Archive - Dec 1, 2014

For 29 days - off the Bullard lows - the S&P 500 closed above its 5-day moving average. As MKM's Jonathan Krinsky noted last week, this is the longest streak of sustained equity momentum higher in the history of US markets (surpassing the previous record 27 days from 1928). Today (well techncially Friday's early close) saw that streak come to an abrupt end...

Some very significant volatility intraday today. The Dow Transports lost around 2.7% today - the most since early January - as Airlines slipped (though held half of Friday's panic-buying gains). The Dow outperformed - but closed red - thanks to strength in Chevron and Exxon (adding 35 Dow points alone). All major US equity indices are red from pre-Thanksgiving's meltup exuberant close with Trannies and Small Caps worst. Momo names were hit, as was AAPL. All of this was driven, it appears, by a somewhat staggering (dead cat or not) bounce in commodity markets off overnight flush lows. Gold and silver screamed higher and oil gained 7% off its lows to close up 4.8% from Friday. Treasury yields also turned around notably intraday from down 1-2bps to closing up around 6bps at the long-end (after ISM beat). VIX briefly tested below 14 but the 330RAMP went the wrong way with VIX rising and stocks closing not off the lows.

"These idiots cannot grasp that this is reversing the US economy into isolationism and is paving the road for China to take the lead. It is time to turn off the lights."

While we have focused on the decoupling between US equity markets and their high-yield credit and US Treasury yield peers, today is perhaps most notably for the widening seen in investment-grade credit markets - the most in 2 months - as oil-complex concerns squeeze liquidity across all credits.

It is no wonder Venezuela is suffering... Venezuelan bond prices have collapsed around 51 - the lowest close in at least 5 years as yields surge to around 21% yield. The market is pricing in extremely high probability of default (around 63% over 2Y, and 80% based on 5Y CDS) which, as Bloomberg reports, is surging as "every $1 drop in oil is around $770 million of lost revenue, so their ability to pay has taken a big hit."

Earlier today, just after the market open, the one company that everyone had once again piled into, and which as of September 30 was the most held company by the hedge fund community with at least 175 "smart money" institutional fans based on expectations that with every other stock and asset becoming increasingly illiquid, at least this one would preserve its liquidity come hell or high water, flash crashed. The company is Apple, So what happend? Between 9:49:54 and 9:50:43 Eastern, AAPL plunged from nearly 6%, from $117.69 to $111.27, a moved which wiped out one Transcanada (or one Travelers, or one Lukoil, or one Carnival, or one Christian Dior, or one Hyundai Motor Company, or one Takeda, or one State Street) in market cap.

Today the Euro is on the cusp of breaking critical support. Draghi will likely see this as a success (he wants inflation). More likely, it will bring in another round of the EU Crisis (the same line was hit when Greece imploded in 2010 and when Spain imploded in 2012).

The decline in oil prices is a clear message that "something is awry" globally and investors should take heed that risks of a market decline have risen markedly. While I am not saying that the economy is about to slide off into a recession, previous declines in oil prices of the current magnitude have been associated with poor outcomes for investors. Caution is advised.

Since 2006,MRAPs, helicopters, machine guns, and night-vision-goggle have been increasingly evident across America as the good ol' yankee copper morphs into a full-metal-jacket-looking killer (even as the FBI admits the threats to police have not escalated as much as the media would like). So it isjust 'lucky' that Ferguson has reignited a narrative that enables President Obama "to discuss federal programs and funding that provide equipment to the state and local enforcement agencies," in a series of meetings today at The White House. We suspect funding will increase (for your own protection) and a new SWATification Tzar will be unveiled.

"As was true at the 2000 and 2007 extremes, Wall Street is quite measurably out of its mind. There’s clear evidence that valuations have little short-term impact provided that risk-aversion is in retreat (which can be read out of market internals and credit spreads, which are now going the wrong way). There’s no evidence, however, that the historical relationship between valuations and longer-term returns has weakened at all. Yet somehow the awful completion of this cycle will be just as surprising as it was the last two times around – not to mention every other time in history that reliable valuation measures were similarly extreme. Honestly, you’ve all gone mad."

Silver is up over 17% from its intraday lows today - this is the biggest positive swing since our data began. All the previous major swings have been downshifts, most recently in September 2011 (-22% and -18% over 2 days). Volume is very high also. Gold is back above $1,210, up over $70 from its intraday lows...

As of Q3, when adding the consensus number for Q4 EPS, we find that while non-GAAP EPS is set to rise by a healthy 6.6%, real rarnings, as in GAAP EPS, will actually decline by 1.3% in 2014, meaning that for yet another year, the only upside in stocks has been due to - thank you Fed - multiples expansion.

With a third of S&P 500 capital expenditure due from the imploding energy sector (and with over 20% of the high-yield market dominated by these names), paying attention to any inflection point in the US oil-producers is critical as they have been gung-ho "unequivocally good" expanders even as oil prices fell. However, as Reuters reports, new data suggests that the much-anticipated slowdown in shale country may have finally arrived - permits for new wells dropped 15% across 12 major shale formations last month, as one analysts warns, "the first domino is the price, which causes other dominos to fall."

Switzerland’s ‘Save our Swiss Gold’ referendum was convincingly rejected yesterday by the Swiss electorate following an aggressive anti-gold campaign in recent weeks that had been closely watched both in Switzerland and abroad. 

Unusually, it involved the Swiss National Bank (SNB) very actively, and ultimately successfully, trying to convince the electorate along with the main political parties to return a ‘no’ vote.

November's asset performance can best be summarized in just three words: oil, oil, oil.  "For Brent November was the biggest one month decline since the height of the Lehman crisis in October 2008 whilst for WTI it was the worst since December 2008. Brent and WTI are now 33% and 28% lower versus where it started the year and are now trading at their lowest level since the spring of 2010."