Archive - Jun 2013

France and Italy are fighting against ambitious plans by the ECB to basically 'externally audit' 140 banks across the EU representing 80% of Europe's banking assets. The implementation of the project (by the head of financial stability at the central bank) appears to have two main drivers. First, to understand which banks' balance sheets are inhibiting lending (and why); and second, to ensure there is clarification on taxpayer-funded bailouts versus shareholders and depositors taking losses first. As Zeit reports, it seems the ECB appears to be questioning the reliability of the banks own figures.

The market is having a difficult time trying to figure out what Fannie is worth these days.

Given that ALL of the stock market gains since 2008 were based on Fed money printing… what do you think will happen when the Fed tries to taper QE?

This morning's 11.5% week-over-week plunge in mortgage applications is the fourth week of fading demand in a row as it appears the bloom is very much off the rose of the second-coming of the housing bubble. This makes it the worst plunge in mortgage applications since June 2009 and the lowest level of activity since December 2011. Wondering how this is possible? We explained in detail here but this collapse in mortgage demand fits perfectly with Mark Hanson's insights that a number of "large private mortgage bankers had mass layoffs last Friday to the tune of 25% to 50% of their operations staff." This all feels very deja vu all over again.

So much for the thesis of declining labor slack and rising labor leverage. Moments ago the BLS reported its Q1 labor costs which poured cold water over all recent hypotheses that the US worker's plight is improving. It isn't: productivity increased by 0.5% in Q1 in ling with expectations of 0.6% (on what is not exactly clear - everyone on their iPhones?) but it was labor costs which plunged -4.3% on expectations of a +0.5% increase driven by a 3.8% collapse in hourly compensation that was the stunner. This was the biggest labor cost drop in four years and the biggest collapse in hourly compensation in well, ever and confirms our observations from the last NFP report that quantity gains in jobs continue to be offset by quality declines in actual worker pay. As a reminder we were scratching our heads following the soaring Q4 labor cost and declining productivity data which made no sense in the general context of deteriorating labor conditions. Following this print, it all falls back into place and confirms the Q4 data was nothing but an outlier. Also,this may be the end of the core thesis behind David Rosenberg's recently developed reflationary argument.

By now it is futile to point out the woeful inability of the ADP report to predict the NFP's ARIMA X 12 output of pure noise so we'll leave it at that. Here is the headline: May private payrolls created 135K with consensus looking for 165K - only two analysts were looking for a weaker number. This was the second lowest print since September excluding only the April 113K print. What's worse is that the prior number which usually is revised to match the NFP was revised lower from 119K to 113K, confirming that the quality of NFP reporting in the past month is suspect to quite suspect. Don't expect the imminent arrival of a manufacturing renaissance: mfg jobs were down 6,000. But fear not - Mark Zandi blames it on the sequester: "Manufacturers are reducing payrolls. The softer job market this spring is largely due to significant fiscal drag from tax increases and government spending cuts." At least it wasn't the May weather or tornadoes...

We reported yesterday that Europe, in a surprising escalation of global trade wars, announced it would impose solar-panel duties against China in one week, with the terms rapidly deteriorating over the next three months. It took China less than one day to retaliate. What's worse the retaliation is aimed at Europe's already weakest - the PIIGS - by targeting not hard German machinery exports but something far more prosaic: French, Spanish and Italian wine.

• National Security Advisor Tom Donilon resigning, to be replaced by Susan Rice - Obama announcement to follow
• Japan's Abe targets income gains in growth strategy (Reuters), Abe unveils ‘third arrow’ reforms (FT) - generates market laughter and stock crash
• Amazon set to sell $800m in ads (FT) - personal tracking cookie data is valuable
• 60 percent of Americans say the country is on the wrong track (BBG)  and yet have rarely been more optimistic
• Jefferson County, Creditors Reach Deal to End Bankruptcy (BBG)
• Turks clash with police despite deputy PM's apology (Reuters)
• Rural US shrinks as young flee for the cities (FT)
• Australia holds steady on rate but may ease later (MW)
• The Wonk With the Ear of Chinese President Xi Jinping (WSJ)
• Syrian army captures strategic border town of Qusair (Reuters)

Talks are still on-going between the IMF and Egypt over future loans worth up to $4.8 billion to get the country back on its feet. Arab aid from the IMF in the entire region has hit the $10 billion mark in the last year alone. But, if there is not action taken pretty soon, Egypt will fall into uncontrollable depths of inflation and unemployment and see unrest increase in the country.

