Archive - Jan 21, 2014 - Story

The most notable feature of today's set of numbers is the IMF's forecast of world trade. In a word: it is crashing. Consider that 2013 world trade was expected to grow by 5.6% in April 2012. Now: it is more than 50% lower at just 2.7%! Yet what is truly hilarious and certainly head scratching, is that somehow the IMF now anticipates a pick up in global growth in 2014 from its previous forecast of 3.6% to 3.7%, even as global trade is revised lower once more to the lowest prediction for 2014:, and currently stands at just 4.5% compared to 4.9% in October 2013 and 5.5% a year ago (it goes without saying that the final global trade number for 2014 will be well lower than the IMF's optimistic forecast). How global GDP is expected to grow on the margin compared to previous forecasts even as trade contracts is anyone's guess...

It appears the early (pre-market) strength in US equities provided just the right amount of stop-hunting room for longs to cover and sellers to re-appear as the S&P 500 tested up towards record highs (and unch year-to-date). US equities ran away from their JPY-related proxy briefly but have collapsed back down to it now as perhaps the tell was a push higher in VIX right from the open. VIX rose over 13% briefly - its highest in a week - as US equities (notably the Dow with no support from Visa or American Express to save its skin) tumbled. Treasuries have ben rallying since 0600ET - about the same time gold and silver were slammed. Precious metals are rallying admirably off the lows as stocks tumble (and the USD is unch on the day now)

Despite much hope that the current breakout of the markets is the beginning of a new secular "bull" market - the economic and fundamental variables suggest otherwise. Valuations and sentiment are at very elevated levels which is the opposite of what has been seen previously. Interest rates, inflation, wages and savings rates are all at historically low levels which are normally seen at the end of secular bull market periods. Lastly, the consumer, the main driver of the economy, will not be able to again become a significantly larger chunk of the economy than they are today as the fundamental capacity to releverage to similar extremes is no longer available.

The soap opera that just won't end... won't end. After last week's collapse in the price of Nuskin, which dragged down the price of Herbalife, there were some rumors that Ackman's calls for a collapse of one of the best performing stocks of 2013 may finally come true. Not so if Barclays has anything to say about it. Moments ago the British bank reported that it is raising its price target on HLF from $78 to $94, and anticipates some 34% upside from current levels.  From the just released report: "Our new EPS also reflects a large stock buyback. HLF has said it was comfortable with leverage of 2.5x, which would permit it to repurchase stock worth about $1.5bn ($1.2bn from new debt, $0.3bn from cash). HLF has many ways to execute a buyback: dutch tender, ASR, or enhanced open market purchases, but right now it is in a blackout period following YE13. We assume the stock is repurchased at prices of $80 (1Q14) and $85 (2Q14), leading to 18.4mn shares being retired. Our price target rises to $94 from $78, which represents 15.0x our new FY14 EPS of $6.27 vs 13.8x our old $5.65. We maintain our OW rating." Cue some more theta.

Gross: “Give me a double shot,” global mkts said to its Fed & BOJ bartenders. Can we sober up on a single jigger of saké? I doubt it.

— PIMCO (@PIMCO) January 21, 2014

In a letter posted moments ago on Hvst.com, activist Dan Loeb announced that currently the largest investment of his Third Point is Dow Chemical, where he proceeds to use the usual hack-attack "spin off" proposal , and urges Dow to sell its upstream and downstream Petrochemical businesses (as Dow Petchem Co), about which it says, "the benefits from a spin-off far outweigh the supposed integration benefits." The reason: "Dow shares have woefully underperformed over the last decade, generating a return of 46% compared to a 199% return for the S&P 500 Chemicals... in April 1999 an investor could have purchased Dow shares for the same price that they trade at today." Now imagine where those shares would trade without $10 trillion in liquidity pumped by the central banks. We wish Loeb all the best: recall that precisely this strategy did not quite work out with Sony. The good news: George Clooney will hardly give a rat's ass what Dan Loeb does with some obscure "chemical" company, and thus Loeb's invites to the Hollywood party circuit are secure.

UPDATE: Some chatter that the earlier drop occurred around a story on the overhauling the London Gold fix (amid all the manipulation talk).

With no apparent news - who needs news - the precious metals market participants have decided that now is the time to sell, sell, sell in huge volume and all of a sudden... Gold is down 1.3% - its biggest drop in a month; and silver is down 2.8% - its biggest drop in 5 weeks. Gold has dropped back down to test its 50DMA and silver has crossed back down through it. Bonds are modestly bid, stocks ar enot moving on this collapse and the USD is hardly budging.

