Capital Markets

"A broad-based tax cut, for example, accommodated by a program of open-market purchases to alleviate any tendency for interest rates to increase, would almost certainly be an effective stimulant to consumption and hence to prices. Even if households decided not to increase consumption but instead re-balanced their portfolios by using their extra cash to acquire real and financial assets, the resulting increase in asset values would lower the cost of capital and improve the balance sheet positions of potential borrowers. A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman's famous "helicopter drop" of money ."

- Ben Bernanke, Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here, November 21, 2002

Equity markets have to explaining to do, regardless of where you think they are heading.  As ConvesrgEx's Nick Colas notes, if bullish, riddle me this: are stocks just going to hop-skip-jump over Fed tapering, U.S. budget battles, a new Federal Reserve Chair, Syria, Greek bailout 3.0, German Elections, and other near term speedbumps?  Last time we checked "hope" still isn’t a strategy.  And for the bears: Colas asks, how has that been working out for you over the last week of boa constrictor-like squeezes higher?  Not so good. In the following note, Colas takes an out-of-the-box approach to explaining the recent rally by looking at some new academic work on the subject of stress.  As it turns out, stress is only harmful if you believe it is.  Maybe markets have 'learned' that lesson and view all these potential stomach-churning headlines as annoyances, rather than existential crises-in-waiting.

• Obama Holds Fire on Syria, Waits on Russia Plan (WSJ)
• China Shadow Banking Returns as Growth Rebound Adds Risk (Reuters)
• Not one but two: Greece May Need Two More Aid Packages Says ECB’s Coene (WSJ)
• BoJ insider warns of need for wage rises (FT) ... as we have been warning since November, and as has not been happening
• California city backs plan to seize negative equity mortgages (Reuters)
• Home Depot Is Accused of Shaking Down Suspected Shoplifters (BBG)
• Most-Connected Man at Deutsche Bank Favors Lightest Touch (BBG)
• Norway Pledges to Limit Oil Spending (BBG)
• China Shadow Banking Returns as Growth Rebound Adds Risk (BBG)
• Gundlach Says Fed Is Mistaken in How It's Ending Easing (BBG)

Despite earlier comments from Obama on Tuesday night, who called for a pause in authorizing military strikes on Syria, which led to another drop in crude prices overnight, the drop has since reversed and both WTI and Brent Crude contracts are trading in the green. Whether this is the result of a note by Goldman analysts who noted that the Brent crude sell-off was overdone and that they see no improvement regarding the conflict in Libya which is constraining oil production, or because Russia is once again throwing hurdles in the international process to force Syrian disarmament, is unknown.  The lack of any key catalysts and no USDJPY levitation, led to most global markets unchanged, and futures currently trading sideways. What is not trading sideways is Apple which is down over 2% to just over $480 as all hopes of a China Mobile deal fall apart, coupled with pervasive critical panning of the new iPhones which, aside for the commodity version, is just the old iPhone with an extension that allows the NSA's new fingerprint database to be filled in record time.

According to the latest whip count on Syria attack proposal in the House, 237 reps oppose a such a strike and 169 are undecided with just 27 are for. While this number guarantees that no vote will ever come to pass, and humiliate Obama, who if anything will revoke the punt to Congress from September 1 and unilaterally engage in strikes to appease assorted Saudi/Qatari interests, all that would take for the 27 Yay votes to become 28, would be for Obama to return the Nobel Peace Prize. According to The Hill, a Republican lawmaker said he'll vote to authorize military action against Syria if President Obama returns his Nobel Peace Prize. The line between reality and an alternative Onionesque universe is thin, but this is not a joke.

Emerging markets’ currencies are crashing, and their central banks are busy tightening policy, trying to stabilize their countries’ financial markets. Who is to blame for this state of affairs? The cause of this state of affairs, in one word, is austerity. Weak demand in Europe is the real reason why emerging markets’ current accounts deteriorated (and, with the exception of China, swung into deficit). Thus, if anything, emerging-market leaders should have complained about European austerity, not about US quantitative easing. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s talk of “tapering” quantitative easing might have triggered the current bout of instability; but emerging markets’ underlying vulnerability was made in Europe.

