Archive - Feb 24, 2014

The stages of a Man's/Ponzi Bubble's, life...

The Fed Is Very Political … And Serves the Big Banks and the Powers-That-Be

While BofAML's Macneil Curry is a long-term bull on Natural Gas (with expectations of a push to $7.33 and on to $7.80), he warns, for now, its' time to move to the sidelines as a medium-term top is at hand...

Last month's Dallas Fed print at 3.8 barely beat expectations of 3.7 to stall a 3-month missed expectations slump as the data basically has flatlined for 4 months. However, it appears the lack of snow in Texas did not help (though the word weather appears 7 times in survey responses) as Feb's data missed expectations by the most in 4 months and slumped to a 9 month low. What is perhaps most concerning is the outlook for 6-months foward dropped dramatically (with 11 sub-indices tumbling) and CapEx also slumped to a 5 month low. Of course, US equities are surging to new highs on this dismal news...

What others describe as the Deep State we term the National Security State which enables the American Empire, a vast structure that incorporates hard and soft power--military, diplomatic, intelligence, finance, commercial, energy, media, higher education--in a system of global domination and influence. One key feature of the Deep State is that it makes decisions behind closed doors and the surface government simply ratifies or approves the decisions. A second key feature is that the Deep State decision-makers have access to an entire world of secret intelligence. What would best serve the Deep State is a dollar that increases in purchasing power and extends the Deep State's power.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Monday said Russia had grave doubts about the legitimacy of those in power in Ukraine following President Viktor Yanukovich's ouster, saying their recognition by some states was an "aberration". "We do not understand what is going on there. There is a real threat to our interests and to the lives of our citizens," Medvedev was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying. "There are big doubts about the legitimacy of a whole series of organs of power that are now functioning there."... Dmitry Medvedev said Monday, according to Russian news agencies, that the new authorities have come to power as a result of "armed mutiny," so their legitimacy is causing "big doubts."

Weakness in Asian data, check. Weakness in European data, check. Weakness in US data, check. USDJPY overnight sell-off primed for US day-session ramp, check... New highs for US stocks, check...

Ever since the weekend's coup d'etat (as he called it: remember, it isn't officially a coup until John Kerry deems it so - see Egypt), Ukraine's overthrown president Victor Yanukovych (despite signing an agreement with the opposition and blessed by Europe which foresaw new legitimate presidential elections sometime after September) has been in hiding, following an aborted attempt to depart the country by plane. This is understandable: after all a warrant has been issued for his arrest. Which perhaps explains why as Gazeta.ru, citing UNIAN.net, reports his latest location is the Russian military base in Sevastopol, the one place where the Ukraine government, legitimate or not, will never dare to tread. UNIAN adds that Yanukovich will "board a landing ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, which the deposed president will use to go to Russia, according to TV channel ATR."

Since his historical track record has been spot on until now, we thought it useful to reflect on the wisdom of the maestro as he speaks this morning and his recent appearances. On the heels of the success of his un-best-selling book, Greenspan explains:

• *GREENSPAN SAYS 'NO DOUBT' BUBBLES ARISING IN CHINA'S ECONOMY
• *GREENSPAN SAYS OF BITCOIN: 'IT'S A BUBBLE'
• *GREENSPAN SAYS 'I DON'T SEE' SIGNS OF A BUBBLE IN STOCK MARKET
• *GREENSPAN SEES SIGNIFICANT RISE IN LONG-TERM RATES COMING

It appears he bubble-vision is strong and yet he notes that US income inequality is potentially harmful to the US political system and Dodd-Frank doesn't work; adding that the US needs 4% growth to fix itself.

For those who have been following the abysmal loan creation in Europe, which recently dropped to an all time low today's inflation, or rather make that deflation, data out of Europe should not come as much of a surprise. Then again, with January inflation posting the biggest drop in history, when it tumbled by a record 1.1% from December levels, even the skeptics may be stunned by how rapidly deflation is gripping the continent.

Much as the 3rd grade Markit US Manufacturing PMI 'beat' was blamed for the furious rally last Thursday in stocks, it appears bad news in the form of today's 3rd grade Markit Services PMI 'miss' is (rightly) completely ignored by the market. While the Services segment of the economy is vastly larger and more important for 'guessers', it seems USDJPY would not provide the juice this morning as this is the weakest services performance in 4 months. Of course, "weather" is blamed and optimism for the future remains but what was odd to us is that economists claim that in February manufacturing returned to normal... but clearly services did not.

The last 3 days have seen China's Shanghai Composite index tumble over 3% - its largest drop since October as sentiment comes under pressure from concerns about tightening in the real estate sector. The pace of price appreciation has slowed notably - especially 'existing' apartment sales (i.e. the speculators are exiting) - as it appears houing demand is cooling off with the number of cities with falling MoM home prices rose to six in January from two in December.The PBOC has jawboned as much and real estate sector financial condtions are tightening is slowing as a number of banks curb lending to developers. This is weighing on copper prices also as construction activity slows (exacerbating problems in the shadow banking system's collateral pools). The PBOC is getting what they wanted - but may regret it.

• Ukraine Seeks $35 Billion as Yanukovych Warrant Is Issued (BBG)
• Ukraine's fugitive president wanted for mass murder (Reuters)
• Polar Vortex to Bring More Snow on Return to U.S. This Week (BBG)
• China property prices continue to rise (FT)
• Microsoft Said to Cut Windows Price 70% to Counter Rivals (BBG)
• Pentagon to propose shrinking Army, scrapping some jets (Reuters)
• Hedge Funds Turn Bearish on S&P 500 as VIX Advances (BBG)
• Draghi’s Data Jigsaw Takes Shape as ECB Readies Showdown (BBG)
• China, eyeing Japan, seeks WW2 focus for Xi during Germany visit (Reuters)

Global gold prices may have been manipulated on 50% of occasions between January 2010 and December 2013, according to analysis by Fideres, a consultancy. Pension funds, hedge funds, commodity trading advisers, futures traders and ordinary investors are likely to have suffered losses as a result. Many of these groups were "definitely ready" to file lawsuits.