Archive - Aug 2013 - Story

"Forget the Brits" , "Yes, Assad did it" , "No, the Saudis are our friends" , "Yes, Putin is a bad guy, he's Russian you know" , "The French are with us" , "We could show you 'definitive' proof but it's confidential and would put American lives at risk" , "chemical weapons... did u see those images" ,"Surgical" , "USA, USA, USA"... Secretary of State Kerry is due to make a statement at 1230ET (with no word on whether there will be a Q&A) on "The Situation In Syria" Grab your popcorn...

"In the spring, the risks to growth seemed to be fading. The economy was weathering the fiscal shock. Politicians decided to delay battles over the budget and the debt ceiling, passing a continuing resolution to fund the budget through September and postponing the debt ceiling drop-dead date to some time in the fall. Meanwhile, financial markets in Europe had settled down, the European economy showed signs of improvement, and commodity prices were stable. In their June directive the FOMC made it official: “The Committee sees the downside risks to the outlook for the economy and the labor market as having diminished since the fall.” Unfortunately, we seem to be entering another of those periods of elevated risk. Three concerns are emerging."

- Bank of America

The EuroStoxx50 (Europe's Dow) is down 3.3% on the week - it's 2nd worst week in 11 months. Yesterday's dramatic EUR weakness against the USD extended today back below 1.32 (EURUSD's worst week in the last 8) but today that weakness spread into peripheral bonds and stocks as it would appear anxiety and risk-aversion is taking its toll. Interestingly German stocks were just as hard hit as Spanish and Italian stocks this week (down 3.25 to 4%) and while Spanish and Italian bond spreads jumped 16bps (2nd worst week in 5 months), Portuguese bonds were the hardest hit, widening 25bps on the week. Peripheral bond spreads are all hovering near critical resistance levels for the year. Europe's VIX saw its 2nd biggest spike in 21 months.

As if the federal government were not already doing enough to kill the U.S. airline industry with restrictive workplace rules, over-regulation, and a monetary policy that supports higher fuel prices, earlier this month anti-trust authorities at the Justice Department blocked the merger between American Airlines and US Air. The truth is that our impoverished citizenry can no longer support the airline industry we once had. That's why American and U.S. Air had to merge in order to stay competitive and profitable. That is the sad truth behind the headlines. Ironically blocking the merger could result in more flight reductions and larger fare increases than what might have been the case had the merger been allowed.

As we showed mere days ago, it appears the truth of who the real puppet-master in the Middle-East is becoming plainer to see. The incredibly frank discussion between Saudi's spy-chief Prince Bandar and Russia's Putin exposed a much deeper plot is afoot and the following details from the actual people on the ground in the chemically-attacked region of Syria suggest Obama is playing right into the Saudi's plan. While Obama is 'certain' that the chemical attacks took place on al-Assad's orders, as MPN reports, "from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack."

The UK may be out, but Saudi Arabia isn't taking any chances. Moments ago, Reuters reported that the regime which as we reported is behind the entire conflict in Syria (hint: nat gas) has raised its level of military alertness in anticipation of a possible Western strike in Syria, sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.  Saudi Arabia's defense readiness, their version of DefCon, has been raised to "two" from "five", a Saudi military source who declined to be named told Reuters. "One" is the highest level of alert. "It is a must, no one knows what will happen," he said. And so all those who thought there would be no war and sold off gold and crude, are suddenly caught short. More curious is why Saudi is leaking this information to the media: another provocation, and an attempt to accelerate a conflict which is rapidly fizzling? Remember: for Saudi Arabia "no war" is the worst possible outcome. If so, expect more mysterious "chemical attacks" in the coming hours and days to cement the Western resolve to blow up Assad.

Consumer sentiment and confidence has been a smorgasbord of confusion recently. Bloomberg's Consumer Comfort index just had its biggest 3-week plunge in 16 months falling back to its lowest since the first week of April. Conference Board confidence was 'stable' at 5.5 year highs and now UMich Confidence, which missed expectations for the first time in 2013 last month in its preliminary print, has been revised up with its final data to the best level in 4 months. The schizophrenia is completed with this little beauty from Gallup. As we have warned before, beware 'the big con' and as these two charts suggest, confidence seems very much in the eye of the beholder.

