Archive - Aug 2014

Wonder why moments ago futures soared and wiped out all overnight losses of nearly 15 points, pushing into the green, the DAX surging back over 9000 and the USDJPY right back to its cozy tractor-beam manipulated level of 102.000, just as the NY Fed's Kevin Henry walked through the door? The culprit: the following two tweets (yes, really) which were caught by Bloomberg and the other newswires and blasted as a done deal...

• Pope Francis calls for action as Iraqi Christians forced to flee (Reuters)
• Richest Russians Deprived of Luxury Foods by Putin’s Ban (BBG)
• Exxon Drilling Russian Arctic Shows Sanction Lack Bite (BBG)
• Israeli Jets Strike Gaza Targets After Rockets Shatter Truce (BBG)
• U.S. starts aid airdrops in Iraq but no strikes yet (Reuters)
• Banks Said to Be Arranging Argentine Debt Buyer Group (BBG)
• Siberia Flight-Ban Threat Forces Airlines to Mull Options (BBG)
• Malaysia Airlines to Be Delisted in $429 Million Buyout (BBG)
• Erdogan poised to win Turkey's first popular presidential vote (Reuters)
• African Bank Fights Collapse in Espirito Santo-Like Drama (BBG)
• China to build lighthouses on five isles in defiance of U.S. call (Reuters)

Late yesterday, after Nobel peace prize-winning president Obama revealed his latest military incursion, years of pent up can-kicking almost caught up with futures, which dared to tumble by a whopping 0.7%, a move which hit Europe far more than the US, and shortly after Europe's open, the Euro Stoxx 50 Index dropped 10% from its 2014 high, marking an official correction in Europe where the Dax continues to be the key risk indicator, and which dropped as low as 8,903 before recovering to a drop of only 0.9% while German Bunds continues to print record highs day after day on fears what the escalating Russian trade war will do to the German economy, and other such "costs." US futures meanwhile have seen most of their losses recovered thanks to the usual relentless low volume USDJPY levitation, which pushed ES down to just -0.2% after a nearly four times greater drop. Still, while futures may be surging, the 10 Year has not gotten the memo and remains stuck just above 2.36% or its lowest print since June 2013, a clear indication that at least the bond market has given up all hope of a so-called US recovery for the conceivable future. What is most important however, is that at this pace, the Friday confidence effect, i.e., a green close, may be recovered: let's all just wait and see what the NY Fed trading desk decides to do, and escalating world wars aside, let's just pretend that HY didn't just sugger the biggest weekly HY outflow in history didn't just take place.

Bro Back 2.0...

Are the crafty casino courpiers finally cashing out their cronies' comped chips at the crooked capitlaism craps tables?

Filed in the "are you kidding us" folder... Chinese exports rose an astounding 14.5% YoY in July (the biggest surge since April 2013 and double the 7.0% YoY expectations). Chinese imports plunged 1.6% to 4-month lows, dramatically missing expectations of a 2.6% YoY gain. These miracles of goalseek.xls and fake trade invoicing left the Chinese Trade Balance for July at $47.3 Billion - its highest ever (ever) and almost double the $27.4bn expectations. In the midst of collapsing European economies, plunging Russia, and stumbling 'hard' US macro data, the Chinese government would have us believe the world (net) bought the most stuff ever from them in July...

In an effort to prevent genocide, President Obama has authorized US military action in Iraq "to protect Americans":

*OBAMA SAYS HE'S AUTHORIZED TARGETED AIR STRIKES IN IRAQ
*OBAMA SAYS HE'S AUTHORIZED HUMANITARIAN DROPS FOR REFUGEES

Global equity markets and Treasury yields are tumbling, oil and gold are up. President Obama concluded: "Today, America Is Coming To Help Iraq"... Again! Full speech below...

As Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger reports, this is what activists created using lasers on the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. No further comment necessary.

Everyone knows that New York and California have the largest concentration of uber-wealthy Americans, however what may be less known is who the richest people in the other 48 or so states are. So, without further ado, here is the full map of all the top BSDs in America, broken down by state of residence.

Ten years ago, when Europe was successfully pretending it is solvent for the benefit of German exports and Greece was happily masking its budget deficit disaster with Goldman Sachs currency swaps, the Olympic flame was about to light up the Athenian night sky. As BBC reports, the return of the Games to the Olympics' spiritual home was widely hailed as a success at the time. Now, not so much and most Greeks view the Athens Olympics with anger as a contributing factor to the country's economic catastrophe. The Games cost almost twice their projected budget, with organisers not opting to use any temporary, collapsible venues, as other host cities have done.

We frequently see stories telling us how well the United States is doing at oil extraction. The fact that there are stories in the press about the US wanting to export crude oil adds to the hype. How much of these stories are really true? A major concern with falling per-capita energy consumption it that the financial system may soon reach limits where it is stretched beyond what it can stand. The economy needs energy growth to grow, but the economy is not getting it.

Bank of England plans to make bondholders and depositors bear the cost of bailing out failing banks has led Moody’s to downgrade its outlook on the UK banking sector. Depositors in some Cyprus banks saw 50% or more of their life savings confiscated overnight. Moodys largely ignored, as did much of the media coverage of their report, the real risk that bail-ins pose to people’s life savings and companies capital, the likely negative impact of this on consumer sentiment and employment in already fragile economies.

The West's leaders are full of lawyers, Putin is ex-KGB. If ever there was an example of him playing chess while the West plays checkers, the following chart is it. Despite Western protestations that its sanctions will hurt Russia more than Europe this morning, one look at Europe's huge net trade balance with Russia for food and it's clear who is really going to feel the pain. As Martin Armstrong noted previously, "Putin has responded to [Western] sanctions as any really smart chess-player would - you get the supporters of your adversary to jump-ship." What better way to crack the 'stop-Putin' alliance than to force Europe into trade deficits and squeeze their economies (especially Germany)?