Archive - Feb 13, 2013 - Story

On Monday we reported that a car bomb with Syrian plates had exploded at the Turkish-Syrian border crossing. The aftermath included the death of nine people, major devastation, and the latest sharp deterioration in Turkish-Syrian relations. We now have the dramatic footage from this explosion, which we present below courtesy of Reuters. Expect more such explosions as every attempt is made to drag Syria into war with one or more of its neighbors.

It was well-known that today's 10 Year auction would price somewhere north of 2.00%, for the first 2%+ print since April of 2012, it just wasn't known where. Sure enough, moments ago the US Treasury priced $24 billion in 10 Year paper at a high yield of 2.046% (38.76% allotted at high), the highest since last March when we had a 2.076% 10 Year auction (and a carbon copy environment in which every pundit was screaming about a great rotation out of bonds), only to see the April and especially May auction tumble in yield when Europe once again became unfixed. What was notable about today's auction is that it tailed the When Issued modestly, which was bid 2.039% at 1 pm, implying a 0.7 bps tail. Also notable: the Bid to Cover dropped to 2.68, below January's 2.83, and well below the 12 month TTM of 2.99. Dealers took down 47.7% of the auction, Directs as has recently been the case ended up with a sizable 24.2%, while Indirects took only 28% of the auction, higher than the December 24.2%, yet worse than all other auctions going back all the way to April 2009. For those confused - don't be - we have been here in 2012, and 2011, and 2010, when risk assets were surging, and when yields were sliding, only to see a modest subsequent pick up in inflation, mostly in China, but certainly Europe, at which point the global liquidity glut ceased and the economy (if not the centrally-planned market) resumed on its downward glideslope.

As if the 20% JPY devaluation over the last few months was not enough, the Japanese government is going directly at the core of the inflation manufacturing business... they have imposed sanctions that Japan's five largest refiners cut their production by 1.1million barrels per day (or 20%). We recently noted (here and here) the rise in both the price of gasoline (at record highs) and JPY-based price of the raw material (WTI or Brent) - and it seems Abenomics can only see the upside of the inflationary cycle (as they cut supply) - as opposed to the consumer-sentiment-sapping margin-crushing deflationary impact of higher input costs to life. One thing is for sure, Abe is all-in - no matter what G-20 defense he offers. Perhaps this is why JGBs have not reacted as much - they are seeing through the short-term inflationary hope to the longer-term deflationary dump.

One of the recurring memes of the now nearly 4 years old "bull market" (assuming the recession ended in June 2009 as the NBER has opined), is that corporate profits are soaring, and that despite recent weakness in Q4 earnings (profiled most recently here), have now surpassed 2007 highs on an "actual" basis. For purely optical, sell-side research purposes that is fine: after all one has to sell the myth that the US private sector has never been healthier which is why it has to immediately respond to demands that it not only repatriate the $1+ trillion in cash held overseas, but to hand it over to shareholders post-haste (see recent "sideshow" between David Einhorn and Apple). However, a problem emerges when trying to back this number into the inverse: or how much money the US government is receiving as a result of taxes levied on these supposedly record profits. The problem is that while back in the summer 2007, or when the last secular peak in corporate profitability hit, corporate taxes peaked at well over $30 billion per month based, the most recent such number shows corporate taxes barely scraping $20 billion per month!

We have shown divergence after divergence as an indication of the market's relative exuberance. One of the key 'supports' for these hope-driven nominal levels has been forward inflation expectations. In fact, inflation expectations have become the anchor for higher equity (P/E) valuations and yet, they remain unconvinced that this time is different. As Barclays' Jordan Kotick notes, perhaps it is inflation break-evens lack of confirmation of new equity highs that is the chart to watch for the 'believers' to really think this time is different.

We are far enough and deep enough into the most heroic monetary and fiscal efforts ever undertaken to finally ask, why aren't these measures working? Or at least we should be.  Oddly, many in DC, on Wall Street, and the Federal Reserve continue to steadfastly refuse to include anything in their approaches and frameworks other than "more of the same." So we are treated to an endless parade of news items that seek to convince us that a bottom is in and that we've 'turned the corner' – often on the flimsy basis that in the past things have always gotten better by now. Oil is the primary lubricant of economic growth and that it is not just the amount of oil one has to burn but also the quality, or net energy, of the oil that matters. If we want to understand why all of the tried-and-true monetary and fiscal efforts have failed, we have to appreciate the headwinds that are offered by both a condition of too-much-debt and expensive energy.  Neither alone can account for the economic malaise that stalks the world.

With stocks pushing to new multi-year highs - seemingly all-in on the Fed's newfound transmission mechanism - the bond market is beginning to quake just a little. 10Y rates shifted quickly through 2.00% today - hovering around 10-month highs - but the question is, just how bad could it get for bondholders if the Fed were to lift their repressing foot of the yield-seeker's throat. While we believe they are missing the circular nature of any Fed implied tightening on stocks (and therefore bonds reflexively), Goldman sees 10Y yields 120-240bps under 'fair' currently thanks to Fed QE efforts - and believes 4.0% yields are on the cards by 2016. Our question - what exactly would HY spreads look like under this 'bullish' scenario? And for the stock bulls - is this just catch-up by bonds or the great rotation so many hope for? And if Goldman believes this - why is their (and their primary dealer friends') holdings of Treasuries so extremely high?

