Archive - May 2014 - Story

There can be little doubt that Thomas Piketty's new book Capital in the 21st Century has struck a nerve globally. In fact, the Piketty phenomenon (the economic equivalent to Beatlemania) has in some ways become a bigger story than the ideas themselves. However, the book's popularity is not at all surprising when you consider that its central premise: how radical wealth redistribution will create a better society, has always had its enthusiastic champions (many of whom instigated revolts and revolutions). What is surprising, however, is that the absurd ideas contained in the book could captivate so many supposedly intelligent people. 

It seems shorts keep covering and the Chinese keep buying (through Belgium of course - as they sell CNY, buy USD, and grab the extra yield on Treasuries). Despite stocks relative stability, 10Y yields have just hit 2.40% for the first time in over 11 months (as USDJPY broke down). It seems this morning's dismal GDP print was just enough to confirm the growth/inflation slowing meme (in bond investors' minds) and the yield curve is flattening even further...

Bottom line: someone is dead wrong on the economy, but we are glad that the weathermen formerly known as economists are putting all these timestamps out there in the public domain. Because we eagerly look forward to seeing just what the scapegoat will be when Q2 GDP mysteriously fails to soar to 4%. And judging by what the bond market is doing, the only place that may see 4% growth in Q2 is China (net of all the fabricated data of course).

"For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate," a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. "People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up." What’s worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years...

But it's the weather... nope... NAR blames excess inventory as giving people too much choice and slowing their purchasing decisions for the notable miss on both MoM and YoY sales. This is the 7th month in a row of declining YoY sales. The 0.4% rise MoM missed expectations of 1.0% as the pent-up demand from a cold winter appears to be missing in action. Of Course NAR is optimistic (but even they are cautious), "an uptrend in closed sales is expected, although some months will encounter a modest setback."

Despite record highs in stock markets and talking-heads explaining that a terrible Q1 GDP print is nothing to worry about, Bloomberg's Consumer Comfort index collapsed to its lowest level in 6 months as 'Buying Climate' collapsed and economic expectations plunged from 48 to 42.5 (7-month lows). Those earning over $100k are happy and comfort soared but the comfort of those earning under $40k plunged to new cycle lows. The Fed won't be happy... need S&P 2,200 for animal spirits to come back again...

Today is the day when economists weathermen everywhere jump the shark. Here's Goldman's Jan Hatzius: "Because of weaker inventory investment in Q1, we increased our Q2 GDP tracking estimate by two-tenths to 3.9%."

As if the official news that the US economy is just one quarter away from an official recession (and with just one month left in the second quarter that inventory restocking better be progressing at an epic pace) but don't worry - supposedly harsh weather somehow managed to wipe out $100 billion in economic growth from the initial forecast for Q1 GDP - here is some even worse news: if one excludes the artificial stimulus to the US economy generated from the Obamacare Q1 taxpayer-subsidized scramble, which resulted in a record surge in Healthcare services spending of $40 billion in the quarter, Q1 GDP would have contracted not by 1% but by 2%!

What do you do when GDP prints twice as bad as expected... buy stawks! And so it is that -1.0% GDP print for Q1 has been greeted with a buying drive in S&P 500 futures to lift it back near all-time record highs this morning. Gold, silver, and the USD are also rising.. and bond yields are rising very modestly.

Bottom line: for whatever reason, in Q1 the US economy contracted not only for the first time in three years, but at the fastest pace since Q1 of 2011. It probably snowed then too.

The flip-flopping noise of the initial claims data continues as last week's spike and miss is rebounded into this week's beat and drop. At 300k - down 27k from last week - initial claims are at their lowest since May 2007 - practically as good as it gets. Continuing claims continue to fall - now at 2.63 million - to the lowest in the cycle and lowest since Nov 2007. Continuing claims are falling at the fatest pace since 2010.

The essence of the U.S. economy is make it look good: never mind quality or long-term consequences, just make it look good today, this week, this month, this quarter: make the pink slime look like meat, make the company look profitable, make the low-quality product look good enough to close the sale, make the unemployment rate low enough to justify re-electing the toadies currently in power, make the body count of bad guys look good, and on and on--just makes the numbers look good now, the future will take care of itself. When rigged numbers are the basis of our success, we have failed.

Events in Ukraine may have been moved to the backburner because not only are they not impacting US equities but have somehow managed to push Russian stocks to pre-sanction highs, but that does not mean that there is any de-escalation in the self-proclaimed eastern regions of Donetsk and Slavyansk where fighting between pro-Russian groups and Kiev army rages on. The latest incident took place a little over an hour ago when Pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine shot down a military helicopter near Sloviansk, killing 14 people, the country's outgoing president says. This attack took place following a weekend of heavy fighting in Donetsk following a push against "terrorists" by the new president that left many rebel soldiers dead.  The helicopter was hit during heavy fighting between Sloviansk and Kramatorsk on Thursday after it had dropped off troops at a military base, reports said.

• Snowden: 'no relationship' with Russian government (Reuters)
• Bond Surge Worldwide Drives Index Yield to One-Year Low (BBG)
• Shares flirt with record highs on ECB easing bets (Reuters)
• Goldman Shuns Bonds Pimco’s Gross Favors in ‘New Neutral’  (BBG)
• Porn may be messing with your head (Reuters)
• Dish to Become Largest Company to Accept Bitcoin (AP)
• To Make a Killing on Wall Street, Start Meditating (BBG)
• Apple to get Beats, music mogul Iovine for $3 billion (Reuters)
• Fink Says Leveraged ETFs May ‘Blow Up’ Industry  (BBG)

The complete implosion in volume and vol, not to mention bond yields continues, and appears to have spilled over into events newsflow where overnight virtually nothing happened, or at least such is the algos' complete disregard for any real time headlines that as bond yields dropped to fresh record lows in many countries and the US 10Y sliding to a 2.3% handle, confused US equity futures have recouped almost all their losses from yesterday despite a USDJPY carry trade which has once again dropped to the 101.5 level, and are set for new record highs. Perhaps they are just waiting for today's downward revision in Q1 GDP to a negative print before blasting off on their way to Jeremy Grantham's 2,200 bubble peak after which Bernanke's Frankenstein market will finally, mercifully die.