B+

Spanish stress test results are out. Surprise - Oliver Wyman's audit finds that Spanish banks have an approximate EUR60bn shortfall - as expected - see below for pass/fails.

• *SPAIN SAYS 7 BANKS HAVE NO CAPITAL NEEDS       :SAN SM, BBVA SM
• *SPAIN STRESS TESTS SHOW CAPITAL SHORTFALL OF EU59.3 BLN :SAN SM
• *SPAIN BANKS HAVE EU53.7 B CAPITAL SHORTFALL AFTER TAX IMPACT
• *BANKIA STRESS TEST SHORTFALL AFTER TAX EFFECT IS EU24.74 BLN
• *SANTANDER, BBVA, CAIXABANK, KUTXA PASS STRESS TEST      :SAN SM
• *SABADELL, BANKINTER, UNICAJA PASS STRESS TEST  :SAN SM, BBVA SM

The discrete needs are: Bankia: 24.7; Catalunya Caixa: 10.8; Novagalicia 7.2; Banco de Valencia: 3.5; Banco Popular 3.2; Banco Mare Nostrum: 2.2

Bizarrely, and even after slapping my screens several times to make sure things were working, real opening levels in EGBs very quite simply FLAT. All flat! Haven’t seen that in ages!

Had to slap my screens again tonight, given the tons of “unchanged” data in EGBs. Have decorrelated from equities, as has the USD (closing about unchanged).

In absence of really negative news, outside the heavier macro / sentiment data, the lukewarm Italian auction and US data, markets remained on a slight tentative rebound.

Will need to await further details and overnight analysis of the Spanish budget. Lots of reforms...

Hmm, and in how much time can all that be passed - if at all???

• Madrid Protesters March Again as Spain Braces for Cuts (Bloomberg)
• Euro Can Bear Fewer Members as Czech Leader Calls Greeks Victims (Bloomberg)
• Chinese Industrial Profits Fall 6.2% in Fifth Straight Drop (Bloomberg)
• China pours $58bn into money markets (FT)
• Beijing vows more measures on Diaoyu Islands (China Daily)
• Noda vows no compromise as Japan, China dig in on islands row (Reuters)
• Politico’s Paul Ryan Satire: The Joke’s on Them (Bloomberg)
• Electoral Drama Shifts to Ohio (WSJ)
• German opposition party targets banks (FT)
• Fed action triggers fear of new currency wars (FT)
• Ex-Credit Suisse CDO Boss Serageldin Is Arrested in U.K. (Bloomberg)
• Romney ‘I Dig It’ Trust Gives Heirs Triple Benefit (Bloomberg)

Lately, it has become particularly fashionable to bash private equity, especially among those workers in the employ of the state. The argument, in as much as capitalism can be summarized in one sentence, is that PE firms issue excess leverage, making bankruptcy inevitable (apparently those who buy the debt are unaware they will never get their money back), all the while cutting headcount to maximize cash flow (apparently the same PE firms don't realize that their investment will have the greatest terminal value to buyer if it has the highest possible growth potential, which means revenue and cashflow, which means proper CapEx investment, which means streamlined income statement, which means more efficient workers generating more profits, not less). The narrative ultimately culminates with some variation on a the theme that PE firms are responsible for offshoring jobs. While any of the above may be debated, and usually is especially by those who have absolutely no understanding of finance, one thing is certain: when it comes to bashing PE, America's public workers should be the last to have anything negative to say about Private Equity, and the capital markets in general. Why? Because when it comes to fulfilling those promises of a comfortable retirement with pensions and benefits paying out in perpetuity, always indexed for inflation, and otherwise fulfilling impossible dreams, who do America's public pension fund administrators go to? The very same private equity firms that have suddenly become outcast number 1.

Another fairly uninspiring day.

In absence of hard data, subject to rumours and sentiment, as well as sudden “squeezes” or “sell-offs”, albeit in very tight ranges.

Mood maybe less rainy then yesterday, but, call me a bear, it doesn’t feel very convincing out there.

As the media distorts the truth and the facts, I fight back with the Anti RDFun (Reality Distortion Field Ultimate Nullifier). Apple is outgunned in the data space, its maps product is simply the first in a long string of mishaps as it tries to transform from hardware to data, like Google.

Risk-averse sentiment was prevalent throughout the session, after both Spain and Italy sold bonds/T-bills, which attracted weak bidding and hence saw lower than exp. b/c. In addition to that, yields on 3m and 6m Spanish T-bills were higher, with some pointing to the fact that the Treasury has been forced to step up its T-bill issuance to meet its zero net funding target (higher supply). As a result, peripheral bond yield spreads are wider by around 9bps, with Italian bonds underperforming given the supply later on in the week. This underperformance was also evident in the equity space, where the domestic stock exchange is seen lower by over 1%, compared to DAX which is only lower by 0.4%. In the FX space, firmer USD weighed on both EUR/USD and GBP/USD, both trading in close proximity to intraday option expiry levels.

