Archive - Sep 2013

• U.S., Russia to push for new Syria peace talks (Reuters)
• Elite Syrian Unit Scatters Chemical Arms Stockpile (WSJ)
• Obama to nominate Summers as Fed chief: Nikkei (Reuters)
• Boehner Wants Joint Talks on Debt, Budget (WSJ)
• House Republicans go for broke in fiscal battles (Reuters)
• Pimco, BlackRock Together Received More Than a Quarter of Verizon's $49 Billion Bond Deal (WSJ)
• Insane financial system lives post-Lehman (Gillian Tett)
• JPM to add $2.5 billion to its litigation reserves in the second half of the year (WSJ)
• Goldman’s Zurich offices visited over working-hours complaint (FT)

Overnight asset classes got a jolt following a report by Nikkei that Obama was moving toward naming Summers the next Fed chairman, citing “several close US sources,”  pushing stocks modestly lower in Europe, with bond yields higher. According to the report, Obama is to name Summers as next Fed chairman as early as late next week, after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Otherwise, risk is still digesting the news of the confidential Twitter IPO, as it is becoming quite clear that some of the largest names (Hilton also announced yesterday) are seeking to cash out in the public markets. Is this the top?

Two years after insurgents attacked the main U.S. embassy and NATO headquarters in the heart of Kabul, killing at least nine people in a battle lasting several hours as attackers fired from a partially constructed building, and one year after the infamous Benghazi consulate attack which resulted in the deaths of Americans, overnight yet another attack was staged against US property in Afghanistan, this time the US consulate in Herat, western Afghanistan's main city, where detonated a powerful bomb outside the front gates and launching a gunbattle with security forces. At least three people were killed, however none of them Americans. The attack began at about 6 a.m. (0150 GMT). A Reuters witness said he saw flames in front of the compound rising from the wreckage of the vehicle and could hear the gunbattle as the attack unfolded.

Everything flows, it all evolves and nothing remains static. The Lavoisier Universal Law whereby nothing is created, nothing is lost, everything is transformed. 

"We’re diverted totally from what this bill is about. Why? Because the anarchists have taken over. They’ve taken over the House and now they’ve taken over the Senate... People who don’t believe in government - and that’s what the Tea Party is all about - are winning, and that’s a shame." - Harry Reid on the Senate Floor earlier today.

The best thing about inept, crony, powerful politicians is that when they realize they are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of the public they simply don’t know what to do. We suppose it’s also anarchic to want to not start World War III, right Harry? Enjoy!

Following Barroso's State of the EU speech, we thought it useful to reflect on the true state of the EU. Nigel Farage's recent tirade slamming "Communist" Barroso's pro-bureaucrat policies are poignant as he exclaims the "disaster" that the EU has become for the poor and unemployed. To further color this rant we note Charles Gavekal's recent note on why Europe's still broken as worthless IOUs are 'transferred' around the union and "no one really knows who is going to take the final loss." Perhaps it is The Hamiltonian's summary of the structural problem (an interlocking set of European political, bureaucratic, media, academic and financial elites) and the sad fact that history suggests a crisis deferred is a crisis magnified.

Equity markets have to explaining to do, regardless of where you think they are heading.  As ConvesrgEx's Nick Colas notes, if bullish, riddle me this: are stocks just going to hop-skip-jump over Fed tapering, U.S. budget battles, a new Federal Reserve Chair, Syria, Greek bailout 3.0, German Elections, and other near term speedbumps?  Last time we checked "hope" still isn’t a strategy.  And for the bears: Colas asks, how has that been working out for you over the last week of boa constrictor-like squeezes higher?  Not so good. In the following note, Colas takes an out-of-the-box approach to explaining the recent rally by looking at some new academic work on the subject of stress.  As it turns out, stress is only harmful if you believe it is.  Maybe markets have 'learned' that lesson and view all these potential stomach-churning headlines as annoyances, rather than existential crises-in-waiting.

An increasing cacophony of prognosticators are of the status-quo sustaining belief that stock and bond prices will rally next week when the Fed announces the taper. As Scotiabank's Guy Haselmann notes, the thinking goes that alleviation of the uncertainty will cause a "relief rally." However, as Haselmann notes, since the Fed has provided 5 years’ worth of massive stimulus that has launched asset prices to record highs, the commencement of the withdrawal process is significant... and any relief rally that ensues next Wednesday should be sold. His thoughts extend from Indonesian central bank's dilemma to European political instability, and the next stage of the Syrian crisis...

Starting with the day Lehman Brothers collapsed, Bloomberg Businessweek examines the financial crisis as it affected the lives of the people who created it, tried to stave it off, protested it, profited from it, and lost everything to it.

With bonds and stocks rallying (and the USD dropping) notably in the last few days, one could be forgiven for believing the Taper is off but Goldman's baseline forecast remains for a $10bn reduction in asset purchases - probably all in Treasuries - and $15bn is possible (though recently mixed labor data may choke that a little) and a strengthening of forward-guidance. As they note, the current redction in uncertainty (or rise in complacency some might say) has the potential to offset the tightening in financial conditions, barring another major outbreak of DC strife in the run up to the debt ceiling in late October/early November. However, what is most notable is Goldman's expectation that the Fed will start walking-back its unemployment-rate threshold as it has been clearly shown not to be a good catch-all indicator of broad economic and labor market performance. So it's data-dependent - but the data is unreliable at best and false at worst.

85-year-old Shintaro Tsuji is the founder of Sanrio - the firm that introduced "Hello Kitty" in 1974. Sanrio's shares have doubled this year making the founder a billionaire, amid the Abenomics levitation. The success of the brand appears to be its ubiquity - as Bloomberg reports "it must be way up there in terms of the most recognized franchises in the world", - adorning everything from wallets, bags, golf clubs, and iPhone cases. But it's his latest venture - into "Hello Kitty" vibrator massager mastubrator - new from Japan" that caught our eye. As one shopper in a Times Square store noted, "it’s nice to have something a little girly and flashy and fun," and it doesn't show any sign of slowing with sales of around $900 million last year, "it’s very hard to see any diminution for the Japanese fondness for cuteness."

Thus, we see the “smart money” exiting the markets.  We also see fewer and fewer companies participating in the market rally. Those who run these companies are more pessimistic than at any point in the last five years dating back to the nadir of the 2009 collapse. And finally we have investors as a whole displaying the most complacency about the market in history.

In a world in which "can kicking" has become the only way out, it appears that the only thing that can prevent systemic collapse due to is even more financial innovation. And while we have no idea what is the next milestone in financial ingenuity, we present the key milestones over the past 2600 years that defined modern finance as we know it.

Don't be a slave

Sometimes you have to step back and laugh... spurious correlation perhaps, but over 10 years, 2 years, 2 months, or 2 weeks; the ebbs and flows of AAPL shareholders and spot gold prices seem oddly similar... so which is in a bubble and which is a screaming buy?