Glencore

Moments ago, the BB- rated Valeant debt "story" went from bad to worse, when S&P just revised its outlook to negative citing "Risks To Growth" adding that its "negative rating outlook reflects risks to our base case expectation that Valeant can sustainably grow revenue and EBITDA, given the potential reputational, legal, and regulatory risks the company is facing."

Complacency seemed ready to set back in, with Glencore stock recently rising as high as its recent equity offering price of 125p. And then today we noticed that not only is Glencore's CDS back above 700 bps, the widest it has been in three weeks, but that another mining company has fallen into the market's crosshairs, this time Belgium-based (with Zurich HQ) Nyrstar NV, Europe's largest refined-zinc producer, whose stock crashed the most since its initial public offering in 2007, while it bonds tumbled to a yield of 19%, suggesting a default may be imminent.

As long as politicians and media keep talking about disinflation and central bank inflation targets, and all they talk actually about is consumer prices, we will all fail to acknowledge what’s happening right before our very eyes. That is, the system is imploding. Deflating. Deleveraging. And before that is done, there can and will be no recovery. Indeed, this current trend has a very long way to go down. So far down that you will have a very hard time recognizing the world, and its economic system, on the other side of the process. But then again, you have a hard time recognizing the world for what it is on this side as well.

UPDATE: He's back - GEITHNER: YUAN CAN BE SIGNIFICANT RESERVE CURRENCY IN LONG TERM

As everyone opined on China's 'goldilocks' GDP data all day long, perhaps the biggest news this evening was US Treasury's softer stance towards China's currency 'manipulation', as we noted earlier, saying Yuan is merely "below appropriate medium-term valuation," and sure enough offshore Yuan has strengthened since the report. China's 'official' mouthpiece Xinhua told the people it is "unnecessary to be anxious about China's economic growth." And finally, for the 8th straight day, Chinese margin debt rose today to its highest in over a month. This is the longest stretch of releveraging in 4 months - since the peak of the bubble. "Will they never learn?"

In its attempt to evade the shackles of conventional fixed and variable costs, Rio Tinto has decided to begin eliminating humans from its "workforce" altogether. According to the Chinese state media, Rio Tinto has started using automated, driverless trucks to move iron ore in its Pilbara mines, controlled from an operations center 1,200 kilometers away in Perth. 

"Anxiety and distress prevail throughout the land... Indeed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of the people... we are not a match to the crisis before us. These days are like the last days... We need more prayers."

While the macro watchers were keenly awaiting China's macroeconomic data dump on Sunday night, which was far worse than reported (as we will show shortly), a just as notable development was taking place in China's microeconomic world, where as the FT reported on Sunday, China's state-owned SinoSteel, the country's second largest importer of iron-ore, and a major miner and steel trader (yes, another commodity trader) was "poised to default on its bonds this week, the latest test of whether Beijing is willing to impose market discipline on national champion companies."

Oil companies have sold $61.5 billion in stocks and bonds since January as oil prices have tumbled. However, the fees geneated are a tiny fraction of the bank's real exposure to the energy sector, at over $150 billion. So have the banks learned their lesson?  "The bankers have gone through this before,” says Oscar Gruss’s Meyer. “They know how it works out in the end, and it’s not pretty." Then again, perhaps banks are just sailing on an ocean of liquidity allowing them to postpone the day of Mark to Market reckoning, especially since this time, everyone is in it together....

With FIFA executive heads falling faster than Glencore stock (with Blatter and Platini most recently and today the entire Kuwait FA), it appeared we had reached some kind of peak debacle.. but no! German newspaper Der Spiegel reports that the German bidding committee created a slush fund in its effort to garner votes from Asian FIFA officials, land the rights to host the 2006 World Cup (which they did by 12 votes to 11).

After two days of relative USD carnage in and across the emerging and asian FX markets, early AsiaPac trading this evening is seeing that trend revert with the Ringgit, Rupee, and Lira sliding. After-hours gains in US equity futures have been erased, despite USDJPY's continued BoJ-aided push higher (though it seems 119.00 is the new ceiling for now). China's government bonds remain extraordinarily bid (outperforming TSYs by almost 60bps in the last few weeks) with yields dropping to 6-year-lows, as corporate bond bubble fears rotate modestly back to govvies. Aussie miners are under pressure with Iluka Resources getting hammered on "excess capacity" warnings.

News That Matters

If we, and Bloomberg, are correct, and if the CFD unwind has only just started impacting the true supply/demand dynamics, and thus price, of copper, then we are only 30% of the way through the unwind of China's copper "carry trade" and thus the 'over-capacity' concerns are massively under-appreciated.

Some things you CAN see coming, in life and certainly in finance. Quite a few things, actually. Once you understand we’re on a long term downward path, also both in life and in finance, and you’re not exclusively looking at short term gains, it all sort of falls into place. Of course, the entire global economy has been hanging together with strands of duct tape for decades now, but hey, it looks good as long as you don’t take a peek behind the facade, right?

News That Matters

The following table attempts to provide a simple composite measure of which commodities are most exposed to China demand, and which stand to lose (or gain) the most in case of a Chinese economic collapse (recovery).