Archive - Jan 21, 2011 - Story

At midnight I took down the servers for approximately 54 minutes to do some delicate work on the database. If anyone sees any errors over the weekend, I urge you to email me at my username @ zerohedge.org.

After in the past week, the blogosphere had been hobbled by one after another mindless oped claiming that the US can easily avoid default by just paying the interest on its obligations, and thus does not have to worry about the debt ceiling, we decided to put some sense to this debate when we pointed out that the "US Debt-to-Deficit Difference Hits Fresh Record, As Treasury Continues To Issue 50% More Debt Than Needed To Fund Deficit" meaning that i) it is not a debt ceiling, it is a debt target (© Lizzie363), and ii) the hundreds of billions of monthly obligations that are funded through debt, are "legal" obligations of the US government that have to be paid in full every month or a default will occur regardless. Neal Wolin, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, has just released a statement on the Treasury's blog saying pretty much just that. Which, however is certainly not a good thing, as it merely confirms just how totally screwed this country is, and that absent a hike in the ceiling to $15.5 trillion (which we believe is where the debt ceiling will be through March of 2012 when it will be raised to $17 trillion), the dollar will be backed by several trillion in insolvent Federal Reserve Notes, er, assets (that should quickly end all debate about EUR-USD parity). It also confirms that Bernanke has no choice but to continue monetizing debt, through QE and to do that, he needs to make it palatable to the general public, which in turn will mean either a material economic deterioration, or, as the two are apparently identical in the Chairbeast's mind, the Russell 2000.

Lately the biggest action in stocks is coming not out of the US, where the 4 month old melt up is on its last fumes, but out of China, where the marginal liquidity has now dried up, leading to such explosions of concern as 7 day SHIBOR going asymptotic (a topic discussed earlier). Some readers have expressed a concern as to just how credible RRR and interest rate hike actions are as relating to the performance of the Chinese stock market. Well, a look at the recent action in the SHCOMP for one should serve as a good basis for a starting opinion. A far better one, and stretching back a decade, was recently conducted by Nomura, which presents the following must see chart which shows how toothless the PBoC is when it has to deal with already latent massive liquidity excess. Specifically, during the 2006-2007 bull market, the PBOC had to hike interest rates 7 times in a row, and increase the RRR over 10 times before the market topped out in late 2007. Which begs the question: just how impotent is the PBoC in sequestering excess liquidity (remember: Bernanke can do it in 15 minutes), and are its tangential actions of boosting liquidity far more relevant when it comes to the MSCI China Index? Last but not least, the PBoC can merely control domestic liquidity directly: it is well known that foreign inflows into China refuse to abate. It is precisely this that the Chinese central bank should be (and probably is) dead set on intercepting if it wants to prevent food price riots (recall our prediction for a rice bubble).

With Goldman's economic team having been subsumed by the Koolaid borg, lately we have been largely ignoring their once must read critical pieces, as the all out onslaught to prevent the ponzi collapse was started in November (we expect Hatzius to pull another 180 in April, just ahead of the May market crash which will lead right into QE 2+, but that is another story). This is a shame, because the team of Hatzius et al used to have insightful things to say. Alas, now all they do is cheerlead every single data point no matter how superficial or ugly the behind the headlines story is. Which is why we were pleasantly surprised to read the following research report by Goldman's Robin Brooks which discussed the consequence of the now seemingly inevitable tax holiday allowing multinationals to repatriate their cash without paying taxes. Following Obama's latest Wall Street corporatocratic hiring spree, we are now convinced that it is merely a matter of months if not weeks before this is announced. As such it will be a replay of the Homeland Investment Act of 2005. Oddly, this event has not be actively priced by the market. Goldman is correct that in all likelihood this will have a very dollar positive result, which likely explains precisely why the dollar has been allowed to drop so much against the euro, as the next leg will likely push the greenback well into the 1.20 range, if not lower. That this will happen just as the second round of European stress tests will only feed the flames of the EUR's collapse. The below piece examines Goldman's thinking of how this event will influence the EURUSD. Goldman, which is very client bullish on the EURUSD (and is therefore selling selling EURs in droves) states that it believes the likelihood of a HIA part 2 is very small, even as it frames the major strength the dollar would experience as a result. We agree with the latter and disagree with the former: one way or another, the Obama administration will need to get the $1+ trillion currently offshore. When that happens, watch as the EURUSD plunges to multi-year lows.

The markets are already pricing in the near certainty of a quarter-point rise from the Bank of England by May with another increase expected before October. But perhaps not wanting to be left out, the zealous guardians of Europe’s monetary system, who measure inflation rates across the 17-country bloc to the second decimal point, have recently raised their rhetoric to such an extent that investors are openly speculating that in spite of the continent’s tight fiscal policy European rates are now likely to rise before the end of summer. As they say in the land of macro investing, the cycle isn’t over until the Europeans lift rates. Just don’t bet on money staying tight for long. - Hugh Hendry

Abigail Doolittle of Peak Theories shares her latest technical observations on the EURUSD. Coming at a convenient timing, following after the CFTC COT data, her outlook is diametrically opposite from that of Goldman whose LT and tactical targets are 1.55 and 1.37 respecitvely. Specifically, "I think we could see the euro hit about $1.225 between now and the end of the second quarter of this year while the dollar index may crest to between 86 and 88 in the same time period." The charts attached explain her reasoning.

