretty day as stocks drop below the lower edge of their up-trend channel for the year and test critical support amid the highest volume of the year. The four words on everyone's lips this evening: Where is Kevin Henry?

It has been a few years since Kyle Bass suggested the 'nickel trade' and the idea remains as profitable for those with large wheel-barrows now as it ever was. As Bloomberg notes, the penny currently costs almost 2 cents to make and the nickel more than 10 cents - more than double the cost from 2006. In those seven years, the US taxpayer has lost a stunning $436 million thanks to the inflationary devaluation of the USD relative to the metals involved, and while a former Arizona congressman (Jim Kolbe) tried to sponsor a bill to abolish the penny (to save the cost of minting), President Obama noted that "given all the big issues, we're not able to get to it," even as the Canadian Mint just stopped distributing pennies - saving $11mm annually. It seems, while the production process may have costs, the 100% markup for pennies and nickels remains an intriguing disconnect.

It took the algos a good hour of digesting the Fed's PR before slowly and surely, as we observed when noting the stealthy action in the VIX, the crowd shifted suddenly from the right side of the boat to the left. In the process, it pushed the TICK indicator well below 1000. But it is probably more notable that a modest 1% drop in the S&P is enough to bring up rumors of a "Markets in Crisis" special, and force all those who were buying on the low-volume levitation into a coordinated sell-off. New York Fed's Kevin Henry better show up soon or the last hour of trading will get messy without an invisible hand propping it up.

UPDATE: Minutes after the post - Stocks getting ugly now, catching down to VIX and USD's move

Bonds were sold instantly as the more hawkish comments from the FOMC hit - as was Gold. The USD rallied and stocks dipped modestly. Once that initial knee-jerk settled, stocks have gone largely sideways to modestly lower, Treasury yields have pushed back towards the day's highs as the USD strength and Gold weakness are tracking each other perfectly for now. Unfortunately, this is not helping the price of Oil - which is higher post-FOMC. Notably, while this is clearly being viewed as hawkish for bonds, commodities, and the USD, stocks appear unphased - but it seems VIX is soaking up the equity uncertainty for now (VIX +1.1 vols at 13.40%) indicating considerably more concern than the market itself (for now). The 'bond-like' Utilities sector is the most pressured (as rates rise) for now.

It would appear that even though the relative dovishness of the FOMC has increased, a realization that the party has to stop sometime is dawning on the PhDs - though for now, the printing will continue until morale improves...

• SEVERAL FOMC PARTICIPANTS SAID EASING MAY PROMPT EXCESSIVE RISK
• MANY FOMC PARTICIPANTS VOICED CONCERN ABOUT RISKS OF MORE QE
• SEVERAL ON FOMC SAID FED SHOULD BE PREPARED TO VARY PACE OF QE
• FOMC PARTICIPANTS SAID ECONOMY WAS ON 'MODERATE GROWTH PATH'
• SEVERAL FOMC PARTICIPANTS SAW IMPROVED U.S. CREDIT CONDITIONS
• A NUMBER OF FED OFFICIALS SAID TAPERING QE MAY BECOME NECESSARY

Pre-FOMC: ES 1521.00, 10Y 2.01%, EUR 1.3337, Gold $1580, WTI $94.18

As we have discussed in detail (here, here, and most recently here), many college students face repaying a mountain of debt upon graduating, and many college graduates end up working jobs that don't require a degree. Even worse, 40 percent of college students drop out without earning a degree, but that does not free them from the debt they have accumulated. In this brief clip, Professor Daniel Lin argues - rightly - that government subsidies are to blame for the continually rising costs of higher education. Although such subsidies are supposed to help defray college costs, they are making the situation worse. A policy that worsens the problem it is supposed to fix should be eliminated - even if it is the government's only credit inflating tool left.

