Credit Line

Just as Byron Wien publishes his ten surprises for the upcoming year, Morgan Stanley has created a heady list of seventeen macro surprises across all countries they cover that depict plausible possible outcomes that would represent a meaningful surprise to the prevailing consensus. From the "return of inflation" to 'Brixit' and from the "BoJ buying Euro-are bonds" to a "US housing recovery stall out" - these seventeen succinctly written paragraphs provide much food for thought as we enter 2013.

Yesterday we presented Goldman's first 3 Top Trades for 2013 as they come out, while also noting Goldman's recent disfatuation (sic) with gold. Today, we present Goldman's 4th Top Trade for 2013, which is, drumroll, to go long Spanish Government Bonds, specifically, the 5 year, which should be bought at a current yield of 4.30%. with a target of 3.50% and a stop loss of 5.50%. This reco comes out after the SPGB complex has already enjoyed unprecedented gains - but not driven by economic improvement, far from it - but merely on the vaporware threat of ECB OMT intervention. Of course, once the "threat of intervention" moves to "fact of intervention", everything will promptly unwind as it always does (QE was far more potent as a stock boost when it was merely a daily threat: the market's peak not incidentally occurred the day after Bernanke dropped his entire load: one simply can't move beyond infinity). And with Spain's massive bond buying cliff in Q1 2013, the days its bailout could be postponed are coming to an end.

Europe is, supposedly, fixed: between the upcoming one year anniversary of the 3 year LTRO, which has flooded the continent in excess €1 trillion of liquidity, and the OMP, which has supposedly backstopped sovereigns in perpetuity (even though the market has fully frontrun what now appears to be a massively unpopular political decision, as Spain has been demonstrating for the past 2 months), European bank liquidity needs are supposed to be fully taken care of. Yet something went bump on Halloween. As the ECB reports, borrowing on the prohibitive, and largely "last resort" ECB "Marginal Lending Facility" (whose rate is an usurious 1.50%), one or more banks saw their need for EUR explode in the last day of the month, sending overall usage on this credit line to €7.8 billion, the most since mid-March, and a surge of over €7 billion overnight. What spooked European banks so much (whose liquidity needs are not month or quarter-end window dressing driven) that the ECB had to step in on top of everything else it has already done? We will surely find out soon.

European Risk remains buoyant (unlike in the US), but the question is whether Moody’s upholding Spain a tick above Junk is really worth a 30bp plus relief rally?

To summarize: European stocks are little changed although Spanish shares rise. Spain 10-yr bond yields fall to the lowest level in more than 6 months. S&P futures are now higher on the trading session, driven by correlation engines as the euro is up vs the dollar, despite major disappointments by IBM and Intel. In other news Germany formally shut down the debt redemption fund proposal, ending one more rescue avenue for when the recent baseless euphoria ends, even as Spanish La Vanguardia reports that Germany is pressuring Italy to request European aid alongside Spain so that the government of Prime Minister Mario Monti doesn’t reap the benefit of lower borrowing costs without being tied to tougher economic reforms. Needless to say, Italy is said to resist the proposal: after all in Europe one just wants the upside from being bailed out, as opposed to actually being bailed out...

For those who are curious why Tim Geithner has been invisible in the past 2 months, the answer is he has been manning the phones like a true patriot, and making sure nobody dares to rock the European boat ahead of the US election (as was already disclosed), in this case exemplified by Moody's just released announcement that the rating agency will not downgrade Spain to junk, soaring debt, collapsing GDP and laughable unemployment rate notwithstanding (unless of course the ECB fails in its mission to scare all shorts from approaching within 10 miles of an SPGB, and Spain loses private market access again, in which case Moody's would proceed with a "multiple notch downgrade"). At least not until the US election that is. After that... well, with the fiscal cliff, debt ceiling, Greece vs Troika, etc, etc, buy VIX.

UPDATE: IBM -3% after-hours (equiv. 50 Dow Points)

Citi was the headline-maker of the day and is now (somehow) up 12.4% from QEtc. AAPL's low average-trade-size but reasonable volume rip (+2.3%) just failed to fill the gap-down from 10/5 but provided just the excuse the market needed to rip on a debate-day. Tech remains the only sector in the red post-QEtc. The last two days we have seen the same pattern play out as in the last few weeks, a plunge-plunge-linear-ramp with the opposite scale on volume during these moves. Today's equity market levitation was predicated on rumors of a pending credit line with Spain - which was denied by everyone involved but by then correlations were high and momentum was in charge. FX markets are highly dispersed with JPY weakness and EUR strength leaving the USD -0.44% on the week. Commodities recovered a little on the day with Oil/Copper +0.25% on the week and gold/silver still lagging. Treasuries bear-steepened with 30Y +8.5bps. VIX dropped marginally to 15.22%. Credit was dead after Europe closed, underperforming equities push.

Hmmm… Bunds getting trashed by equities and Spailout; Spain getting a lift on the latter, but a break from Greek Troika news and German back pedalling.

Spain better, but had lost 20 bp just yesterday.

Equities stopping out and squeezing. Credit ripping tighter.

Risk On, but not everywhere. Wild...

First the Greek Troika fiasco, and now the only reason stocks had to ramp today, just got rejected:

• SENIOR GERMAN LAWMAKER SAYS MEDIA REPORT ON SPAIN APPLYING FOR PRECAUTIONARY CREDIT LINE "OVER-INTERPRETED" HIS COMMENTS
• SENIOR GERMAN LAWMAKER SAYS WAS NOT REFERRING TO SPAIN IN HIS COMMENTS TO BLOOMBERG

Watch Simon Potter the market completely ignore this rejection of the catalyst for today's spike and continue levtiating higher as Liberty 33 continues doing what it does best: expanding credit multiples, even as it destroys cash flows.

