Archive - Jul 21, 2015 - Story

"The only thing we have to fear is the lack of fear itself..."

The one line item everyone looks for in every Greek forecast is what its debt will be now that reality is finally allowed to creep in. We have dutifully highlighted it on the chart below: it is now expected to hit 238% by 2018. But it was another number that caught our attention: Citi's estimate for Greek HICP (inflation) in 2017. 22.5%  In other words, Citi predicts that by 2017 Greece will have hyperinflation even if it remains in the Eurozone.

Surprise! Just days after the 'deal' to bring world peace a little closer amid much crowing by the Obama administration (ahead of Congress' 60-day decision process), Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday vowed to defy American policies in a speech punctuated by chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel". As Reuters reports, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the speech was "if it is the policy, it's very disturbing, it's very troubling," seemingly surprised at the rhetoric.

You don’t hear it much, but the S&P 500 has been a bit of a “One trick pony” in 2015. No, it isn’t the 4% weighting in Apple that makes it such; it is the combination of a 15% weighting in Health Care AND that sector’s 12.9% return year to date.  When you compare the S&P 500’s price return year to date of 3.37%, you can see that the Health Care sector’s contribution is essentially just over half the market’s price return for 2015 (12.9 times 15% is 1.90 of that 3.37). Layer on the fact that 5 of the 10 industry sectors in the S&P 500 are still down on the year: Materials (-2.7%), Industrials (-2.9%), Telecomm (-0.7%), Utilities (-8.6%) and Energy (-9.7%). 

In the latest example of what happens when circular funding schemes begin to trip over each other, National Bank of Greece has refused to participate in an auction for paper issued by the bailout fund which is set to recapitalize the Greek banking sector. 

President of Greek Banks Association Louka Katseli appealed at the citizens to return their money to the banks. “Banks are absolutely trustworthy,” Katseli told Mega TV, “Let’s all help our economy... If you take your money out of your chests and houses – which are not safe in any case – and deposit at banks, this will enhance liquidity.” Katseli’s appeal triggered laughter among Greeks with one exclaiming “Ah sure! Banks will never see my money again, I prefer to buy tonnes of peanuts with it.”

If the Fed is concerned that a rate hike cycle might exacerbate the supposed drag on the economy exerted by the strengthening dollar and that tightening when the rest of the world is immersed in competitive devaluation could create FX headwinds for US exports, then why not nominate a currency strategist to the Fed board to weigh in on the subject? Well, as it turns out, that’s precisely what the Obama administration did on Monday.

Over the last 5 years, rent costs in the city of Oakland have doubled. At $2,807 per month it more expensive to live in Oakland now than it was in SanFrancisco in 2012, so one would expect the city to have 'cleaned up', and 'be safer'? However, as SFGate reports, the city laid off 80 officers today to help eliminate a $30.5 million budget deficit, prompting the department to announce that officers would no longer be dispatched to take reports for most nonviolent crimes. "With current levels of staffing, we are unable to respond to many lower-priority calls," said Officer Jeff Thomason, a police spokesman.

California's gasoline price premium to the rest of the nation is the highest on record, according to Bloomberg data. This, as OilPrice's Andy Tully notes, is in large part because an Exxon Mobil Corp. refinery in Torrance has been out of commission since an explosion there in February, and the state’s environmental regulations are hampering the company’s efforts to quickly get it back to full production. This situation is not expected to improve by year-end.

The Euro is up 1.3% - the biggest jump in 6 weeks - as the US Dollar is weakening against all the majors (except cable). The USD Index is down almost 1%, its biggest drop in 7 weeks...

"The size of the required ‘upfront’ (i.e. to be introduced in 2016) principal haircut to be €110bn (60% of annual Greek nominal GDP in 2014). Note that we do not see much difference in an alternative scenario based on a ‘tranched’ principal haircut framework (of around €15bn per year), also starting in 2016. However, a ‘backloaded’ (i.e. to be introduced in 2022) approach relying on a single haircut would be more expensive, amounting to €130bn (72% of annual Greek nominal GDP in 2014)."

This charmed circle includes Google, Amazon, Baidu, Facebook, Saleforce.com, Netflix, Pandora, Tesla, LinkedIn, ServiceNow, Splunk, Workday, Ylep, Priceline, QLIK Technologies and Yandex. Taken altogether, their market cap clocked in at $1.3 trillion on Friday. That compares to just $21 billion of LTM net income for the entire index combined. The talking heads, of course, would urge not to be troubled. After all, what’s a 61X trailing PE among today’s leading tech growth companies?

"Lenders in general are increasing pressure on oil companies either to raise more equity or do some sort of transaction to pay down their credit lines and free up extra cash."

"There’s another redetermination cycle in the fall, And I’m not going to say likely but it’s possible we’ll be selectively downgrading some clients."