As we noted yesterday, the credit bubble is in full swing as high-yield covenant protections hit a new low in January. At the same time, new issue premia in high yield credit has remained extremely low (meaning demand is high) - even as leverage (measured in a number of ways) surges to post-financial-crisis highs. With low yields and technical demand so abundant, firms appear to be leveraging-up in favor of shareholders. But, as is always the case, there is a limit to just how much leverage can be piled on before credit spreads 'snap' and raise the cost of capital - hindering the equity price. Finally, for the 'cash on the balance sheet' advocates, US firms' Cash/Debt is its lowest (worst) since pre-crisis. Banks continue to delever, sovereigns relever, and non-financials taking their lead - this didn't end well last time... and this time, exuberance and positioning is very heavy.

Per C-Span: "The Senate Finance Committee will hold a confirmation hearing Wednesday for Treasury Secretary nominee Jacob "Jack" Lew. If approved, he will replace Timothy Geithner. Among the topics he will address include the state of the economy, strategies for reducing the budget deficits, economic ties with China along with questions about global currency war. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that the "We need a better understanding of his role at Citigroup, what his knowledge is of financial markets, whether he supports reforming our tax code, whether he believes in a robust trade policy and what kind of plan the Obama Administration has to confront our skyrocketing debt and our broken entitlement programs. As we move forward, I’m hopeful that Mr. Lew will answer some remaining questions that I have." According to AP, "After Wednesday's hearing, committee members will have two days to send questions to Lew to answer before they vote. The full Senate could vote on the nomination late this month."

The Eurozone is not a debt crisis that is "fixed," it is a debt crisis waiting to implode. The happy-talk that the Eurozone debt crisis has been resolved is ubiquitous. But when did ubiquitous happy-talk make it correct? Since the crisis is about debt--too much of it, and too much of it cannot and will not be paid back--then perhaps it would be prudent to look at two charts of eurozone credit.

As the AAA chart below shows, the gasoline price is now higher than it was a year ago, and has been for the past two weeks, which also automatically means it is the highest it has even been in history (naturally, the implications of this record high gasoline tax on the cash-strapped US consumer are painfully clear).  So with gas prices once again "an issue", it is time to trot out the worn out scapegoating usual suspects - those evil, evil hedge funds, whom everyone is perfectly happy to blame. Or at least pest exterminators and cab drivers. From Reuters:

At a filling station in Midtown New York last week, several people were prepared to blame traders on Wall Street as they paid more than $4 per gallon to fill up their cars. "It really is not supply and demand. It's definitely speculation," said John Keegan, an exterminator with pest control company Terminate Control, who was filling up his van. A cab driver said he was convinced the price would be just $1 a gallon if the government "stopped Wall Street trading oil."

Of course, what the exterminator and cab driver fail to understand, or just are happy to ignore, is that the same hedge funds that merely allocate the Fed's virtually "open-ended" excess liquidity into stocks, which are now beyond furiously overvalued by any benchmark, and which as we explained over the weekend are trading at a higher forward P/E multiple now than they were in 2007, have increasingly few choices where to park their money, and even with the threat of the Margin Hiker in Chief sending CME margins to 100% across the energy space, sooner or later, those $85 billion in fresh monthly liquidity will go into Brent, WTI, and of course, gas.

Confused by the latest scandal in Southern Europe? Unsure of which corruption claim is being denied in the Iberian Peninsula? Fear no longer, as the Corruptometer provides an at-a-glance map of which political party, encouraged by the actions of their leadership, is engaged in bribery, embezzlement, prevarication, falsehoods, scams, tax fraud, and money laundering. There are currently 314 of said politicians involved in 730 cases on the map and while the count is close, it appears Rajoy's Popular Party wins the overall cup for 'Most Corrupt'.

Following last night's expectations-filled State of the Union speech, we know that housing is rebounding and our stock market is rising but while these are pointed to as evidence that we are on the right track, it appears, from these three charts, that expectations for hiring, capital expenditure, and retail spending is bad and getting worse. Of course, the divergence between our current market's reality and an uncertain future is nothing new - but the spread is starting to become untenable as even with stocks at five-year highs, confidence remains weak. Simply put, the people know reality and only the talking-heads choose to ignore it.

In what may come as a surprise to some, advance retail sales for January printed on top of expectations of a +0.1% increase in sequential sales, although the forecast range was very wide, from -0.7% to +0.6% as many analysts were concerned what the impact of the payroll tax expiration would be on sales. This is a moderation of the January growth when retail sales rose 0.5%.  And while the headline number was goldilocks, the core reading excluding autos and gas came at 0.2% or slightly below expectations of a 0.4% print. What was even more curious is that the commerce department said department store sales rose the most since February 2012. Retail sales “relatively flat” as end of tax holiday likely had effect, says Bloomberg Government economist Nela Richardson. In B-grade economic news,  import price index up 0.6% M/m vs est. 0.8%  increase(range 0.2%-1.2% gain); prior revised to 0.5% drop from down  0.1%.