Archive - Apr 2014 - Story

In keeping with the tradition of Chinese data being fully Schrodingerized, not to mention completely goalseeked and fake, moments ago China reported that its GDP for the quarter which ended 15 days ago has not only been compiled and analyzed, but somehow once again it both beat and missed at the same time. It beat on a Year over Year basis rising 7.4%, just fractionally above the 7.3% expected, while at the same time it missed on a sequential basis with Q1 GDP growing 1.4% Q/Q, just below the 1.5% expected, suggesting the annualized Q/Q has slowed to a meager 5.7% - a number far below China's 7.0% minimum threshold target.

The Florida Panthers finished this season with the 2nd lowest points total in the NHL and drew the 2nd lowest average attendance of 14,200 fans per home game. The team is losing $25 million annually. All of this is the exact opposite situation of the team's owner - Vincent Viola of HFT firm Virtu Financial infamy. As Bloomberg reports, Viola, whose high-frequency trading firm plans to raise millions in an initial public offering next month, is seeking tax dollars to help cover the bills for the hockey team he bought six months ago. Viola asked lawmakers in South Florida’s Broward County to use $64 million in taxpayer funds for arena bond payments owed by the team. In addition to taking over bond payments, which would be made over the next 14 years, the team wants concessions that would cost county taxpayers another $14 million in the same period.

In all honesty, we were a little confused whether to call this Tuesday Humor or Tuesday Schizophrenia, because moments ago the biggest dove at the Fed, Minneapolis Fed's one-time converted uberhawk Kocherlakota (who recall fired his two biggest hawkish opponents at his regional Fed) just came up with the most idiotic, and hence hilarious, thing a president of the one institution whose only job is to devalue the fiat currency of the host nation can say:

• KOCHERLAKOTA SEES ‘REAL EROSION’ OF PEOPLE’S PURCHASING POWER

Yep - the biggest dove in the Fed - the only person who disagreed with the Fed's decision to continue tapering - is suddenly worried about the erosion in your purchasing power dear people. What nobility. What humanism.

In summary: someone, unclear who, operating through Belgium and most likely the Euroclear service (possible but unconfirmed), has added a record $141 billion in Treasurys since December, or the month in which Bernanke announced the start of the Taper, bringing the host's total to an unprecedented $341 billion!

As the second algo-crazy spike in stocks in 2 days draws to a close, it is perhaps worth considering BofAML's Macneil Curry's perspective on the S&P 500 - despite the potential for further near-term strength, equity gains are corrective and downside risk remain... or put a different way "sell the f##king rips." Just as growthless-ly, Curry advises 5s30s flatteners in Treasuries as the slowing trend is set to continue.

On the one year anniversary of the Boston Marathon Bombing (which oddly enough the NSA did not prevent, even before its expansive anti-terrorist exploits were revealed by Edward Snowden) it was practically unavoidable that there would be some echos of that tragic day. Sure enough as CBS reports, "the area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon was evacuated Tuesday night after two unattended backpacks were left at the finish line. Police tape has been put up around the photo bridge on Boylston Street. WBZ-TV photographers on scene say they saw a person with the backpack screaming “Boston Strong” before police cleared everyone from the area."

A day after Putin called Obama to warn him that only the US president can prevent bloodshed in Ukraine - something which Obama failed at based on this morning's reports out of east Ukraine - German Chancellor Angela Merkel had a follow up phone call with the Kremlin a few hours ago, in which Putin told her that "The sharp escalation of the conflict puts the country, in essence, on the verge of a civil war".

Today is tax day in the Land of the Free – the deadline for roughly 150 million individual tax returns to be filed. Of course, those who refuse will be hauled off to prison at the point of a gun (we’ve advanced beyond swords). And everybody knows it. It seems completely incongruent for a nation that is supposed to stand for the ideals of freedom and justice to be world famous for its medieval prosecution of tax policy. And there’s one clear example that we want to share with you today.

Because apparently all great socialist thinkers went to the same school:

VENEZUELA SHOULD OBTAIN MORE TAXES FROM WEALTHY, MADURO SAYS
MADURO SAYS HE PROPOSES FISCAL ‘REVOLUTION’

And, as Bloomberg reports, "I will call on the people to launch an economic offensive superior to the one in November and December"... "Economic actions to focus on production, supply and fair prices"

" The Korean authorities should limit foreign exchange intervention to the exceptional circumstances of disorderly market conditions" - US Treasury

The S&P 500 is down around 4% from its highs (outperforming the high-beta hangovers of Nasdaq and Russell 2000 that were down almost 10% from their highs at today's lows). But under the surface, the S&P is ugly with the 500 index members down 10.5% on average. 213 members of the S&P 500 are down over 10% (in correction mode). Only 72 member of the 500-stock index are 'beating' the index... this is not just a small-cap growth-hype selloff... it's spreading...

We previously noted that both beef and pork (courtesy of the affectionately named Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus) prices have been reaching new all time highs on an almost daily basis. It is time to update the chart. Below we show what a world in which the Fed is constantly lamenting the lack of inflation looks like for beef, pork and shrimp prices.

In the aftermath of the disastrous, for both the US and Saudi Arabia, false flag campaign to replace the Syrian regime with one which would be amenable to allowing a Qatari gas pipeline to pass underneath the Al-Qaeda rebel infested country, there were numerous rumors that the reign of Saudi's infamous former ambassador to the US and current intelligence chief, Prince Bandar "Bush" bin Sultan - the man who we suggested was the puppetmaster behind the entire failed operation - had come to an end. Some two months ago, Shia Post reported that "News sources announced that the chief of the Saudi spying apparatus Bandar bin Sultan has been dismissed." Moments ago, in a tersely worded statement from the Saudi Press Agency, it was indeed confirmed that, perhaps in response to his failed handling of the Syrian conflict, Prince Bandar has indeed been sacked.

In much of the world, small countries are hoping to retain their independence, whilst portions of larger countries are trying to establish their independence. Understandably, they're meeting with resistance, as it's usually the areas that are the net-contributors to the larger economy that seek independence, whilst the areas that are the net-recipients wish to take the conglomerate approach (and to continue to eat their neighbour's lunch). This is evident even in the US, where those states that are net-contributors are experiencing the same frustration as Venetians and are making noises about secession. And, although no major changes have taken place recently, early rumblings can be heard all over the world.

Another day, another epic ramp. Any "investor" watching the last two days of totally manic market behavior must be open-mouthed at the total lack of fundamental sanity behind any of the moves. Even the mainstream media is stunned by the moves embarrased into mere commentary and afraid to opine on any reason. The reason for today's rip - an economic assessment downgrade for Japan which smahed USDJPY higher and through magic of carry, lifted US equities. There was no let-up in Ukraine, no data to confirm growth hype, no US news... but the Russell and Nasdaq managed a 2.5% bounce in a stright line after the Japan headline. Away from the idiocy in stocks, precious metals were rammed lower early on but leaked back higher all day. The USD pushed higher but FX was relatively quiet aside from the idiotic moves in JPY. Treasuries rallied at the long-end on the day (despite the surge in stocks). "unrigged"