Archive - Oct 2014

The most surprising data point in today's 10 Year auction was the plunge in Directs, which tumbled from 13.5% to only 6.6%, which was the lowest since August of 2012 when they ended up with 5.2%. Just how much of this lack of Direct interest is due to Bill Gross no longer being on the bid? And what happens to future auctions in a world without the Old "New Normal" Pimco?

The “Doomsday Book” is essentially a private compilation of emergency measures that the Federal Reserve could take in the event of a financial crisis or other market-destabilizing event. The book has never been made public. But Fed officials have refused to release it, and Justice Department officials at a court hearing on Tuesday said the Federal Reserve Bank of New York wanted to keep the book under seal.

Two bond "markets", one yield...

Global economic growth remains weak and vulnerable and the global financial system remains very fragile. The ebola virus has the potential to be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back. 

Stocks and commodities fell globally today due to concerns about the spread of Ebola and declining economic growth. Precious metals bounced from near multi month lows.

Prepare yourselves, it is only going to get worse...

If the top 1/100th of 1% crowding airports with their private jets isn't afraid of impoverished, disenchanted debt-serfs with pitchforks, they should be.

The first US Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, who was treated in Texas, has just died:

TEXAS HEALTH REPORTS DEATH OF EBOLA PATIENT THOMAS ERIC DUNCAN

And while we await the inevitable CDC press conference to follow, the stock of CMRX, whose medicine was being used to treat him, is plunging.

BTFD'ers are absent as markets everywhere are in turmoil. Commodities are sliding with WTI plunging (almost a bear market from June highs) and copper crumbling. The USD is slightly lower (3rd day in a row). Treasury yields are slightly lower. But it is stocks that are turmoiling most as the Dow nears unchanged year-to-date. After the dramatic ramp off the lows last week, stocks have entirely roundtripped and then some to fresh cycle lows, led by Trannies and Small caps. VIX is back over 18. In Europe, stocks tanked once again with DAX closing below 9,000 for the first time this year.

UPDATE: *ENHANCED EBOLA SCREENINGS TO START AT JFK FIRST: CNN

Following CDC Director Frieden's warning yesterday, the AP reports, US Homeland Security has unveiled additional more stringent monitoring of all travelers to the US for the Ebola virus:

*U.S. AIRPORTS TO TAKE TEMPS OF TRAVELERS FROM W. AFRICA: WPOST
*FIVE OF BUSIEST U.S. AIRPORTS TO TAKE TEMPERATURES, POST SAYS

While geopolitics has largely dropped of the front news page, replaced by updates on the global Ebola epidemic (which until recently was considered nothing but fearmongering by those who prefer to avoid reality ews until it is far too late), things in the Middle East are getting worse, and while the US attack against ISIS has achieved absolutely nothing (in fact, the revelation of US strategies may have facilitated the incursion of ISIS into the town of Kobani, a mostly Kurdish city in north Syria), the latest geopolitical hotspot over the past few days has become NATO member Turkey (we provided a big picture summary in "Turkey, The Kurds And Iraq - The Prize & Peril Of Kirkuk"). It is here that violent clashes broke out across the southeast of the nation with several people reported dead and curfews imposed, as the region’s Kurdish people protested the advance of Islamic State just across the border with Syria.

Need we try to improve upon the lyrics of Rage Against The Machine?

Modern central banks enjoy extraordinary independence, typically operating free from political interference. Central bank actions that alter the allocation of credit blur those boundaries and endanger the stability the Fed was designed to ensure. Such interference in the allocation of credit is an inappropriate use of the central bank’s asset portfolio. It is not necessary for conducting monetary policy, and it involves distributional choices that should be made through the democratic process and carried out by fiscal authorities, not at the discretion of an independent central bank.

Is this the beginning of the end for Eddie Lampert's exercise in financial engineering that is Sears Holdings Corp? Bloomberg reports that three of the biggest insurance firms for Sears' suppliers are seeking to reduce coverage... which has led to:

*SEARS 'MEDIUM-SIZED SUPPLIER' VENDOR SAID TO HALT SHIPMENTS AS INSURERS REDUCE COVERAGE

The stock has been halted twice on volatility limits and is down 10% for now. SRAC 5Y CDS are offered at ~39% upfront, implying around a 87% probability of default.

"The new information on global slowing may be less important than the realization that policymakers have few tools to deal with any kind of slowing, let alone a major shock. G3 10yr government rates now average 1.27, within 10bps of the all-time pre-tapering low of 2013 (Figure 1).  So if the last 100bps of rate reduction did not stimulate global growth, it does not seem likely that another 20-30bps or so in the presence of negative demand shocks will do the trick.  The market takeaway from their comments is that the US economy is not strong enough to stand on its own, leaving little hope for the rest of the world, which is already slowing. Moreover since investors and business do not have particular confidence that the policy response will be effective, any upgrading of the risk of negative shocks raises the probability that we may be put into a zone to which there is no adequate response."

"I see the reasons to dampen down public fears,... But scientifically, we're in the middle of the first experiment of multiple, serial passages of Ebola virus in man... God knows what this virus is going to look like. I don't."

"We just don't have the data to exclude" the possibility that it spreads through the air in tight quarters.