Natural Gas

The April ISM is out, and while it confirms last week's declining Chicago PMI data and the fact that the Japanese contraction has not even remotely impacted US businesses yet (and it will), the recent weakness predicted by various Fed diffusion indices is being confirmed. The ISM came at 60.4, a decline from 61.2 in March, primarily a a result of a fall in Production (-5.2), New Orders (-1.6) Supplier Deliveries (2.9) and Imports (-1.0). All of these metrics will drop far more once the Japanese contraction is truly appreciated. On the other hand, inventory restocking is still working its artificial growth miracles, rising by 6.2 to 53.6. Yet the most important metric as always remains the Price Paid, which after rising once again from 85.0 to 85.5, above expectations, is at the highest since July 2008. Then again, by now our thesis of (more than) transitory inflation can be appreciate by everyone.

Summary: Right now there is a war in Gold options. It is between the May 1520 longs, who most likely are unhedged, and their short option counterparts, who most likely are hedged. One would think the longs intend to sell futures at some point, perhaps 1520, perhaps 1540 we do not know. It is also possible that they intend to take delivery, but that is unknowable for the moment. The shorts are probably delta hedgers and have no desire to see this market go above 1520, much less move at all.

It isn't a Wall Street CEO. But it is a start. One of the most well known market manipulation crimes of the pre-Great Financial Crisis era, has just been fined $30 million. Yes, it is far less than what Hunter has made during his career, but it is not just a wristslap either. And at least it has finally happened: after 5 years many had assumed that regulators would totally screw this up as well. From DealBook: "Energy regulators on Thursday fined a former hedge fund trader $30 million for his role in a scheme that manipulated prices in the natural gas futures market. Mr. Hunter and Matthew Donohoe, a fellow Amaranth trader, sold huge sums of natural gas futures contracts in early 2006 to drive down the settlement price of the trades, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Mr. Hunter placed the trades during a so-called settlement period, the last 30 minutes of trading on the day that a futures contract expires." Now... For that precious metals market manipulation that only fringe lunatic website allege is happening...

The question of centralization versus decentralization might be even more important than fossil fuels versus nuclear versus alternative energy …

The purpose of this paper is to illuminate the real purpose of the obscene size of derivatives books amongst the world’s largest financial institutions. Derivatives in strategic markets are controlled by governments through proxy banks and agencies using these instruments. By sheer volume, the trading in paper “tails” wag the physical “dogs”. When market volatility negatively impacts these large institutions they are given a pass by regulators and accounting protocols in the interest of national security and preservation of the status quo. Moreover, this ensures the perpetuation of U.S. Dollar hegemonic power. The following accounts outline how these instruments are used to project this power.

In recent years, instability in the price of energy sources and basic feedstocks — including oil and natural gas — has prompted companies to place more emphasis on supply chain market intelligence and business intelligence.

And again we learn from the Department of Truth that core inflation is non-existent. Of course, this number is not applicable to anyone who actually has to buy things. According to the BLS CPI came in line with expectations, and unchanged from last month, at 0.5%. CPI ex food and energy of 0.1% actually declined from last month's 0.2%, and was below consensus of 0.2%. From the release: "The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.5 percent in March on a seasonally adjusted basis, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 2.7 percent before seasonal adjustment.  Gasoline and food prices continued to rise and together accounted for almost three quarters of the seasonally adjusted all items increase in March. The gasoline index posted its ninth consecutive increase and has now risen 14.4 percent over the last three months. The household energy index rose as well, with advances in the fuel oil and electricity indexes more than offsetting a decline in the index for natural gas. The food at home index continued to accelerate in March, rising 1.1 percent as all six major grocery store food groups increased." What this means is that core CPI will likely not get high enough to derail the option for QE3 if and when it comes around some time in Q3.

The deflating Dollar is the World's Reserve currency at 62% of all the money in the World and growing fast as Ben buys 'em as fast as Timmy can print them and then loans them out to the Banksters, who promptly lever that money 10:1 to buy commodities.

