Archive - Apr 3, 2013 - Story

It is not that one market is in a bubble it is that they all are in a bubble. We were all taught that the markets eventually get back to fundamentals. It is not that we have forgotten this; it is that the supply of money has trumped the notion. Yet we amble on because it has been the winning strategy and we play to win. When yields are this low it is not "better to be safe than sorry" but "better to be safe then dead" as the amount of time that it will take to make back any mistakes could end you and your firm given the duration of any correction that you might attempt. It is not that one market is in a bubble it is that they all are in a bubble. It is not that the world is devoid of crises. It is that the supply of money acts as a painkiller and that the markets have become mostly numb.

Remember the now traditional economic data weakness that the US experiences come every Spring in the past 3 years courtesy of the rotation out of artificially boosting winter seasonal adjustments? Well, after a big miss in the PMI and ISM we may be getting just that, with the ADP private payrolls data moments ago posting the lowest monthly increase since October at just 158,000, well below the 200,000 expected, and far below last month's revised 237,000 (was 198,000), which means that post the revision the February number is just 1,000 off the NFP print of 236,000: ADP, under Mark Zandi, now and always desperately trying to be a BLS echo chamber. Notably in the breakdown of jobs, March saw +0 Construction jobs added: hardly the stuff great housing recoveries are made of. The good news, if any, is that small business finally were the biggest generator of jobs, adding 74,000, or just less than half of total, with medium and large accounting for 37,000 and 47,000 respectively. And since, empirically, the revised ADP methodology has been far more accurate than previously, the question is how to pre-spin this Friday's jobs number, which stands at the near-ADP consensus of 196,000, which suddenly looks far more in peril of a downside miss.

Physical gold and silver demand remains robust in many markets internationally. Demand from the Middle East remains robust as seen in the near record imports of gold and silver into Turkey. Turkey’s gold imports climbed to an eight-month high in March as prices averaged the lowest since May, according to the Istanbul Gold Exchange. Silver imports rose 31% from a month earlier according to Bloomberg. Gold imports increased to 18.26 metric tons, the most since July. That’s up from 17.34 tons in February and compared with 2.91 tons a year earlier, data on the exchange’s website show. The country shipped in 120.8 tons last year. Turkey was the fourth-biggest gold consumer in 2012, according to the London-based World Gold Council. Bullion averaged $1,593.62 an ounce last month and is trading about 17% below the record nominal high of $1,921.15 set in September 2011.

• Cyprus leader invites family firm probe (FT)
• How the Fed fueled an explosion in subprime auto loans (Reuters)
• Wal-Mart Customers Complain Bare Shelves Are Widespread (BBG)
• JC Penney CEO gets no bonus, stock award after dismal year (Reuters)
• New Bird Flu Virus Kills 2 in China, Sparking WHO Probe (BBG)
• Algorithms Play Matchmaker to Fight 7.7% U.S. Unemployment (BBG)
• Fed hawk Lacker and dove Evans face off over inflation (Reuters)
• Infamous silver market "cornerer" WH Hunt Becomes Billionaire on Bakken Oil After Bankruptcy (BBG)
• Japan Auto Sales Fall on Subsidy End as Korea Extends Drop (BBG)
• Black Hawks Near North Korea Show Risk in U.S. Command Shift (BBG)
• SEC Embraces Social Media (WSJ)
• Tesla Touts ‘True Out of Pocket’ Financing for Model S (BBG)
• U.K. Banks Try to Dodge Bonus Caps by Defining Risk-Taker (BBG)

The driftless overnight sessions are back. After the Nikkei soared by 3% following several days of declines, and the Shanghai Composite continued its downward ways despite Non-Manufacturing PMI prints for March which rose both per official and HSBC MarkIt data, Europe was unsure which way to go, especially with the EURUSD once more probing the 1.28 support level. The USDJPY was no help, and even with the BOJ meeting at which new governor Kuroda is finally expected to do something instead of only talking about it, imminent, has hardly seen the Yen budge and provide the expected carry-funding boost to global risk. In terms of newsflow there was little of it: European CPI in March printed at 1.7%, above expectations of 1.6%, but below February's 1.8% rise in inflation. UK continued telegraphing the inevitability of Mark Carney's imminent QE, with construction PMI the latest indicator missing, at 47.2, below expectations of 48.0 (above 46.8 last).  Elsewhere, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Wednesday called for Europe to implement growth policies to balance its austerity drive and for countries with room for fiscal manoeuvre to increase public spending. "Europe is the only region in the world in recession. To overcome this situation we need three things: every country needs to do its homework, we need more (European) integration and we need growth policies," Rajoy said in a televised speech to leaders of his People's Party. "That's why countries which can afford it should spend more." Surely Europe will get right on it: after all, it's only "fair."