Archive - Sep 19, 2012 - Story

Presented with little comment since our jaws just hit our chest - these stunning headlines from a PWC report:

*CHINA TOP 10 LISTED BANKS' OVERDUE LOANS REACH 489B YUAN END-1H
*CHINA OVERDUE LOANS RISE FROM 112.9B YUAN END-2011: PWC
*INCREASE IN CHINA OVERDUE LOANS SHOWS NPLS MAY RISE, PWC SAYS
*PWC CITES BANKS' REPORTS FOR OVERDUE LOAN DATA

Just two days ago we tweeted the rather stunning 'slogan' that a happy-smiley joy-joy bunch of Audi-China staff 'celebrated' at their dealership. The somewhat subtle translation of the banner: "We will kill every single Japanese person, even if it means deaths for our own; even poverty will not deter us from reclaiming the Diaoyu Islands" has now been addressed by Audi management:

• *AUDI CHINA JV SAYS ANTI-JAPAN BANNER INCIDENT AN ISOLATED CASE
• *AUDI CHINA JV ASKED DEALERSHIP TO REMOVE BANNER, LU SAYS'
• *AUDI CHINA JV URGES `REASONABLE' EXPRESSION OF PATRIOTISM

UPDATE: *SHANGHAI COMPOSITE INDEX FALLS 1%, APPROACHES 2009 LOW

September's HSBC China Flash PMI just printed at 47.8, a slight beat of the final August print at 47.6 but still below 50 - for the eleventh month in a row. With only one month of expansion according to this data since June of last year, it seems more reverse repos are ahead (since as we already discussed in detail here - they are caught between a rock and a hard place on easing as the economy 'supposedly' transitions not-so-softly). Market reaction to this potentially good-is-bad data print (i.e. not cold enough to warrant massive China stimulus) is USD strength, EUR weakness, and modest S&P futures selling pressure.

And so the great standoff continues. On one hand, the Chairman will literally do anything and everything to get the retail investor to break their 4 year boycott of stocks, and come rushing back to the artificial and fabricated safety of an endlessly rising market: after all he has gone so far as to implicitly guarantee that there will never be a -1% day in the market ever again: all natural market forces will be crushed in the pursuit of the great asset bubble-based "wealth effect." On the other hand, the retail investor, older, wiser, and most importantly poorer, observing inexplicable and unpunished daily flash crashes across the numerous 'highly frequently traded' asset classes, still recovering from a market in which everyone told him to buy only to see a 50% loss in months, with ever less disposable income, is no longer interested in said "wealth effect" proposition, or any other proposition premised on the artificial manipulation of the political construct once upon a time known as the market, no matter how many personal guarantees of perpetual QEasing the Chairsatan will hand out. The culmination: the week ended September 12 domestic equity mutual funds saw the 8th consecutive outflow from stocks, amounting to $2.8 billion, and 32nd outflow of 37 weekly readings in 2012. The brings the total cumulative outflow year to date to $92 billion. The same period in 2011 had a total outflow of $79 billion, even though the market now is not only higher than it was in 2011, but the highest it has been since 2007.

Human beings basically try to do two things at the same time; on the one hand we want to be able to look in the mirror and feel good about ourselves - ego motivation from honesty, and on the other hand we want to benefit from dishonesty. It would seem at first glance that we could only do one (honesty or dishonesty) but thanks to our 'flexible cognitive psychology' and our ability to 'rationalize our actions', we can in fact do both. Nowhere is this more clearly equivocated than in Bernanke's entirely disingenuous commentary and justification for QEternity last week. He is of course rationalizing his actions (via empirical studies or Woodford's paper), knowing full well the implications, but remaining an 'honest and wonderful' asset to society in his own mind. This outstanding clip from Dan Ariely on The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty will provide much food for thought about whether you are more honest than Bernanke, Draghi, or Juncker and at the same time what motivates their self-effacing dishonesty.

On the heels of last Thursday’s Fed announcement, there has been much commentary on the whys and wherefores of a new quantitative easing (the so-called QE3). Rather than re-hashing well-covered ground, I want to instead discuss the potential effects and unintended consequences of this policy and how it may impact the investment landscape going forward. Suffice it to say that the Fed had its reasons. QE3 evidences a belief in the so-called “wealth-effect” – the idea that one will spend more if he/she feels wealthier – and the Fed also believes it can contain any negative consequences. However, others would argue that it’s another shot across the bow of our foreign lenders that we are willing to engage full-out in a currency war as this policy clearly weakens the U.S. dollar. Because the Fed has embarked on a path with little historical precedent – where a central bank has signaled the intent to expand its balance sheet as much as it needs to – we are all now part of an experimental economy.

"A serious inflationary disaster will only be prevented if governments succeed in reducing their deficits and stop selling bonds" is how the infamous destroyer of Krugman, Pedro Schwartz, describes the dangerous 'tennis match' being played between The Fed and The ECB. In an excellent interview with GoldMoney's James Turk, the Spanish 'Austrian' economist talks about bank regulation, the creation of money out of thin air, and the beauty of a trult free market system. From fictional reserve lending to the fragility (and boom-bust cycles) of our financial system, the mild-mannered 'Keynesian-Krusher' concludes that "there has to be a change in social mentality - so that people realize that nothing is free, and the government has to shrink."

