High Yield

As macro news continues to trickle in better than expected, the latest batch being benign (if completely fake) Chinese inflation data (CPI 2.6%, Exp. 2.6%, Last 2.7%) and trade data released overnight which saw ahigher than expected trade balance ($28.5bn vs Exp. $20.0; as exports rose from 5.1% to 7.2%, and imports dipped from 10.9% to 7.0%, missing expectations), markets remain confused: is good news better or does it mean even more global liquidity will be pulled.  As a result, the release of an encouraging set of macroeconomic data from China failed to have a meaningful impact on the sentiment in Europe this morning and instead stocks traded lower, with the Spanish IBEX-35 index underperforming after Madrid lost out to Tokyo to win rights to host 2020 Olympic Games. Even though the news buoyed USD/JPY overnight, the pair faced downside pressure stemming from interest rate differential flows amid better bid USTs. The price action in the US curve was partly driven by the latest article from a prolific Fed watcher Jon Hilsenrath who said many Fed officials are undecided on whether to scale back bond purchases in September. Hilsenrath added that the Fed could wait or reduce the programme by a small amount at the upcoming meeting. Going forward, there are no major macroeconomic data releases scheduled for the second half of the session, but Fed’s Williams is due to speak.

Just when the market thought it had priced in a new equilibrium without (or with - it is not quite clear) a Syria war, here comes Thursday with a data dump that will make one's head spin. Central bankers are once again on parade starting overnight, when the BOJ announced no change to its QE program and retaining its monetary base target of JPY270 trillion. The parade continues with both the BOE and ECB, the latter of which is expected to address the recent pick up in Eonia rates and take praise for the recent very much unsustainable "recovery" in the periphery even as Germany continues to slide lower (this morning's factory orders plunged 2.7% on exp. -1.0%), which in turn lead the Bund to pass above 2.0% for the first time since March 2011. Speaking of bonds blowing out, the US 10Y is now just 6 bps away from 3.00%, the widest since July 2011, and likely to breach the support level, taking out a boatload of stops and leading to the next big step spike in rates as the second selling scramble ensues. And just to keep every algo on its binary toes, today we also get a NFP preview with the ADP private payrolls at 8:15 am (Exp. 180K, down from 200K), Initial Claims (Exp. 330K), Nonfarm Productivity and Unit Labor Costs (Exp. 1.60% and 0.9%), Factory Orders (Exp. -3.4%), Non-mfg ISM  (Exp. 55), Final Durable Goods, EIA Nat Gas and DOE Crude Inventories, oh and the G-20 meeting in St. Petersburg where Putin and Obama are not expected to share much pleasantries, and where John Kerry's swiftboat may not be allowed to dock.

If you thought August had more than enough events to crush the best laid vacation plans of Wall Streeters and men, you ain't seen nothing yet. Presenting "explosive" September.

S&P futures are up 10 points (though below Friday's highs) as they open amid better-than-average volume for the Sunday evening session. Treasury futures prices have dropped notably implying around a 6-7bps yield increase with the 10Y trading around 2.84% (above Friday's high yield). The USD is modestly higher as JPY weakens but it is the oil complex that saw early chaos as it flash-crashed over $3.50 at the open before bouncing back. WTI is now holding steady at around $106. Gold and Silver followed WTI's lead with the yellow metal dropping over $20 at the open before bouncing back.

There was some anticipation heading into today's 2 Year auction, which as disclosed previously, represented the first drop in nominal issuance by $1 billion from the prevailing 2 Year size over the past several years, when as a result of reduce budget funding needs "only" $34 billion was auctioned off instead of the $35 billion recent average. Yet despite the tiny reduction in nominal, the auction was hardly a blockbuster, and if anything it was rather lackluster, with the high yield pricing at 0.386%, better than the 0.389% When Issued but certainly above July's 0.336%. The Bid to Cover also posted a modest improvement, from 3.08x last to 3.21x, however this was well below the TTM average of 3.53x. As can be seen on the chart below, auction BTC levels have been declining consistently since peaking in late 2012. Finally, the internal breakdown was generally as expected, with Directs taking down 26.1%, higher than post last month's 16.37% and the TTM average of 21.2%, Dealers holding on to 54.6% of the auction and Indirects ending up with just 19.30%, the lowest such allocation since January of this year.

