Dow Jones Industrial Average

While some would look at the surge in government spending in Q3 last year (ahead of the election) and subsequent plunge in Q4 as conspiratorial, CNBC's Rick Santelli takes a step slightly further back as he draws the analogy between the mystical monetary experimentation of Ben Bernanke and his horde of central bank cronies and the "bloodletting of leeching" of medieval medicine providers. The point being that if you were sick in the middle ages, leeches were applied; and if you returned weeks later (still sick), more leeches and blood-letting took place - with no lesson learned. The fact that we borrowed $300bn in Q4 and managed a dismally dire drop in GDP growth offers little hope as the world glares agog at the Dow Jones Industrial Average index while Bernanke, six years on from the start of the recession continues to apply the same medicine that has done nothing to resurrect our economy. In Rick's words, "Whatever you're doing; It isn't working!" and in fact the monetary support could potentially hurt the economy in the medium-term as debt piles up exponentially. An epic rant...

• Boeing misses Q4 top line ($22.3 bn, Exp. $22.33 bn) beats EPS ($1.28, Exp. $1.18), guides lower: 2013 revenue $82-85 bn, Exp. 87.9 bn
• Hilsenrath discovers DV01: Fed Risks Losses From Bonds  (WSJ)
• Airlines had 787 battery issues before groundings (Reuters)
• Monte Paschi ignored warnings over risk, documents show (Reuters) as did Mario Draghi
• China averts local government defaults (FT)
• Economy Probably Slowed as U.S. Spending Gain Drained Stockpiles (Bloomberg)
• Bono Is No Match for Retail Slump Hitting Dublin’s Fifth Avenue (BBG)
• Catalonia requests €9bn from rescue fund (FT)
• US plans more skilled migrant visas (FT)
• Japan PM shrugs off global criticism over latest stimulus steps (Reuters)
• CIA nominee had detailed knowledge of "enhanced interrogation techniques" (Reuters)
• Cleanliness Meets Godliness as Russia Reeled Into Cyprus (BBG)
• Deutsche Bank Seen Missing Goldman-Led Gains on Cost Rise (BBG)

Back in July 2008, just before all hell broke loose and the S&P was trading in the upper 1,200s, everyone's favorite permabull, JPM strategist famously reiterated his S&P 500 price target for the end of 2008: 1450. Two months later Lehman filed for bankruptcy, and 4 months later the S&P closed 2008 some 40% lower than said price target. Another two months later and anyone who had listened to Tom Lee lost 50% of their investment. Today, as the Fed's balance sheet crosses $3 trillion, and the global central banks have pumped a total of some $15 trillion into the markets, Tom Lee ws back on CNBC with what is his most permabullish prediction ever: he now expects the S&P to generate some 150 in earnings to which he applies a 17x multiple. His conclusion "If you put a 17 multiple on $150, the S&P really sort of peaks around 2,400 or 2,500." In Dow terms, this means a Dow Jones Industrial Average of, drumroll, 20000. He does, caveat it, however: "that's obviously 4 years away." And if Tom Lee was off by 40% in 4 months, we can't help but wonder what the hit rate on his 4 year prediction will be, and if, by using the same ruler extrapolation mechanism he applies to corporate earnings nand multiples one extrapolates the Fed's balance sheet at some $7 trillion in 4 years, what a loaf of bread will cost just as the DJIA crosses 20,000. For future humor purposes, it may be useful to bookmark this post.

Some time ago when we looked at the the performance of the world's largest and best returning hedge fund, Ray Dalio's Bridgewater, it had some $138 billion in assets. This number subsequently rose by $4 billion to $142 billion a week ago, however one thing remained the same: on a dollar for dollar basis, it is still the best performing and largest hedge fund of the past 20 years, and one which also has a remarkably low standard deviation of returns to boast. This is known to most people. What is less known, however, is that the two funds that comprise the entity known as "Bridgewater" serve two distinct purposes: while the Pure Alpha fund is, as its name implies, a chaser of alpha, or the 'tactical', active return component of an investment, the All Weather fund has a simple "beta isolate and capture" premise, and seeks to generate a modestly better return than the market using a mixture of equity and bonds investments and leverage. Ironically, as we foretold back in 2009, in the age of ZIRP, virtually every "actively managed" hedge fund would soon become not more than a massively levered beta chaser however charging an "alpha" fund's 2 and 20 fee structure. At least Ray Dalio is honest about where the return comes from without hiding behind meaningless concepts and lugubrious econospeak drollery. Courtesy of "The All Weather Story: How Bridgewater created the All Weather investment strategy, the foundation of the "risk parity" movement" everyone else can learn that answer too.

• Obama Signs Bill Enacting Budget Deal to Avert Most Tax Hikes (BBG)
• GOP Leaders Take Political Risk With Deal (WSJ)
• Basel Becomes Babel as Conflicting Rules Undermine Safety (BBG)
• Portugal Faces Divisions Over Austerity Measures (WSJ)
• The Fiscal Cliff Deal and the Damage Done (BBG)
• Cliff deal threatens second term agenda (FT)
• Deposits stable in euro zone periphery in November (Reuters)
• Fresh Budget Fights Brewing (WSJ)
• China Poised for 2013 Rebound as Debt Risks Rise for Xi (BBG)
• Who's Afraid of Italian Elections?  (WSJ)
• China services growth adds to economic revival hopes (Reuters)
• Asian Economies Show Signs of Strength (WSJ)
• Japan’s Aso Targets Myanmar Markets Amid China Rivalry (Bloomberg)

For the past eight years-in-a-row, that worthless yellow barbarous relic that some call 'Gold' has outperformed the 'precious' Dow Jones Industrial Average (even with the constant DJIA re-indexing where the losers are quietly taken out back and shot). As we enter the last day of trading in 2012, Gold still holds a slight edge +6.3% on the year vs the Dow's +5.9%. Will 2012 break the record-breaking run? Or will Warren Buffett's nemesis once again outperform equities and with lower volatility - just a few more hours to find out...

