Archive - Jul 2015 - Story

The S&P 500 and Russell 2000 are very close to joining the Dow Industrials and Transports in negative territory for the year. The S&P 500, which has fallen 5 straight days for the first time since January, is now back below its 200DMA, having swung from euphoric "Greece is fixed" exuberant record highs in just a week of rising volume. The Dow is the furthest below its 200DMA since October's Jim Bullard-rescued dump. Treasury yields are plunging.

There is now a new symbol for Greece's perpetual debt servitude...

Last week was a complete dead zone for US macro, however with the peak of Q2 earnings season there was more than enough commotion for everyone. This week US macro starts to pick up again, with Durable Goods on Monday, followed by Case Shiller, Q2 GDP, the Chicago PMI, various consumer confidence indices, and of course, the July FOMC meeting on Wednesday.

What authorities have created is a facsimile of a market. It looks like a market on the surface, but only gamblers and fools risk capital in markets based on false information.

Durable Goods new orders has now fallen 5 months in a row (after revisions) flashing a orangey/red recession warning. After 2 weak months, Durable Goods bounced more than expected in June (+3.4% vs +3.2% exp) - though non-seasonally-adjusted dropped 3.1% MoM. There was an  unexpected drop in Capital Goods Shipments non-defense Ex-Air which fell 0.1% (against expectations of a 0.6% rise), but mosty worrying is that Core CapEx collapsed 6.6% YoY - the second biggest decline since Lehman.

On the heels of a veritable bloodbath in Chinese equities overnight which saw the SHCOMP slide a harrowing 8.5%, the entire world is now beginning to take a hard look at the notion that dramatic bouts of selling pressure are aggravated and perhaps triggered by an unwind in the multiple backdoor margin lending channels that allowed investors to skirt official restrictions on leverage and helped to drive the market’s world-beating rally. Here is the complete guide to China's CNY4 trillion shadow margin edifice.

• Chinese shares tumble 8.5 percent in biggest one-day drop since 2007 (Reuters)
• Japan’s Economy Shrank Last Quarter, Top Forecaster Says (BBG)
• Creditor teams in Athens to work on third bailout (AFP)
• Tsipras’s Paradox Is Six Months of Pain and Enduring Popularity (BBG)
• Goldman-Backed Instant Messaging Company Seeks New Investment (WSJ)
• Best Buy will sell the Apple Watch on August 7th (Engadget) - when is it coming to Dollar General?
• Senate votes to revive Ex-Im (Hill)
• U.S.-Turkey Deal Paves Way to Set Up Buffer Zone in Northern Syria (WSJ)

It all started in China, where as we noted previously, the Shanghai Composite plunged by 8.5% in closing hour, suffering its biggest one day drop since February 2007 and the second biggest in history. The Hang Seng, while spared the worst of the drubbing, was also down 3.1%. There were numerous theories about the risk off catalyst, including fears the PPT was gradually being withdrawn, a decline in industrial profits, as well as an influx in IPOs which drained liquidity from the market. At the same time, Nikkei 225 (-0.95%) and ASX 200 (-0.16%) traded in negative territory underpinned by softness in commodity prices.

If the neoconservatives have their way again, US ground troops will reoccupy Iraq, the US military will take out Syria’s secular government (likely helping Al Qaeda and the Islamic State take over), and the US Congress will not only kill the Iran nuclear deal but follow that with a massive increase in military spending.  In other words, more and more fires of Imperial “regime change” abroad even as the last embers of the American Republic die at home. Much of this “strategy” is personified by a single Washington power couple...

Amid the 16 (yes sixteen!) candidates for Republican Presidential nominee, there is one, and only one, that stands above the rest in terms of sheer un-filtered, un-political, and some would say un-presidential outspoken-ness. In an oustanding aggregation of abuse, The Hill has documented Donald Trump's Top 30 insults (so far in the 2016 campaign alone).

Despite all her proclamations of new fairness doctrines, false promises of her truthfulness, and exclamations of 'everyday Americanism' Hillary Rodham Clinton is seeing her favorability ratings collapse. As populist as she dares to be, in the face of her donating captors, it appears the everyday American just isn't buying it as Gallup reports just 43% Americans view her favorably (down from 66% just a few years ago) while none other than Bernie Sanders is bounding up the popularity ladder, rising from 12% to 24% favorability in recent weeks.

Following the weakness in Friday's afternoon (China) session, tonight's open is decidedly shaky as Shanghai Composite open down over 2% and CSI-300 (China's S&P 500) is now down over 5%. This follows a year-over-year drop in China Industrial profits (-0.3%), the first since March as the small bounce in April and May is now done. Commodities are lower and silver saw a minor flash-crash shortlty after China opened.