Archive - Feb 7, 2012 - Story

Ahead of the North American open, European Indices are trading in negative territory following further deliberations over a Greek settlement, with a tentative meeting between the Greek PM and his respective Party Leaders scheduled for some time after 1600GMT as well as an underperforming Basic Materials sector following caution over the upcoming Glencore/Xstrata merger. In foreign exchange news, the EUR/CHF currency pair has exhibited volatility following comments from the SNB’s acting Chair Jordan. Jordan has committed the Central Banks’ resources to preventing any further appreciation of the CHF adding that the SNB will buy unlimited amounts of Forex to defend the minimum level of 1.2000. Overnight, the AUD index has appreciated following an unexpected move by the RBA to hold its base rate at 4.25%, with many analysts expecting a drop in rates due to the global economic outlook and domestic job losses. In terms of European economic releases, German Industrial Production data fell below expectations for the month of December, posting a 2.9% fall while the figure was expected to stay flat at 0.0%.

• Please - we beg you, help us - IMF Urges Beijing to Prepare Stimulus (WSJ)
• Stalemate in talks on Greek austerity measures (Telegraph)
• U.S. Sets Money-Market Plan (WSJ)
• Forty States Sign On to Foreclosure ‘Robo’ Settlement (Diana Olick)
• Greece bail-out funds could be split (FT)
• Japan Adopts Stealth Intervention as Yen Gains Hurts Growth (Bloomberg)
• Papademos to Meet Greek Party Chiefs as ‘Great Sacrifices’ Loom (Bloomberg)
• Glencore-Xstrata deal meets shareholder opposition (Reuters)
• Romney campaign takes aim at rival Santorum (Reuters)

The surge in the U.S. money supply in recent years has sent gold into a series of new record nominal highs.  Money supply surged again in 2011 sending gold to new record nominal highs. Money supply has grown again, by more than 35% on an annualized basis, and this is contributing to gold’s consolidation and strong gains in January.  The Federal Reserve's latest weekly money supply report from last Thursday shows seasonally adjusted M1 rose $13.2 billion to $2.233 trillion, while M2 rose $4.5 billion to $9.768 trillion.

Overnight excitement from the RBA (no rate cut) and concerns at China's GDP growth given a European recession did nothing to initially slow risk markets early on as they reached up to yesterday's highs as ES (the e-mini S&P 500 futures contract) and BE500 (the broad Bloomberg equity index for Europe) pushed higher out of the gate (as AUD strength sustained carry trades - which appear now to be leaking back off). EUR managed to get back to yesterday's highs and found resistance and once it began to leak lower (and USD lower implicitly) then equities (and commodities on China un-easing concerns) started to stumble pretty hard. Following China's Shanghai Composite, European stocks are now down around 1% and credit is slowly gathering pace to the downside (though not as weak as stocks for now). Portugal showed some strength early on but has given that back as most sovereigns are trading 0-3bps wider in 10Y cash spreads for now (likely the trigger for non-sovereign credit). Some comments from Juncker on special Greek accounts and Klass Knot on the Euro's success top off a quiet morning with some risk off starting to gather pace.

Just a week ago we brought readers' attention to the fact that Francois Hollande, the Socialist Party candidate who is leading most opinion polls in the French presidential election, was extending his lead; well the lead is growing, to now 58-42 in the second round. In a must-read discussion this evening, George Magnus of UBS points to the significance of the French elections and how Hollande's victory could unleash 'a new wave of instability and uncertainty, and that the relative calm or optimism in financials markets since the turn of the year would prove short-lived'. Specifically Magnus highlights how the politics of Europe could well trump the liquidity of the ECB as the main determinant of the Euro Area's prospects. While not playing down the role of the initial (and forthcoming second) LTRO, the UBS senior economic adviser has grave concerns of the much bigger and less tangible issues of sovereignty and national self-determination that will not only impact Greece (very shortly) but also Germany, France, and the Euro-zone itself. The French election could be a catalyst for Franco-German (Merkande? Hollel?) divisions which 'would not sit comfortably inside the ECB or in the minds and actions of investors' and is evidently an unpriced and under-appreciated risk in global markets currently.

Over the past week we have repeatedly exposed the BLS' shennanigans to both keep the headline unemployment rate suppressed and to generate an upward bias in the market courtesy of a "bigger than expected beat" of expectations. Granted, various semantics experts continue to scratch their heads in attempting to explain a collapsing labor force when even Goldman's Sven Jari Stehn just predicted that it will drop to 63.1% by the end of 2012 (and 62.5% by the end of 2015). Funny then that the US will have no unemployment left when the participation rate drops to 58.5%. And no, the "population soared argument based on revised data" doesn't quite cut it when the bulk of said surge not only did not get a job, but was not even counted toward the labor force. Yet what the biggest flaw with all these arguments that vainly (and veinly) attempt to defend the US economy as if it is growing, is that they focus exclusively on the quantity of jobs, doctored or not, and completely ignore the quality. We have decided to step in and fill this void.