Archive - Oct 2014

While Ebola is getting all the headlines, China is dealing with "the worst outbreak in decades" of Dengue Fever. As ITAR-TASS reports, the outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in China has killed six people and infected more than 27,200 according to Chinese health officials. Just today, the epidemic has infected 1,826 more people in the Guangdong Province alone. But it's not just China, last month Malaysia reported that dengue fever deaths had more than tripled in 2014, while Japan recently saw its first outbreak in 70 years with many contracting the illness at Tokyo's popular Yoyogi Park.

That's right...Deja Douche!

They came, they complained about the breadsticks and water temperature, and they won.

Despite claims of containment, Reuters reports seven more people turned themselves in late on Thursday to an Ebola isolation unit in Madrid; but following a visit by PM Rajoy, Spanish citizens can relax as the government is setting up a special Ebola committee. Following yesterday's scare in Paris, The Independent reports authorities are investigating a 'probable' case of a French national who may have contracted the disease in Africa. The World Health organization has warned that East Asia is at risk of becoming a "hot spot" for diseases - but is well prepared after SARS and avian flu but it is the appearance of a confirmed case in Brazil that is most concerning. A 47-year-old man, originally from Guinea, is LatAm's first case and suggests SOUTHCOM's "nightmare scenario" is closer than many would care to believe. Finally, the CDC has issued special guidance to 911 operators on dealing with suspected Ebola cases across America.

Well that escalated quickly... high beta momo stocks are continuing to accelerate lower this morning as BTFD'ers seem absent for now. VIX topped 22 - its highest since Dec 2012. Once again, stocks tried to decouple from bonds (twice) and failed...

After two years of Abenomics, Japan officially admitted it has entered a triple-dip recession. While people with a modicum of common sense warned this would happen long ago, it actually came as a surprise to traditionally trained economists: after all, a country whose economy collapsed under piecemeal episodes of "Abenomics" over the past three decades was supposed to, if only for those trained in the Keynesian school, promptly recover (even though its fundamental problem is not economic but demographic) when that which had failed for so long was applied in one shock episode. It didn't work. So now that Abenomics has officially failed in Japan (but will remain in place until Abe is ouster, either voluntarily as the local population has had enough of Japan's record inflation imports) what comes next? It is about to be tried in Europe of course

The Swiss National Bank has lashed out at the so-called "gold initiative" efforts to "Save Our Swiss Gold" unsurprisingly proclaiming it as a bad idea. As Ron Paul previously noted, "The gold referendum, if it is successful, will be a slap in the face to those elites," and so the full-court press ahead of the Nov 30th vote has begun (a la Scotland fearmongery) as SNB Vice Chairman Jean-Pierre Danthine explains how a 'yes' vote for the initiative "would severely constrain the SNB’s room for manoeuvre in a future crisis," as it "poses danger to the conduct of a successful monetary policy." His reasoning (below) is stunning...

"We reduced our derivatives position even further, selling just-barely-out-of-the-money calls against our newly established aluminium position. Hence one half hour into the market we were marginally net long… and then panic hit! We will likely take no further action in our own account today, for we are now, as noted above, marginally net short…  and we do indeed mean  marginally…" - Dennis Gartman

The best performer among the top-five US banks is U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) and by a wide margin... 

Whether this trend will hold or reverse is unknown, but it does suggest that there are advantages to being the cleanest shirt in the dirty laundry.

This week has seen some market volatility (see VIX Chart) reminiscent of the functioning market from days of old. The markets are spooked, bad news is overtaking good news and bearish views are becoming vogue. We are seeing a titanic battle taking place between the various bull and bear camps and they are starting to unleash some serious firepower. 

A year after the Fed injected $1 trillion into the stock market, the US economy was supposed to show stable, benign inflation north of 2%, validating stable, benign "growth" and pushing yields well into the mid-3% range. It failed to do that, stumping many a Keynesian hack who can't explain how it is possible that inflation (at least the variety measured by the BLS, not the real type, like food, energy, tuition costs, and healthcare which is considered largely irrelevant) has so far failed to spring up. For all those hacks, here is the answer in one simple chart.

Two months ago, US and European equity markets exploded higher after RIA tweeted that Russia sought a de-escalation in Ukraine. Today, after an ugly week of higher volatility and even higher anxiety, RIA is at it again, tweeting the following - Kiev agrees to withdraw troops from several Eastern Ukraine cities – DPR leader Zakharchenko - and stocks have started to ramp...

In another well-funded research study, the New York Fed has, via its Liberty Street Economics blog, unveiled its explanation for why volatility is low (obviously missing the Kevin Henry-Citadel dark-pool VIX-slamming machinations that are so evident on an almost daily basis). Their findings are a little awkward for The Fed... the current volatility environment appears substantially different from what happened prior to the financial crisis. However, the Fed's conclusion, as Helen Thomas notes, is worrisome - low interest rates tend to mute volatility (something we already knew) - but if that is the case (from their findings) then implicitly: If low volatility is caused by low rates which in turn cause low volatility, what happens when rates go up?

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