Bond yields snapped lower, equity prices surged higher, gold and silver prices ripped higher, and the USD snapped dramatically lower (as JPY surged) on the worse-than-expected payrolls print (and terrible downward revision). The sad reflection of bad-news-is-good-news reaction of US capital markets to this 'most important number in the world' is summed up perfectly by CNBC's Rick Santelli as he exclaims how sad this reaction is and asks "what are we a banana republic?" Well, yes, Rick, it appears we are...

This week's brief 'outage' in US equity markets has been shrugged off by most, with some proclaiming that "we are getting used to it now." However, there is at least one group that are not ignoring this. Paddy Power has inaugurated bets on the next exchange in the world to suffer from a greater-than-2-hour outage, and the winner (for now) is... NASDARK. At 5/2 Odds, the pride of US capital markets is more than double as likely to suffer such an outage again by the end of 2014 than Tokyo and London and four times as likely as the emerging market Brazil's BOVESPA. USA is number 1 once again, well played...

The magic was the magnificent illusion that money printing increased wealth. It certainly looked that way, despite all the common-sense interpretation that would have you believe that it doesn't. But that's the beauty of a wonderfully performed magic trick. Something impossible seems to happen. You know it can't happen, but it looks like it did, and what's the harm in letting yourself believe? Assuming that the goal is reducing unemployment... it really was a wonderful 50 years. Pumping out money increased the labor force participation rate from about 59% in 1960 to 67% by about 2000 by creating jobs in military procurement, lobbying, and (as we went through successive bubbles) brokerages and finance, government, home construction, real estate sales, retail, etc. Now the losses in manufacturing and primary wealth creation are overwhelming the jobs created in the FIRE economy, and the US looks to be heading back to the golden era of the 50s, with labor force participation back below 60%. Too bad they'll all be low-paying jobs.

Dispassionate view that Italy poses the biggest risk for the euro area and it will not wait for the German elections.

When you add High Frequency Trading exchange 263 and  High Frequency Trading exchange 264 (read all about DirectEdge over the years here), you get a whole lot of happy algos. It also means that MtGox is on its way to becoming the world's most stable exchange. We now expect the market to crash in celebration. We joke, of course, but if anyone trips over the BATS extension cord that sends AAPL under $500 and the NYSE Arca and NASDAQ shutting down again, we take no responsibility. Finally, in continuing the spirit of full transparency and openness of everything HFT-related, the terms of the transaction will not be disclosed.

Next weeks events placed within the larger context.  

"When things are going well people become greedy and enthusiastic, and when times are troubled, people become fearful and reticent. That’s just the wrong thing to do. Another mistake that people often make is that they compare themselves with others who are making more money than they are and conclude that they should emulate the others’ actions ... after they’ve worked. This is the source of the herd behaviour that so often gets them into trouble... As long as human nature is part of the investment environment, which it always will be, we’ll experience bubbles and crashes.... People talk about the wisdom of the free market – of the invisible hand – but there’s no free market in money today. Interest rates are not natural. They are where they are because the governments have set them at that level. Free markets optimise the allocation of resources in the long run, and administered markets distort the allocation of resources. This is not a good thing..." - Howard Marks

The world of Industrial Design is often useful to assess everything from the Federal Reserve's current monetary policy to equity market structure (particularly timely given today's total SNAFU) to the timeless debate over the real value of gold.  As ConvergEx's Nick Colas reminds, good design is innovative, useful, aesthetically pleasing, honest and durable, whether those attributes relate to a new electronic gadget or any 'Product' in the world of high finance or economics.  Examples of "Good design" include stocks, bonds, and options – all simple, durable constructs.  "Bad design" would be the Fed’s "Taper" and current equity market structure.

As we noted in the previous post discussing the inevitable pre-civil war crack down on pro-Mrusi protesters, the only thing that matters, at least to the "developed" West, is how the overnight events in Cairo impact risk, i.e., markets and stocks. Moments ago we got the first take, courtesy of Noah Capital Markets. The conclusion: Sell Egypt.