Archive - Apr 2013

A concise summary of the week's crucial events. You know. Short. Concise. I think you get it. 

Société Générale (“SocGen”) recently published a special report entitled “The end of the gold era” that garnered far more attention than we think it deserved.  The majority of the report focused on SocGen’s “crash scenario” for gold wherein they suggest that gold could fall well below their 2013 target of US$1,375/oz. It also included a classic criticism that we’ve heard so many times before: that the gold price is in “bubble territory”. We have problems with both suggestions.

Courtesy of Nanex, here are several depth of market charts showing how today's NFP number looked like through the eyes of the kneejerk response algos, and how quantized, sub-millisecond jumps in the "market" appear like in a day and age when virtually all the trading done is that by robots. And, oh yes, a statistically "noisy" number, such as today's jobs which is entirely lost in the seasonal adjustment, just somehow manages to wipe out all the market liquidity for what to a robot is an eternity. What happens when the shock is not just statistical noise?

In the aftermath of the Cyprus deposit confiscation, everyone can be excused about feeling a little bit concerned about their deposits held at a European (or any other) bank. Everyone can certainly be excused about feeling concerned about their (rehypothecated) precious metals holdings, Cyprus or not, with any financial counterparty anywhere in the world (because in matters such as those, we don't need Diesel-BOOM to tell us that Executive Order 6102 is "the template"). Recently one reader put two and two together, and in the aftermath of the Zero Hedge expose of JPM's London gold vault and the Cypriot deposit confiscation, decided to express his concern to Blackrock about the safety of his ishares physical gold ETF backed by gold held in the abovementioned vault. To his comfort, Blackrock promptly replied that there is "no risk" (perhaps this too means there is "no plan B"), and that the gold in the vault, unlike the cash in assorted European banks, is safe. Why? Read on...

Since the Financial Crisis erupted in 2007, the US Federal Reserve has engaged in dozens of interventions/ bailouts to try and prop up the financial system. Now, I realize that everyone knows the Fed is “printing money.” However, when you look at the list of bailouts/ money pumps it’s absolutely staggering how much money the Fed has thrown around.

The big driver of market declines Friday was led by the Non-Farm Payrolls report. The jobs data was a dreadful miss which leads to the major “disconnect” we’ve been seeing between stock prices and overall economic data which we posted just last week. This is the nagging and confounding reality of the QE and ZIRP grand experiment for many investors.

The last two weeks have not been pretty for the 'it's different this time' crowd. Day after day has brough miss after miss in macro-economic data for the US; from PMIs to NFPs, no matter how hard you try, there is not even enough for an 'anecdotal' strategist to pin his BTFD thesis on. Quantitatively, the US macro surprise index has seen its biggest 10-day drop in 10 months, completely reversing all the 'seasonally-adjusted' difference from the 2011 'Deja-Vu' market and macro behavior. So with the first pillar of bullishness (macro data is 'supportive'), it is up to earnings (but but but profitability is at highs) to hold up the market - good luck with that.

One really wonders why people have lately sold gold. It seems to make little sense in light of the widespread mainstream views on what the 'correct' monetary policy should consist of. Monetary cranks abound wherever one looks. The ultimate outcome of all this inflationary experimentation is preordained, so people have every reason to be very concerned about preserving the value their assets. Of course we are well aware that markets can often behave in an irrational manner for extended time periods. In fact, this is what allows astute speculators and investors to make profitable trades, as there are frequently opportunities created by the markets getting it wrong. In this particular case it is still astonishing, considering how blindingly obvious it is in which direction things are currently moving. Mr. Woodford wants to 'scare the horses'. We are wondering why they are not scared yet – but we suspect they will be soon enough.

