Archive - Jul 2015

There has now been an unprecedented 31 consecutive months of CAT retail sales declines. This compares to "only" 19 during the near systemic collapse in 2008.  In other words, if global demand for heavy industrial machinery, as opposed to unemployed millennials' demands for $0.99 Apple apps, is any indication of the true underlying economy, forget recession: the world is now in a second great depression which is getting worse by the month.

All eyes may be on Greece right now, but in reality, the economic malaise is widespread across the continent.  It’s clear that Greece is not the problem. It’s a symptom of the problem. The real problem is that every one of these nations has violated the universal law of prosperity: produce more than you consume. This is the way it works in nature, and for individuals.

According to China Daily, the "recent overweighting to stem A-share plunge has made China Securities Finance Corp (CSF), central bank-backed refinancing institution, among top 10 shareholders of many listed-firms, reported Securities Times on Wednesday."

Some know it as one of the longest running Las Vegas pre-bankruptcy dramas. But what Caesars Entertainment really is, is the biggest hedge fund hotel in "special situation" history: with "investors" such as Paulson, Omega, Canyon, Soros, JMB, Scoggin, Och Ziff and many others, this is quite literally the who is who of biggest and baddest US hedge funds.

When we noted the stock market’s weak internals yesterday, we weren’t sure if things could get any worse – and by how much – with the major averages still able to hold near 52-week highs. Well, the answers were “yes” and “a lot”... yesterday, July 20, 2015, was the thinnest new high on record in the U.S. stock market.

The UK has dropped an investigation into a Swiss OTC products broker which allegedly won business from the Ghadafi regime by hosting "no sperm left zone" parties in Morocco. The reason the case was dropped: the firm determined that "the benefits of a successful prosecution will be outweighed by the damage which will be done to it in the course of a prosecution." 

As the NYMEX close approached, front-month WTI Crude futures slumped towards a $48 handle - the lowest since early March, having firmly rejected the algo-driven rip after this morning's inventory build and tiny production cut...

Why are commodity prices, including oil prices, lagging? Ultimately, it comes back to the question, “Why isn’t the world economy making very many of the end products that use these commodities?” If workers were getting rich enough to buy new homes and cars, demand for these products would be raising the prices of commodities used to build and operate cars, including the price of oil. If governments were rich enough to build an increasing number of roads and more public housing, there would be demand for the commodities used to build roads and public housing. It looks to me as though we are heading into a deflationary depression, because prices of commodities are falling below the cost of extraction. We need rapidly rising wages and debt if commodity prices are to rise back to 2011 levels or higher. This isn’t happening.

We always keep a weather eye on the state of retail investing in the U.S.  There is, of course, the old saw that this batch of buyers doesn’t get involved until the top; therefore, it makes sense to see if they are getting too “Bulled up”. Then there is the fact that retail “Cult” stocks can hold premium valuations far longer than those without such sponsorship.

"in the 1990s, subprime borrowers typically were offered four-year car loans... Now, the standard is six years, partly because wages haven’t kept up with vehicle prices... I think that’s a good thing,... Unfortunately it seems to be painted as something bad, and I’m not sure why.”

Apple is expected to be the largest contributor to earnings growth for the Information Technology sector for Q2 2015. The blended earnings growth rate (combines actual results for companies that have reported and estimated results for companies yet to report) for the Information Technology sector is 0.2%. Exclude Apple, and the sector would report a year-over-year decline in earnings of 6.0%.

A major bear market truly has started, and we're going to see the fraud from the past six years unwind in a glorious, albeit inconsistent, fashion.

Despite the absence of bad weather, good weather, port strikes, and snow, The National Retail Federation today slashed its retail sales forecast for 2015 from 4.1% growth to just 3.5%. Sales grew at a 2.9% pace in the first half of 2015 and hope remains that the next 5 months show growth of 3.7% (with same store sales growth revised lower). The excuse reason for this markdown..."spending has been hampered by lackluster growth in our economy. Much of that blame can be shifted to Washington where too much time has been spent crafting rules and regulations that almost guarantee negative consequences for consumers and American businesses alike."

The US Treasury sold $25 billion of one-year T-bills at an interest rate of 33bps yesterday, the highest since June 2010. It appears the short-end of the yield curve is increasingly pricing in 'liftoff' sooner rather than later (and the long-end is responding by rallying - lower in yield - as medium term growth expectations fade) but it raises significant questions about the economic trajectory after the hike (and the ebbing confidence in The Fed).