Archive - Mar 23, 2015

As the chart below shows, there very dramatic, and very glaring discrepancy between what BofA started experiencing one year ago (when we first noted it) when it comes to loan creation, and what the Fed represents every Friday in its weekly H.8 statement, has never been greater!

Careful to follow the status quo's meme, Fed vice-Chair Stanley Fischer just uttered the following...

FISCHER SAYS DOLLAR'S RISE ALSO REFLECTS RELATIVE U.S. STRENGTH

Which is odd because a) Jim Bullard said this morning that it was ECB QE that was responsible for the strong dollar; and b) US growth expectations have collapsed as the USD soared. Don't show him this chart...

*FISCHER SAYS RATE LIFTOFF LIKELY WARRANTED BEFORE END-2015

With the world now convinmced that Janet Yellen is as dovish as she has ever been on rate hikes, today comes the first post-FOMC speech. None other than Vice-chair Stanley Fischer is due to address The Economic Club of New York on the topic of "Monetary-policy lessons and the way ahead." As Art Cashin warned this morning, Fischer "seems to feel that the Fed must raise rates this year. He is also the only Fed official to concede that any rate hike will be different than any seen before."

The US Dollar took down Oil, commodities, even emerging market currencies. Stocks will be next. The first REAL sign that the 2008 Crash was coming occurred when the US Dollar began to skyrocket in the summer of 2008.

A shift in the mutual fund industry's stance towards grossly overvalued private tech startups may be embedding risk into the retirement accounts of unsuspecting Americans, suggesting that the rather creative valuations VCs and founders place on the latest app may be imperiling your 401k. It's called "chasing unicorns."

It has not been a good week for Spain's embattled Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Following what Bloomberg calls "its worst election result in 25 years," in Andalusia (the nation's most populous region); the corruption scandals re-rear their ugly head:

*SPAIN RULING PEOPLE'S PARTY MAY HAVE HAD SECRET ACCOUNTS; COURT SEES POSSIBLE TAX FRAUD BY COUNTRY'S RULING PARTY

Spanish bond risk widened 4-5bps on the day as both events confirm the rise of anti-EU parties Podemos and Ciudadanos.

Can stocks keep hitting new highs even as sales and profits fall?

Greece – faced with illiquidity, insolvency and a potential banking collapse – is running out of time and appears to be on the back foot as its international creditors refuse to countenance any debt restructuring, rescheduling or forgiveness.

We often hear various Fed officials described as hawks or doves but Janet Yellen’s Fed brings to mind another avian metaphor. They are afraid to raise rates for fear that doing so would upset the asset market inflation process and derail what is left of their theory. In her press conference last week Yellen said that stock market valuations were on the high side of historical norms, an appellation that only works if one includes the stock bubble of the late 90s. It seems that she and the other members of the FOMC have decided that another epic stock market bubble is better than admitting they were wrong. This FOMC doesn’t have any hawks or doves, only chickens.

Following January's disastrous dive in Existing Home Sales (which must be weather, right? Nope!) to a SAAR 4.82 million homes, February (with its even worse weather) saw a 4th month of missed expectations with a 4.88mm print against 4.90 mm expectations. As always, weather was blamed - which is odd given that the only drop in sales that occurred happened in The Northeast which accounts for just 12% of total transactions. Perhaps more worrisome is NAR's Larry Yun noting  "unsuitable price levels" as a reason for weak sales due to low inventories (despite inventories rising 1.6% in February?!). May be it's time to blame The Fed... for not creating more rich people to buy more houses...

Gilead is, by far, the largest income producer in the Nasdaq Biotech Index and today's warning from the Biotech behemoth which has dragged the stock down 2.8% this morning, is weighing heavily on the exponentially-expanding index. As Bloomberg reports, GILD said nine patients taking its hepatitis C drugs Harvoni or Sovaldi along with the heart treatment amiodarone developed abnormally slow heartbeats and one died of cardiac arrest. Now, of course, it's "just" 9 patients... so analysts will spin the diversification. The Nasdaq Biotech Index now trades with a P/E of 50x, with over 80% of the entire sector's earnings concentrated in just 5 companies... and the biggest of all just warned on the drugs that make up half its revenues!

Content to continue the beating...

The hunt for yield is driving investors into riskier debt at just the wrong time. With liquidity in the corporate bond market drying up thanks to new regulations, the rush to the exit is likely to be "very unpleasant," one analyst says.