Archive - Feb 2014

Despite Utilities soaring 4.1%, the Federal Reserve "blames" the worst miss (and biggest drop) in Industrial Production since August 2012 on "severe weather" in some regions of the country. Capacity Utilization also tumbled - to its lowest since October. Numbers for November and December's exuberance were revised lower in both series (that must be the weather effect being anticipated that weather would be bad in January!?!). There were 6 mentions of the word 'weather' in the report (just missing out of Deutsche's Lavorgna with 8 yeaterday) as any weakness in macro data is due to unforeseeable events (weather in Winter) but any surprising beat is due to solid fundamentals underlying the real economy.

Gold is up 3.3% this week and headed for the biggest weekly advance since October as U.S. economic data was again worse than expected. This increased safe haven demand and the biggest exchange-traded product saw holdings rise to a two-month high. Call options on gold, giving the buyer the right to buy June 2015 futures at $2,200 an ounce, surged 24% to a five-week high as prices climbed to a three-month high.  Gold has traded above the 100 day moving average since February 10, and is heading for a close above the 200 day moving average for the first time since February 2013. A weekly close above the 200 day moving average and the psychological level of $1,300/oz will be very positive for gold and could lead to gold challenging the next level of resistance at $1,357/oz and $1,434/oz. Gold is up 5.3% so far in February and 9.3% so far this year as concerns about emerging market markets, currencies, and the U.S. economy boosted safe haven demand.  Recent employment and sales data was poor. U.S. jobless claims reached 339,000 in the week ended February 8 and retail sales in the U.S. declined in January by the most in 10 months.

Everyone knows that without the German export-driven growth dynamo, the European economy would quickly wither and disappear into nothingness. Which is why today's report that the German economy grew by just 0.4% last year, its worst performance since the global financial crisis in 2009, with strong domestic demand only partially offsetting the continued negative impact of the euro crisis, should be reason for significant concern to all especially since all the artificial, goalseeked GDP readings from the periphery are just that, and are completely meaningless in the grand scheme of things - should Germany's growth falter, as it clearly has been over the past two years, may as well put the lights out.

While modestly better than expected, Import Prices fell 1.5% year-over-year, down from a 1.3% year-over-year drop for December. This is the sixth month in a row of year-over-year drops in import prices and perhaps even more notably, the last 20 months have seen only 2 months of year-over-year price gains as the Japanese deflation ogre spreads around the world.

The percentage of investors who describe themselves as "neutral" is at its highest in over 11 years as a modest 5% retracement in stocks has bulls running for the hills and individual investors extremely uncertain once again. As Bloomberg notes, "everyone is sitting in the middle of the canoe waiting for something to happen." Will it be Birinyi's 1,900 surge, Tom Lee's 2,100 spike, or DeMark's 1929 crash analog?

Recall what we said first thing this week when we remarked the latest surge in Chinese physical gold buying: "As we have said before: keep an eye on the "gold holdings" of the GLD and other US paper gold ETFs, whose drop in holdings for now has offset Chinese accumulation on the margin. Once GLD gold holdings solidly resume their climb higher, that will be the key upward gold price inflection point." Perhaps it is a testament to the power of paper of physical gold (if only for now), that while yes, we were correct, and gold is now indeed soaring, having finally broken above its 200 DMA as we reported yesterday, all it took was the predicted rebound in gold ETP holdings which have finally ended their liquidation cycle. As Bloomberg reports "Assets in the SPDR Gold Trust expanded 1.2 percent to 806.35 metric tons, the highest since Dec. 20. The biggest ETP backed by gold, which shrank 41 percent last year, is up 1.2 percent this week, headed for a third weekly advance."