First the US fanfared the placement of two F-22 Raptors in the Osan airbase of South Korea. Then it demonstratively launched a B-2 stealth bomber on a training mission over a South Korean gunnery range. Then it deployed an anti-ballistic missile defense system to Guam and positioned two guided-missile destroyers in the waters near Korea. And now, courtesy of the Aviationist, we learn that the Pentagon has escalated once more in an ongoing cat and mouse game with North Korea, of who blinks first, and dispatched several B-1 ("Bone") Lancer strategic long-range bombers to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. What is different this time, however, is that unlike the previous very public and widely trumpeted reciprocal escalation steps, this particular deployment has been kept secret from the public (at least the broader public), "a fact that could be the sign that the U.S. is not only making symbolic moves (as the above mentioned ones), but it is preparing for the worst scenario: an attack on North Korea."

Instead of Changing their Behavior to Prevent Another Crisis, the Powers-That-Be Double Down On the Strategies that Caused the Financial Crisis In the First Place

Presented with little comment aside to note the constant gibberish spewed forth from various media channels that stocks-are-cheap when in a ZIRP environment - that has never been experienced before (though low rates typically indicate lower multiples) -  more stocks than ever before are 'expensive' on a price to forward-earnings basis...

Succinctly summarizing the positive and negative news, data, and market events of the week...

Fewer jobs, BTFD; Bond yields at 5-month lows, BTFD; Macro data collapsing, BTFD; earning season straight ahead, BTFD. US equities dumped in the pre-open on huge volume as the NFP data hit and disappointed with not even Steve Liesman able to find a silver lining, but we wriggled higher after the US open and briefly topped out at the European close - all amid extremely low volume. Then things went quiet, too quiet; until the dreaded witching 30 minutes. Volume disappeared to trickle and at 1530ET to the dot, the magical levitation fairy took us on her wings made of bull's scrotums and smashed stops to pull S&P futures (and thusly the rest of the market) up 10 points. Although we closed red - making it 13 days in a row of down-up now (an all-time record of prevarication) - all asunder declared victory for the bulls and declared that this 'market' shows that everyone just wants to buy those dips. Meanwhile, EURJPY exploded (JPY lost 5% against the USD in the last 36 hours); Treasury yields collapsed - not participating in the jerk higher in stocks; Silver and Oil recoupled (again) to close -4.2% on the week; Gold ended -1.2% at $1580 (notably off its lows); and while high-beta sectors recovered Utes and Healthcare won the week. The Dow, in all its might, closed above pre-Cyprus levels (just).

It appears the Portuguese PM's threats last week that he would resign if the constitutional court rules against the various austerity measures in the proposed 2013 budget (subsequently recanted because he may have just sensed which way the winds are blowing), were not enough to pressure the court into voting the way the German rulers of the Eurozone demanded, because moments ago the high court said that some budget elements are unconstitutional.Specifically it said that:

• Article 29 and
• Article 77

are not constitutional. Of course, trampling the constitution in Europe's insolvent vassal fiefdoms is nothing new. Recall that its the Central Bank of Cyprus that said deposit confiscation is just that: unconstitutional. Too bad that didn't stop anyone from trampling all over the laws and rules of the land in the namd of what? Lots and lots of political capital of course, that nobody, NOBODY, should underestimate.

If the economy is getting better, then why does poverty in America continue to grow so rapidly?  Yes, the stock market has been hitting all-time highs recently, but also the number of Americans living in poverty has now reached a level not seen since the 1960s.  Yes, corporate profits are at levels never seen before, but so is the number of Americans on food stamps.  Yes, housing prices have started to rebound a little bit (especially in wealthy areas), but there are also more than a million public school students in America that are homeless.  That is the first time that has ever happened in U.S. history. So should we measure our economic progress by the false stock market bubble that has been inflated by Ben Bernanke's reckless money printing, or should we measure our economic progress by how the poor and the middle class are doing?  Because if we look at how average Americans are doing these days, then there is not much to be excited about. Unfortunately, that bubble of false hope is not going to last much longer.  In fact, we are already seeing signs that it is getting ready to burst.