Anyone expecting Abe to announce definitive, material growth reform instead of vague promises to slay a "deflation monster" last night was sorely disappointed. The country's PM, who may once again be reaching for the Immodium more and more frequently, said the government aims for 3% average growth over the next decade and 2% real growth, raising per capita income by JPY 1.5 million. The market laughed outright in the face of this IMF-type silly vagueness (as well as the amusing assumption that Abe will be still around in 7 years), which left untouched the most critical aspect of Abenomics: energy, and nuclear energy to be specific, and sent the USDJPY plummeting well below the 100 support line, printing 99.55 at last check. But more importantly, after surging briefly at the opening of the second half of trading to mask a feeble attempt at telegraphing the "all is well", it rolled over with a savage ferocity plunging 700 points from an intraday high of 13,711 to just above 13,000 at the lows: yet another 5% intraday swing in a market which is now flatly laughing at the BOJ's "price stability" mandate. Tonight's drop has extended the plunge from May 23 to 18.4% meaning just 1.6% lower and Japan officially enters a bear market.

UPDATE 2: Nikkei 225 touches 13,000 - down 750 from Abe highs (12,815 is 20% correction from highs)

UPDATE 1: Well that escalated quickly... Abe Speech ended-  NKY -450 from Abe spike highs, TOPIX -3% from Abe spike highs, JPY cracked back under 100 (80 pips from Abe spike), JGBs surging

For about 2 minutes there it looked as if we were back on track and by the power of jawbone alone, Abe could lift Japan from its malaise.

*ABE VOWS TO SLAY DEFLATION MONSTER WITH FISCAL, MONETARY POLICY
*ABE CALLS GROWTH STRATEGY CENTERPIECE OF ECONOMIC POLICY
*ABE WILL THOROUGHLY REMOVE ALL BARRIERS TO CORPORATE ACTIVITY

But a mere 10 minutes after vowing to slay the deflation monster, Japanese stocks have retraced their spike gains and JPY has retraced its spike lower - but on the bright side - JGBs are bid.

Here is a simple way to test if the last year of housing market gains have been due to a real, fundamental, consumer-led recovery, or nothing but the latest iteration of the Fed's money bubble machine manifesting itself in the place of least du jour resistance - houses: Assume rising interest rates.

Ongoing monetary stimulus is leading to heightened volatility, and the bull market which has been in place since 2009 is becoming overextended. The recent string of surprise downside moves in markets may be the canary in the coal mine for global investors. This is where we are today. The tide is rising for U.S. and Japanese markets and asset prices will ultimately move higher. The size and violence of each wave that advances or recedes will continue to increase due to the surge of liquidity from central banks. These tides of liquidity are strong, as are the currents underneath. We must guard ourselves from the risk of being pulled under.

The airwaves are full of stories of economic recovery. One trumpeted recently has been the rapid recovery in housing, at least as measured in prices. The problem is, a good portion of the rebound in house prices in many markets has less to do with renewed optimism, new jobs, and rising wages, and more to do with big money investors fueled by the ultra-cheap money policies of the Fed. It seems entirely wrong that the Fed bailed out big banks and made money excessively cheap for institutions, and that this is being used to price ordinary people out of the housing market.  Said another way, the Fed prints fake money out of thin air, and some companies use that same money to buy real things like houses and then rent them out to real people trying to live real lives. At the same time, we are also beginning to see the very same hedge funds that have re-inflated these prices slink out of the market now that the party is kicking into higher gear – all while new buyers are increasingly having to abandon prudence to buy into markets where the fundamentals simply aren't there to merit it. Didn't we just learn a few short years ago how this all ends?

Much has been made of the 'terrible-taper' losses that bondholders face (and have supposedly suffered in May) as the reason for the great rotation myth to rise phoenix-like from the flames of all-time-low yields. Talking-head after talking-head appears to make the same sheep-like thesis of buying dividend-paying stocks - being "paid-to-wait", why earn low Treasury yields when stocks offer more? Well the answer, though obscured from view to most, came in May. As we have noted over and over again (most recently here and here), the difference between bond (yields) and equity (dividends) are risk, drawdown, and uncertainty. It should be obvious - but with such a strong anchoring bias for stocks, sadly it is not. By way of example, the 4% dividend-paying Dow Jones Utility Index fell over 10% in May (losing 2.5 years worth of dividends) while the 2.3% yielding 10Y Treasury fell 2.5% in price. As we noted before, there is a reason boomers prefer bonds.