• Euro-Area Growth Eases Pressure on Draghi for Stimulus (BBG)
• Germany Beats Growth Estimates With France Amid Recovery (BBG)
• Argentina revises ‘bogus’ inflation figures (FT)
• Wells Fargo edges back into subprime as U.S. mortgage market thaws (Reuters)
• China Banks’ Bad Loans Reach Highest Since Financial Crisis (BBG)
• Time Warner Cable Deal to Test Comcast CEO's Washington Clout (WSJ)
• Risky Loans in Europe Banks’ Dark Corners to Be Exposed  (BBG) - yeah, right... sure
• Gold Extends Climb Above $1,300 as Investors Boost SPDR Holdings (BBG)
• SEC Takes Steps to Stem Courtroom Defeats (WSJ)

So far the overnight session has been a replica of yesterday, with the all important carry trade once again fizzling overnight during Japan trading hours, and dipping as low at 101.60 before staging a modest rebound to the 101.8 level. We expect the "invisible" 102.000 USDJPY tractor beam to be again engaged shortly and provide market support and/or levitate stocks higher as the now standard selling in Japan, buying in the US trade pattern repeats. On the other hand, US equity futures appear to have decoupled from the pure carry trade, and instead latched on to USD weakness and EUR strength following European Q4 GDP data, which came at 0.3% on expectations of 0.2%, up from 0.1%. Considering the constant adjustments to the European definition of GDP, at this point Mongolia would have been able to demonstrate growth if it was in Europe (but apparently not Greece which once again missed GDP expectations with Q4 GDP of -2.6% vs Exp. -2.0%). Expect ES and USDJPY to recouple shortly, as they always do - the only question if the recoupling will take place lower or higher.

To all you fringe low brow Zero Hedge Morons!!! [THIS IS THE POST THAT COULD WELL TAKE DOWN THE INTERNUTZ]

Investors said Sayonara to the crucial 102.00 level for USDJPY tonight and while S&P 500 futures are leaking lower (down 7 points from their earlier highs), the Nikkei 225 has collapsed over 430 points and is pressing one-week lows. This is the lowest the Nikkei 225 has been relative to the Dow in 8 months. With the Nikkei at one-week lows, its now 700 points below the post-Yellen exuberance; and the broader TOPIX Index is down 4.25% from Tueaday's post-Yellen highs.

The German high court has ruled that children MUST take care of their parents even if they have not spoken to them in 27 years.

The entire social contract is collapsing.

The historical norm of children taking care of their parents was displaced with the New Deal where government stepped in to provide the safety-net. Now the high court has ruled that it is the child’s responsibility. So what are all these taxes for?

The world is now beginning to realize Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s true intentions. With his controversial visit to the Yasukuni shrine, which memorializes war dead, including Class A war criminals such as Hideki Tojo, he is no longer hesitant to reveal his true nature: without question, the most conservative leader in Japan’s postwar history. By encouraging a spirit of nationalism, Abe is hoping to engender self-confidence and patriotism among the Japanese public. But what exactly is his future agenda?

One glimpse at the following chart and it's clear that the US economy has not reached the much-vaunted "escape velocity." As CNBC's Rick Santelli explains in this succinct summary of the quandary of GDP hopes, inventory-build fears, and extrapolation-dreams, "many of these programs, procedures, and plans offered by the Fed - or the government - actually work to jump-start the economy... but they can't reach sustainability." His simple analogy of the economy as a heart-rate in a chronically sick (if not dead) person and Fed juice as a defibrillator seems very fitting. As the chart below shows, the US economy is very much still on life-support.

The 'cash on the sidelines' myth has more lives than a cat. No matter how often the logical fallacy underlying it is pointed out, Wall Street continues to propagate it. Nevertheless, money and credit are of course extremely important factors in the analysis of asset markets. The below provides what are hopefully a few useful pointers as to which data one should keep an eye on in this context.

Having described Venezuela as "absolutely calm" today - when it was anything but; the fact that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has the stones to accuse Agence France Press of "manipulating" news coverage is stunning.

*VENEZUELA ASKS INFO MINISTER TO TAKE ACTIONS AGAINST AFP NEWS

Furthermore, Maduro has taken a TV station off-air that competed with Telesur (the state-owned TV station). Of course, we should not worry as Maduro has explained the violence is all protesters' fault and that he will propose his "peace plan" tomorrow.