They said it could never happen again, but it just did. Millions of retiring boomers were just silenced (and sent back to work) by the slump (down triple digits) in the Dow Jones Industrial Average back below its magical 13,000 level. WWBBD?

Comparisons of the failure of the TARP vote and the fiscal cliff were summarily dismissed early in this clip - though CNBC's Rick Santelli does note, as we have vociferously stated that a market correction is the only impetus to get something done in Washington. Having abandoned his channel's "Rise Above" meme in the face of this "childish nonsense", Santelli agrees that politicians "can show incompetence at very critical moments." Then, sparked by the anchor's comment that "the markets would know if [the cliff] was going be a horrific thing", Santelli goes 'off-script' with an epic take-down of all things CNBC: "the stock market is an immediate gratification for investors to make money;" and asks the key question "Why do we look to the Dow Jones Industrial Average to handicap if this country is going to go down the sewer in a couple of years? It doesn't give us a glimpse into the future." He adds that the market is not discounting $100 trillion of unfunded liabilities in our future and then slams the door shut with what will likely become the new meme: "The Fed doesn't have a clue, neither does the President, neither does Congress."

Investors in the TBTF banks need to understand that the business model for this industry has changed.  Thank Liz Warren

With gold and silver down this morning - following a mysterious vertical plunge last night (once again) - we thought ConvergEx's Nick Colas' timely discussion of gold was worthwhile. As he notes, Gold is the ultimate personality test for investors.  Some hate it, excoriating its adherents for their lack of faith in human ingenuity – gold has been valuable since before humans could write. And some swear by the yellow metal, in the belief that it is the last vestige of rationality in a world of financial assets manipulated by central banks and opaque trading venues.  What gets lost in the wash is that gold is a commodity and can be analyzed as such. On that basis, here is the 'Top 10' list of real-world fundamentals for gold.

Of course, it makes perfect sense - the largest market cap company in the world drops further and experiences a death cross and sure enough - the evergreen Dow Jones Industrial Average ended near the highs of the day - well north of the critical 'retirement-on' 13,000. In general risk-assets were quietly correlated with stocks today (amid relatively quiet volume on the major averages) but we note that the capital structure ETFs in general were less exuberant - though they did get a little bounce after the consumer credit data. All-in-all, the Dow stood alone in its non-AAPL exuberance as the rest of the market was mired in the sentment shift that is occurring (note the Dow saw ts 50DMA cross below its 100DMA and its closed perfectly intersecting with those averages). Must be the 'great' jobs number, right? Treasury yields end near their lows of the week, USD near its highs, Gold down on the week though at 3-day highs (supporting stocks), and high-yield credit weak today. Paging Skynet...

By now there can be no doubt that due to Bernanke et al's endless intervention in any and all capital markets, the "market" is no longer a mechanism that discounts the future in any way. In fact, instead of predicting the future, all the market has become is a backward looking race in which collocated algos respond to historical data - flashing red headlines - and attempt to out run each other in who can buy or sell more free for all, knowing full well at least one other greater fool will be behind them to pick up the pieces. Sadly, fundamentals as a driver to valuaton no longer exist. But such is life under central planning.  Yet there is one thing that the market responds to - it is politicians and the uncertainty that political risk brings with it. This certainly includes that most political of organizations, the Federal Reserve, whose stimulative intervention into capital markets two months before the presidential elections was without precedent. Yet even here, the market has managed to decouple from reality, and is trading at level far greater than what political uncertainty risk implies. As the chart below from Citi's Matt King shows, a correlation between BBB spreads and a broader proprietary uncertainty index, there is currently a roughly 50% political risk premium that is not being priced into stocks.

If you want to send a roomful of 100 wealth managers into an icy chill, have Russell Napier address them. Napier’s presentation, “Deflation in an Age of Fiat Currency,” is thought-provoking, and the precise polar opposite of investing as usual. US stock markets aren’t cheap, not by a long chalk. Napier, like us, favors the 10-year cyclically adjusted price / earnings ratio, or CAPE, as the best metric to assess the affordability of the market. At around 21, the US market’s CAPE is near the top end of its historic range. The S&P 500 stock index currently trades at a level of around 1400. Napier believes it will reach its bear market nadir at around 450, driven by a loss of faith in US Treasury bonds, and in the dollar, by foreigners.

It seems like only last night everyone was celebrating more hope, if not much change. Now comes the hangover. The Dow Jones intraday drop is now 2.23% (and rising), greater than the biggest drop so far in 2012 record on June 1. The last time the market plunged as much: literally one year ago, or November 9, 2011. Sadly, it appears that one can't have their Dow Jones Industrial Average and redistribute it too.

Life imitates math.