Archive - Jun 2, 2015

May was a banner month for car sales and it's easy to see why. Nearly every conceivable metric for financing hit a record in Q1 according to Experian, including average loan term and average amount financed, suggesting the trillion-dollar US auto loan market has officially hit bubble territory. Meanwhile, the "cash out auto loan" is the new home equity loan.

What do "everyday Americans" do for a living compared to "average Joes"?

 Most large financial entities are insolvent. As a result, if a significant amount of digital money is converted into actual physical cash, the firm would very quickly implode.

Reports indicate that the regime is making air-strikes in support of #ISIL's advance on #Aleppo, aiding extremists against Syrian population

— U.S. Embassy Syria (@USEmbassySyria) June 1, 2015

By accepting the story as told without regard to integrity of truth we have allowed ourselves to become feed for those controlling the story and thus the system. As the charts above clearly depict we have two distinct economic states. One is perceived and the other is real. The perceived state gets sole attention allowing the economic cannibalism to continue and draws us further out to the middle of the lake. And as the ice disappeared so quickly not yet 7 years ago it will again reveal itself only a perception created by policymakers for sycophants so willing to feast and profit on the rest of us and, perhaps more startling, on their own future well being.

Just when everyone thought it was fixed, crude inventories start building again as API reports (for the 2nd week):

*API SAID TO REPORT CRUDE SUPPLIES ROSE 1.8M BBL LAST WEEK

This follows a surprising 1.3 million barrel build last week reporrted by API. WTI slipped back to $61.00 after hours...

While one should remain skeptical of just exactly what will happen, the Senate voted in the majority on Tuesday in favor of the USA Freedom Act, adopting the same version of the bill that had overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives last month by 338-88. The USA Freedom Act (theoretically) ends the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata, it allows that information to be stored instead by telecommunications providers, which could then be accessed by intelligence agencies with a warrant. While sold as reigning in the agency’s surveillance powers, the bill allows the NSA to resume collecting intelligence... Realistically it appears nothing more than a great PR effort to bury the spy state even deeper

What Wikileaks is doing would be utterly meaningless and unnecessary in any representative democracy. However, in a oligarchic corporatocracy such as the US, it is of critical importance.

Greece has received what The New York Times recently described as “dueling sales pitches” on two proposed natural gas pipelines, with the US pressing Athens to support The Southern Gas Corridor rather than Gazprom's Turkish Stream project. It appears Moscow may have made the more convincing case because, much to Washington's dismay, Greece is set to sign an MOU for the Greek portion of The Turkish Stream pipeline in June.

There are many half-truths perpetrated on individuals by Wall Street to sell product, gain assets, etc. However, if individuals took a moment to think about it, the illogic of many of these arguments are readily apparent...

Sense of desperation among CEOs?

The scandal-surrounded, junk-rated, state-managed Brazilian oil producer Petrobras managed to successfully issue a $2.5 billion notional 100-year bond yesterday. Mainstream media is cock-a-hoop over the fact that the 'market' seemed to soak this bond up so easily and at a yield of 8.45% (which was 20-30bps below guidance) amid an order book apparently up to asround $10 billion. However, for those with some math skills, the truth is that it cost Petrobras around $380 million more than market-implied levels to successfully launch the bond (and so it should).

If U.S. equities feel brittle, they should. Yes, central bank liquidity from Japan and Europe may well push global equity markets higher.  But what we really need is a pullback – that classic 10% correction that flushes out weak hands, reestablishes the discipline of “Risk” in the “Risk-Return” equation, and shows capital markets how to do more than just follow central bank liquidity.  So watch June’s price action in U.S. stocks very carefully, because this process needs to start now.  The bull market that began in March 2009 is now an ancient bovine indeed.  After all, better 10% now than 20% or more later in the year.  The first is inconvenient.  The second is unwelcomed.

As EURUSD surges towards 1.1200 once again, we note that it is now 300 pips stronger than 24 hours ago. This is the 2nd biggest collapse in the USD since March 2009... Treasuries and Bunds are getting monkey-hammered... and US stocks just want higher (as Dax slides)...