Archive - 2013

As was reported several days ago, the latest embarrassment for US foreign policy in Syria took place when the US-backed commander of the Free Syrian Army was forced to flee the country to Qatar after "Islamist fighters ran the top Western-backed rebel commander out of his headquarters." In other words, the Islamic Front, which is a more palatable name for the six major groups among Syria's religious extremist rebels, or as some call them, Al Qaeda, is now the only entity "fighting" the regime of Assad (funded with Qatari and Saudi financial generosity), which as recently as September was a very theatrically sworn enemy of John Kerry. So what is an isolated America to do in a country in which ambitions for Qatari nat gas pipelines will almost certainly rear their heads as soon as the spring of 2014? Why engage directly with Al Qaeda, pardon, the Islamic Front of course. Because the enemy of my enemy, who obstinately refuses to throw Putin under the bus or allow a Qatari gas pipeline under their territory, is my friend.

Malodorous taper emanations and bankruptcies are a toxic mix for munis

Despite numerous "13s", infamous technical analyst Tom DeMark tells Rick Santelli, the Fed's liquidity pump has negated every one of these 'potential sell' signals and stocks have "unusually" kept going. DeMark goes on to note several analogs and trendlines that look extremely familiar; warning that the convergence of all these signals is notable and suggest "something comparable to 1929". Unable to get a word in edgeways, Santelli is more intrigued by DeMark's call on precious metals as he notes with downside limited, there is "a big move coming" for gold to the upside in 2014. Precious metals prices started to accelerate as POMO started (and again when it ended) and are extending the gains post DeMark (Silver +4% from early lows).

Though still a week shy of its centennial anniversary, the US Federal Reserve will hold a celebration this afternoon in Washington DC. Just imagine the scene - a bunch of current and former central bankers slapping each other on the back, congratulating one another for a job well done over the last 100 years. Of course, this is total nonsense... as is the concept of our modern monetary system in which we award total control of the money supply to a tiny central banking elite. Human beings are fallible. We are not gods. Yet we practically deify central bankers and entrust them with the power to manipulate markets, control prices around the world, and effectively dominate the economy. This system has proven to be foolish and destructive. While the Fed engages in its self-aggrandizement this afternoon, there is another far more important anniversary today - the Boston Tea Party.

Now that the CapEx drought has become a mainstream topic, it bears reminding that this phenomenon will continue indefinitely, and certainly as long as CapEx hurdle rates are far greater than issuing a low-yielding bond and using the proceeds to reward shareholders: indeed, this shareholders friendly topic has been perhaps the dominant theme of 2013 when activist investors stormed to the forefront once again, most prominently in the face of Carl Icahn, and have managed to force even lower revenue growth prospects by levering companies with debt loads that are now greater than during the prior credit bubble peak. Naturally, one after another bank has come out once again, as they did, and is predicting that the great deferred CapEx renaissance is upon us... any day now. Unfortunately, it isn't. And just to confirm this, here is Archer Daniels Midland summarizing the company's plans for its 2014 free cash flows. In short: they don't involve any US growth CapEx spending at all.

The so-called Volcker Rule for policing banking practices, approved by a huddle of federal regulating agency chiefs last week, is the latest joke that America has played on itself in what is becoming the greatest national self-punking exercise in world history. The Glass Steagall Act of 1933 was about 35 pages long, written in language that was precise, clear, and succinct. It worked for 66 years. The Volcker rule comes in the form of nearly 1,000 pages of incomprehensible legalese written with the “help” of lobbyist-lawyers furnished by the banks themselves. Does this strain your credulity? Well, this is the kind of nation we have become: anything goes and nothing matters. There really is no rule of law, just pretense.

Whether an unintended consequence of the push for over-consumption of the Chinese consumer or simply a man hitting his breaking point (as many Americans - we are sure - have considered in the last few weeks), 38-year-old Tao Hsiao lept to his death from a 7th story walkway in a Jiangsu mall after his girlfriend would not stop Christmas shopping. The 5-hour marathon 'consumption' ended badly after Tao's girlfriend said he was "spoiling Christmas," when he chided her that she "already had enough shoes...it was pointless buying more." He died on impact, and no one else was injured. It is unknown if his girlfriend continued shopping...

Since we live in a connected world, in which the central bank "Flow" must, well, flow, one emerging line of thought is that with the Fed set to taper (even by a modest $10 billion per month driven by Treasury market liquidity constraints where the Fed is now monetizing 1% of the entire bond market in 10 Year equivalents every three weeks), the BOJ will have to step in and boost its own monetization by a comparable amount. And as we noted in November, speculation that the BOJ will do just this set off the latest Yen crushing move, which has seen the EURJPY surge higher by a massive 1000 pips all but pricing in any BOJ moves for 2014. However, to be able to do this, Japan will need to provide its central bank with the capacity to monetize as many Treasurys (or more) as possible: after all, Japan like the US is already soaking up a record 70% of all gross issuance. And Japan is ready to comply: as Reuters reports, in the next fiscal year, Japan's budget will exceed 96 trillion yen, or about $930 billion. With Japan's GDP standing currently shy of half a quadrillion Yen (not to be confused with Japan's debt load which is now over the one quadrillion mark), it means the budget will be about 20% of the country's entire economic output.

While the ECB (and the Fed) continues to warn (danger of theft), threaten (asset-ize and tax it!), or de-bunk the idea of virtual currencies (despite two of the world's largest banks apparently seeing value in the idea), the Swiss Parliament is proposing a different angle. A postulate signed by 45 (of 200) members of parliament asks for bitcoin to be treated as any other foreign currency - and examine the potential bitcoin-related opportunities for the Swiss financial sector. The crucial point here, of course, is if Bitcoin is 'deemed' an asset (as EU regulators appear to want), it can (and will) be taxed; but it seems the Swiss beg to differ with that definition.

Big Dog, Wild Cat, Cheetah... all names one wouldn't associate with Google (if anything perhaps feline-named Apple operating systems). And yet, the company that is best know for its internet prowess and having more data about the search habits and private interests of each and every computer user than the NSA could ever dream of, is ever more aggressively moving into the animal kingdom. The robotic one that is.

"Priced In" appears to be the meme of the day but the overnight collapse in S&P 500 futures - perfectly tagging the 50DMA - was met with a slowly building avalanche of BTFATH-ers unable to resist missing out of the December Triple Witching seasonality. While stocks are screaming higher, the USD is practically unchanged, gold and silver have rallied back to unchanged, and Treasuries are modestly lower in yield.

Stocks are un-surging on the "good" news in the headline beats for Industrial Production (biggest jump and biggest beat in 13 months) and Capacity Utilization (best since June 08). However, as is always the case, the underlying data hides some less than positive signs. The bulk of the gains in production were from Utilities (+3.9%) as colder-than-expected temperatures boosted demand (the same temps that retailers are crying about). Manufacturing output remains 3.6% below its pre-recession peak (though gains were broad-based).

Alert: Unconfirmed reports of explosives at four sites on campus: Science Center, Thayer, Sever, and Emerson. Evacuate those buildings now.

— Harvard University (@Harvard) December 16, 2013

The rise of the yuan has been exaggerated.  Strip out data involving Hong Kong and the claims of trade flows that are concealed capital flows and one might get a more accurate picture. 

Outflows of gold from ETF's amounted to 24.3 million ounces, nearly 700 metric tonnes, in 2013. Imports from Hong Kong to China totaled 26.6 million ounces or 754 metric tonnes through September alone. It is unknown where gold would come from to replenish these ETF holdings, if there was a sudden surge in demand in the West in the event of a new sovereign debt crisis or a Lehman Brothers style contagion event.