High Yield

And so the flattening, and the "inexplicable" (Chinese and Japanese) bid for Treasurys continues. After yesterday saw 3 Year paper selling at a better than expected rate, if still at the highest yield since 2011, today it was the turn of 10 year paper to sell briskly, with the high yield of 2.612% once again pricing through the When Issued 2.618%, although in a mirror image of the short end, this was the lowest yield since June of 2013. The bid to cover came at 2.66, modestly below April's 2.76 and on top of the TTM average of 2.63. However, the internals were more curious with Dealers getting just 29.1%, matching their take down from March, and the lowest since March 2013. This meant Indirects were left with 49.3%, well above last month's 44.7%, and above the 43.9% TTM average, highest since the 49.7% in February. Directs were left holding 21.6% of the auction, above the 17.7% average.

Wall Street is back in the business of lending money at the Fed’s gifted rate of zero plus a modest 80 basis point spread - so that the fast money can buy CLO paper on 9 to 1 leverage. There is your triple shuffle. It didn’t work out last time, but that doesn’t matter because the game is obvious. After enough buying on Wall Street’s triple leverage, junk loan prices might temporarily rebound. Then the brokers will put out the call to retail: The junk loan asset class is rebounding - its time to come back. For the final shearing, that is!

This time is different - check; Moral Hazard - check; Easy Money - check; Overblown growth stories - check; No valuation anchor - check; Conspicuous consumption - check; Ponzi finance - check... and, of course, Irrational exuberance: check!

China is a case of bastardized socialism on credit steroids. At the turn of century it had $1 trillion of credit market debt outstanding—-a figure which has now soared to $25 trillion. The plain fact is that no economic system can remain stable and sustainable after undergoing a 25X debt expansion in a mere 14 years.

Last month it was a tribute to his cat. This month, the manager of the world's largest bond fund discusses sneezing: "A sneeze is, to be candid, sort of half erotic, a release of pressure that feels oh so good either before or just after the Achoo! The air, along with 100,000 germs, comes shooting out of your nose faster than a race car at the Indy 500. It feels sooooo good that people used to sneeze on purpose." He also discusses the aftermath: "The old saying goes that when the U.S. economy sneezes, the world catches cold. That still seems to be true enough, although Chinese influenza is gaining in importance. If both sneezed at the same time then instead of “God bless you” perhaps someone would cry out “God have mercy.” We’re not there yet, although in this period of high leverage it’s important to realize that the price of money and the servicing cost of that leverage are critical for a healthy economy. " He also talks about some other things, mostly revolving around long-term rates of return assumptions and what those mean for investors.

This eruption of late cycle bubble finance hardly needs comment. Below are highlights from a Bloomberg Story detailing the recent surge of leveraged recaps by the big LBO operators. These maneuvers amount to piling more debt on already heavily leveraged companies, but not to fund Capex or new products, technology or process improvements that might give these debt mules an outside chance of survival over time. No, the freshly borrowed cash from a leveraged recap often does not even leave the closing conference room - it just gets recycled out as a dividend to the LBO sponsors who otherwise hold a tiny sliver of equity at the bottom of the capital structure. This is financial strip-mining pure and simple - and is a by-product of the Fed’s insane repression of interest rates.

Republicans, Democrats, and environmentalists all have favorite energy myths. Even Peak Oil believers have favorite energy myths. The following are a few common mis-beliefs, coming from a variety of energy perspectives. From to "The fact that oil producers are talking about wanting to export crude oil means that the US has more than enough crude oil for its own needs" to "the unlimited supply of renewables", the following 'facts' may just be a little too much for some to bear

If the great rotation out of bonds into stocks was the story of 2013, it now appears that 2014 will see another great rotation - a mirror image one, out of stocks and back into bonds, driven on one hand, of course, by the Fed which will continue to monetize the bulk of net duration issuance for the foreseeable future, but more importantly, by some $16 trillion in corporate pension assets which after (almost) recovering their post-crisis high water market are once again, will now phase out their risky holdings in favor of safe (Treasury) exposure.  As Scotiabank's Guy Haselmann explains, "The rationale is quite simply that the cost/benefit equation changes as the plans’ funding status improves. In other words, the upside for a firm with a fully-funded plan is less rewarding than for an under-funded plan." As Haselmann concludes: "Given the decline in market liquidity and so many investors chasing the same crowded riskseeking trades, these pension flows could have a material impact on market prices for the remainder of the year."

