Archive - Aug 25, 2015 - Story

Global markets are puking at the prospect of higher yields in the U.S. There are many reasons for global markets to melt down, but one that doesn't get enough attention is the strong dollar. In effect, global markets are telling the Federal Reserve: don't raise rates--the strong dollar is killing us.

The missing clue came from a report by SocGen's Wai Yao, who first summarized the total liquidity addition impact from today's rate hike as follows "the total amount of liquidity injected will be close to CNY700bn, or $106bn based on today's onshore exchange rate." And then she explained just why the PBOC was desperate to unlock this amount of liquidity: it had nothing to do with either the stock market, nor the economy, and everything to do with the PBOC's decision from two weeks ago to devalue the Yuan. To wit:" In perspective, the PBoC may have sold more official FX reserves than this amount since the currency regime change on 11 August."

"It's not necessarily out of control yet. But if they do not provide some stability pretty soon it will begin to affect not only the markets over there, but - as we saw today and somewhat last week - it affects markets all around the world. Financial Markets are correlated. We learned that back in 2008 When the fall of Lehman spread all around the globe."

The bubble headed bimbos and brainless stock touting twits will be in ecstasy today as the ever predictable rebound is under way. The market will soar by over 500 points at the opening as the excuse of the day is China’s desperate interest rate cut to try and stem their downward spiraling economy and markets. The Wall Street captured boob tube brigade will tell their almost non-existent viewership that all is well. The terrifying plunge is in the past. The economy is great. Housing is strong. Stocks are now a bargain. It’s the best time to buy. Now here are some facts...

While the western mainstream media meme is that "this is all China's fault" - despite the fact that the real break happened after the FOMC Minutes last week - Xinhua reports that China central bank blames wide-spread expectations of a Fed rate hike in September for the global market rout... demanding The Fed "remain patient."

While the "hedge fund" hotel strategy works on the way up, when everyone makes roughly the same profits, it is on the way down when these hedge fund hotels become "Hotel California" - hedge funds can check out, and sometimes they can even leave... with massive losses. According to a Bloomberg analysis, many of these hedge fund hotel stocks, or companies where hedge funds hold a combined stake of at least 25%, suffered declines of as much as 42 percent in the recent stock market rout.

It doesn’t happen too often, but occasionally we witness a true stock market “washout”. That is, a selloff marked by extremely one-sided (to the downside) trading action. Such days are exhibited by market participants that just want out at any price. The result is a day in which all market statistics are overwhelming skewed negatively. Such was the case yesterday, August 24. However, considering the selloff began with the major averages near their 52-week highs, a resumption in downside pressure would not be a surprise following whatever type of bounce materializes over the next few days or weeks.

Since 'everything is awesome' once again, it appears holding 'pet rocks' is no longer of any use... Gold futures have been hammered below their 50-day moving-average this morning as the USD rises...

The 3-month bounce in the Richmond Fed Manufacturing survey... is dead. From 13 in July, August saw it collapse to 0 (massivley missing expectations of a 10 print). This is the biggest absolute drop in the index since May 2006. Across the board, underlying factors crashed with Shipments plunging, New Orders cliff-diving, order backlogs disappearing and Capacity Utilization plunging. This is exactly what we would expect after a massive inventory build up that was not accompanied by a surge in sales... but the pundits stil proclaim "no signs of an imminent US recession."

The biggest surprise is today's new home sales data was not in the volumes of new homes sold, but the ongoing gaping divergence between volumes and prices. As we have shown previously, this record spread will have to close one way or another, and with the median new home sales price of $285,900 or virtually unchanged from a year ago, it would appear that new home buyers are finally starting to rebel against prices whose rise has far surpassed the increase in actual sales.

Hot on the heels of a 22-month low recorded by the latest flash Manufacturing PMI survey, August's preliminary Services PMI was slighlty better than expected but dipped from 55.7 to 55.2 - back towards the lowest levels of 2015. Under the surface things do not look great with New Business Volumes at their weakest since January amd Prices Charged tumbling to the lowest level since June 2013. As Markit notes, "underlying momentum within the U.S. economy had shifted down a gear even before the recent global market turmoil and escalating worries about China’s growth outlook gathered on the horizon."

Stocks remain green but the pre-open surge on the back of a China rate cut has been erased as USDJPY rolls over...

Yesterday's market tumble finally brought the S&P and Nasdaq alongside the Dow Jones into correction territory, send the broader index down 11% from its highs, even as a vast majority of S&P constituents already preceded the index and are either in correction or in bear market territory. And yet, following today's latest central bank intervention, this time in the long overdue Chinese interest rate cut (which will hardly have a lasting impact on either the economy or stock markets), the S&P correction may may prove to be short lived: S&P is poised to open about 4% higher, delivering the latest "Bullard" moment to the S&P, this time courtesy of China. Still, the question remains: was that it for the long overdue correction, and what comes next.