While most mainstream market watchers will pontificate wildly on the VIX as indicative of whatever their whimsy of the day tends to be, we prefer to look at relative performance. The forward-looking implied vol is currently only just below its multi-year average premium to realized volatility (so a low VIX is not that exciting standalone). Realized volatility is pretty much as low as it has been in the last four years, courtesy of the Fed - and each time has been followed by a resurgence soon after. However, there is one more indicator of potential over-exuberance that offers some hope for traders - the spread between SPY (S&P 500) implied vol and HYG (high yield debt) implied vol is at its lowest since the crisis - and each of the previous four times this spread has been this narrow, we have seen notable weakness in stocks soon after. With HYG so 'cheap' to stocks, it seems being long HYG vs. short SPY, or long SPY vol vs. short HYG vol makes some sense for some low vol cheap protection.

A microcosm of what's wrong with the French economy (while the chopping block is being moved to the center)

We have noted the incessant slamdown in the precious metals markets, and highlighted that the only thing that can slow the flood of liquidity into each and every market is a rise in energy prices. The former represents 'trust' in the system; the latter represents 'real economics' as it squeezes the global economy forcing the central banks to pull back or tighten (see China's lack of rev repo recently). To wit, we just noted the plunge in WTI this morning; but Nanex, given their depth of data, noticed something considerably more concerning... "Because the circuit breaker tripped after the market had somewhat stabilized, we think another large sale appeared that would have decimated prices - which CME's circuit breaker logic picked up on, causing the halt." Did someone intentionally try to crash the WTI Crude contract? And if so, who? We don't know, but the usual suspect (singular) does emerge, considering that with gas prices hitting new February daily record every day, and every dollar in increase in WTI means even less (seasonally adjusted) GDP, and less consumer purchasing power, those evil speculators who are taking the Fed's free money to buy commodities (and very unpatriotically not the S&P or Russell 2000) must be promptly punished.

In another brilliant move aimed at destroying the few table scraps of economic freedom which remain in the Land of the Free, a bipartisan group of esteemed lawmakers in the United States Congress has introduced the Marketplace Fairness Act of 2013. Remember the golden rule of legislation: the more noble the name of the law sounds, the more disastrous its results. This one is no exception. It’s the most insidious form of deceit – creating new taxes masquerading as ‘fairness’. It’s a total fraud, brought to you by the same people who tell us that there is no inflation, and that we must sexually assault airline passengers in order to protect ourselves from men in caves. Have you hit your breaking point yet?

You can choose to ignore this and believe that Europe’s Crisis is fixed just as EU political leaders claim. But Europe in general is out of options in terms of solving its debt crisis.

Update: FRANCE'S MONTEBOURG TELLS TAYLOR REMARKS `IGNORANT, INSULTING' - And now we know Taylor was spot on.

The French industry minister is not amused. The CEO of US tire-maker Titan International has explained to the French unions (who think he belongs in an asylum) why his company is not interested in any deal - noting "you can keep your so-called workers," adding that he would have to be stupid to take over a factory whose staff only put in three hours work a day. Maurice 'Grizz' Taylor went 'postal' at the suggestion his company invest in France: "Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs." His truth-filled reality letter concluded: How stupid do you think we are? Titan is the one with the money and the talent to produce tires. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government." The flustered Frenchman refrained from immediate reply but gallicly noted, "Don’t worry, there will be a response; it's better written down." Indeed, just as long as its not the labor minister.

It would appear that the combination of the last day of trading for the March futures contract and some earlier concerns (via CAT) over global growth are enough to warrant a huge  block of selling in the April futures contract for WTI crude. Of course, the now standard rumor of a commodity fund liquidation is doing the rounds - 'standard' in so much as whenever there is a sudden unexplained sharp sell-off in the commodity space it is trotted out. As an aside, this drop in WTI perfectly recouples it with gold -1.7% on the week. It appears, as Nanex notes, that this 'two-second 2500 contract block' ~$250mm plundering of all resting market orders then caused CME to halt trading for 10 seconds. Human? hhmm