Crude

The basic problem is that nobody cares. Cotton, the grains, and oil all go up for the short term. But the long term impact of the Egyptian blow up on the global economy is minimal. But expect volatility to start trending upward from here. There are black swans out there gathering.

• Bernanke Misses Baseball in Battle for Euro Debt With Fed LISCC (Bloomberg)
• Egyptian army rules out force against protesters (FT)
• Federal Judge Rules That Health Law Violates Constitution (NYT)
• EU Said to Near Agreement on Bailout Fund Buying New Bonds (Bloomberg)
• Even a caveman could have fixed the system (NY Post)
• Whitney Municipal-Bond Apocalypse Is Short on Default Specifics (Bloomberg)
• U.S. Ambassador to China Plans Exit (WSJ)
• One in Five Mortgages Default Again After Modification (Bloomberg)
• Australia evacuates coastal cities in path of cyclone (Reuters)
• Bank of America Can Proceed With Nevada Foreclosures, Judge Says (Bloomberg)

Strength in Canadian equities have helped Canadian pension plans surge ahead of their pre-financial crisis levels of 2008...

Crude oil spiked on the news of the uprising in Eqygp with the North Sea Brent at almost $12 premium to the U.S. WTI. Read about why and outlook here.

What could the ruler of Egypt’s turmoils possible have to do with the
need to takeover even more banks in western Europe and the potential
default of several members of the PIIGS group? Read on, my dear friend…

The March Brent Crude contract has just surpassed $100 for the first time since October 2008. Surely nobody is worried about monetary policy and Middle East contagion. After all, this is just throwing darts at the next disinflationary target.

Could this be the third consecutive “sell in May and go away” year? While traders pile on their longs with reckless abandon, and retail flows into equity mutual funds turn positive for the first time in two years, I am hearing a rising tide of negativity from the jungle telegraph. There are “black swans” circling out there everywhere, and the risk is that they alight upon us in great unexpected flocks, like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, The Birds.

The geopolitical ramifications of the revolution in Egypt and the likelihood that it will spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa and possibly further afield is leading to volatility in markets. Equity indices in the Middle East and Far East were mostly down (except for China) overnight. European bourses were under pressure this morning but have recovered somewhat. Gold and silver are marginally lower after their strong showing Friday which resulted in silver closing the week 1.7% higher and gold being tentatively lower (-0.14%). Remarks by a People’s Bank of China advisor that the Chinese should diversify into gold and silver are very important (see below).

A week after Zero Hedge first speculated what may happen to oil prices should the Suez Canal be shut down, Goldman arrives on the scene... And as expected, to Goldman it is all (mostly) priced in - the risk of contagion to Saudi is zero. After all, rich people never revolt... And things must always evolve according to what only Goldman Sachs has foreseen.

The one country landlocked between Tunisia and Egypt has so far been oddly silent. Not so much any more. Al Jazeera reports that the Libyan government has imposed a state of emergency for "fear of demonstrations and rallies" comparable to those in Tunisia and Egypt. And ranked 17 in the world for oil production (and 9th in proven reserves), this is one that crude HFT algos may want to keep an eye on.

Over the past few weeks we have dedicated quite a few articles to the WTI-Crude spread which today once again hit an all time record wide (here and here). Yet no matter the reason for the divergence, what is certainly lacking are explanations for why arbitrageurs have not stepped in to take advantage of this mispricing. While there has been much speculation, nobody has provided a comprehensive answer. Until today. Below we present the Weekly Tanker Opinion from Posen & Partners, "Light Sweet Dire Divergence" which gives what we believe could be the most credible explanation. Bottom line: just like in gold, there appears to be a dramatic divergence being created between the paper and physical markets in WTI. "The Brent crude oil benchmark currently represents the pricing benchmark for over 65% of the world’s traded physical crude oil. The WTI contract represents a pricing benchmark for about 30% of the world’s traded physical crude oil, while physical supplies of WTI are quite scarce. It should be noted, most of the crude oil being priced off the WTI contract is already trading at a significant premium to the contract itself implying that the market has already compensated for WTI’s lack of physical relevance. This could explain why shipping rates have remained depressed in the face of such a dramatic price discrepancy between the two contracts. It would also support the growing chorus of analysts, traders, and pundits calling for the Brent contract to be more indicative of fundamental demand for physical crude oil (versus speculative demand for paper WTI contracts)." Much more in the full note...

Shockingly, the "pundits" have suddenly realized that courtesy of the upheaval in Suez, the canal with the same name may be closed, which would wreak havoc on shipping costs. Once again, Zero Hedge was just ahead of the curve: "Egyptian Stock Market Plunges Over 11% To Fresh Multi-Year Lows; Is A Suez Canal Transit Halt Imminent?" The just announced countrywide curfew will not make Suez Canal operability any easier. For those who are concerned about what a Suez closure means, we recreate what we wrote previously on the topic. And just in from Reuters, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has declined to say if he is worried Egypt protests may disrupt Mid-East oil, but believes that serious disruptions will have oil prices. By harm he means make them surge higher.

Ever wanted to see what a market plunge looks like into a revolution-inspired bidless open? Look no further than Egypt: after being halted briefly earlier, the market is now in freefall, dropping 11% in the span of minutes. This brings the two day drop to over 16%, and brings the EGX30 to the lowest level since 2009. Egyptian CDS have surged over 10% to 385 mid, a jump of 40 bps on the day. Anyone who purchased protection on the riot-torn country after we first suggested it is about to roll this weekend, congratulations. And while the important part of the world may ignore what is happening in Egypt, after all it is not US banker money thay is being lost, they may want to consider this: according to reports, there has been live fire in Suez, where the police headquarters have been taken over. More importantly, according to the Guardian, we may see the first army insubordination in this city: "a lawyer and executive director for the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, has tweeted that some army units in Suez are refusing to support the crackdown against the people." Which means the government may be about to lose control over Suez... And the Suez Canal.

Recently there has been much speculation about the nature of the notable divergence between WTI and Brent. Explanations range from the now traditional Cushing syndrome, to Hess attempting to corner the BFOE, to correlation desks blowing up, to the ludicrous, which includes HFT (as much as it is trendy to blame parasitic HFT for everything, is not responsible for correlation trades, especially not in markets that do not have endogenous liquidity at least 1,000 times above that needed for HFT to actually add value). Probably the best explanation to date comes from JPM's Lawrence Eagles who in a just released note asks "Is Brent-WTI wide enough." His lede: "Brent and WTI have been trading increasingly as entirely separate commodities in recent weeks, driven by decidedly different fundamentals. Yet this is an important spread, which tells us a lot about regional Midwest and international crude economics and will, over time, drive investment that will ‘normalize’ price discrepancies." In other words, it is not the spread's wideness that is the outlier: it is the fact that it was overlapping for so long that is peculiar. In time, Eagles claims, speculation may drive the spread so wide that the economic incentive to close the gaping infrastructure holes will be large enough and the discounting of this act will bring the spreads back to parity. In the meantime, the spread will likely persist. Not only that, but he also believes that the 2012 calendar dated differential, currently trading at a far more reasonable $2.50, will likely also diverge, as two years is insufficient time for the required changes to transpire. Furthermore, the last straw that convinces us that it is likely early to bet on a convergence, is Goldman's just released commodities report which has a WTI target $2 above Brent. By now everyone should know what they say about trading Goldman recommendations...

I'm asking.