Archive - May 6, 2015

Back in July 2007 Citi's then CEO Chuck Prince, a little over a year before his bank received a gargantuan government bailout said "as long as the music is playing, you've got to get up and dance." Moments ago Janet Yellen just killed the music: YELLEN SAYS EQUITY MARKET VALUATIONS QUITE HIGH

Or, paraphrased, the $4.5 trillion balance sheet the US created, and the $22 trillion in assets purchased by global central banks to keep the dream alive, has lead to "quite high" stock prices.

With the crucial May 12th €774mm Greek IMF payment looming (and thus even more critical May 11th deadline for the Eurogroup's decision to release around €7bn in additional funds to Greece), the much-discussed 'splintering' of the Troika (The Institutions as the Greeks would prefer we describe them) appears to be gradually un-splintering. Today's statement from the EU talks that the members of the Troika "share the same objective" may reassure some after the 'limbo' of serious disagreements between the European Commission and The IMF. However, with various 'red lines' remaining unaddressed, EU sources say a deal on Monday is not possible.

For the chartists out there (and these days that would mean pretty much all momentum-igniting algos who are the only ones left trading these here "markets") the following note from SocGen explaining why if/when the 10Y selloff rises above 2.32% it may be a time to panic (and vice versa) is quite relevant now that the 10Y is just a few basis points away.

"My entire Presidency has been about helping working families."--Our Savior

Easy come (print), easy go! A trillion here... a trillion there... Sooner or later we're talking some real money!

Exactly two months after the latest Warren Buffett-owned BNSF train derailed near the spot where the Galena river meets the Mississippi, resulting in a huge fire and the evacuation of all homes in a one mile radius, moments ago another of Buffett's BNSF oil trains derailed, this time near the town of Heimdal, North Dakota, resulting in the same outcome.

Confirming last night's API inventory data, DOE just reported a 3.882 million barrel drawdown in total crude inventories (considerably more than the 1.5mm bbbl draw expected). This is the biggest draw since early September. The initial spike took WTI Crude prices above $62.50 but that is fading now...

Here is more insight to the recent USD rally... And why nothing looks like it seems!

Paging Mario Draghi... This was not supposed to happen!!

Liquidity is plentiful when you don't care about it and scarce when you need it most

It's deja vu all over again...who are 'they' going to blame for this one?

Greece is set to introduce a surcharge on withdrawals and financial transactions in an effort to raise cash amid fractious negotiations with creditors. Meanwhile, the ECB is considering measures that will tighten the screws on the country's cash-strapped banking sector.

While the rest of the world, or at least 1% of it, is enjoying the ongoing "wealth effect" propping up the increasingly more rickety "markets" built on the backs of $22 trillion in central bank assets, or more than the GDP of the US and Japan combined, earlier today Nav was fighting if not for his life then certainly his freedom when he told a London court he had done nothing wrong, the Flash Crash was not his fault, and was just good at his job. "I've not done anything wrong apart from being good at my job. How is this allowed to go on, man?" Sarao said at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

California water regulators are getting worried. The state has now approved a set of sweeping conservation measures designed to cut water consuption by up to 36% in some areas to combat a severe drought that has now killed some 12 million trees and threatens to turn California into a modern day Dust Bowl.

The only thing that is of any interest when you say the word Qatar is the fact that the French have just struck a $7 billion deal for the sale of 24 Dassault Rafale fighter jets.