Hitting the tape are leaked detailes obtained by Bloomberg detailing what the ESM will focus on as it is unleashed on the world. From Bloomberg: Europe’s permanent rescue fund will invest the core of its assets in AA or higher-rated debt issued by governments, central banks, euro-area agencies and international institutions, with the power to diversify into bank debt as it grows, its draft investment guidelines say, Bloomberg’s Brian Parkin, Rebecca Christie and James G. Neuger report. The ESM will keep at least 15% of its maximum lending volume, or EU75b out of an ultimate EU500b, in “assets of the highest creditworthiness” as per guidelines obtained by Bloomberg News. Does that mean all countries rated AA or below are ineligible? Because that pretty much invalidates Spain and Italy? Or is the draft going to be releaked with the AA revised to A, then to B then to CCC until finally the EURUSD sustains an upward move for at least 10 pips? But the funniest headline of all:

• ESM PLANS `PLAIN VANILLA' BORROWING STRATEGY TO LURE INVESTORS 

Lure is truly such a great word here. After all nobody will ever get their money back.

Uninspiring day. Light ROff, but nothing major.

In absence of hard data, subject to rumours and sentiment. 

Rainy.

• Obama, Romney tiptoe around housing morass as they woo voters (Reuters) ... just as ZH expected
• Poll Finds Obama in Better Shape Than Any Nominee Since Clinton (Bloomberg)
• Romney on Offense, Says Obama Can’t Help Middle Class (Bloomberg)
• Fed’s Fisher Says U.S. Inflation Expectations Rising (Bloomberg)
• Citigroup Warns Irish Investors to Plan for Losses (Bloomberg)
• Central Banks Flex Muscles (WSJ)
• China says U.S. auto trade complaint driven by election race (Reuters)
• Brussels sidesteps China trade dispute (FT)
• How misstep over trading fractions wounded ICAP's EBS (Reuters)
• Ex-CME programmer pleads guilty to trade secret theft (Reuters)
• Income squeeze will persist, says BoE (FT)
• South African miners return to work, unrest rumbles on (Reuters)

Retail has long been a source of both low-skill entry-level jobs and well-paid careers. Yes, people love to browse and stroll down the mall or shopping district, and this social/novelty function will continue. But can retailers make money off of people browsing? If retail contracts, what does this do to skyhigh commercial property valuations? The same can be asked of cubicle-farm office parks. As telecommuting and contract labor expand, the need for energy-wasting office parks and long commutes will also decline. Technology cannot be stopped, and neither can the drive to cut costs by cutting what can be cut, labor. We can legislate certain aspects of how technology is used, and fiddle with tax incentives and trade restrictions, but we cannot make people drive somewhere to go shopping or stop the 3-D printing/fabrication revolution. What all this calls into question is the entire financialization (debt-based)-consumerist model of "growth" and employment. Decades ago, young men were employed to pump gasoline at gas stations; these jobs all went away as self-service fueling became the norm. At least one state (Oregon, I believe) mandates that all gasoline is pumped by an employee of the station. This rule has created hundreds of jobs that are not necessary in terms of market-demand but that are certainly welcome.

The great day has come and gone when the Fed would once again ride to the action, not daring to be left behind by the ECB’s perverse vaunting of its new ‘unlimited’ programme of bond purchases. But the few, brief sentences from Bernanke contain such a miasma of error that it is hard to know where to begin if we are to restore a fresh breeze of economic rationale to this swamp of non sequiturs and wilful misunderstandings. It is not enough that crude, Krugmanite Keynesianism clings to the cheap parlour trick of using money illusion to fool unemployed wage-earners into lowering the reservation price of their labour, but now we must battle against banal, Bernankite Bubble-blowing – the hope that money illusion will fool cash-constrained asset owners instead. It is not only that Bernanke’s policies will inevitably assist the zombie companies and the obsolescent industries to absorb scarce resources (not least on bank balance sheets) to a much greater degree than is justified, there is also the danger that lax money misleads even today’s supramarginal businesses into over-estimating the depth and duration of demand for their products, ultimately undermining many otherwise sound undertakings and reducing these, too, when the cycle next turns, to the ranks of the Living Dead.

One of the more curious conspiracy theories that has appeared in the past 24 hours, or since yesterday's so far unexplained crude oil flash crash without a subsequent corresponding jump (those only happen in equities it appears), is that Saudi Arabia has decided to come to the aid of the Obama administration two months ahead of the election, and to pump enough crude into the system to offset the pricing in of the inevitable liquidity tsunami from the now global QEternity, or at least until such time as the election passes. Partially confirming this speculation was the FT's report that Saudi Arabia has offered its main customers in the US, Europe and Asia extra oil supplies through the end of the year, a sign the world’s largest exporter is worried about the impact of rising prices on the global economy. Reuters adds, citing a Gulf source that "We would like to see the price coming down and we are working to bring it down... The price now, we believe is high, and it's not supported by fundamentals at all. It's just speculation and geopolitics." "The majority of OPEC countries prefer around $100, including Saudi Arabia," he said, adding that $100 per barrel was "right now the ideal price for the majority of OPEC countries ... the majority is all except one or two." "We think the oil market is well balanced," the Gulf source added. This comes a day after fellow OPEC member Iran, whose output has been substantially curtailed in recent months as a result of a global embargo (with notable exemptions for key Iran clients India and China) made it clear that it would be happy with crude rising to $150 for obvious reasons. Obviously Iran is in the "minority" according to the Gulf source. And while the reasoning for Saudi Arabia to do all in its power to promote amicable relations with America's leadership is easily explainable, it is far less clear if Saudi Arabia can actually do much if anything to really prop up crude production, prop down the price of crude and gas at the pump, and support Obama's reelection chances.

Lot of noon / afternoon official chatter on the wires, but eventually nothing highly conclusive.

And oops… I still have the Blues.