Copper

Risk markets are losing their patience.  The Eurozone situation is approaching a major climax.  This is by far the most important story to follow in the coming days and weeks.  U.S. Economic data has been quite encouraging and the economy remains muddling along.  If Europe took care of business quickly, global stock markets would rally sharply.  The S&P 500 could possibly make a run at the bull market highs. Unfortunately, there is a major ongoing political crisis in the region.  There are 3 options. Still, a Eurozone blowup would undoubtably sink the U.S. recovery.  The ball's in Europe's court and they need to take action.  If they act now, it may still be on time to avert a Chinese hard-landing.  The bulls would end up as winners and risk assets would make a comeback.  It has really all come down to this binary variable in the short-term.  Government officials wanted Globalization, well they've got it.

UPDATE1: Oil is rallying (at $97) back towards the day's highs as EUR is back near the week's lows (1.3220).

UPDATE2: Major Financials dropped after hours (MS -0.15% on the day)

Stocks plunged at the close for the third day in a row to cap the worst Thanksgiving week ever. US equities seemed in a world of their own for much of the day - especially financials - as all the hope and rumors faded and clearly a large number wanted to be flat or short into the weekend. Across a broad basket of risk assets (CONTEXT), today's equity rally and selloff was pure emotional overshoot and correction as we closed back at reality. What has been most notable this week - particularly the last day or so, has been the sell-off in Treasuries. The concerns that European entities are repatriating anything and everything should be very worrisome and the volume into the ES close suggests that fear is growing. As Peter Tchir noted, it is increasingly evident that the only logical conclusion is that we are further away from a solution or agreement in Europe than we have been in a long time.

The message of the market has been very clear the last week or two and we have been actively discussing it - the hope that was priced into equity markets is being discounted back to the reality that was always priced into credit markets. HYG, increasingly liquid, accessible, and actively traded has become the weapon of choice for hedgers and shorts and once again today it dramatically underperformed. IG credit also underperformed as we suspect the relatively low cost of carry made it an attractive macro-overlay into a long weekend of possibilities. Commodities in general converged back on the inverse of the USD performance of the week, down around 1.5% (with the exception of Copper which is -4% on the week as China hopes fade). Equity weakness was generally supported to the downside by CONTEXT's broad basket of risk assets - especially as TSYs rallied aggressively in the afternoon following the record 7Y auction. AUD remained the ugly duckling of the week in FX land (as carry was unwound) but EUR's slide was the biggest driver of DXY's strength as it gained around 1.3%. Evidently very few wanted to go home long into this weekend and ES dumped into the close ending the week -4.5% or so with a major volume surge at the very end.

Happy T-Day!

The overnight news of worries over Dexia's bailout deal and the weak Chinese PMI print did nothing to help the generally poor sentiment as the US closed on the stress test news. Equity and Treasury Futures (as cash was closed in Tokyo) were in risk off mode but stabilized with ES around 1170 (-1% from US close). With Europe opening and TSYs trading once again, CONTEXT shows that the sell-off is broad based and supports equity weakness for now. European sovereigns are opening generally higher in yield and spread across the board with Ireland the stand-out currently. France and Belgium are also weak performers (Dexia?) followed by Italy and Spain. European credit has gapped down on the open with senior and sub financials worst performers (+7bps and +14bps respectively) followed by XOver and Main (+11bps and +3.5bps) - in line with US underperformance for now. Bloomberg's BE500 equity index just opened gap down around 1% but is outperforming credit for now as EURUSD touches 1.3440 again.

ES tumbled back down to its VWAP at the close of the day session after mounting a run back towards 1200 in the afternoon. This equity move was the second total disconnect from credit markets of the afternoon and reverted back to credit's sanity though HYG was clearly the instrument of choice (once again) for credit hedgers looking for lower cost shorts or liquid hedges. The USD was modestly higher from Friday's close and Oil rallied back this afternoon to almost perfectly match the USD shift. Gold, Silver, and Copper all lost significant ground (around 2.5%) though all were well off their early European-close-liquidation lows. TSYs rather interestingly closed near the high yields of the US day-session - though well down on the day - as 2s10s30s and Oil were the main drivers of broad risk-asset strength. CONTEXT remained notably below ES all day - maintained by the weakness in Gold, 10Y, and AUDJPY as the EURJPY ripfest into the EU close helped the risk-on crowd modestly. It was a muddled day with correlations breaking down and dramatically illiquid-looking moves as the late-day drop on very large volume suggests some sense of sanity with the uncertainty we face was priced in.

The middle of the week appeared to be the storm before the quiet of today before the potential storm of next week with aggressive action by the ECB this morning seeming to calm fears (and raise hopes of more) as risk assets were generally calmer today. Amid dismally low volumes, ES ended the day very marginally lower (led by Tech and Energy), commodities were mixed, IG credit outperformed TSYs and HY credit, and FX vacillated back to unchanged in general capping another week of strengthening USD vs the Majors (except JPY). US equities shrugged off a broad risk-off shift early in the day (driven by Oil and TSYs mainly) as OPEX seemed the focus of controlling intraday vol with CONTEXT and ES closing the week in almost perfect agreement (leaving cash S&P -3.3% YTD vs Gold +21.3% YTD).