And so that the great CapEx spending surge is delayed once more: supposedly to H3 2013 this time. Moments ago the Commerce Department reported the latest Durable Goods numbers which were a total disaster: the headline print plunged by 7.3% on expectations of a -4.0% decline driven by a drop in Airplane orders (to be expected following last month's noted bumper Paris Air show spike as Boeing reported only 90 new plane orders compared to 273 in June). Well, airplanes orders did indeed slide by 52.3%, but it was weakness in Transportation (-19.4%) and Computer (-19.9%) orders as well as Manufacturing (-9.8%) that took the market by surprise. This was the biggest miss to expectations since August 2012.

THE RESULTS OF THE 5-YEAR NOTE AUCTION COULD RESULT IN THE UNSCHEDULED REOPENING OF THE 7-YEAR NOTES OF SERIES P-2018 (CUSIP NO. 912828RE2)

If the auction of the 5-year Treasury notes to be held Wednesday, August 28, 2013, results in a high yield in a range of 1.500% through and including 1.624%, the 5-year notes will be considered an additional issue of the outstanding 1-1/2% 7-year notes of Series P-2018 (CUSIP No. 912828RE2) originally issued August 31, 2011. The additional issue of notes would have the same CUSIP number as the outstanding notes, which are currently outstanding in the amount of $29,886 million. If the auction results in the issuance of an additional amount of the outstanding 7-year notes rather than a new 5-year note, it will be indicated in the Treasury's auction results press release and by a special announcement. Any net long position reporting in this auction should be in regard to the 5-year notes.

The general manager of Fanxin, China's largest insurance dealer, has been arrested (after fleeing the coutry with CNY 500 million) and the entire industry is now under close scrutiny after regulators found that the company was selling unauthorized fixed-income financial agreements. Fanxin offered huge commissions to its staff to sell 'wealth management products' that were merely used to buy more insurance products in what appears a ponzi-like scheme. Investors were 'encouraged' to purchase these with promises of yields up to 20%. As Caixin reports, "such a high yield promise is definitely unsustainable," as Fanxin customers "thought they were buying the normal wealth management products like the ones offered by banks," but actually these products were made by Fanxin and funds were put into higher risk insurance products. In an unsurprising echo from the 'liar loans' of the US, the documentation was often forged or had fake contact information that could have been easily detected, but insurance companies ignored the problems for the sake of premium revenues.

UPDATE 2: India's Sensex -20.3% YTD in USD terms (bear market)

UPDATE 1: USDINR breaks above 64.00 (20% devaluation in 3 months)

Hot money outflows continue to crush most of Asia's currencies this evening led by Indonesia's Rupiah (-1.7%) and Indian Rupee (-1% to a new record low). From the Won to the Ringgit, the USD is bid and now trades at its strongest relative to Asian FX in 13 months. Equity markets are not faring any better as that leveraged carry is eliminated. Indonesia's Jakarta stock index is down 4.66% today (-12.4% From Thursday's close); India's Sensex is -1.6% today (-7.2% From Thursday's close) with Thailand and China's Hang Seng close behind with losses over 1.5% on the day. Even the Nikkei (in spite of JPY weakness) has given back all its early gains (after getting back to even from US day session futures losses). JGBs are modestly bid but EM bonds are getting slammed (India's 10Y +23bps to new 12-year high yield of 9.47%). But apart from all that, the markets are fine...

