Archive - Dec 2009 - Story

RANsquawk 21st December Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX

If you have a hedge fund in dire need of some managed account TLC, call this man (and get ready for daily multi-hour explanations on why you put "this or that" trade to people who have yet to complete remedial math); if you have a strategy to front run mutual funds which may or may not end amicably with the SEC in the form of a few hundred dollar settlement, call this man; if you are in the market for some barely occupied property at 740 park, call this man; If you are a CDS trader with special Deutsche Bank sales coverage connections, call this man; if you work for RenTec and feel like borrowing some of their strategies and making a mint, call this man (by the time you get the non-compete subpoena you will be sitting on a beach, earning 20%).

All you need to know about the man who heads the big quant shop, er pardon hedge fund, at the soon to be bankrupt 666 Fifth.

RANsquawk 21st December Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc.

Just as the year end onslaught on the dollar was spearheaded to a climax by Blankfein's minions, so did Europe finally decide to convulse under an unbearable lead of ridiculous mispriced "assets" and vomited up a whole load of troubling financial data, which spread from Greece to Austria to Ireland, setting sovereign CDS to multi month highs. Obviously, this did not help the weak dollar case and cost GS traders a few hundred million.

Last Friday we were stopped out of two tactical trades, long EUR/$ for a potential loss of 1.8% and long GBP/$ for a potential loss of 1.1%. - Goldman Sachs

With Spyker Cars in continued negotiations to buy the sob story that has been Saab, I thought I'd enlighten the Zero Hedge readers of what a Spyker is, for especially for us Americans, we've never seen the likes of a Spyker, at least not in the mainstream anyway. Come to think of it- we couldn't make a go of Saab either, General Motors having successfully run it into the ground; so why should we care what happens to Saab? Because it's a decent car with an excellent heritage- a Swedish car company worth saving- if only to continue a car mounting the ignition switches on the floor, between the front seats. As for Spyker, well, quirk attracts quirk.

• GM is reportedly looking at "all offers" for Saab. (Apparently only unrealistic offers have been entertained hitherto). [dow jones]
• Dutch automaker Spyker: "Hey, we'll bid."  GM: "Anyone... anyone at all?  Bueller...?  Bueller...?" [marketwatch]
• China's Zhu Min: "The world does not have so much money to buy more US Treasuries." (Current account woes. Who knew?) [shanghi daily via drudge]
• Iranian troops lower flag and withdraw from Iraqi claimed oil well. (Iranian theft of U.S. egg nog shipment to troops suspected).  [reuters]
• In Russia, judo throws you.  (Do not fuck with judo black belt Putin.  Period.)  [reuters]

Over 40 years ago, mainstream America got their first glimpse of an Alfa Romeo- the Spider. The Alfa Spider was that of Benjamin Braddock, the newly minted college graduate in the now classic film The Graduate. Small, shiny, raspy and red, it was arguably the film’s most outspoken star, in a cast of characters including Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft. But now a new Spider is ashore, will it re-kindle the romance? The 2010 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider. Will it leave America asking- are you trying to seduce me?

In the time before Bernanke, long-ago, investors cared about such arcana as cash flow statements, balance sheet (and even income statement before GAAP decided to play dead and allow companies, especially banks, to single-handedly determine what Earnings are). In this analysis, we highlight several cautionary trends that have emerged in the cumulative balance sheet of S&P 500 companies over the recent turbulent period. Our preliminary observations: even as balance sheet leverage has continued climbing, the assets of S&P 500 companies continue generating less and less cash flow, which begs the question: where will the next "efficiency paradigm" come from? And when.

Your 5 minute summary of the past week's market trends and key stock activity.

What?  Tired of the in-laws already?  What are you talking about?  With the massive, climate change induced winter storm bearing down on the East, they haven't even arrived yet.  (Maybe this global warming thing is a net positive utility delta after all).  Well, Radio Zero is here for you (as long as the fiber stays up in the storm).

Listen here: http://72.13.86.66:8000/listen.pls thanks to the mind-blowing generosity of EGI Hosting.

5 more banks and $1.38 billion more into the red for the FDIC. That makes 138 so far, and a good start to Failure Friday.

Obama emerges triumphantly from negotiations in Copenhagen having secured a 2 degree cap on world temperature.  Of course, this implies a sea level increase limit of seven to nine meters.  Having successfully commanded the tide to remain out, Obama and the United Nations have broken new ground in assuring climate status quo through international agreement.  (Oh, and several programs directed at the mass redistribution of wealth to non-democratic kleptocracies were also outlined in the lobby during intermission cocktails).

Even though we presented Don Coxe's report in full earlier, we wanted to recapitulate his thoughts on gold, as we believe they deserve a post of their own. With gold having become, as we expected more than half a year ago, the most discussed and volatile asset class to accompany the latest Fed inflated bubble, Coxe's view is a welcome addition to other such notable perspectives from the likes of Jim Grant, David Rosenberg, Dylan Grice, Goldman Sachs and many others.

"In a world in which nearly all paper money has problems, and in which the sheer supply of paper money is expanding far faster than global GDP, gold has its best claim as a constituent of foreign exchange reserves since Bretton Woods booted it out sixty-five years ago." - Don Coxe

A week ago we posed several questions to Goldman managing directors Lucas van Praag and David Viniar. Earlier today we received a broad response. We present it in its entirety for our readers. We will provide our counter-response shortly.

Wait, wasn't RMBS supposed to be safe now that it is all on the taxpayer's balance sheet? Moody's just said no, and put 4474 jumbo RMBS tranches on downgrade review. Furthermore, the firm raised its loss estimates as follows: 3.8% for 2005 securitizations, 8.0% for 2006 securitizations, 10.9% for 2007 securitizations and 12.3% for 2008 securitizations.