The late day collapse in financials (thanks to Fitch's comments that seemed to wake up a sleeping equity market to the reality that credit has been screaming for weeks) helped drag equities (and HY debt) significantly lower. Most notably, amid a much higher than average volume day today, the dislocations of the last few days - that we have highlighted - have converged very rapidly this afternoon. ES significantly underperformed a broad basket of risk assets (CONTEXT) into the close as copper and oil gave back some of the day's gains. TSYs closed at low yields for the day - and 2s10s30s dropped significantly - as we warned it would have to sustain any sell-off as EURUSD tracked back towards its lowest levels of the day dragging DXY up to almost unchanged on the day (+1.7% on the week). On a longer-term basis, HY markets are priced for an S&P around 1190 currently but as HY also collapses wider, we will rapidly see the 'expected' S&P level drop further. Credit Anticipates and Equity Confirms is often cited by old-school credit market professionals - it seems once again that it is true. What is more evident, and discussed by Peter Tchir of TF MArket Advisors, is the morphing of the sovereign crisis into a banking system crisis as TPTB are unable to achieve anything of note.

Following our earlier post, equities retreated and converged towards the reality of their credit cousins in the last 30 minutes to end only marginally higher (or practically unchanged by futures close). A 30pts rally off the overnight lows was far and beyond the performance of credit markets which never traded green all day but it was EUR weakness (USD strength) that was intriguing given the rally in PMs and commodities. Gold and Silver are very marginally lower on the week while Copper is up around 1% but it was Oil's outperformance on the day that was impressive as the gentle roar of printing presses was heard on both sides of the Atlantic (noting Brent in EUR trades at the top of its nine month channel). Implied correlation diverged (upwards) from VIX into the close suggesting macro overlays were more bid - which reflects also the bid for protection in CDS markets - and signals far less risk appetite than the headlines (until the last few minutes) suggested.

All you need to know.

It seems bifurcated investors have well and truly deserted the markets as NYSE volumes (MVOLNYE on Bloomberg) closed at their lowest of the year and ES 25% below average volume. A slow and steady drop all day in risk assets stalled a little in the afternoon as newsflow dried up and broad risk markets added nothing to the selling pressure. Financials underperformed, making a late day recovery but losing much of that bounce into the close - though we note the machines managed to magically close ES perfectly at VWAP. Broadly credit and equity stayed in sync today but we noted HYG getting hammered in the afternoon - only to revert back to HY by the close. EURUSD held above 1.36 into the close with the USD obviously stronger and dragging down commodities with all but Copper losing ground from Friday's close.

For what it's worth, Goldman likes gold. "Consumers: We expect gold prices to continue to climb in 2011 given the current low level of US real interest rates. Further, with our US economics team now forecasting slower US economic growth in 2011 and 2012, we expect US real interest rates to remain lower for longer, supporting higher gold prices through 2012. Consequently, we recommend near-dated consumer hedges in gold through 2012. Producers: With gold prices expected to continue to climb through 2012, we find hedging opportunities less attractive for gold producers at this time." In other news, Goldman also likes Silver, Copper, Zinc, WTI and Brent. In other words: QE3 is coming.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that Europe could be living through its toughest hour since World War Two as new leaders in Italy and Greece rushed to form governments and limit the damage from the euro zone debt crisis.

Financial markets on Monday took heart on relief that a key Italian bond auction drew decent demand from investors and hopes that new leaders in Greece and Italy would take decisive action to breathe new life into their sick economies.

Some early excitement in credit markets with XOver and senior financials gapping tighter - trying to catch up to equities - has started to show signs of weakness as EURUSD just lost late Friday swing lows and sovereign spreads start to decompress. Broad risk markets are indicating more weakness for S&P futures as US TSYs are rallying. The shift in EUR has had its largest impact on Silver so far as dollar strength is a drag on commodities (though we note Brent priced in EUR is +1%) - though copper enjoyed the Asia session gaining over 2.5% from Friday's close. With the Italian bond auction later this morning it is no surprise that EFSF bonds are well off their tight spreads of the morning already and as EUR-USD swap spreads adjust, they are pointing to further deterioration in EURUSD from here. This modest pessimism is already reflected in the short-end underperformance across the European sovereign yield curves as flatteners appear popular once again.

UPDATE: TSYs just opened (after being closed Friday) with a 4-7bps bear steepener and 2s10s30s rising 8bps. ES is pretty much in line with CONTEXT at 1269 now all the risk drivers are open.

As EURUSD toys with 1.38 and AUD outperforms, the USD is leaking lower (-0.2%) from Friday (after closing the week almost perfectly unchanged Friday-to-Friday). Gold and Oil appear to be basking in the glow of increased macro and geopolitical tensions as $1795 and $99.50 (respectively) have already been broken this evening. It appears Silver and Gold are tracking each other as Oil follows the USD and Copper is the major outperformer so far (in early trading).