Archive - Jan 2015

Just because we do not acknowledge the binds that tie us to our servitude does not invalidate their existence, but rather significantly strengthens them.

In the early 1970s, there were about 200,000 new US businesses created each year (net of closures). Now, the number is negative. Why are Americans getting poorer? Look no further. No new businesses (net). No new jobs (again net). No new wealth. Under Obama and Draghi, crony capitalism flourishes. Real capitalism dies.

The Swiss-Franc-inspired spike in crude oil (crazy but true) as Europe opened has seen its highs broken as WTI Crude tests $46 once again following reports of Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi meeting with Rolf Willy Hansen - ambassador of Norway, Oleg Ozerov - ambassador of Russia, and Pekka Voutilainen, ambassador of Finland; to discuss "market stability." Why would that spike oil prices? Because the three are plotting the final destruction of US shale... just as Obama makes an appearance at Abdullah's funeral?

If you are wondering about the morality of a nation or the lack thereof...

Last year Austria's largest bank, Erste Bank, sent shudders of Credit Anstalt through the European Banking System. This year it is Austria's 3rd largest bank that is scaring investors senseless. On the heels of the Swiss National Bank's decision to un-peg from the Euro, Raiffeisen Bank's Swiss-Franc-Denominated mortgage worries have resurfaced (along with Russian/Ukraine writedowns) and nowhere is that more evident than the total collapse of the bank's bonds (from over 95c to 65c today). Even after the ECB Q€ (and some apparent intervention to weaken the Swissy) bonds kept free-falling. Perhaps, The Freedom Party's demands for a bailout will grow louder as the contagion concerns across Europe's banking system explode...

Kyle Bass would hold an economic summit every year at his ranch in East Texas. He would kick off the festivities by introducing his sniper friends.

"That'll teach them Russians" - oh wait... The kneejerk selling of Russian Rubles and stocks post-downgrade has almost entirely been erased and dip-buyers appear to be greatly rotating from US to Russian stocks today...

Draghi, we have a problem. EURUSD is back above 1.14 - having retraced over half the post-Q€ collapse. More troubling though - and the entire raison d'etre of Q€ (according to officials) - forward inflation expectations are now dramatically lower than pre Q€ levels...

Given that Russia perceives itself to be under financial and economic attack from the West, there is the possibility that they are accumulating more gold than they are declaring officially to the IMF.

De Nederlandsche Bank, the Dutch central bank has denied reports in Reuters, Bloomberg and picked up by GoldCore, that the bank had increased its gold holdings for the first time in sixteen years. IMF data had shown that the Dutch had increased their holdings to 622.08 tonnes.

The Dow is now down 360 points on the day - its biggest point drop in 19 months. Perhaps more notable is that since the End of QE3, The Dow is now down 0.4% - but the fundamentals we hear you cry...

You will pardon us if we don't "buy" the latest attempt by the Census Department to telegraph housing euphoria with the just reported number of 481K new December home sales, a surge of 11.6% compared to November, an increase which was expected by the consensus to be only  2.7%. In fact, the 481K print is now the "highest" since June of 2008. The reason for our disbelief? Because as we have been tracking for the past 6, and now 7 months, every single such euphoric print since May of 2014 has been revised substantially lower after the fact (and after the headline-scanning algos promptly gobbled up stocks on the initial "beat"), and sure enough, the November print of 438K, was also just "revised" downward to 431K.

Despite stagnant wages, surging jobless claims, and global geopolitical anxiety, US consumers have not been this exuberant since August 2007... a month before the great quant fund blow-up and the top of US equities... But it's different this time, we're got money-printing and low oil prices... right? Texas confidence plunged from 119.4 to 111.9 (led by a huige crash in expectations from 95.8 to 83.5). Finally, expectations for higher incomes in the next 6 months surged higher - almost at record levels of hope - despite the slump in hourly average earnings.

Just when you hoped the bad news was bad enough to warrant an uber-dovish Fed statement, Markit's US Services PMI prints 54.0, beating estimates of 53.8 and up from December's 53.0. After 6 months of dropping, January's preliminary data rose; however, as Markit notes, new business expansion fell to a post-recession low, “The 5.0% an nualised rate of GDP expansion in the third quarter certainly looks like a peaking in the pace of expansion, with the surveys pointing to 2.5% annualised growth at the start of the year."

Just released this morning, following last night's plunge in industrial profits, China's Leading Index continued its freefall to its lowest level since Jan 2009...

Why but bonds when you can buy stocks that earn a higher dividend? "it's the risk, stupid!" Microsoft is down around 10% this morning, the equivalent of almost 4 years of dividend gains... still wanna get "paid to wait."