Archive - Nov 2014

Moments ago, Bloomberg released a stunning update that Europe's largest bank is exiting the single-name, both IG and HY, CDS product line, which for years was one of its biggest revenue generators and a product in which DB was for a long time one of the best and deepest CDS trade axes. As Bloomberg reports, Deutsche Bank AG will stop trading investment-grade and high-yield credit default swaps on single credits and will instead focus on trading corporate bonds, according to a spokeswoman.

The NYSE 'broke' from 930 to 950ET (levitating stocks after the plunge) and now it appears the exchange is having issues again as BATS declares self-help against NYSE...

*BATS: ROUTING TO NYSE HAS BEEN SUSPENDED AS OF 10:38:43 ET

The market has been open 73 minutes and been broken for half that time!

As stocks opened significantly lower in the US day session, the NYSE 'broke'. Instantly, stocks levitated back to almost green on the day... and NYSE 'unbroke' - after which stocks tumbled again (only to be rescued by Draghi)....

Seriously!! Draghi utters a few words - all of which we have seen and heard a thousand times before:

*DRAGHI SAYS ECB WILL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES, WITHIN ITS MANDATE
*DRAGHI SAYS EXPANDED PURCHASE PROGRAM COULD INCLUDE GOVT BONDS

and EURUSD, European stocks and bonds get uber-excited... which is odd because as Draghi himself noted in Dec 2011, the "Treaty prohibits monetray financing."

After 6 weeks of the ECB's (3rd) Covered Bond Purchase Program, the cumulative buys amount to a mere EUR 10.485 billion. It appears they are limited (by collateral availability and market liquidity.. and dealers unwillingness to sell) to around EUR3 billion per week - around the same amount The Fed's QE3 would suck up in 1-2 days of POMO. At this rate, it's a long way to go to reach the $1 trillion goal. Is it any wonder that Mario Draghi once again used the 'w' word - uttering ECB will do "whatever it takes" (cough within its mandate).

Dumb and Dumber To, the sequel after 20 years, was released recently. However, when it comes to real humor, the Dumber slapstick was easily upstaged over the past few days by the G20 summit in Brisbane. The lunatics are guiding us off the cliff. We know most people feel there’s nothing they can do to change the course their countries and governments have taken, but we also think that perhaps all these people need to realize they don’t have much of a choice anymore. If getting up from your couch for your own sake isn’t enough of a incentive, how about doing it for your kids and grandkids? The dumber-ass approach is the same one they use for their economic, what shall we call it, ‘policies’(?), it’s the exact same thing. It’s the surface that counts, not what’s underneath it. It’s the storyline, not the veracity of it.

This may not quite be the blow-off top in the merger bubble as companies rush to frontrun the ECB and buy whatever still isn't nailed, but it is getting close. Because while earlier today Baker Hughes announced it would accept the Halliburton offer to buy it unchallenged in a $35 billion transaction leading many to wonder just how much lower the price of oil is still set to drop, moments ago the Allergan "White Knight" swooped from up on high, and as had also been leaked in recent weeks, Actavis agreed to buy the botox- maker which Ackman and Valeant had been so eagerly chasing for months in order to let the roll-up pharma pad its non-GAAP books with another 2-3 years of pro forma "synergies" add backs.  This means that between Halliburton and Actavis, today we have had the first $100 billion "Merger Monday" in over a decade.

David Cameron warned last night that the global economy risked another crash and said in an article that 'red warning lights' were 'flashing on the dashboard of the global economy' and the eurozone was 'teetering on the brink' of another recession.

Driven by a combination of Mining (-0.9% - biggest drop in a year), Utilities (-0.7% led by a 3.2% plunge in Natural Gas) and most of all motor vehicle manufacturing (-1.2%), US Industrial Production slid 0.1% in October (notably missing expectations of a 0.2% rise). This is the 3rd monthly drop in motor vehicle & parts production - the worst consecutive run since Jan 2009. It seems the government-free-credit inspired subprime auto boom that provided just enough impetus to a fragilee conomy to enable the Fed narrative of "things are better" to play out... has ended... abruptly.