The Syrian peace talks - much heralded by investors and politicians worldwide as a brave step towards a better future - are on the ropes this morning. Following the UN acquiescence to the US demand that they rescind Iran's invite to the so-called Geneva II conference,and yet another suicide bombing in Lebanon, this morning's incredible SNAFU is thanks to the Greeks:

• GREECE REFUSES TO REFUEL SYRIAN GENEVA TEAM AIRCRAFT: SYRIA TV
• SYRIAN AIRCRAFT DELAY CANCELS MEETING WITH UN’S BAN: STATE TV

The peace accord set to begin tomorrow will be delayed and are in further jeopardy as CNN reports further evidence of Syrian President al-Assad systematically killing and torturng around 11,000 people.

The last time we pointed out an ECB bond sterilization failure as part of its legacy SNP program was on December 30 of last year (the third in a row), when a liquidity glut led to the biggest sterilization shortfall, one amounting to €39 billion, when only 89 banks submit bids to absorb paper in exchange for a paltry tip. Moments ago, the ECB reported that in just the third such sterilization auction of the new year there was once again a failure to absorb all the €177.5 billion in outstanding toxic peripheral bonds, when an impressive 126 bidders showed up and yet were only able to generate only €152.1 billion in bids, leaving a €25 billion shortfall.

S&P filed a declaration of McGraw yesterday in federal court in Santa Ana, California, as part of a request to force the U.S. to hand over potential evidence the company says will support its claim that the government filed a fraud lawsuit against it last year in retaliation for its downgrade of the U.S. debt two years earlier. In his court statement, McGraw said Geithner called him on Aug. 8, 2011, after S&P was the only credit ratings company to downgrade the U.S. debt. Geithner, McGraw said, told him that S&P would be held accountable for the downgrade. Government officials have said the downgrade was based on an error by S&P. “S&P’s conduct would be looked at very carefully,” Geithner told McGraw according to the filing. “Such behavior would not occur, he said, without a response from the government."

• Hilsenrath: Next Cut in Fed Bond Buys Looms - Reduction to $65 Billion Could Be Announced on Jan. 29 (WSJ)
• China Workforce Slide Robs Xi of Growth Engine (BBG)
• Obama pulls the race card: Obama Says Race May Blunt Poll Standing in Interview (BBG)
• Chinese firm's IPO deal switches banks as chairman's daughter moves from JPMorgan to UBS (SCMP)
• China and Russia may hold joint naval drill in the Mediterranean (RT)
• Iran invite to Syria talks withdrawn after boycott threat (Reuters)
• Seven Chinese IPOs Halt Trading After 44 Percent Share  (BBG)
• U.S. military says readying plans for Olympic security assistance (Reuters)
• Thank you Bernanke: Investors Most Upbeat in 5 Years With Record 59% Bullish in Poll (BBG)
• From His Refuge in the Poconos, Reclusive Imam Fethullah Gulen Roils Turkey (WSJ)

One of the bigger stories overnight is Hilsenrath's latest communication from the Fed which once again simply paraphrases the status quo opinion, namely which is that the Fed will taper by another $10 billion on January 29, reducing the total monthly flow to $65 billion. "The Federal Reserve is on track to trim its bond-buying program for the second time in six weeks as a lackluster December jobs report failed to diminish the central bank's expectations for solid U.S. economic growth this year, according to interviews with officials and their public comments." Of course, should the Fed not do that, as the Hilsenrath turned to Hilsen-wrath after all those Taper rumors in September ended up being one giant dud, one can once and for all completely ignore the WSJ reporter, who will have lost all his Fed sources and is now merely an echo chamber of consensus. What is notable is that the result of the latest mouthpiece effort, the USD is stronger, which means USDJPY is higher, which means US equity futures are flying.... on less QE to be announced. We eagerly await for this particular correlation pair to finally flip. The other big story, of course, is the already noted well-telegraphed in advance PBOC liquidity injection ahead of the Chinese Lunar New Year, and ahead of a potential January 31 Trust default which will certainly shake the foundations of the Chinese shadow banking system to the core. Not helping nerves was last night's announcement by Zhang Ming, a researcher and director of the international investment department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, that "trusts and shadow banking will see defaults this year, and this is a good thing." Let's circle back in 6 months to see just how good it is.