Archive - Jul 6, 2015

Problems... "solved"

April 10th 2014 will live on as a day of infamy as hopes of Greece's 'recovery' were proven 'correct' as it issued a 5Y bond in the public markets in what some commentators called a "triumphant return." As recently as last Friday that bond still traded at aroun 70c on the dollar (a 300% collapse from the issue price) but for all those who stuck to their guns and denied-denied-denied reality, today's collapse shows that a 'No' vote was anything but priced in...

Greece is not the real issue for Europe. The entire Greek debt market is about €345 billion in size. So we’re not talking about a massive amount of collateral… though the turmoil this country has caused in the last three years gives a sense of the importance of the issue.

The Fed understands that economic cycles do not last forever, and we are closer to the next recession than not. While raising rates would likely accelerate a potential recession and a significant market correction, from the Fed's perspective it might be the 'lesser of two evils. Being caught at the "zero bound" at the onset of a recession leaves few options for the Federal Reserve to stabilize an economic decline. The problem is that they may have missed their window to get there.

Wondering who was buying the market with both hands and feet this morning? Questioning the rationality of sucvh voracious dip-buyers? We have the answer to 'how' the market soared to Friday's highs...

While the folks clogging the US tattoo parlors may not have noticed, things are beginning to look a little World War one-ish out there. Except the current blossoming world conflict is being fought not with massed troops and tanks but with interest rates and repayment schedules. Germany now dawdles in reply to the gauntlet slammed down Sunday in the Greek referendum (hell) “no” vote. Germany’s immediate strategy, it appears, is to apply some good old fashioned Teutonic todesfurcht — let the Greeks simmer in their own juices for a few days while depositors suck the dwindling cash reserves from the banks and the grocery store shelves empty out. Then what? Nobody knows. And anything can happen.

Should markets fret, and ECB action becomes necessary then we think the markets will price ECB action well before highly stressed levels. If we for instance take it view of the monetary policy stance impact seriously then market moves that take real yields to levels that persisted before the ECB started easing policy (negative rates started in Jun 2014) may be a trigger point.

Spain has over $1.0 trillion in debt outstanding… and Italy has €2.6 trillion. These bonds are backstopping tens of trillions of Euros’ worth of derivatives trades. A haircut on them would trigger systemic failure in Europe.

Confidence and trust in the government’s negotiating stance is one thing, but suffering through a depositor haircut is quite another and with a Greek bail-in looking increasingly likely by the day, we thought it an opportune time to recap the Cyprus experience.

Earlier today we commented that while stock markets across the globe, heavily influenced by central bank intervention from the PBOC to the SNB, are doing everything in the central planners' power to telegraph just how irrelevant Greece is, other indicators are far less sanguine. One example was copper, which plunged to a level not seen since February, and was in danger of breaching its 15 year support level. The commodity weakness today has persisted and is now crushing both WTI crude and Brent, both of which are in freefall, and WTI is now down over $3 on the session, or 6%, to a $53 handle, the biggest one day plunge since February to a level last seen in early April when there was much hope that the dramatic plunge in December and January was finally over. Turns out it wasn't.

Run for cover!

"My concern is not just that markets are mis-pricing Greece contagion, mis-pricing deflation, mis-pricing street liquidity and mis-pricing the (now negative) trend in corporate (US) revenues and earnings (Q2 earnings season is upon us and may well show year-over-year earnings down 5%/5%+). My concerns are also that markets are way too optimistic about global growth (especially the US), about China, about the ability of policymakers to do anything new and/or effective to alter things meaningfully to the upside,"

Now that Yanis Varoufakis has metamorphosed from economist academic to controversial finance minister to political martyr, the eyes of the financial universe will turn nervously to newly-appointed Euclid Tsakalotos, who has led Greece’s negotiations with creditors since Varoufakis was sidelined after making a scene at an April Eurogroup meeting in Riga.