Archive - Aug 11, 2015

The ratio of wholesale inventories-to-sales pushed back up to 1.3 - its highest since the recession and is flashing an enormous red flag for an imminent recesion in America, with the automOtive industry the biggest factor in this. A bigger-than-expeted 0.9% surge in inventories (biggest since April 2014) was accompanied by a considerably slower than expected 0.1% growth in sales (weakest since March) suggest that 'field of dreams' corporate planning remains in place. Most crucially, as The Atlanta Fed warns, "lower inventory investment will subtract 1.7ppt from Q3 real GDP growth." The higher Q2 'build' the worst Q3 will be - though we are sure economists will extrapolate Q2 growth no matter what...

"Oops." On the heels of a lackluster performance in the "losers" bracket of the first GOP primary debate last week, Rick Perry has reportedly stopped paying staffers in what may be the beginning of the end for the former Texas governor's second run at The White House.

US equity markets have given up almost all of yesterday's irrational exuberance ramp gains in a perfect echo of last week's Wednesday/Thursday debacle. Bond yields are plunging - also retracing all of yesterday's losses (with 2Y -5bps since Friday now). Europe is suffering most as EUR strengthens (as it was the most popular carry trade against China), driving USD weakness and sending European stocks lower (DAX is dumping almost 3%). And finally commodities are seeing Crude and copper crushed as PMs bounce...

In this financialized hall of mirrors, narcissism replaces identity and the authentic self is rendered incoherent.

Instead of an exuberant 6.7% surge in Q1 unit labor costs, heralded by any and all mainstream economists and talking heads as proof that long-awaited wage growth is here, the historical revision slashes it to a mere 2.3% increase, which followed by Q2's dismal 0.5% increase - the weakest since Q3 2014, suggests wage growth in America is anything but robust. Nonfarm productivity also missed expectations, rising just 1.3% QoQ, a verymodest rebound after two quarters of declines.

As we first warned in March, and as became abundantly clear over the weekend Beijing had no choice but to join the global currency wars, as the yuan's dollar peg will ultimately prove to be too painful going forward. And sure enough this evening the PBOC weakens the Yuan fix by the most on record. 

The entire US Treasury complex has seen yields plunge following last night's "surprise-that-everyone-except-Wall-Street-economists-saw-coming" Yuan devaluation. While there are numerous factors driving the rally in bonds, RanSquawk notes two crucial ones... that will likely persist...

There is much stunned confusion among Wall Street's "best and brightest" following China's historic Yuan devaluation overnight which was predicted by exactly zero of said best and brightest, just like nobody expected the SNB to give up its own peg to the EUR in January.

After what were described as "marathon" negotiations, Greece and its creditors have agreed to the terms of the country’s third bailout program. Although some remain optimistic, the general consensus seems to be that, as Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini said over the weekend, "we should just admit that this isn't going to work."

• China Rattles Markets With Yuan Devaluation (BBG)
• China Move Sparks Wave of Yuan Selling (WSJ)
• China's devaluation raises currency war fear as Greece strikes deal (Reuters)
• Protests return to Ferguson streets, state of emergency declared (Reuters)
• Heavily armed 'Oath Keepers' inject new unease to riot-hit Ferguson (Reuters)
• Greece Secures Bailout Deal After All-Night Talks in Athens (BBG)
• U.S. Identifies Insider Trading Ring With Ukraine Hackers (BBG)

At this point, you can crowdfund just about anything. Campaigns to raise funds for medical bills, student loans, movies, new inventions, and startup capital have sprung up from all over the world, which led the crowdfunding industry to generate $16.2 billion globally last year in funding transactions. A new trend is emerging within the industry – platforms designed solely for litigation crowdfunding.

If yesterday it was the turn of the upside stop hunting algos to crush anyone who was even modestly bearishly positioned in what ended up being the biggest short squeeze of 2015, then today it is the downside trailing stops that are about to be taken out in what remains the most vicious rangebound market in years, in the aftermath of the Chinese currency devaluation which weakened the CNY reference rate against the USD by the most on record, in what some have said was an attempt by China to spark its flailing SDR inclusion chances, but what was really a long overdue reaction by an exporter country having pegged to the strongest currency in the world in the past year.

Almost exactly seven months ago, on January 15, the Swiss National Bank shocked the world when it admitted defeat in a long-standing war to keep the Swiss Franc artificially weak, and after a desperate 3 year-long gamble, which included loading up the SNB's balance sheet with enough EUR-denominated garbage to almost equal the Swiss GDP, it finally gave up and on one cold, shocking January morning the EURCHF imploded, crushing countless carry-trade surfers. Fast forward to the morning of August 11 when in a virtually identical stunner, the PBOC itself admitted defeat in the currency battle, only unlike the SNB, the Chinese central bank had struggled to keep the Yuan propped up, at the cost of nearly $1 billion in daily foreign reserve outflows, which as this website noted first months ago, also included the dumping of a record amount of US government treasurys. 

After initially tumbling for some inexplicable reason after the PBOC announcement, gold is now soaring back to levels from mid-July and going higher.