Archive - Nov 2014

By now, the world and his pet rabbit is aware of the 'odd' ramp in US equity markets as the European Close looms each day. Today - once again - was no exception, so we thought it worth quantifying this magical - and now self-fulfilling 'pattern'. In the last 4 months, if you bought the S&P 500 at 1100ET and sold at 1130ET, you would have won 55 times (garnering 129 points of profits) and lost 31 times (losing 70 points) for a total profit of over 59 points. This compares to the 53 point gain in the S&P 500 if you had just 'buy-and-hold'-ed over that period... and a quick glance at the chart tells you all you need to know about volatility...

While there was some selling of 10 Year paper following today's earlier 52-Week Bill auction which came in week, today's refunding of $24 billion in 10 Year paper was a snoozer. Closing moments ago at a 2.365% high yield (33% allotted at high), this was a 0.1% bp tail to the 2.364% When Issued. It was almost nearly identical to last month's 2.381% auction, although the small decline in yield means this was the lowest yield for the On The Run security since last June. The internals were also tame, with the Bid To Cover of 2.52 a carbon copy of last month's 2.52, if a little weaker than the TTM average. Finally, 42% of the allotment went to Dealers, or 4% above the 12 month average, while Indirects took down 44.7%, again nearly an identical amount to last month's 44.4$, and Directs, traditionally the domain of Pimco, were left with 13.4% of the auction. It is unclear if the Total Return Fund was the big bidder here now that Gross is long gone.

Would it be that bad? Of course it would, he’s is a communist.

Even Japan is playing dirty little tricks...

The only discernible difference we see from the Wall Street version of a casino it’s now so prominently become, and the one we find on some island or strip is this: At the least, when we have a great winning bet placed on Red or Black... The odds that someone from the house bank coming down to floor and yelling 'Fire' as the wheel is about to stop right on my stop is far, far less than a Central Banker coming out touting 'Well maybe we should or shouldn’t do...' the moment the true free hand of market is about to expose itself. At least at a true casino – they do have some level of integrity.

We finally have the answer, courtesy of the FCA's partial and very much selective disclosure of FX rigging findings by "The Cartel", the "Bandits" and so on, as part of its wrist-slapping settlement, just how the big boys make millions in FX on every single fix. Hopefully one day the regulators, who are as corrupt and conflicted as the banks they quote-unquote police, will reveal all the documents in their possession and let the public decide what is important and what isn't. But in the meantime, for all those curious just why the Too Big To Fail are also Too Big To Prosecute, here is the blow by blow.

With Boehner and McConnell already out blasting Obama's headline-grabbing emissions-deal with China...

*OBAMA INTENDS TO 'DOUBLE DOWN' ON JOB-CRUSHING POLICIES; 'CRUSADE' AGAINST AFFORDABLE ENERGY: BOEHNER
*MCCONNELL SAYS OBAMA EMISSIONS TARGET 'UNREALISTIC'

We thought a look at the 'faux reality' of the agreement would help clarify the farce: In the "historic" U.S.-China climate agreement this week, Beijing simply reiterated previously announced targets.

Wholesales Inventories and Sales beat expectations (+0.3% and +0.2% respectively) but, thanks to significant downward revisions in August, hope for a Q3 GDP boost are dashed. Sales growth remains near 2014 lows and inventory growth hovers near 14 month lows. Inventories-to-Sales ratios were flat in September at 1.19 months. Petroleum inventories plunged 5.3% MoM and down 13.2% YoY - the largest since Jul 2009.

Rarely are we speechless, but this occasion, when UBS made $513,000 from just one fix, as the FCA's complaint against the criminal Swiss bank reveals, is the rare exception. "In the immediate aftermath of the ECB fix, UBS was congratulated on the success of its trading by Firms A, B and C (“hes sat back in his chaoir [sic]…feet on desk…announcing to desk…thats why i got the bonus pool” and “yeah made most peoples year”)."

The bottom line: $513,000 from one trade.

Having bounced modestly yesterday, EURCHF is testing new lows post its peg (at 1.2020 vs 1.20 peg) as the reality of the referendum on the "Save Our Swiss Gold" initiative starts to get priced in. The Swiss National Bank has decided to unleash some propaganda, as WSJ reports, Thomas Jordan, president of the Swiss National Bank, warned adoption of the so-called 'Save Our Swiss Gold' initiative would be a "fatal error of judgment." With the vote looming on Nov 30th, Jordan explains that maintaining stable prices would be harder to achieve if the call for gold repatriation and increased reserves is approved. The M.A.D. rhetoric has begun as not just stability but jobs are at stake, according to Jordan.

I think someone should just take this city and...

Further proof of manipulation of gold and silver prices - if any were needed - came overnight as  Switzerland’s financial regulator (FINMA) found “serious misconduct” and a “clear attempt to manipulate precious metals benchmarks” by UBS employees in precious metals trading, particularly with silver.

"The behaviour patterns in precious metals were somewhat similar to the behaviour patterns in foreign exchange," FINMA director Mark Branson said in a conference call with journalists. He said that as UBS has precious metals and foreign exchange desks under combined leadership, it was not surprising to find similar behaviour. "But we have also seen a clear attempt to manipulate fixes in the precious metal market."

As the West (US and its pressured allies) attempt to 'isolate' Russia more and more, the inevitable cornering further and further incentivizes Putin to develop alternatives to the status quo. In the past, western sanctioners have sabre-rattled cutting off Russian from SWIFT - the international inter-bank payment system - as a next step in squeezing the oligarchs into submission (though 'independent' SWIFT distanced itself from those calls). Now however, as RT reports, Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West. If successful, this would pose a further challenge to the USD's reign as sanction blowback reverberates once again.