Archive - Jul 2013 - Story

Egypt's Islamists launched a nationwide "day of resistance" against the military coup that ousted democratically elected President Morsi today and AFP is reporting 3 are dead already following earlier warning shots as the crowd approached the barracks where Morsi is being held.

• *SHOTS FIRED DURING DEMO AT PRO-MURSI DEMONSTRATION: BBC TWEETS
• *3 DEAD IN GUNFIRE BETWEEN EGYPT ARMY, DEMOS, AFP SAYS

As WaPo reports, tens of thousands listened as a speaker called Morsi's removal from power an assault on the dignity of the people of Egypt, adding "there are Americans and Zionists behind this." Of course, as we noted here, the anti-American sentiment has been strong throughout, albeit hidden by most mainstream media channels.

As a reminder: jobs have quantity and quality components. The quantity component was good enough to convince the 10 Year the taper is imminent (if not stocks, which continue to trade dislocated from any and all fundamentals). But how about the quality? In a word: not good. In June, the household survey reported that part-time jobs soared by 360,000 to 28,059,000 - an all time record high. Full time jobs? Down 240,000.  And looking back at the entire year, so far in 2013, just 130K Full-Time Jobs have been added, offset by a whopping 557K Part-Time jobs. And there is your jobs "quality" leading to today's market euphoria (if only for now).

UPDATE: S&P futures collapsing quickly - now down from Payrolls

The initial kneejerk reaction in stocks was oddly 'good-is-good' higher after the better-than-expected headline data on payrolls - which perhaps signalled that Taper is nearer - but FX, bond, and precious metals markets were clearly in Taper-On mode. Treasury yields cracked 13bps higher, Gold and Silver dropped 1-2%, outdates for Eurodollar futures dropped notably, and the USD jumped around 0.5% almost uniformly. As an illiquid equity market soaks in the reality, some of that initial surge is fading...

So much for any doubts about a September taper: with the street expecting a 165K NFP number for June, the actual print of 195K following an upward revised May print of 195K as well, means the Fed's September flow fade, aka Taper, is now virtually assured. On the other side, the Household Survey printed a 160K increase in jobs. The Unemployment Rate stayed at 7.6% despite expectations of a drop to 7.5%, although the real action was in the underemployment rate which exploded from 13.8% to 14.3%.

Our reality has changed in the last twenty-four hours. The Bank of England and the European Central Bank have re-affirmed their old positions since the Fed has changed tacks. It may well be, as Europe is in much worse financial condition than the United States, that there is a policy reason for the European positions but it may well also be a calculated move to devalue the major European currencies. Whatever the actual reasons, the European statements have certainly sounded the trumpet that the “Currency Wars” have reignited.  It is a dangerous game when the world’s central banks that have been working for the last five years in unison and now they head down different paths.

US Change in Nonfarm Payrolls (Jun) M/M Exp. 165K, Low 77K, High 220K (Prev. 175K, Mar. 88K)

US Unemployment Rate (Jun) M/M Exp. 7.5%, Low 7.4%, High 7.7% (Prey. 7.6%, Mar 7.5%)

• Deutsche Bank: 145K
• Barclays: 150K
• UBS: 150K
• Goldman Sachs: 150K
• JPMorgan: 150K
• HSBC: 155K
• Citigroup: 160K
• Bank of America: 165K

After a few hours of calm yesterday, crude oil prices are once again surging back over $102 as the commander of the Third Field Army stated that troops deployed in Suez and South Sinai saw their "state of readiness" raised to "Maximum Alert." The announcement came after Cairo's airspace was closed for 40 minutes and flights were diverted to other airports because of air force drills. The 'state of emergency' has sent stocks sliding and put a modest bid into precious metals amid a call by Islamist allies of ousted Egyptian Prwsident Morsi to "take to the streets" and express their outrage.

• Egypt Girds for Muslim Brotherhood Protests (WSJ)
• SAC Capital's Steven Cohen Expected to Avoid Criminal Charges (WSJ)
• SAC insider-trading probe could last years (Reuters)
• RBI seen selling dollars around 60.59 levels: dealers (Reuters)
• China signals will cut off credit to rebalance economy (Reuters)
• Egypt army arrests key Muslim Brotherhood figures (BBC)
• Rise in Steel Prices Alarms Buyers (WSJ)
• Draghi-Carney Seek Independence Day Break From Bernanke (BBG)
• Samsung Warns Results Will Miss Forecasts (WSJ)
• Russia Prosecutor Seeks 6 Years in Jail for Putin Critic Navalny (BBG)

