Hong Kong

"While traditional bank loans are not Chu’s prime focus -- she looks at the wider picture, including shadow banking -- she says her work suggests that nonperforming loans may be at 20 percent to 21 percent, or even higher."

The most anticipated economic release over the weekend was the early glimpse into China's manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors via the two key PMI surveys released by China's National Bureau of Statistics, to get a sense if the slowdown across China is stabilizing or, as some have suggested, rebounding. It did not: overnight the NBS reported that the manufacturing PMI remained unchanged in October at 49.8 missing consensus estimates of a modest rebound to 50.0, its third consecutive month in contraction territory.

As Beijing fights to keep "Mr. Chen" and his "yellow loafers," tea, and Snickers bars from smuggling billions out of the country on behalf of Chinese citizens fearing an economic implosion and a double-digit deval, capital account convertibility may counterintuitively be one of the PBoC's most effective weapons as loosening capital controls will both calm the panicked masses and support the IMF SDR bit. Still, as Citi's David Lubin puts it, "China should expect to see gross capital outflows for the foreseeable future [and] it's not even clear that SDR inclusion will lead to a net capital inflow to China." 

Back in September we explained why, contrary to both conventional wisdom and the BOJ's endless protests to the contrary, neither the BOJ nor the ECB have any interest in boosting QE at this - or any other point - simply because with every incremental bond they buy, the time when the two central banks run out of monetizable debt comes closer. Since then the ECB has jawboned that it may boost QE (but it has not done so), and overnight as reported previously, the BOJ likewise did not expand QE despite many, including Goldman Sachs, expecting it would do just that.

In late 2014 something happened: for whatever reason the most unregulated aspect of China's financial system, its shadow banks, not only stopped lending money but actually went into reverse, thus putting a lid on China's Total Social Financing expansion, which had been the world's "under the radar" growth dynamo for so many years. At that moment not only did China's ghost cities officially die, but it meant an imminent collapse for China's steel industry. That collapse has arrived.

"House prices have decoupled most from local incomes in Hong Kong, London, Paris, Singapore, New York and Tokyo. Buying a 60-square-meter apartment exceeds the budget of most people who work even in the highly-skilled service sector. Loose monetary policy has prevented a normalization of housing markets and encouraged local bubble risks to grow"

A bursting of property bubbles in London and New York would be expected to have an impact on national economies and indeed on national property markets. Sentiment would be badly impacted. Caution should be the order of the day.

• Fed puts December rate hike firmly on the agenda (Reuters)
• Charting the Markets: A More Hawkish Fed Rattles Investors (BBG)
• China to modernize and improve fiscal and tax systems (Reuters)
• Deutsche Bank to Cut 35,000 Jobs in Overhaul (WSJ)
• Deutsche Bank Said to Near $200 Million Sanctions Settlement (BBG)
• Barclays profits drop as it abandons cost-cutting targets (FT)

"In a warren of tiny shops beneath grimy residential towers, a white-haired man selling Snickers bars and fizzy drinks from a kiosk no larger than a cashier’s booth is figuring out a way to move $100,000 out of China"...

China's key index, the Shanghai Composite, was is up over 1%, or 40 points in early, to just under 3,500 - the highest in 2 months, a gain which however is well below Friday's pre-rate cut gain and if prior rate cut history is any indication, not to mention the weak reaction by commodities on Friday (continuing into today, where WTI turned green by the smallest of margins just seconds ago we would not be surprised to see China's stocks sliding back into the red very shortly as "sell the news" concerns return, and as the increasingly more addicted "markets" demand even more liquidity from central banks just to stay unchanged, let alone rise to new all time highs.

• ECB Haunted by Paradox as Draghi Weighs Risk of QE Signaling (BBG)
• At odds with Republicans, Hillary Clinton to testify on Benghazi (Reuters)
• House tees up conservative plans to raise debt limit (Hill)
• U.S., Russia to Meet at Syria Conference to Discuss Crisis (WSJ)
• Putin Gains Record Support Among Russians Over Syria, Poll Shows (BBG)
• China Plans 2020 Deadline for Dismantling Capital Controls (BBG)
• Nyrstar Drops the Most on Record as Mining Hit by Metal Rout (BBG)

26 years ago, today was envisioned as day when cars flew, holographic movies were box office hits, hoverboards roamed, and people were fired by fax. None of the happened. Instead the only "back to the future" moment this morning is a deja vu one we have seen every day for the past 7 years: bad economic news leading to surging stocks.

"Not everyone went down with The Titanic..."

Following more than a year in which Netflix pulled an Amazon quite successfully, burning through tens then hundreds of millions in cash but promising ever loftier growth, moments ago the magic finally ended, when Reed Hastings' company reported Q3 revenue of of $1.581 billion, wildly missing not only consensus expectations of $1.75 billion, but its own Q2 forecast of $1.593 billion, while also missing the bottom line estimate of $0.08, generating just 7 cents in Earnings.

After an initial knee-jerk reaction (perhaps on better-than-expected exports - signalling perhaps the devaluation 'worked), AsiaPac stocks are tumbling rapidly as the 11th monthly decline in imports (down a stunning 17.7% YoY in Yuan terms) signaling significant domestic weakness (and thus a larger drag on global growth). Policymakers are already stressing a weaker Yuan will boost exports, and despite recent Yuan strength, it appears the currency wars are far from over.