High Yield

Investors and speculators face some profound challenges today: How to deal with politicized markets, continuously “guided” by central bankers and regulators? In this environment it may ultimately pay to be a speculator rather than an investor. Speculators wait for opportunities to make money on price moves. They do not look for “income” or “yield” but for changes in prices, and some of the more interesting price swings may soon potentially come on the downside. They should know that their capital cannot be employed profitably at all times. They are happy (or should be happy) to sit on cash for a long while, and maybe let even some of the suckers’ rally pass them by. As Sir Michael at CQS said: "Maybe they [the central bankers] can keep control, but if people stop believing in them, all hell will break loose." We couldn't agree more.

While one may opine if today's 2 Year auction was weak or strong, one thing is indisputable: at a pricing high yield of 0.511% (even if 0.4 bps through the When Issued), this was the highest closing yield for 2 Year paper since May 2011 when it priced at 0.56% just before the US debt ceiling debacle and US downgrade firmly reset the bond market far lower. As for the other components of today's auction, the Bid To Cover came at 3.231, below the 3.519 from May, if just below the TTM average of 3.34. The internals were unimpressive, with Direct and Indirects splitting the post almost equally, getting just over 23% of the auction each, while Dealers were left holding 54.6% of the final allottment.

As human beings, we are remarkably poor at predicting our future selves.  We know that our personalities, preferences and values have certainly changed in the past, but, as ConvergEx's Nick Colas explains, we tend to dramatically underestimate what changes might be in store on these fronts in the future.  That’s the upshot of a recent bit of research by Harvard psychologist Daniel Gilbert, and it helps explain how we process decisions as varied as whether to get a tattoo or how we invest financial capital.  Stasis is our default setting when it comes to considering our futures, and that lack of imagination seems to inform how much we can predict about how other people and systems will change as well.  The most important takeaway: no matter how much you think your life will remain the same, you are almost certainly wrong.  And the same goes for capital markets.

Almost as if by design, moments ago today's 10 Year reopening (Cusip WJ5) priced at 2.648%, above May's 2.61%, and some 0.9 bps above the When Issued 2.639% driven by a big drop off in Indirect demand. The Bid to Cover was actually a stable 2.88 the highest since March, and well above the 2.65 average in the past year which likely was the result of the higher than expected high yield. But it was the internals where the action was with Indirect demand tumbling from 49.3% to 36.1%, the lowest since May, while Directs were relatively flat at 19.%, down from 21.6%, as Dealers had to pick up their buying and take down some 44.5% of the auction: the most also since May 2013. And with everyone paying attention to bonds, the curve was certainly not happy with the weakness in today's much watched bechmark auction, with the kneejerk reaction certainly indicating more weakness may be in store for the bond complex.

If the Fed is looking for definitive proof of bubble euphoria it should look no further than the CLO market: according to Bloomberg, so far in 2014, more than $46 billion of collateralized loan obligations have been raised, after $82 billion were sold in all of 2013. As a result of this epic dash for repackaged trash, JPMorgan boosted its annual forecast for CLO issuance from $70 billion to as much as $100 billion, which means 2014 may end up as the biggest year on record. We assume it is with great irony that Bloomberg summarizes: "The business of bundling junk-rated corporate loans into top-rated securities is booming like never before after the implementation of regulation aimed at making the financial system safer."

Will volatility become a policy tool? The PBOC decided that enough was enough with the ever-strengthening Yuan and are trying to gently break the back of the world's largest carry trade by increasing uncertainty about the currency. As Citi's Stephen Englander notes, this somewhat odd dilemma (of increasing uncertainty to maintain stability) is exactly what the rest of the world's planners need to do - Central banks will need more FX and asset market volatility in order to provide low rates for an extended period... here's why.

Since so many people are still slightly confused about how all the pieces come together in this move lower in yields, we feel the need to add some follow-up commentary. 

Our response to a question asked by CNBC-- “Why if everybody is talking about inflation is the bond market not moving?

Remember the legend of the great rotation? Neither do we. But we do know that a Treasury fund inflow of $3.06 billion, the largest since at least 2010 according to Bank of America, coupled with an equity fund outflow of $7.1 billion, means just one thing: the great unrotation is raging. It does beg one question, however, with equity funds dumping in the past week, just who is actually left BTFATH? (Don't worry, that's rhetorical - we all have Kevin Henry and the HFT crew to thank for the ongoing endless manipulation of the rigged market).

Despite the plethora of talking heads proclaiming credit markets as awesomely supportive of stocks - High-Yield bond spreads are flashing red... But that's not stopping investors piling into the worst of the worst. As Liberty Blitzkrieg's Mike Krieger notes, in an all too reminiscent scene from 2007 (MBIA CDS traded 11bps at one point then remember), investors have been buying up bonds with a triple-C-rating en masse.

When is marginable collateral not marginable collateral? When it is an ETN, or Exchange Trade Note: the cousin of the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). The very mutated, and unabashedly evil cousin of the ETF that is. At least such is the view of US brokerage Interactive Brokers " Pursuant to a recent decision by FINRA whereby Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) will no longer be eligible for Portfolio Margining, these securities, including options having an ETN as an underlying, will be phased out of the program by OCC during the week of May 19, 2014."

Despite two desperate attempts to juice stocks overnight via JPY, US equities opened red and got redder. The selling climaxed when Europe closed and stocks rallied handsomely "off the lows" proving Tepper wrong and the rest of CNBC right (right?) The S&P ramped back up perfectly to VWAP (thank you Michelle) as 330ET BTFD'ers ensured it closed back above the all-important 50-day-moving-average. The Dow did not bounce like its higher-beta short-squeezing cousins and dropped back into the red for 2014. Away from stocks, bonds just kept rallying - but everyone said that couldn't happen - to new multi-month low yields for 10Y and 30Y (-13bps on the week). Commodities lost ground with gold back under $1300 as the USD ripped and dipped to close unchanged on the day. VIX popped back over 13 with its biggest rise in 5 weeks.

If one had to use one word to describe today's 30 Year bond auction, it would "atrocious." With the When Issued expecting the 30 Year refunding (CUSIP: RG5) to price at 3.40%, instead we got one of the biggest rails in recent history when the Treasury announced that the high yield required to sell $16 billion in 30 Year paper was a whopping 3.44%. To be sure, this was the lowest 30Y auction yield since June of 2013, however we may be reaching a point when there is simply no issuance demand for new paper. This was perhaps best seen in both the Bid to Cover which tumbled from 2.52 in April to just 2.09, the lowest since August 2011, and the hit rate of the Indirects, who took down 40.4% of the auction, and were hit for 99.7% of the bids tendered - a whopping result. Directs fled as well, taking down just 8.4% of the auction, the lowest since March 2013, leaving Dealers with 51.2% of the auction, the most also since March 2013.

Confused by the market? You are not alone with irrational and "Fear of Missing Out" momentum trades and (not so great) sector re(un)rotation all that matters (as has been the case for years with fundamentals not relevant for about 24 months now), so here are some tips from Scotiabank's Guy Haselmann who believes "market noise can be simplified into the following: QE= risk on, End of QE=risk off. QE is now half way toward ending, so now is the time to adjust. The fact that…… EM central banks are hiking, China is attacking its credit bubble, and Japan hiked its VAT tax while the “third arrow” is M.I.A., are also reasons to de-risk. If sanctions on Russia expand to products or industries, then real problems to EU growth will arise. This is something to watch carefully."