Double Dip

All you need to read.

Europe’s banking system is in far FAR worse shape than anyone over there is admitting. The stress tests were complete and total fiction. And the market is starting to figure this out.

When a pure momentum stock lost its mementum.....

The rally has been strong across many products, but once again has all the signs of a short squeeze rally.  The weakest and most beaten up sectors and names have performed the best.  Anything that was a "hedge" tool, has also outperformed. This rally seems overdone.  European stocks and credit are sluggish today.  The data, while not bad, seems priced in already, and being long because "Europe gets it" is risky, because even if they finally get it, do they still have the resources to fix it, or a system that is simple enough to let them agree on how to fix it?  I am dubious, and at 1080 was willing to give some benefit of the doubt to the EU, but at 1170, I am happy to bet against them.

Yesterday, Goldman proclaimed that their new base case outlook is one of a double dip for Germany and France, and hence all of Europe. Now, it is S&P's turn. In a just released report, S&P says that "The prospect that Europe might dip into recession again is looking more likely. The flow of news and market developments in recent weeks, such as sharply deteriorating business sentiment and a projected slowdown in the U.S., has led us to once again revise downward our projections for economic growth in 2012. This follows a number of downside revisions in our last economic outlook at the end of August. We now forecast GDP growth in the eurozone at 1.1% in 2012, compared with 1.5% in our earlier projection. For the U.K., we expect a GDP growth rate at 1.7% in 2012, slightly below our 1.8% projection in August. We still do not expect a genuine double dip to occur in the eurozone as a whole or in the U.K., but we recognize that the probability of another recession in Western Europe has continued to grow. We now estimate the probability of a new recession in Western Europe next year at about 40%. In our baseline forecast, however, we continue to anticipate sluggish and unevenly distributed growth over the coming five quarters." Next up: rating warning for France, and all EFSF bets are off?

Inflection points on four key markets that would serve as definitive indicators that the world is in a double-dip recession.

Economic activity decoupling is no longer a phenomenon between the developed and developing world. It is between the Chicago region and everywhere else. And because the Chicago PMI is supposed to be representative of the Manufacturing ISM, the market just loves (or rather loved, considering the 10 minute leak of the data) that the PMI soared from 56.5 to 60.4 on expectations of a decline to 55.0. The internals were all hot, hot, hot as follows: "Business Activity: "EMPLOYMENT expanded to highest level in 4 months; NEW ORDERS erased net declines accumulated since April; ORDER BACKLOGS remained in contraction at a 23-month low; SUPPLIER DELIVERIES approached neutral; while the buying policy was as follows: PRODUCTION MATERIEL moved to an 10-month high; CAPITAL EQUIPMENT lead times ended a 4-month uptrend." Yet as usual the amusing part, which is straight from the respondents was the following: "We are seeing unannounced and incredible inflation on one product, multiple parts, that we are purchasing out of Europe. At 400% increase we thought surely must have been a mistake. This is not related to $ exchange since we pay in Euros already. Supplier says they cannot absorb costs anymore." And that's why Houston, we have a problem.

The Case Shiller for July, that's right July (does anyone remember that? that's was before the US was about to go bankrupt due to that whole flap in Congress over the debt ceiling, nevermind the second European bankruptcy), is out and it was both better and worse than expected: the Y/Y print beat at -4.1% on expectations of -4.4%, up from a revised -4.4%, yet missing on a sequential basis, which was expected to come at 0.1%, instead printing at 0.05%, unchanged from the June's upward revised M/M 0.04%. In other words, this is not only traditionally late data, it also confirms that the double dip continued into the months that saw the market tumble by nearly 15%. Look for substantial drops in the August and September Case Shiller data.

So what are those lines on charts telling us?

Roubini and Soros talked the same double dip recession doom regarding the U.S. and the rest of the world.

The infographic serves as a scary reminder that America is at a treacherous debt crossroad, and most signs seem to suggest that things could get even more difficult from here on out.  

Our hats off to JP Morgan for a creative depiction of the current European debt crisis, although we typically take a dim view of any investment vehicle that's associated with the word "leveraged" as recommended by JPM.

This will end badly. All manipulation ends the same way.

All you need to read.

Evidence suggests that the conomy has already been in recession, mainstream conomist pundits continue to argue about whether the conomy will have a double dip or not. While they are trying to figure it out, the damage to the financial markets is fait accompli, and will get worse.