By now everyone has heard the infamous Mitt Romney speech discussing the "47%" if primarily in the context of how this impacts his political chances, and how it is possible that a president "of the people" can really be a president "of the 53%." Alas, there has been very little discussion of the actual underlying facts behind this statement, which ironically underestimates the sad reality of America's transition to a welfare state. Recall Art Cashin's math from a month ago that when one adds the 107 million Americans already receiving some form of means-tested government welfare, to the 46 million seniors collecting Medicare and 22 million government employees at the federal, state and local level, and "suddenly, over 165 million people, a clear majority of the 308 million Americans counted by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010, are at least partially dependents of the state." Yes, Romney demonstrated potentially terminal lack of tact and contextual comprehension with his statement, and most certainly did alienate a substantial chunk of voters (most of whom would not have voted for him in the first place) but the math is there. The same math that inevitably fails when one attempts to reconcile how the $100+ trillion in underfunded US welfare liabilities will someday be funded. Yet the above is for political pundits to debate, if not resolve. Because there is no resolution. What we did want to bring attention to, is something else that Mitt Romney said, which has received no prominence in the mainstream media from either side. The import of the Romney statement is critical as it reveals just what the endgame may well looks like.

A funny thing happened on the way to QEternity - multiples expanded by an aggressive 2x to reach their highest in two years as the print-gasm hope was 'priced in' to the nominal value of the US equity indices (and fundamentals didn't matter). During this period, which was all about anticipation of the Fed, the real economy (that is earnings and revenues) have been disappointing. From here, now that Ben has blown his eternal wad, it is up to EPS and multiples - which leaves us with a little problem. As the chart below shows, the next few quarters are the very picture of hopes, dreams, and unicorns as Q4 EPS is somehow magically expected to stop a straight line decline in YoY profits - and soar by 10%. The driver of this miracle is the good old US Consumer - as discretionary spending now accounts for 100% of the expected EPS growth and 300% of the revenue growth for the post-election, pre-year-end extravaganza that is the lame-duck 'fiscal-cliff'-denying lead up to the holidays. As we said yesterday, either you believe in math or you believe in magic.

Equity markets drifted from an unch open to the overnight post-BoJ highs - albeit in an 8 point range and low volumes once again, before giving it all back in the last few minutes - as it dumped to VWAP (again!!). In other 'real' markets, Treasuries rallied - led by the long-bond playing catch up, the USD sold off on the day - aside from a post-BoJ recovery higher which was dissolved into the US day session open, Gold/Silver/Copper inched higher as the USD weakened but Oil continued its post-QE ritual sacrifice - now down 5.5% from pre-FOMC (back under $92) as the Saudi's promise more supply and the IEA build was heavy. Credit markets underperformed - but we suspect this was pre-roll moves and is not too signal-prone. Some standouts in the unreal world of our efficient equity markets, JCP's remarkable rip-and-dip, AAPL's rapid devolution from record highs to VWAP and an unch close at the last minute on huge volume, and QCOR's multiple-halt day ending down 48%. VIX (fell modestly) and the S&P 500 are back in sync and tracked each other all day. After the day-session close (small green), S&P futures drifted further down and ended practically unchanged - on a heavy volume push.

While the currency printers, print, and will do so until the complete collapse of the current monetary regime, corporate revenues continue to collapse. The latest casualty: concurrent economic activity indicator Norfolk Southern, which just slashed its Q3 EPS forecast to $1.18-$1.25 on Wall Street expectations of a $1.63 print. This will be lower than a year ago. The reason: reduced coal and merchandise shipments will lead to a $120 revenue decline. Then again, in Bernanke's world, neither energy nor actual trade are important. Print on, and BTFD!

Rumors about the death of the South African miner strike seem to have been greatly exaggerated following the agreement by Lonmin to hike miner pay by 22%. The reason: the precedent has now been set and everyone else demands equitable treatment: i.e., the same pay hike as Lonmin agreed to. From Al Jazeera: "South African police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters near a mine run by the world's biggest platinum producer Anglo American Platinum, as unrest spreads after strikers at rival Lonmin won big pay rises. Within hours of Lonmin agreeing pay rises of up to 22 per cent, workers at nearby mines called for similar pay increases on Wednesday, spelling more trouble after six weeks of industrial action that claimed more than 40 lives and rocked South Africa's economy." For those curious what it means when the precedent has been set and one corporation has caved on the issue of pay here it is: "Police clashed with a crowd of men carrying traditional weapons such as spears and machetes in a township at a nearby Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) mine outside the city of Rustenburg. Officers fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse an "illegal gathering", police spokesman Dennis Adriao said. He had no information on any injuries." So much for the strikes being over: thanks to Lonmin's caving, they have only just started.

While we are bombarded with talking heads telling us that there is money-on-the-sidelines and everyone is so bearish with the market climbing a wall of worry, the reality - as we see across multiple asset classes - is that investors are overweight risk assets (e.g. credit investors overweight IG and HY and mutual fund cash at record lows), near-extreme levels of bullishness (AAII and Put-Call Ratios), near extreme levels of non-bearishness (AAII), and yet credit investors believe markets are overvalued (though still buying) even as IG and HY bonds are seeing near-record highs in advance-decline.

In a strange centrally-planned 'see-it's-only-transitory' trick, crude oil prices have suffered a significant post-coital hangover each time the Fed has engaged its QE-warp drive. As the following chart shows, the current swing lower is ahead of pace compared to the previous two 'schemes' which stopped dropping after 10 days (QE2) and 20 days (QE1). It's almost as if someone wanted to prove that extreme monetary policy does indeed have no inflationary impact on the price of energy - or perhaps its just an over-crowded and obvious pre-QE trade coming undone in a hurry (like stocks?)

It seems that the recent foray of Mayor Bloomberg into determining what one may and may not consume based on calorie count, was just the appetizer, so to say. As some may recall, back in March we wrote that based on OECD predictions, up to 75% of the US nation will be overweight or obese. Now, none other than Uncle Sam has gotten wind that his population will soon be primarily made up of fat people. So he has a solution, which is in the vein of all other solutions where Uncle Sam is concerned: regulate, regulate, regulate.