Archive - Aug 7, 2015 - Story

The chart below shows why a Fed rate hike hike in the coming months virtually assures a recession: in July, wages for non-supervisory workers failed to rise once again, increasing by a paltry 1.8% Y/Y after peaking at 2.0% in late 2014. Worse, the current trend suggest the record lows of 1.3% will be revisited in the coming months.

The S&P 500, having broken below its 200-day moving average again, has joined The Dow Transports, Dow Industrials, and Russell 2000 (small caps) in negative territory year-to-date...

Spot Silver prices are spiking this morning after an initial drop post-payrolls. The 2.9% jump, breaking back above $15, is the biggest daily jump since early May... This is happening as UK's Royal Mint releases 50,000 new GBP100 silver coins...having previously run out of supply to meet physical demand.

But but but... the smart men on TV said a) rate-hikes are priced-in, 2) rate-hikes are bullisher for stocks than rate-cuts (why would The Fed raise rates if everything was not awesome?), and thirdly) buy the dip! It appears The Fed knows it is going to need some ammo sooner rather than later... But it's not just the mega-caps, The Russell 2000 (small caps) has tumbled back into the red year-to-date...

Here is another, even more disturbing way of showing the "New Economy" - since December 2014, the US has lost 1.4 million manufacturing workers. These have been replaced almost one to one, with new waiters and bartenders. Win, win for everyone, especially the welfare state and of course, China.

Americans are finally driving more. Some of that comes from a better labor market. An additional piece stems from discretionary travel. And a final component is due to lower fuel costs. All those factors point to a better economic backdrop for the second half of 2015.  If the U.S. can’t generate better labor market and economic growth with these tailwinds, what will it take?

In a month in which the Establishment survey reported that 215K jobs were added, the Household survey was far less sanguine, estimating only 101K job gains in June after a drop of 56K in May. But the punchline emerged when looking at the age composition of the job winners... and losers. As we expected, more than all job gains, or 211,000 of the total, came in the 55 and over job category. Workers 16-24 lost a total of 8,000 jobs. And the worst hit were, who else, those in their prime, as the number of workers aged 25-54 dropped by another 131K.

As the USDollar surges post-payrolls, WTI Crude futures are re-tumbling (but but but energy stocks were up yesterday!!!). With a $43 handle, WTI does not have far to fall to new cycle lows... and that has spooked professionals in the credit markets (as opposed to the machines and amateurs in the momo stock markets) as Energy credit risk surges back to 1000bps once again...

In what was an "modestly" unpleasant July payrolls report, yet somewhat better than June's flagrant disappointment, the fact is that the number of Americans not in the labor force rose once again, this time by 144,000 to a record 93,770,000 million, with the result a participation rate of 62.6% which remains at a level more indicative of the September 1977 economy.

Update: Bonds are flattening dramatically as long end rallies

The 'good enough' jobs report is not what investors had been hoping for (despite reassurances that a 25bps rise is 'priced in'). Stocks, bonds, and PMs are down as the USD surges amid implied expectations that rate hikes are coming sooner...

In a somewhat antticlimatic report, moments ago the BLS reported that July nonfarm payrolls came in at 215K, modestly below the expected 225K and down from the upward revised June print of 231K, with the unemployment rate at 5.3%, in line with expectations. Overall, a number that was bad, but not bad enough to deter the Fed from hiking, if that is indeed what it plans on doing.

With the non-farm payroll report due in just 30 minutes, here is your last-stop summary of what Wall Street is expecting from today's most important data release.

GOP Presidential hopefuls expressed plenty of distaste for the Iran nuclear deal during last night’s debate, but it was the voice of a Democrat that mattered most on Thursday evening as Chuck Schumer, the influential Jewish Senator from New York, came out in opposition to the accord.

• July job gains may favor September interest rate rise (Reuters)
• It's all about Trump at raucous Republican debate (Reuters)
• The 5 Most Important Takeaways From the First Debate of 2016 (BBG)
• Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina wins the Web (Reuters)
• Hedge Fund Losses From Commodity Slump Sparking Investor Exodus (BBG)
• Winners and losers from the first Republican presidential debate (WaPo)
• Bush turns in workmanlike debate performance, but will it be enough? (Reuters)