While the skeleton crew of market participants are still digesting yesterday's uber-dovish, "forward guidance" conversion by the BOE and ECB, driven in response to the Fed's increasingly tight (at least relatively) monetary policy, they now have month's biggest economic and market catalyst to look forward to. In a day which promises to be rife with illiquidity as the bulk of US market participants are within 100 feet of a sandy beach, we are about to get the number that will shape the market's mood for the next month: will the Fed's tapering planes be strengthened in response to strong NFP, or not. As Deutsche accurately points out, the curveball to throw in is that June-August numbers have tended to be seasonally weak over the whole period we have data (back 70+ years) and again over the last 10 years. Today's number is therefore going to be fascinating. A number between 150-200k is unlikely to change anyone’s opinion on the Fed whereas a number below might start to build a case for a taper delay. Above 200k and the September taper momentum will build. Such a high number (especially in a weak seasonal period) is unlikely to be great for markets but the ECB/BoE might have cushioned some of the hawkish blow for now. For the record the market is expecting 165k on payrolls and 7.5% (DB same) for unemployment. A full NFP preview post is coming shortly.

While we all eagerly await for the final 80 pips in EURUSD to trickle down before Stolper's latest "long EURUSD" masterpiece is stop lossed out in under a week and precisely in line with expectations, here comes Goldman with its latest fade reco, this time in the form of a "Top Trade for 2013" (supposedly this means an epic muppet steamrolling instead of just the occasional Kermit speed bump), namely to go long UK equities (the FTSE 100 Dec 13 futures) with a target of 7100 and a stop loss below 5950 (or 6% lower). If Stolper is any guide, this should be the easiest 6% imaginable. Of course, the hypocrisy of Goldman upgrading the UK market following its tentacle being appointed to run UK monetary policy, and the Bank Of England, with the sole purpose of boosting the UK "wealth effect" (and Goldman bonuses), does not escape us...

The U.S. natural gas market may be on the verge of a big swing. And it’s not about the talk of the town, Liquid Natural Gas (LNG). It's about an unexpected source of natural gas demand...

On a day when the underlying reason for celebration in the US is often washed away by a few gallons of alcohol, we thought it timely to see just which states are the biggest soaks. It is likely no surprise that Utah is the driest state but the top 4 states seem head and shoulders above the rest with North Dakota topping the list at 45.8 gallons of beer per capita per year (or an average of just over 1 pint per day - which seems very reasonable?).

How the times change: two years ago, the victorious, resurgent, and US-supported, Muslim Brotherhood seemed unstoppable and was literally and metaphorically wiping out all obstacles in its way to the top, often times violently. Today, it is on the receiving end with the Egyptian military having somewhat curiously flipped its allegiance in a matter of days culminating with the overthrow of the "democratically elected" president Mursi in a largely bloodless coup over the past week. The video below from Al Arabiya shows how yesterday's winner can easily become today's recipient of mob scorn, not to mention punches. A far bigger question is just how will the "brotherhood" take its dramatic overthrow from power: quietly, with the occasional flaring of anger as the nation peacefully recovers from its second coup in two years, or with ever escalating protests that eventually morph into constant civil strife and/or all out civil war.

The next American Revolution will not be an event, it will be a process. We naturally turn to the past for templates of the future, but history has a way of remaining remarkably unpredictable. Indeed, all the conventional long-range forecasts made in 1900, 1928, 1958, 1988 and 2000 missed virtually every key development--not just in the distant future, but just a few years out. The point is that extrapolating the present into the future fails to capture sea changes and developments that completely disrupt the supposedly unchanging, permanent Status Quo. The idea that the next revolution will take a new form does not occur to conventional forecasters, who readily assume the next transition will follow past critical junctures: armed insurrection against the central authority (The first American Revolution, 1781), civil war (1861) or global war (1941). We submit that the next American Revolution circa 2021-23 will not repeat or even echo these past transitions. What seems likely to me is the entire project of centralization that characterized the era 1941-2013 will slip into irrelevance as centralization increasingly yields diminishing returns.

When the official Chinese PMI printed a few days ago we noted the 'odd' fact that several of the key sub-indices were 'missing'. While most put this down to some 'hiccup' or aberration, we wondered at the time what this might mean in a nation that has seemingly gone out of its way to baffle with Schrodinger bullshit for much of the last few 'recovery' years in the face of collapsing electricity production, copper/cement/steel prices, fake trade invoices, and a shadow-banking system so re-hypothecated that even the PBOC has decided enough is enough. Well, as Bloomberg reports, it turns out it wasn't an aberration, but new policy from China's Federation of Logistics and Purchasing which has now officially suspended the release of industry-specific data from the monthly survey of manufacturers. As one analyst put it, "the random absence of official data is disorienting," which is likely exactly the plan.