Archive - Nov 26, 2010 - Story

RANsquawk European Morning Briefing - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 26/11/10

Just because the CME's hikes in all sorts of commodity margins were perfectly innocent and only had to do with "risk management" functions, we read with little surprise that China's Dalian Commodity and Shanghai Futures Exchanges are now also in the indirect price suppression, pardon, risk management business. Earlier reports confirm that both exchanges will hike margins on virtually every single commodity traded in China. This is likely the last stop gap measure before the central bank is forced to implement a rate hike and cool already near record inflation. As the CME's failed attempts to kill silver and gold price appreciation using margin pressure have so far done very little, we expect that the short-term impact of this move will wear off within a weak, at which point prices will resume their upward climb with a vengeance.

CLSA's Chris Wood has released his latest outlook on the world is out, and it is getting progressively gloomy: when even a banker says that he is "aghast" at the "grotesque" extent to which senior creditors are being bailed out left and right in Europe, one has to stop and wonder. Judging by the frequency of protests, even the most rudimentary levels of European society seem to be realizing that with each passing day it is they that are funding decades of greed and foolish, not to mention wrong, decision making on behalf of the kleptoklass. And as such each rescued country is one more straw on the camel's back of public patience, which will probably run out just as, or after, Spain is rescued, which should be within a few weeks, the reprieve for Europe's fantastically intertwined cross creditors is shortly running out. In terms of trades, Wood recommends shorting Europe with an emphasis on Spain. On the other hand, his pro Asian bias is still here, although with ever louder rumors of tightening out of China, even that has been curbed somewhat. Looking into 2011, the CLSA strategist sees increasing signs of weakness in the US, borne out of the muni space. Of course, should senior bondholders in Europe be impaired, the weakness will come far sooner due to the extremely interconnected nature of global financial balance sheet where a writedown for one will promptly trickle down via a domino-like effect into massive haircuts for all.