Archive - Jun 29, 2015

The faith in fiat currencies is faltering...

Despite the Greek stock market being closed there is an option for hedging the exposure that all the smart money has been building to Greece in the past few days - GREK - the US-trade Greek ETF. In the pre-open, GREK is trading down 17%. While the best efforts of the SNB are underway to protect the markets from unease, European banks are suffering the exact 'contagion' that we were told numerous times would be contained... led by limit down moves in Italy.

Global equities plunged on Monday as both carbon-based traders and HFTs tried in vain to keep their composure which watching in horror as Greece, the birthplace of Western civilization, quickly became Venezuela. With Europe’s “Lehman weekend” now in the books and as the currency union stares into an uncertain future, the sell side tries to make sense of it all.

While things have normalized since the open thanks entirely to the SNB's aggressive EUR-buying, CHF-selling intervention (good to see that central banks have read the BIS' report and have learned from their prior intervention mistakes), earlier this morning we got a snapshot of what happens if and when the SNB, and then the ECB itself, finally lose control when as a result of the Greek crisis the contagion promptly spread a few hundred kilometers west to Italy where as the WSJ reported, "several Italian banks failed to start trading on Monday as fears over a Greek debt default induced many investors to shed peripheral stocks, including Italian, with banks suffering the most."

• China’s Stocks Enter Bear Market as Rate Cut Fails to Stop Rout (BBG)
• Stocks Tumble Around the World on Greek Crisis (WSJ)
• Some say back to the drachma for a Greek reboot (Reuters)
• Greece Imposes Capital Controls as Fears of Grexit Grow (BBG)
• Panic Sets in Among Hardy Hedge Fund Investors Remaining in Greece (NYT)
• Euro off Greece-driven lows after SNB intervenes (Reuters)
• Western Union to close in Greece for rest of week (Reuters)
• European banks, bonds shaken by Greek turmoil (Reuters)

It appears Greece matters after all - US futures are tumbling, Japanese stocks are tanking (as JPY is bid on mass carry unwinds), Chinese stocks are limit down and collapsing.. and now European equity futures are open and in free-fall. Bunds are well bid, down 20bps to 72bps. Peripheral bonds are being dumped (contagiously).

*EURO STOXX 50 FUTURES FALL 7% AT MARKET OPEN
*ITALIAN BONDS DECLINE WITH 10-YEAR YIELD RISING 57 BPS TO 2.72%