Archive - Jul 7, 2015 - Story

Greece (or China) matters again...

While the new Greek Finmin Euclid Tsakalotos is sweating to convince his peers at today's Brussels Eurogroup meeting, which was supposed to discuss the "latest" Greek proposal that the old, and rejected, Greek proposal is really Greece's best foot forward, a surprising development which will likely result in yet another very brief summit, his significantly more exciting, and polarizing, predecessor was just spotted in Athens having a far more enjoyable time.

While not predicting that Tehran and six world powers will strike a deal by the new July 10 deadline, a senior Iranian oil official says his country hopes to nearly double its crude exports immediately if and when sanctions are lifted and hopes that OPEC will accommodate this growth by capping production by the cartel’s other members. “We are like a pilot on the runway ready to take off,” Mansour Moazami, Iran’s deputy oil minister for planning and supervision, told The Wall Street Journal inTehran on July 5. “This is how the whole country is right now.”

1. A new program requiring very major structural reforms of the Greek side, and much larger than the last Juncker proposal.
2. Introduction of parallel currency, primarily through promissory IOU.
3. Controlled bankruptcy and leaving the euro

FX markets are roiling today, US and German bonds are surging (yields are tumbling), and European stock and bond markets are ugly again. Between all of this we are seeing 'jerky' moves in many disparate instruments as it appears margin calls are mounting and forced unwinds accelerate across markets, the latest of which is gold (and silver) which just saw someone decide to dump almost $1 billion notional instantly into the open market.

ECB’S RIMSEVICS SAYS INTRODUCTION OF ANOTHER CURRENCY IN GREECE IS MOST REALISTIC SCENARIO, MAY BE ONE LESS EURO ZONE MEMBER IN FUTURE

The US trade deficit increased from $40.7 bn to $41.8bn, slightly lower than expected. Impoorts fell a mere 0.1% (despite a record amount of imported auto parts) but exports fell 0.8% (driven by a decline in Aircraft sales), nudging GDP expectations lower. The trade deficit with China rose notably and exports to Europe dropped.

Overnight hope has faded and WTI crude prices have retumbled as Iran deal expectations rebuild and China economic collapse fears grow. The last few days have seen crude break crucial support levels and tumble to 3 month lows, down over 12% - the biggest losing streak since November. Credit risk for HY energy names is resurgent, crushing the mal-investment dream in a double-whammy for the industry as cost of capital rises and incomes shrink.

On the heels of Sunday’s referendum wherein Greeks essentially gave the greenlight for an unceremonious EMU exit should Europe decide to spurn the IMF and stick to a “no debt relief” policy for Athens, PM Alexis Tsipras and his newly-appointed finance minister Euclid Tsakalotos are making a final push to break the stalemate with creditors before the ATMs go dark and a supplier credit crunch creates widespread shortages of imported goods.

Today's "final" Eurogroup meeting is yet another "last" chance for Greece to stay in the Euro according to Greek headlines. The meeeting begins in minutes, at 12:30pm CET/7:30am Eastern so expect the usual torrent of "Greek deal" headlines which send the S&P surging followed by prompt denials which the S&P algo soundly ignore. By now the game is quite familiar to everyone.

• Greece faces last chance to stay in euro as cash runs out (Reuters)
• Tsipras Begins Brussels Campaign to Keep Greece Inside the Euro (BBG)
• Greek Crisis Shows How Germany’s Power Polarizes Europe (WSJ)
• Eurogroup Head Dijsselbloem Calls for ‘Credible’ Greece Package (BBG)
• Europe Not Playing ‘Domino Theory’ Leaves Markets Calm on Greece (BBG)
• China stocks fall again despite support measures (Reuters)
• Chinese Trading Suspensions Freeze $1.4 Trillion of Shares Amid Rout (BBG)
• Crude Creeps Higher After Downturn (WSJ)

When it comes to Greece, and Europe in general, "hope" continues to remain the driving strategy. As Bloomberg's Richard Breslow summarizes this morning, "if you were looking for a word to describe the general feeling of equity markets today, you might well pick hopeful. U.S. equity futures opened higher and have been up all day. European bourses opened cautiously     higher as they await word, any word, from the European finance ministers or more importantly, Chancellor Merkel. Equity markets will continue to be very reactive to European headlines, but so far, no news has been taken as a reason for hope." Which incidentally, has been the general investment case for the past 6 years: "hope" that central banks know what they are doing.