Archive - May 18, 2015

Over the years many have wondered how it was possible that a hedge fund could exist that did nothing more than ride momentum and heatmaps higher or lower without almost any insight into the fundamentals of the underlying corporations. That hedge funds, of course, is John A. Thaler's JAT Capital, which did nothing but buy the most talked about, "storied" momo stocks and ride them higher. Or lower, as the case may be. Because the hedge fund which only managed $3.7 billion as of March 31 just because it was a Tiger Management spin off, is no more.

The World Platinum Council do not believe that platinum stocks will be completely depleted and reach zero because the amount includes long term holdings by private investors, sovereign wealth funds and hedge funds. It said that stocks typically held in vaults, excludes ETFs.

• Tsipras Endgame Nears as Greek Bank Collateral Evaporates (BBG)
• Shi'ite forces ordered to deploy after fall of Iraqi city (Reuters)
• Ratings agency Fitch to downgrade many European banks (Reuters)
• Bubble Blowing to Continue So Long as Yellen Isn’t Raising Rates (BBG)
• Greece's Debt Battle Exposes Deeper Eurozone Flaws (WSJ)
• Obama to set new limits on police use of military equipment (Reuters)
• China April home prices fuel hopes of bottoming out, but long road to recovery (Reuters)
• Hedge Funds Close Doors, Facing Low Returns and Investor Scrutiny (NYT)
• ASIC's Greg Medcraft 'quite worried' about Sydney, Melbourne house prices (Fin Review)

With equities having long ago stopped reflecting fundamentals, and certainly the Eurozone's ever more dire newsflow where any day could be Greece's last in the doomed monetary union, it was up to gold to reflect that headlines out of Athens are going from bad to worse, with Bloomberg reporting that not only are Greek banks running low on collateral, both for ELA and any other purposes, that Greece would have no choice but to leave the Euro upon a default and that, as reported previously, Greece would not have made its May 12 payment had it not been for using the IMF's own reserves as a source of funding and that the IMF now sees June 5 as Greece's ever more fluid D-day. As a result gold jumped above $1230 overnight, a level last seen in February even as the Dollar index was higher by 0.5% at last check thanks to a drop in the EUR and the JPY.

There's little interest, forcing retirees to spend down their principal. It's no accident, as Keynes called for the “euthanasia of the rentier.” Fed Chair Yellen is a New Keynesian.