Archive - Aug 21, 2015 - Story

Central bankers are watching Marx's dictum all that is solid melts into air play out in global stock markets with a terror informed by the scalding memories of 2008's global financial meltdown.  The herd must be turned away from selling by any means available, and at this point, that means coordinated buying by all the world's Plunge Protection Teams.

Carnage - everywhere. A surging EUR - as CNH carry traders unwind en masse - has led to an unwind across most risky assets in Europe. This week saw EuroStoxx 600 - the broad index - crash almost 6%, its biggest drop since September 2011. Perhaps most stunningly, Germany's DAX was the biggest loser - collapsing 7.4% on the week. European bonds are are also seeing risk increase dramatically with Portugal and Italy worst (aside from Greece's blowout). Europe's VIX topped 30 this week, as US VIX surges.

The S&P 500 index has broken below the crucial psychological 2,000 level for the first time since late January. This is the biggest collapse in stocks since June 2013 (bigger than October's plunge - which was only rescued by Bullard's threat of QE4). What is perhaps most worrisome for the trend-followers - the S&P is now down year-over-year for the first time since May 2012... which once again brought The Fed out with moar QE.

"I have learnt from history that it is very hard working out what the trigger is. In 2008, it was the collapse of Lehman Brothers that triggered a credit crunch. Now it could be a major event in Turkey or a default of the Brazilian oil company Petrobras or some event in Malaysia. But if I have to pick one I would say it is Turkey introducing capital controls. Such controls will mean that Turkey will not pay back principals amounting to 400 Bio. $ and the interests on it." - Russell Napier

"Music streaming market leader Spotify has decided that it wants to know a lot more about you. It wants to be able to access the sensor information on your phone so it can determine whether you’re walking, running or standing still. It wants to know your GPS coordinates, grab photos from your phone and look through your contacts too. And it may share that information with its partners, so a whole load of companies could know exactly where you are and what you’re up to."

Members of Syriza's Left Coalition, led by Panagiotis Lafazanis who once plotted to storm the Greek mint, seize the country’s reserves, and arrest central bank governor Yannis Stournaras, have broken away and formed their own political party which they say will support Grexit and stand firm in the face of German "blackmail."

“August’s survey highlights a lack of growth momentum and continued weak price pressures across the U.S. manufacturing sector, which adds some fuel to the dovish argument as policymakers weigh up tightening policy in September. With the headline PMI swiftly losing ground after a modest rebound during July, the latest figure now points to the weakest overall pace of manufacturing growth for almost two years."

Somewhere Janet Yellen is smiling a "told you so" grin as she watches the "stretched valuations" of the Biotech index get slashed. Biotechs are now down 22% from the highs  - officially a bear market - and just broke the crucial 200-day moving average for the first time in 10 months...

Well that escalated quickly...

The carnage continues to roll around the world as Asia and Europe react to US weakness which reacted to China weakness and now US is retumbling on fresh China weakness as the global carry trade unwinds across every asset class...

Perhaps the most important price point in the entire equity market was broken today... The odds of the post-2009 bull market continuing unimpeded are now significantly reduced.

"SPOT GOLD: Runnin “Smack” Into Long Term Resistance: We turned supportive of gold several weeks ago rather publically [ZH: sic], but now gold in US dollar terms is running into what we fear shall be formidable resistance… with the margin clerks around the world looking to sell gold to raise liquidity as stocks come under very real pressure." - Dennis Gartman

Nestle has found itself more and more frequently in the glare of the California drought-shame spotlight than it would arguably care to be - though not frequently enough, apparently, for the megacorporation to have spontaneously sprouted a conscience.

What began in early June with a surprisingly strong showing at the ballot box for the pro-Kurdish HDP has now ended precisely where many knew it would: with new elections.