While a month ago there was non-stop newsflow surrounding any Ebola-case transfer from West Africa to the US, the newly appointed Ebola czar Ron Klain has so far shown a stunning ability to mute media reports of any ongoing developments surrounding the deadly disease.  Which is why virtually nobody was aware that on Saturday a surgeon, who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Sierra Leone, Dr. Martin Salia, 44, has been transferred to the Nebraska Medical Center which had previously successfully treated two other Ebola patients this fall. Sadly, this time it failed, and moments ago it was reported that Salia passed away from the deadly disease.

A stunner this morning by ECB board member Yves Mersch who said earlier today that the ECB balance-sheet expansion is "neither an end in itself nor a fetish." As quoted by Bloomberg, the ECB member said that  "the effect on rates that comes along with it is at best a collateral benefit." Nothing new here: we have discussed why unlike Japan and the US, the biggest gating factor for Europe is the presence of freely-available, unencumbered collateral that could, at least in theory, be purchased by the ECB. Which brings us to the Mersch punchline: "Theoretically the ECB could purchase other assets such as gold, shares, ETFs to fulfill its promise of adopting further unconventional measures to counter a longer period of low inflation."

Following last month's collapse, hopes were high for the Keynesian data mean-reversion to bounce Empire Fed Manufacturing data solidly higher... it didn't. A small bounce to 10.16 (against expectations of 12.2) is the 2nd miss in a row and below January's mid-polar-cortex levels. Under the covers, it was even uglier as average workweek and prices received plunged to their lowest levels in 2014 (as prices paid only inched lower - sparking fears over margins). The number of employees also fell (despite a rise in new orders?) but the headline print was saved from worse by a surge in 'hope' yet again as the business outlook jumped by 6 points to 47.61 - its highest since Jan 2012!!

• Scuttled deals worth $580 billion put hedge funds on back foot (Reuters)
• Mounting Pressure on OPEC Spurs More Wagers on Oil Rally (BBG)
• It's not just US real estate: Chinese Students at U.S. Universities Jump 75% in Three Years (BBG)
• Frankfurt Open for Yuan Clearing as Liquidity Rises (BBG)
• Obama defends healthcare law after adviser criticism (Reuters)
• Michael Hasenstab Bets Big in Controversial Places (WSJ)
• Facebook seeks foothold in your office (FT)
• Russia Seen as Greatest Threat in Poll as Oil Erodes Putin Power (BBG)
• Falling Oil Prices Test OPEC Unity (WSJ)

While it was already leaked in the past week that oil service giant Halliburton would seek to purchase Baker Hughes, or, if the smaller oilservice company did not accept the proposed terms, make a hostile run at its board of directors, it was unclear how the Houston company would respond. As the Houston Chronicle summarized, BHI had "to make a tough choice: surrender control on a rival's terms or face months of sunken oil prices and cost pressures alone....Halliburton's demands come as crude prices have fallen dramatically and as the U.S. oil industry looks to an uncertain future. Much is unclear: how much oil producers will rein in equipment and service spending, whether oil prices will sink or swim, and how much Baker Hughes would be worth in six months after what would likely be a bruising battle for control of its board." Moments ago we got the answer and Baker Hughes shareholders decided they have had enough of the volatile oil price and are happy to cash out at this point, in a $34.6 billion deal that values BHI shares at $78.62/share.

Perhaps the biggest shock following last night's completely expected and very predictable (previewed here over a month ago) Japanese slide into triple- (actually make that quadruple) dip recession, is that it took the BTFTripleDip recession algos as long as they did to recover most of the overnight futures losses. Because after surging to 107 on a confused short squeeze kneejerk reaction, the USDJPY subsequently tumbled 150 pips to 105.50 as rationality briefly emerged, and the market wondered for a few brief hours if rewaring the destruction of one's economy is actually a prudent thing. Then, however, when European traders started walking into work, the now default USDJPY levitation on no volume came right back, and with that the correlation algo buying of E-mini futures, no doubt helped by the Bank of Japan itself taking advantage of the CME's ES liquidity rebate program. Because without confidence as expressed by the lowest and only common denominator left - global equities - there is nothing else.