Archive - Sep 2011 - Story

The algo-driven levitation of the last hour or so today seemed all about making it back to the magical VWAP line so more selling could occur but even though we were rising, average trade size  rose notably into the cash close which is very suggestive of pros selling into the lift (as deltas were definitely weak). This little burst was enough to drag equity into outperformance today relative to credit markets which had a very weak day.

For those struggling under the deluge of relentless newsflow out of Europe, here are the key events to look for over the next month, courtesy of CitiFX Wire. Readers can take advantage of the weekend which will be calm until late Sunday morning after which it won't be calm, to familiarize themselves with the hurricane that is headed straight to global capital markets.

Jim Rogers was on CNBC earlier, discussing the recent intervention by the SNB and the overnight plunge in Europe, in the process generating yet another amusing episode of market "non-cheerleader" Bob Pisani attempting spin the global economic collapse in a favorable light on not one, not two but on three separate occasions, and being soundly rejected by the far more, informed shall we say, Rogers. Specifically, to Pisani's repeated attempt to get Rogers to admit the uber-secret of which stocks he is long (CNBC Ponzi playbook 101), the former Quantumanite responds that not only is he not long anything, he is mostly short stocks and very much long commodities for two simpler reasons: "if the world economy gets better i'm going to make money in commodities because of shortages that are developing. Especially in agriculture and precious metals. If the world economy doesn't get better, Bob, you're not going to make any money in Toyota or IBM but you might make money in commodities because they're going to print more money. It's the wrong thing to do but they will print money. Bernanke is already printing money again. You have to protect yourself. I'm short stocks but i don't expect the world economy to get better. Not much better anyway, if it does and I am long commodities as a protection." And on some other topic like the Chairsatan, "Bernanke has been lying to us again", on the SNB intervention attempt: "This is a terrible mistake" and on what should happen to Europe: " It would be good for the world, though, if they let people go bankrupt."

For those not "lucky" enough to be involved in the CDS market, liquidity is breaking down in Europe. Main was quoted as tight as 1/2 bp markets yeserday, is now being quoted on 2 to 3 bp markets, mostly by traders who seem to wish they had left an hour ago. XOVER, is at least 5 bps wide, and as much as 10 bps wide, but the dealers still brave enough to send something. This is not good, and although wider, it hasn't yet felt like anyone is reaching and paying too much just to get a hedge on, which makes me think this is not yet over.

We have long discussed what we suspect will be one of the first European financials to hit the proverbial fan. Given today's anarchic behavior in the US and European markets (credit and equity) and the continued insistence by TPTB (yes you Mr. Greek finance minister) that this is all due to a speculative rumor-mongering attack, we decide to layout some basic facts on one of the banks that was saved by the Fed/FDIC.

Just as to Italy it is suddenly America's fault the "crisis was sparked", so now it is "internet rumors" who are to blame that the market, at least in the form of CDS, estimates that the country's probability of going bankrupt is, oh, 100%.

Our joke di giorno has an unusual source: a Prime Minister with a penchant for buggery, who in this case has discovered a very curious source for all of Italy's woes...

No sooner has the EFSF "passed" the German constitutional court (with large caveats, most notably that the German government will have a much greater say in any and all future European bailouts, assuming such are actually needed and the Euro does not implode), that we learn that yet another hurdle for the Greek bailout presents itself courtesy of primary fund provider, Germany, which is now finally very angry (as suggested first here "The Fatal Flaw In Europe's Second "Bazooka" Bailout: 82 Million Soon To Be Very Angry Germans, Or How Euro Bailout #2 Could Cost Up To 56% Of German GDP" two months ago) at what it realizes is an ongoing transfer without checks and balances (remember: the insolvent PIIGS hold all the trump cards) of capital from Europe's prudent workers to those who are, well, not. To wit, according to the Spiegel, German FDP Party has just announced that it will seek a referendum on the ESM/EFSF. What this means is that while the hurdle is not insurmountable from a legal perspective, it will merely add further uncertainty to the final bailout of a country that according to the market at least is 100% bankrupt in an alternative universe in which fundamentals matters.

Is that H₂SO₄ that Warren is pouring for his next deeply introspective bath? Or will he double down and throw good money after bad money that was good as recently as 2 weeks ago (and according to Cramer was supposed to trigger a "massive short covering squeeze in the XLF.")

The global financial system is experiencing great stress as it adapts to the new, post-crisis rules of the game.  Those new rules are both explicit and implicit.  They call for more capital, reduced leverage, lower risk appetites, more thorough supervision, and stronger regulation, at both the systemic and individual institution levels.  In this environment, open dialog is all the more important as we collectively reach a common understanding of how the new rules should work in practice.

Timber time. Next up: another round of hopeless and very much helpless BOJ intervention. Because after the FX wars come the trade wars, and after the trade wars come the shooting wars.

I can't take credit for finding this graph of Eur Basis Swap [the cross currency basis swap between 3M EURIBOR and 3M LIBOR], but it seems to be a decent indicator of European banks having difficulty funding their USD business.  Maybe I'm reading more into the chart than there is, but that is what I see going on. It makes sense with all the other data that is out there and the anecdotal evidence that US banks are pulling back their lending to European banks.

Literally seconds after the Greek finance ministry announce that any rumors of a Greek default over the weekend are absolute rubbish (we wonder who would admit such rumors?), we get the following from Bloomberg: "Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government is preparing plans to shore up German banks in the event that Greece fails to meet the terms of its aid package and defaults, three coalition officials said. The emergency plan involves measures to help banks and insurers that face a possible 50 percent loss on their Greek bonds if the next tranche of Greece’s bailout is withheld, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are being held in private. The successor to the German government’s bank-rescue fund introduced in 2008 might be enrolled to help recapitalize the banks, one of the people said. The existence of a “Plan B” underscores German concerns that Greece’s failure to stick to budget-cutting targets threatens European efforts to tame the debt crisis rattling the euro. German lawmakers stepped up their criticism of Greece this week, threatening to withhold aid unless it meets the terms of its austerity package, after an international mission to Athens suspended its report on the country’s progress." Looks like at least one very "naive" government is not buying the latest batch of lies from Greece.

While it is not all too surprising in light of news that Greece may be insolvent in 48 hours, that the ECB is about to commence printing with the abandon of a drunken chairsatan, and that New York has a "credible threat" of another terrorist attack, it is a fact that liquidity across virtually every European vertical is now at its worst levels in years, starting with the EURIBOR-OIS (or interbank/central bank funding spread), which soared by 6 bps to 81.2, or the most since March 2009, the 3M USD LIBOR rising for the 34th day in a row to 0.338% at multi-year highs, and with deposit facility usage at the ECB rising to a new one year high of €172.9 billion, an increase of €7 billion overnight. Of particular note is the dramatic deterioration at Credit Agricole overnight which hit 0.4% in the 3M USD Libor, far worse than the "self-reported" dollar funding at Barclays and RBS which as we reported earlier, are perceived as the riskiest European banks should the inevitable bond haircut take place. Just as Dexia long-CDS was the slam dunk trade of H1, is CA poised to be the H2 one?