If you are a stock picker, then it’s basically now or never for whatever investment discipline you might follow.  Asset class and industry correlations have taken a surprising nosedive in recent weeks, which - as ConvergEx's Nick Colas notes. should allow your strategy/blend of magic to (hopefully) shine versus the benchmarks.  Average industry sector correlations to the S&P 500 have dropped to 69.9%, by far the lowest observation for over two years.  High yield bonds now show just 16% correlation to U.S. stocks, and the numbers for Emerging Markets (58%), EAFE stocks (76%), and currencies like the Australian dollar (11%) are also plumbing new lows.  Why the sudden return to a ‘Normal’ world? Expectations that the Federal Reserve will begin to ‘Taper’ its bond buying help, to be sure.  As do actual inflows (some $8 billion last month) into actively managed mutual funds.  We’ll have to wait and see if current trends continue, but for now we welcome the return of the ‘Stock picker’s market’.  Let the dart-throwing begin...

While we congratulate Carl Icahn (or is that iCahn) for once again taking over the spotlight in what has otherwise been a newsflow empty summer doldrum week, and like everyone else, are surprised by his most recent activist target, the country's on-again, off-again most valuable by market cap company, Apple, we do, as we did before when David Einhorn proposed virtually the same activist play, have some questions. Chief among them: how will AAPL fund any proposed expanded buyback or increased dividend using domestic cash?

It's only fitting that in a bizarro new normal, the news that passes for positive is either conflicting, reflexive or, well, simply bizarre. Last night was no exception as the "good" news came in the form of speculation that in order to promote its consumption tax hike, the Abe government would consider a corporate tax cut. How that helps the country with the 1 quadrillion yen in debt is not exactly clear, or how it makes consumer tax hikes any more palatable in a nation in which more people than anywhere in the world are retired and elderly, and thus removed from the corporate lifecycle, is just as nebulous. But the market liked it. Just as it liked the good ole' European cop out, of posting a surge in consumer confidence, or relying on reflexive indicators to represent an improvement in the economy, when in reality the only thing "improving" is the stock market. This happened when the German ZEW Economic Sentiment survey soared from 36.3 to 42.0 on expectations of a 39.9 print. So one must buy futures, or that's what the GETCO algo programming says.

   "Mr. Martin-Artajo thought that the market was irrational."   

  -  Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, US Senate, Report on JPM Whale Trades: A Case History of Derivatives Risks and Abuses, p. 104  

Just like Breaking Bad, the most exciting trading drama of 2012 is coming to an end.

On the surface today's last of the week sale of $16 billion in 30 Year paper was not very different from last month's: at a high yield of 3.652%, it was virtually unchanged from July's 3.66% pricing yield. However, when one looks at the When Issued which was trading notably inside at 3.645%, it becomes clear that this was the first 30Y auction to tail in a while. The real dirt, however, is revealed when looking at the Bid To Cover. Confirming the trend we discussed during yesterday's 10 Year auction of plunging BTCs, today was no difference, and there was just 2.11 dollars in bids for every dollar offered. This was well below the 2.26 BTC from July, far below the 2.56 TTM average, and would have been the lowest going back all the way to February 2009 except for the 2.05 BTC seen during the August 11, 2011 30 Year auction when as a result of the debt ceiling fiasco and the S&P downgrade of the US, there was sheer chaos when it came to bonds which ironically saw a paradoxical collapse in yields even as end demand also plunged. Overall this was a very weak auction, but that's precisely what the Fed wants: after all, soon the US may will fund itself by selling equity directly into the biggest Fed bubble ever created, and no longer bother with something as trivial as debt.

It appears, as UBS' Stephane Deo notes, that in a rising rate environment, so-called risk-parity portfolios were susceptible to draw-down as yields 'gap' higher. As it turned out the 'equalization of risk across assets within the portfolio' failed dramatically after the Fed's June 19th FOMC statement which sent rates and stocks higher (and moreover rate volatility considerably higher) - the consequence for some risk parity funds was a significant loss. The question is whether this will happen again, or was this event a one-off? We believe this is a relatively mild foretaste of what is to come... as the 'speed limit' for rising bond yields is smashed.