Archive - Jun 2014 - Story

Who could have seen that coming? The IMF has slashed US growth expectations for 2014 from 2.8% to 2.0% (with 2015 hockey-sticking back to 3.0%) due to weather. The IMF also warned the Fed should be "mindful of financial stability," but that is not the most surprising aspect of the IMF's mea culpa as they plunge head first into policy decisions...

*IMF RECOMMENDS RAISING U.S. MINIMUM WAGE, ADDITIONAL U.S. INVESTMENT IN INFRASTRUCTURE, & LIMITING OR ENDING ITEMIZED TAX DEDUCTIONS

One wonders, rhetorically of course, if the IMF also pulled a "Polish Central Bank" and suggested that the US fire all Republicans in return for this suggestion; and we wonder how El-Nino is "priced-in" to this forecast.

Last month's collapse in Industrial Production was handily revised up to a less taper-terrifying 0.3% drop (from 0.6%) and May saw the production gauge rise 0.6% vs 0.5% expectation for a notably unimpressive 'surge' post weather problems. Utilities fell modestly (as one would expect) but mining and manufacturing picked up slightly. Perhaps most notably, while total vehicle production rose, Auto production dropped for the 3rd month in a row as the Feb/March surge slows.

With everyone expecting "Belgian" US Treasury holdings to surge by another inexplicable double-digit billion amount, and surpass $400 billion in what has been the most aggressive, and secretive, accumulation of TSYs by an unknown third-party using the Belgian jurisdiction as venue via Euroclear, the April holdings of the small European country posted their first drop since August. According to the TIC data released moments ago, total "Belgium" holdings - the third largest after China and Japan - declined by $15 billion in April, to a new grand total of $366 billion.

Following the arrival of the US aircraft carrier CVN-77, the ironically named George H.W. Bush, in the Persian Gulf, another US warship, LPD-19, the USS Mesa Verde also entered the Persian Gulf moments ago. Its cargo: some 550 US marines.

This week brings some key events and releases in DMs, including US FOMC (Goldman expects $10bn tapering, in line with consensus), IP, CPI, and Philly Fed (expect 13.5), EA final May CPI (expect 0.50%), and MP decisions in Norway and Switzerland (expect no change in either).

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Empire Fed jumped to 19.28, notably better than the 15.00 expectation and reached highs not seen since June 2010, and up from the 19.01 last month. It doesn't get much better than that - even in the V-shaped recovery off the recession lows: if only sentiment surveys were the same as hard data - the US recovery would never be stronger. Alas, despite all this exuberant cycle high-ness - if only in the eyes of beholders, and certainly not in Q1 US GDP of -2.0%, the number of employees index tumbles from 20.88 to 10.75 and worse still the forward-looking index dropped after 3 months of gains.  However, the worst news, comes for those who continue to, incorrectly, predict a CapEx renaissance: The capital expenditures index fell for a second consecutive month, dropping to 11.8, and the lowest since February.

"Today, from 10:00 a.m. Moscow time, Gazprom, according to the existing contract, moved Naftogaz to prepayment for gas supplies ... Starting today, the Ukrainian company will only get the Russian gas it has paid for."

Another conspiracy "theory" becomes conspiracy "fact" as The FT reports "a cluster of central banking investors has become major players on world equity markets." The report, to be published this week by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF), confirms $29.1tn in market investments, held by 400 public sector institutions in 162 countries, which "could potentially contribute to overheated asset prices." China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange has become “the world’s largest public sector holder of equities”, according to officials, and we suspect the Fed is close behind (courtesy of more levered positions at Citadel), as the world's banks try to diversify themselves and "counters the monopoly power of the dollar." Which leaves us wondering where are the central bank 13Fs?

• Iraq Army Tries to Roll Back Sunni Militants’ Advance (BBG)
• Starbucks to Subsidize Workers' Online Degrees (WSJ)
• ‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Calls Rich to Tax-Free Tropical Paradise (BBG)
• Medtronic Is Biggest Firm Yet to Renounce U.S. Tax Status (BBG), Medtronic to buy Covidien for $42.9 billion, rebase in Ireland (Reuters)
• Oil Topping $116 Seen Possible as Iraq Conflict Widens (BBG)
• Putin Seeks Paris Landmark as Hollande’s Russia Ties Defy Obama (BBG)
• GM Says It Has a Shield From Some Liability (WSJ)
• BOJ’s Bond Paralysis Seen Spreading Across Markets (BBG)

It's one of those days: despite the Iraq conflict spilling out of control and about to involve US drones and warplanes, despite China's naval conflict with Vietnam over an oil rig in disputed territory set to go "kinetic" at any moment, despite the Ukraine civil war having its deadliest day yet this weekend and adding insult to injury Russia halting gas supplies to Ukraine (letting Kiev and Berlin fight for the scraps), despite crude prices rising ever higher and about to unleash a "discretionary income" shockwave on America's summertime motorists, despite yet another massive tax inversion M&A deal in which the buyer has made abundantly clear its stock is overvalued and will be used as the purchasing currency, stocks are inexplicably not at all time highs this morning.

ISIS militants boasted on Twitter that they had executed 1,700 Iraqi government soldiers, posting gruesome photos to support their claim. If the claim is true, it would be the worst mass atrocity in either Syria or Iraq in recent years, surpassing even the chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian suburbs of Damascus last year, which killed 1,400 people and were attributed to the Syrian government.

As the 'negotiations' between Europe, Ukraine, and Russia were taking place this afternoon, technically unconfirmed reports of convoys of Russian military vehicles moving towards the Ukraine border were growing. As the 2amET gas-cut-off deadline looms, it appears Putin is mobilizing a significant force ahead of what will likely mean retaliatory actions by either Ukraine military forces or Ukraine militants. As InfoResist reports, up to 200 units are moving towards Ukraine from Kaluga and in the Rostov region, Russia.

About a month ago we showed photos of the Chinese police engaged in a drill designed to crush a "working class insurrection", in which the police did precisely what would be required to end a middle class rebellion. It made us wonder: what does China know that the US doesn't. As it turns out, nothing. Because long before China was practicing counter-riot ops using rubber bullets, all the way back in 2008, the US Department of Defense was conducting studies on the dynamics of civil unrest, and how the US military might best respond. The name of the project: "Minerva Research Initiative" and its role is to " “improve DoD’s basic understanding of the social, cultural, behavioral and political forces that shape regions of the world of strategic importance to the U.S." The premise behind Minerva is simple: study how violent political overthrow, aka mass civil breakdown, happens in the day and age of social networks, and be prepared to counteract it - by "targeting peaceful activities and protest movements" - when it finally reaches US shores.

Idiot central-planner and economist "justifications" for always being wrong aside, the reality is that El Nino is on its way even if the slowdown in the economy will be due to every other factor except the weather (start with the Fed) which just so happens is a "recurring" event. So upcoming GDP collapse (that nobody could have foreseen earlier, nobody, certainly not the Fed) notwithstanding, here is what one should really expect as a result of the unique weather formation which whose temperature and precipitation impacts across the United States occur during the cold half of the year, from October through March.

What do Scottish independence, UKIP, self-employment, cryptocurrencies and the black economy have in common? The neo-liberal establishment wont fix itself, so for those fed up with banging their heads against policy brickwalls, there’s only one direction. Separate.