The headline Chicago PMI, as leaked by the subscribers when it was released at 9:52 am, came just as expected at 53.0. And once again the story, if any, was in the components, with New Orders rising from 53.9 and Inventories finally increasing from 37.7 to 45, however this was offset by a decline in Employment from 56.6 to 54.9, a 4 month low. Perhaps the most notable line from the release is that some respondents reported "supply chain disruptions" - one wonders how much this is due to the recent and ongoing drubbing in emerging markets.

The economic theory behind why minimum wage hikes are not good for prosperity is so simple and has been repeated so many times, it’s almost not worth addressing anymore. Yet every year, some ill-informed politician comes out loudly proclaiming that higher wages mandated by the government will help the poor and reduce income inequality, so apparently we have to keep going down this road until it sinks in.

Tick Tock... Tick Tock... Tick Tock...

On the surface, today's Personal Income and Savings data was not pretty: with Incomes and Spending both rising at 0.1% in July, both missed the expected growth rate of 0.2% and 0.3% respectively. This also meant that the US consumer's savings rate was unchanged at 4.4% in the month, and the downtrend from recent highs continues as more and more of the savings buffer has to be depleted. But it was once again below the headlines that the truly ugly data lay. A quick look at the components of income showed something very disturbing. After holding relatively firm for the past five months (excluding the violent swings surrounding the 2012 year end accelerated bonus payouts), compensation of employees - the core component of personal income - tumbled by $21.9 billion. This was the biggest monthly slide since May 2012, and as the chart below shows, the downtrend in sequential wage growth has now resulted in a sequential decline in wages.

The Germans "haven't considered any military participation... and are still not doing so." The Brits unexpectedly voted 'not' to join Obama in an attack on Syria , with Cameron adding that he didn't think "it's a question of having to aplogize" to Obama. But Obama can rest assured as the French remains undeterred. After France refused to join the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, but was quickly aided by the US in the military intervention against Islamist militants in Mali earlier this year, Hollande is vehement of the need to "punish" Damascus, "France will participate. It is ready." Sounds like a resounding 'we're in,' right? It seems Hollande is dead set on lower French unemployment... by making every jobless person a soldier in Syria (packing at least one backup white flag of surrender). But, don't get too excited since, with lukewarm public support, Hollande has said he will summon the French parliament to vote on the debate... on September 4th (no rush...).

Europe may be a union, but when it comes to the distribution of unemployment rates across its 27 member nations (and as of July 1 with the addition of Croatia, 28), it is anything but.

• Al-Qaeda Links Cloud Syria as U.S. Seeks Clarity on Rebels (BBG)
• Administration Tells Lawmakers of Evidence Linking Assad to Attack (WSJ)
• Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper to publish numbers of secret spying orders (CBS)
• U.S., Switzerland strike bank deal over tax evasion (Reuters)
• Another Budget Deal Bites the Dust (WSJ)
• Contemplating Summers Drives Investors to Seek Beltway Expertise (BBG)
• Austerity Test Looms in Australia as Abbott Pledges Cuts (BBG)
• Gay Spouses in All States Now Married Under U.S. Tax Law (BBG)
• Shadow banks face limits to securities trading (FT)
• EU's Rehn sees European recovery strengthening in 2014 (Reuters) ... or 2015... or 2022... or never?

Overnight, the market continued to digest news out of the UK that the formerly solid pro-war alliance has splintered following a historic vote by the House of Commons, leaving Obama to "go it alone." The result was a rather sizable slamdown in both crude and gold, accelerating as Europe opened for trading, and pushing gold back under $1400. This happened even as data out of Europe showed that European unemployment remained at a record high 12.1%, while inflation missed expectations and printed at 1.3%, or below 2% for the seventh month. Earlier in the session, headline data out of Japan showed that inflation had risen at the fastest pace since 2008. However, before the deflation monster is proclaimed dead, the core-core figure (excluding foods and energy) of the Tokyo CPI was down 0.4% yoy, unchanged since June for three months, suggesting that prices are still largely driven by energy-related costs. In other words cost-push inflation is rampant, which is the worst possible scenario and means the BOJ's QE is going to all the wrong place.