Archive - Jul 2013

• Risk on assets supported by yesterday's speech by Bernanke, who said that highly accommodative policy needed for the foreseeable future and that current unemployment of 7.6%, if anything, overstates health of US labour market.
• ECB's Weidmann said that the ECB has not tied itself to the mast with forward guidance, which does not rule out rate hikes when inflationary pressures emerge.
• The BoJ kept their monetary policy unchanged and retained plan for JPY 60-70trl annual rise in monetary base.

• Bernanke Supports Continuing Stimulus Amid Debate Over QE (BBG)
• Portugal president wants 'salvation' deal, including opposition (Reuters)
• Egypt has less than two months imported wheat left - ex-minister (Reuters)
• A rise in long-term interest rates is creating challenges and opportunities for the largest U.S. banks. (WSJ)
• BoJ says Japanese economy is ‘recovering’ (FT)
• More Chinese cities likely to curb auto sales (Reuters)
• PC Shipments Fall for 5th Quarter (BBG)
• Property Crushes Hedge Funds in Alternative Markets (BBG)
• New aid gives Greece summer respite before showdown (Reuters)
• Rajoy Punishes Exporters Sustaining Spain’s Economy (BBG)

The only story this morning remains Bernanke's after hours speech, which solidly trumped the FOMC minutes in market impact, and which, in addition to ramping US equity futures to just about new all time highs, sent the EURUSD soaring by almost the same amount (+300 pips) as the actual QE1 announcement on March 18, 2009. Such is the power of verbal currency warfare, when Bernanke hasn't acutally done anything and merely hinted the Fed is as confused as ever about what to do. Of course, as Commerzbank notes this morning, the U.S. economy would have to lose a lot of momentum for the Fed to cancel tapering, and the central bank would only expand the purchase program if the economy collapses, but none of that matters to the "wealth effect" for the 1% where economic destruction simply means more wealth.

The DRC has comparisons with Mongolia but offers far better risk/reward potential for investors.

It has all gone belly up if we look at the EU and we are honest. Yes, they might be trying to paper of the cracks and yes they might be shoving some super strong glue in their to stop everyone pulling in different directions, but if they are really truthful about it, the EU28 (now that Croatia has become a member since July 1st 2013)

Traders who bought shares of gold mining companies as a way to play rising metals prices made a huge miscalculation.

Each time the S&P 500 has traded more than 12% above its 200-day moving-average, the following correction has not ended until the average itself was breached by price action. Fundamentally, one can tie 'events' to each of these exuberance spikes - in this case, liquidity-turns-into-a-taper - but sometimes historical prices can be a better guide to the human biases for extrapolating trends and building fragility. Given current levels that would mean a 10% drop from current levels to 1516.

With the Snowden saga, it seems suddenly, the idea that there should be a limit to governments has resuscitated; wherever the governments and whatever the limits are. But there is indeed a limit and the global collective mind is trying to figure it out...

The Downward cycle is in the on deck circle warming up, and will be coming to bat soon in the Oil Market Speculation Game!

"Following a weekend of horrific violence in Chicago in which at least 70 people were shot and 12 killed, this was the wrong move for public safety in Illinois," Democratic Governor Jim Quinn noted as lawmakers overturned his veto to allow Illinois to become the last state in the US to allow residents to carry concealed handguns. As the BBC reports, the governor warned that the new law will allow people to carry guns in pubs and bars (and carry virtual arsenals on their persons), we suspect, if Chi-raq (the slang for the anarchic gang-ridden areas of Chicago) is any example, that this is already occurring en masse in a wide population of the state. Gun rights proponents, meanwhile, celebrated, "this is a historic, significant day for law-abiding gun owners, they finally get to exercise their Second Amendment rights."

According to a recent report in the FT, the former treasurer of Spain's ruling Popular Party, Luis Bárcenas, has claimed in an interview that the party has been in breach of Spain's campaign finance laws for a minimum of 20 years. Presumably he was moved to talk because he was the one who got caught and is expected to fall on his sword. Now that he is facing a lengthy prison sentence, he no longer has a reason to clam up. Incidentally, no-one in Spain was surprised to learn what he had to say. What we are seeing here is actually a strong parallel to Greece. The EU has been complaining about the Greek government's inability to collect taxes, without considering that Greek tax payers may have very good reason to pay as little as possible to the corrupt apparatus installed by the ruling class. As a Greek shipowner told a journalist when asked why he thought it was fine that rich shipowners are tax-exempt in Greece: “Would you want to pay money to Al Capone?” Pause. “Me neither.” Finally, as the bankruptcy of the Western welfare/warfare states becomes more glaringly evident, even stronger growth of the informal economy seems likely to ensue.

Bernanke's comments give market cause to re-think its outlook for tapering and eventaul rate hike.  Here's why and what it means.  

"We don’t believe the Chairman’s intentions have changed. Regardless, the Chairman’s credibility is once again damaged. If the Dollar breakdown continues, it will be a sign that the market believes the Chairman has again lost control over policy. The asset clearly in the best position in such an environment is Gold. After such a notable correction in the past 9 months, the precious metal once again becomes a very attractive global asset if monetary policy in the largest economy of the world spins out of control." - Mike O'Rourke

When every indicator of stress is screaming 'bubble' in the student loan debacle, it would make perfect sense for the government to ignore it and maintain the status quo. As the WSJ reports, the never-ending federal effort to "make college affordable" simply provides the resources to sustain higher prices - especially as an increasing amount of the rising subsidies are pocketed by universities. This policy disaster which results in rising costs, taxpayer losses and over-strapped borrowers is now manifest. So naturally this week Senate liberals will bring to the floor a plan to ensure that the policy continues unchanged (and the CBO-estimated $95 billion losses) - and dismisses a coalition plan that ties student loan rates to 10Y Treasuries, providing some marginal encouragement to students to decide whether their chosen course of study is worth the money.

We noted earlier the brief chaos that the minutes created but - following Bernanke's promise to print moar - the after-hours collapse in the USD against every major (and minor) currency pair in the world is tremendous. USDJPY is over 200 pips off the day's highs (JPY surging below 98.50), GBPUSD is getting smashed higher (+275 pips from pre-close), and EURUSD is screaming higher (up 220 pips from the US close breaking above 1.3200). Retaliation for Carney and Draghi's comments? Who knows... but the currency wars are back on (and the 'other' currency is surging to $1290 per ounce).