Surprise! This is looking more like a here-and-now problem

Yesterday's 10 Year auction may have been surprisingly weak, perhaps concerned about what the subsequent FOMC minutes would reveal (as it turned out the minutes couldn't have been more dovish - just as everyone knew would be the case - and sent 10Y yields sliding) but today's 30 Year reopening (Cusip: RE0) auction was quite brisk, with the high yield of 2.535% stopping through the When Issued of 2.537% by 0.2 bps. And for those who have been living under a rock and unfamiliar with the epic flattening in the yield curve, today's 30 Year was the tightest pricing since the 3.36% yield last seen in the auction from June 2013.

With today's 10 Year auction just an hour ahead of the traditionally negative for rates FOMC Minutes, it was no surprise that the just completed issuance of $21 billion in 10 Year paper was nothing to write home about. Sure enough, with a high yield of 2.72% tailing the When Issued by 0.8 bps or the biggest tail for a 10Y auction in 2014, the reception was hardly impressive. That said, the yield was still 1 bp lower than the March auction when bonds sold for 2.73%, which in the aftermath of yesterday's wider 3Y, confirmed that flattening is still on everyone's mind.The Bid To Cover was also hardly notable and while it was below March's 2.92, it was well above the TTM average of 2.66 at 2.76.

Another week, another Chinese default. A month after Chaori Solar's default turned on its head a long-held assumption that even high-yielding debt carried an implicit state guarantee, yet another Chinese firm has succumbed to the inevitable logic of lack of cash flows. As a reminder, a technical default late last month by a small construction materials firm, Xuzhou Zhongsen Tonghao New Board Co Ltd, was the first in China's high-yield bond market. However, in that case the guarantor of that bond eventually agreed to fund the required interest payment, resulting in the first bailout of the first high yield default. Still if Xuzhou doesn't want the distinction of the first Chinese HY default, many are lining up for that particular prize - such as a small manufacturer of polyester yarn based in China's wealthy Zhejiang province has declared bankruptcy, threatening its ability to meet an interest payment on a high-yield bond due in July.

Fundamentals are always important over the long term. That said, it has become quite clear that company financials are not what’s moving this market. If fundamentals mattered then the words and decisions of central bankers wouldn’t be the most important headlines. Simply put, the economic fundamentals do not support stock prices. Is this the top? There’s no way to tell. Do some areas of the market look like past bubbles once did? Without a doubt. The last step up before the fall is often characterized by a feeling that the market is invincible. Despite the S&P’s incredible run, it cannot continue to rally forever. Eventually, economic fundamentals will matter again and when that happens it’s likely that the market will sell off.

Today's 3 Year $30 billion auction, if not remarkable, was memorable for two things: the high yield, coming at 0.895% precisely on top of the When Issued, was materially above the March 0.802% which is to be expected courtesy of the Fed's "dots", as the short end keeps rising, and in fact was the highest pricing yield since the 0.913% seen last in September. And not surprisingly, the Bid To Cover picked up to 3.361, above the TTM average of 3.286, to celebrate the higher yield offered on "near money good" collateral, if hardly surging to all time BTC high recorded long ago in October 2012.

Bill Gross lost "Bob" this week. The death of his cat sparked some longer-term reflection on the hubris of risk-takers, the mirage of magnificent performance, and the ongoing debate in bond markets - extend duration (increase interest rate risk) or reduce quality (increase credit risk). As the PIMCO boss explains, a Bull Market almost guarantees good looking Sharpe ratios and makes risk takers compared to their indices (or Treasury Bills) look good as well. The lesson to be learned from this longer-term history is that risk was rewarded even when volatility or sleepless nights were factored into the equation. But that was then, and now is now.