Last Friday, following the disclosure that net commercial EUR short positions has surged to -45,182, nearly a double from the -24,201 the week before, we expected a massive short covering squeeze, which would bring the EURUSD far higher. Today, the CFTC released its weekly update of non-commercial futures exposure. As expected, the covering rally was fierce and intense, and is likely still ongoing: net non-speculative long positions surged by 49,291, in line with the highest one week move in recent years, the biggest of which was recorded in June 2010 when net shorts collapsed by 49,585. The net result pushed net spec positions from -45,182 to 4,109, and resulted in a move in the EURUSD from 1.33 last Friday to 1.3621 at last check. We believe the short covering rally is now over. This is further corroborated by the drop in USD longs in the past week from 10,057 to 5,210. Other currencies were not surprisingly quiet in the past week, with little notable action in either CHF, GBP or JPY net spec exposure.

Thousands upon thousands of hedge fund managers starting the New Year with eyeballs glued to the screen, watching and waiting for a market turn. Most have made New Year's resolutions to "Make Their Year" in 2011 by catching every single turn or wiggle in the tape.

So the key question is: Has the market topped and should many of these guys go ahead and pile on shorts?

RANsquawk Market Wrap Up - Stocks, Bonds, FX etc. – 21/01/11

A few days ago, in "Hands down, the cheapest place in the world to buy gold coins" we presented Simon Black's thoughts on an interesting physical gold arbitrage (buy cheap physical in Hong Kong, sell it where it is expensive) which created quite a stir. Today, the "Sovereign Man" provides some additional information, and answers some of the most frequent questions he received in response to his article, with a particular focus on the question of whether taking gold out of Hong Kong or bringing it into the US is considered smuggling. The answers may surprise you...

In an attempt to lock in the last vestige of cheapish 30 Year rates, Goldman is now in the market to raise $2.5 billion in 30 year bonds. Per Bloomberg: "Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is marketing $2.5 billion of 30-year debt in its first sale of the bonds in more than three years, as investors accept the lowest premiums since April for bank bonds with similar credit grades." For those who think that the bonds should come in well inside of the US 30 Year, which last traded at around 4.6%, we have some bad news: "the notes from the fifth-biggest U.S. bank by assets may pay 170 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, according to a person familiar with the offering, who declined to be identified because terms aren’t set." Yes, we don't understand either how the OpCo can issue bonds at richer yields than the HoldCo, but such is life when one is part of a theatrical performance in which the roles of master and puppet are reverse.

Is the biggest fraud in the history of the US housing market about to come unglued? If so, take our prediction of a $100 billion total in future BofA rep and warranty reserves and triple it.

We present Themis Trading's Top Ten Market Structure predictions for 2011. At the way things are going, they may just hit 10 out of 10.

Congratulations to Jeff Immelt - the uberhead of the soon to be former head propaganda financial station has been appointed to chair the White House's job panel. That said, we wonder just whose leg he had to hump to get that particular job: after all any small business job CEO in America is infinitely more qualified than Immelt to create jobs (unless the jobs in question are 1,000 prop trading positions at Goldman Sachs - since we are rubbing it in in Volcker's face why not go all the way). Dow Jones has created a brief compilation of Immelt's simply tragic job creation track record:

[Immelt] runs a big company, but Immelt has shown more skill at cutting jobs, frankly, than creating. GE finished 2009 with 18,000 fewer US workers than it had at the end of 2008, and US headcount is down 31,000 since Immelt's first full year in 2002. During his tenure, GE workers based in the US as a percentage of total employees has fallen to 44% from 52%.

Uh, Crickets???

It was ten short days ago that the Bangaldesh stock exchange was closed for the 2nd time in a month, after it plunged by almost double digits in the span of minutes. Subsequently, it pulled as US-type flash crash, PPT-sponsored HFT recovery.... only to make third time the charm: BBC reports that earlier today the Bangladesh index fell 8.5%, or 587 points, which forced regulators to suspend trading.This is the third suspension in a about month and the second free fall plunge in January. Everyone in Asia is getting spooked by China's lack of liquidity. But not the US. We are all hoooou kay. But that's not all. The chery on top is that the Bangladesh regulator, which more than anything is in dire need of its own plunge protection team, or least GETCO to serve as "DMM" (wink wink) for the entire exchange, has suspended brokers for having the temerity to sell into today's collapse. In other words: next time someone tries to sell into a market plunge, tough luck.