Archive - Oct 4, 2011 - Story

Risk aversion has again dominated the European session in what is becoming a familiar theme. The postponement of the decision on the next Greek aid tranche weighed heavily on sentiment which was compounded by several other factors. Goldman Sachs cut their forecasts for global growth saying they expected the Euro-area to experience a “mild recession” and this was later echoed by S&P who also noted they see a 40% chance that Western Europe would experience a recession. Developments in the financial sector have been in focus with Dexia shares at one point falling 30% after reports that its exposure to troubled Eurozone sovereign debt amounts to more than its entire equity base, with the French finance minister having to say that France and Belgium will guarantee the banks creditors. Furthermore, Deutsche Bank cut their 2011 forecast for their core business area saying that Q3 results for this year will be significantly lower than forecast; the banks shares fell 8% before bouncing with the DAX index lagging its European peers. Elsewhere, there were solid government debt auctions from Austria and Belgium while the Italian government bond yield spread over Bunds tightened due to renewed market talk that the SMP was again buying in the Italian curve. Moving into the North American session the key data will be the Durable Goods and Factory Orders, while comments will be anticipated from both ECB’s Trichet and Fed’s Bernanke. Later into the session there will second round of Operation Twist purchases from the Fed while the Belgian cabinet will hold an emergency meeting to discuss the Dexia situation.

We must have missed the moment when Jim Cramer defended Morgan Stanley today, but judging by the company's CDS which is +30 to a ridonculous 610/650, he must have said something positive. In fact, the bank's "outperformance" is only matched by that of Waffled which as we have been saying since Friday is going to meet Dexia about halfway. Today it is +23 to 290/300, the worst performer of any country in the world.

Those continuing to be bearish on gold and misdiagnosing a gold bubble (for a variety of simplistic and ill thought out reasons – see Commentary) are ignoring the deeply held belief in gold as a store of value of some 3 billion people in Asia. They also ignore the small but growing number of buyers in the western world who are diversifying into gold leading to an increase in allocations to gold from a miniscule base. These buyers include hedge funds, banks, pension funds and most importantly central banks. These buyers continue to rightly focus on gold’s value rather than its price. Physical demand for silver remains high and is being reflected in a slight uptick in premiums. GoldCore have seen continuing coin and bar demand and physical buyers are not being deterred by the latest sell off on the COMEX market. Those buying silver continue to expect silver to rise to $50/oz and many expect silver to rise to over $140/oz which is the real record (CPI inflation adjusted) high from 1980. Demand from western buyers remains minimal as buyers remain a contrarian few with the majority of investors and savers having no allocation to silver whatsoever. However, this is not the case in Asia where both gold and silver are held in far higher esteem and appreciated for their wealth preservation qualities. Indian demand has been very significant in months and has accelerated in recent days after the sell off and tentative signs of a bottoming.

For those who miss the daily reruns of the televangelist driving the audience into a frenzy with chants of "pass this bill", before the donations plate is passed around, fear not: there is much to look forward to in the next few days, headlined by the Chairsatan, who already has his eye on the turboprint button all over again, who will testify on his economic outlook to the Joint Economic Committee later today.

Don't expect any good news in a post that has "European Liquidity" in the headline. While Euribor-OIS up from 0.81 to 0.82%, still 7 bps below the 2.5 year record of 0.89% from September 23, 3M USD Libor grinds once again wider from 0.378% to 0.381%, 50th consecutive increase, as UBS now has the spotlight with a 9th consecutive rise in its rate from 0.411% to 0.416%. Credit Agricole continues to be troubling and widest at 0.4375%, up from 0.435%. But most disturbing is that the deposits with the ECB soared to a new multi-year high of €209 billion, up from the €200 billion yesterday which we noted. And while none of this is surprising, we had some out of leftfield news coming from Deutsche Bank which announced it had taken €250 million in Greece-related charges after it had proclaimed for months its exposure was negligible and saw no write down risk. DB also said it won't make a €10 billion profit this year as had been promised earlier. So much for "them" not lying to "us."  The "us" response: DB CDS +15 at 224 bps at last check and moving wider, even as German CDS probes new record levels. At this point comparing 2011 to 2008 is no longer cool, but we will refer readers to this post from last night...

On Friday, as pertains to Dexia, a name that suddenly everyone is talking about yet which nobody except for this blog covered back in May, we predicted that "We expect a partial or complete nationalization to be announced imminently, which in addition to all other side effects, would lead in a Bear Stearnsing of all accrued profit." Sure enough overnight we got the following announcement from the French and Belgian Finance ministers: "As part of the restructuring of Dexia, the Belgian and French, in conjunction with central banks will take all necessary measures to ensure the safety of depositors and creditors. To this end, they undertake to guarantee to bring their financing raised by Dexia." Translation: Partial nationalization. And with 5 year CDS ripping in a good 6-8 point upfront, bid at about 26 points at last check, down from 35 on Monday, getting out while the getting was good sure seems like a good idea. Alas, none of this will be any consolation to equity longs, whose value has just dropped over 20%, as this is nothing but a repeat of Bear Stearns. We repeat that at the end of the day, Dexia CDS will trade just wide of Belgian default risk, which we in turn expect to soar in the coming hours.

Go no further than the Der Spiegel piece, Why Europe Is Right and Obama Is Wrong, to understand the fundamental differences between American and German thinking on fiscal and monetary stimulus. Michael Sauga, the author, writes: "American economists, central bankers and fiscal policy makers have reinterpreted British economist John Maynard Keynes’s clever idea that government spending is the best way to counteract a serious economic downturn — and have turned it into a permanent prescription. In their version of the Keynesian theory, declining growth or tumbling stock prices should prompt central banks to lower interest rates and governments to come to the rescue with economic stimulus programs. US economists call this “kick-starting” the economy...The only problem is that this method of encouraging growth has not stimulated the US economy in recent years, but in fact has put it on a crash course. From the Asian economic crisis to the Internet and subprime mortgage bubbles, economic stimulus programs by monetary and fiscal policy makers have regularly laid the groundwork for the next crash instead of encouraging sustainable growth. In the last decade, the volume of lending in the United States grew five times as fast as the real economy....The real problem, though, is a different one. The US economy doesn’t lack money. Rather, it lacks products that can compete in the global marketplace. The country has a deep trade deficit, yet the Obama administration is borrowing money at the same rate as near-bankrupt Greece."