• Hillary Clinton Accepts Blame for Benghazi (WSJ)
• In Reversal, Cash Leaks Out of China (WSJ)
• Spain Considers EU Credit Line (WSJ)
• China criticizes new EU sanctions on Iran, calls for talks (Reuters)
• Portugal sees third year of recession in 2013 budget (Reuters)
• Greek PM says confident Athens will secure aid tranche (Reuters)
• Fears over US mortgages dominance (FT)
• Fed officials offer divergent views on inflation risks (Reuters)
• China Credit Card Romney Assails Gives Way to Japan (Bloomberg)
• Fed's Williams: Fed Actions Will Improve Growth (WSJ)
• Rothschild Quits Bumi to Fight Bakries’ $1.2 Billion Offer (Bloomberg)

If yesterday it was Greece that the market was once again inexplicably enthused about, today it is Spain's turn, which is once again in the open-ended action crosshairs, following an unsourced (are there any other kind these days?) report by the FT, saying the country with the 25% unemployment is prepared for an imminent bailout request (contrary to a previous report by Reuters saying the ETA on this is November). That these are simply more bureaucratic tests to gauge the market's response is by now known to all - the truth is nobody knows what happens even if Spain finally requests a (long overdue and priced in) rescue. Because even with bond yields briefly sliding, they will only ramp right back up, even as the Spanish economic deterioration continues. But that bridge will be crossed only when Rajoy is prepared to hand in his resignation together with a signed MOU to a Troika boarding commission. In other news, Spain sold €3.4 billion in 1 year Bills at a yield of 2.823% compared to 2.835% last, and €1.46 billion in 18 month Bills at a yield of 3.022% versus 3.072% last. Since both of these are within the LTRO's maturity (whose 1 year anniversary, and potential partial repayments, is coming fast in January) the bond was a token exercise in optics. Elsewhere, German ZEW Economic Sentiment rose more than expected from -18.2 to -11.5 on expectations of a -14.9 print, despite the ZEW's Dick summarizing the current Eurozone situation simply as "bad", and adding that "downward risks are more pronounced than upward." Confirming his fears was a government official sited by Bild who said that 2013 growth has been reduced from 1.6% to 1.0%. In all this newsflow, the EURUSD has quietly managed to do its usual early am levitation, and was at overnight highs of 1.3015 at last check.

• Italy rejects need for EU control (FT)
• ‘Worst US quarterly earnings since 2009’ (FT)
• Chinese firm helps Iran spy on citizens (Reuters)
• World Bank cuts East Asia GDP outlook, flags China risks (Reuters)
• Foxconn factory rolls on in spite of strike (China Daily)
• Economic recovery ‘on the ropes’ (FT)
• Japan Tries Cars That Make the Mini Look Maxi (Businessweek)
• Euro Finance Chiefs to Give Positive Greece Statement, Rehn Says (Bloomberg)
• Romney attacks drones policy (FT)
• Euro zone mulls 20 billion euro separate budget (Reuters)
• Hong Kong’s Leung Seeks Turnaround With Economy Focus (Bloomberg)
• RBA Keeps Some Documents Private in Securency Bribe Probe (Bloomberg)
• India Inflation to Remain at 7.5%-8% Till Early 2013 (WSJ)

The ECB has $15 trillion in loans outstanding to Europe. They claim a $4 trillion balance sheet based upon not counting guaranteed loans by various nations and by not counting contingent liabilities. This is the same scheme that is used for calculating the debt to GDP ratios of the countries in Europe. If a loan, a debt, is guaranteed by a nation or if the liability is “contingent;” it is not counted. This, of course, does not mean that possibility of having to fund or write-off something is not there; it just means it is not counted. Do not disregard or minimize the recent announcement by Germany, Finland and the Netherlands that was joined twenty-four hours later by Austria. The funding nations in Europe placed a line in the concrete when they rejected assisting legacy issues and loans. This group of nations vacated, in this one statement, all of the pleas and demands of the periphery countries that had lined up for aid and ever-more aid relying upon the pledges of the solidarity of Europe and they got an answer, a very Germanic answer which is not, I am quite sure, what they wanted to hear.

The seemingly inexorable rise of corporate bond ETFs (most specifically HYG and JNK is the high-yield market, and LQD in investment grade) have been discussed at length here as both a 'new' factor in the underlying bond market's technicals (flow) as well as their correlated impact on equity and volatility markets. Goldman Sachs' credit team delve deep into the impact of these relatively new (and rapidly growing) structures with their greater transparency but considerably higher sensitivities and conclude that not only are they here to stay but the consequences of ETF-inclusion (dramatic outperformance bias relative to non-ETF bonds) are deepening the liquidity divide (and relative-value) of what is already a somewhat sparsely-traded market. Our concern is that, as the divide grows (and liquidity is concentrated in ETF bonds), given the crowding tendency we have witnessed, (even with call constraints at extremes thanks to low interest rates), this is yet another crowded 'hot potato' trade hanging like a sword of Damocles over our markets (courtesy of Bernanke's repression).

News may come, and news may go, but the fiscal policy implementation vehicle known as the market, and now controlled by the Political Reserve don't care. For those who do, here is what has happened in the past few hours and what is on deck for the remainder of the week.