Archive - Nov 12, 2014 - Story

With Boehner and McConnell already out blasting Obama's headline-grabbing emissions-deal with China...

*OBAMA INTENDS TO 'DOUBLE DOWN' ON JOB-CRUSHING POLICIES; 'CRUSADE' AGAINST AFFORDABLE ENERGY: BOEHNER
*MCCONNELL SAYS OBAMA EMISSIONS TARGET 'UNREALISTIC'

We thought a look at the 'faux reality' of the agreement would help clarify the farce: In the "historic" U.S.-China climate agreement this week, Beijing simply reiterated previously announced targets.

Wholesales Inventories and Sales beat expectations (+0.3% and +0.2% respectively) but, thanks to significant downward revisions in August, hope for a Q3 GDP boost are dashed. Sales growth remains near 2014 lows and inventory growth hovers near 14 month lows. Inventories-to-Sales ratios were flat in September at 1.19 months. Petroleum inventories plunged 5.3% MoM and down 13.2% YoY - the largest since Jul 2009.

Rarely are we speechless, but this occasion, when UBS made $513,000 from just one fix, as the FCA's complaint against the criminal Swiss bank reveals, is the rare exception. "In the immediate aftermath of the ECB fix, UBS was congratulated on the success of its trading by Firms A, B and C (“hes sat back in his chaoir [sic]…feet on desk…announcing to desk…thats why i got the bonus pool” and “yeah made most peoples year”)."

The bottom line: $513,000 from one trade.

Having bounced modestly yesterday, EURCHF is testing new lows post its peg (at 1.2020 vs 1.20 peg) as the reality of the referendum on the "Save Our Swiss Gold" initiative starts to get priced in. The Swiss National Bank has decided to unleash some propaganda, as WSJ reports, Thomas Jordan, president of the Swiss National Bank, warned adoption of the so-called 'Save Our Swiss Gold' initiative would be a "fatal error of judgment." With the vote looming on Nov 30th, Jordan explains that maintaining stable prices would be harder to achieve if the call for gold repatriation and increased reserves is approved. The M.A.D. rhetoric has begun as not just stability but jobs are at stake, according to Jordan.

"The behaviour patterns in precious metals were somewhat similar to the behaviour patterns in foreign exchange," FINMA director Mark Branson said in a conference call with journalists. He said that as UBS has precious metals and foreign exchange desks under combined leadership, it was not surprising to find similar behaviour. "But we have also seen a clear attempt to manipulate fixes in the precious metal market."

As the West (US and its pressured allies) attempt to 'isolate' Russia more and more, the inevitable cornering further and further incentivizes Putin to develop alternatives to the status quo. In the past, western sanctioners have sabre-rattled cutting off Russian from SWIFT - the international inter-bank payment system - as a next step in squeezing the oligarchs into submission (though 'independent' SWIFT distanced itself from those calls). Now however, as RT reports, Russia intends to have its own international inter-bank system up and running by May 2015. The Central of Russia says it needs to speed up preparations for its version of SWIFT in case of possible ”challenges” from the West. If successful, this would pose a further challenge to the USD's reign as sanction blowback reverberates once again.

"FINMA has also instructed UBS to limit bonuses for traders of foreign exchange and precious metals to 200 percent of their base salary for two years."

The horror, the horror.

• Banks to Pay $3.3 Billion in FX-Manipulation Probe (BBG)
• Symbolic being the key word: U.S., China sign symbolic emissions plan, play down rivalry (Reuters)
• Europe (so really Russian sanctions) is the new "snow in the winter" - Carney Sees Europe Stagnation Impact as Growth Outlook Cut (BBG)
• Eurozone Industrial Output Points to Weak Third Quarter Growth (WSJ)
• Not everyone around Abe is insane: Kuroda Ally Flags Warning on Delaying Sales-Tax Increase (BBG)
• Hong Kong to scrap daily yuan conversion limit to boost stock investment (Reuters)
• Barclays Falls After FX Settlement Delay Reduces Discount (BBG)
• Some unhappy Yahoo investors asking AOL for rescue (Reuters)

As expected, the stench in market rigging, be it Libor, FX, gold or anything else, goes to the very top...

With the USDJPY repeatedly hitting 116.00 as a result of the same pair of headlines hitting either Reuters, the Nikkei or Sankei every 6 or so hours for the past 3 days, namely that Japan will delay its sales tax hike by almost two years, and that Abe is preparing early elections, perhaps the algos realized they were pricing in the same event about 4 times in one day, and unable to break the 7-year-high resistance level, slid dropping nearly 100 pips to just over 115 at least check, which may well be today's "tractor" level, which in turn has also dragged down both European stocks and US futures. But the thing that made the vacuum tubes really spark is that at a press conference yesterday in Beijing, Abe was quoted as saying that he "has never made any reference to the dissolution of parliament", this came after the chief cabinet secretary Suga saying that the decision on whether or not to go to the polls would be Abe’s only.