Nixon had his commerce secretary, Peter G. Peterson (he of enormous wealth these days), promise far reaching and revolutionary “initiatives” to tame our thirst for oil. But Nixon was out of office before these palliatives were revealed. Gerald Ford, caught up in vicious inflation, partly linked to the cost of oil, launched the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), combining the Atomic Energy Commission, the Office of Coal Research and other energy entities in the federal government. ERDA initiated many programs, while politicians invoked the Manhattan Project and the Apollo 11 moon landing. But the search for the Fountain of Eternal Energy failed. Jimmy Carter wanted not only to solve the energy challenge, but to be seen to be solving it. Ergo, he expanded ERDA into the Department of Energy (DOE) and created a separate Synthetic Fuels Corporation. The latter failed after a short and unhappy life. No oil reached the pumps. When the price of oil collapsed in the 1980s, so did hopes for many of the alternative energy sources, including ocean thermal gradients and flywheel energy storage. To its credit, though at great cost, DOE, through its chain of national laboratories, kept searching. The result has been evolutionary improvements in many fields, and some really revolutionary ones in how we find oil and drill for it; these include seismic mapping, new drill bits and horizontal drilling. These evolutionary developments brought more oil to market and have contributed to the recent improvement in domestic production that Obama likes to point out. It has enabled us to cut our imports slightly, so they now stand at 11 million barrels per day out of consumption of 20million barrels per day.Obama wants us to cut those imports by a third. To do this, he has no magic bullet.

With so much sound and fury out of Washington one would imagine something big must be happening. One would be wrong. The ongoing theatrical strawman between Republicans and Democrats is merely a massive spectacle which has one outcome: a compromise. But why not score some brownie points from the constituency in the meantime by "sticking firm to principles." And of course the spin by the MSM will lead to a huge relief rally in stocks once we get news on Thursday in the 11th hour that the government will not shut down. As if the government would shut down when it prints $100 billion in debt every two weeks. In the meantime here is a summary of the key parts and intermissions for the ongoing DC melodrama for the balance of the week, courtesy of Goldman.

The president is due to address America's energy "security" any minute now. We wonder if he will address the fact that OPEC is set for a bumper export year, generating profits of over $1 trillion for the first time ever. Of course, that is money that will have to be recycled back into US bonds so it is bullish.

With all the recent excitement in Japan, some may have forgotten that the entire MENA region is currently experiencing a historic, and in many cases very violent, revolution. Conveniently, Emad Mostaquew of Religãre Capital Market has shared an extended overview of the current snapshot in the Middle East and North Africa region. Of particular note is the section on Yemen. As was disclosed yesterday it now appears that the US is directly funding "flickers" of Al Qaeda in Libya, and possibly will be arming such factions in the future, it now appears that Yemen's internal response to instability will also gravitate around the Al Qaeda strawman: "After several prominent defections following the death of 52 protestors at the hands of government snipers, President Saleh began negotiations to step down. This appears to have been a ruse to gauge opposition strength and once he was offered a host of concessions to leave, he withdrew his offer, using the time to solidify ties with key tribes. Saleh’s key tactic has been to emphasize the chaos that would follow his departure, with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) central to US and Saudi concerns. To play on these fears, security forces have been pulled from key governorates, which are now no longer under government control and have been releasing rebel leaders." Then again, perhaps judging by recent developments in Libya, the US may not be all that concerned about Al Qaeda after all. Much more in the full report below.

The latest development in the Fukushima saga is probably one of the more ominous to date. Yomiuri reports that radioactive Zirconium 95 has been found after samples were taken near the water outlet. Google translated: "Zirconium is used for nuclear fuel cladding, the cladding melts some of the spent nuclear fuel was hot cooling water is lost, possibly mixed with sea water flowing into the large drainage There. TEPCO am on March 23, collected about 330 m south from the water at the point of outlet. Zirconium-95 concentration was 0.23 becquerels per cubic centimeter. Atomic Energy Research Institute of Kinki Sugiyama Wataru teachers (of nuclear safety), "The evidence that melting in the heat of the fuel cladding, said first find. Will come from a spent fuel storage pool at," he said." Shortly thereafter NHK spokesman admitted that this is why large amounts of radiation are leaking into the environment, making attempts to control the situation 'very challenging'. If indeed the fuel rod zirconium casing is coming off, it means that the risk for recriticality could be increasing.

As the world awakes, Japan discloses another round of good news/bad news about the Fukushima crisis. The good news: Reactors 5 and 6 went into stable condition on Sunday, after a successful
cold shutdown, authorities said. The reactors at the power plant went into cold shutdown following restoration of cooling
functions late Saturday. Alas, 5 and 6 were never the issue to begin with. The same came not be said about reactors 1 through 4, where the bad news comes from this morning. According to the Japan Times, a risky venting of Reactor 3, which saw its pressure rising yet again, was being considered, which would see another release of radioactive gas into the environment. "Pressure within the No. 3 reactor at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant
was rising at one point and Tepco considered releasing more radioactive
gas into the environment to avert serious damage to the containment
vessel, the nuclear safety agency said Sunday afternoon. Tokyo Electric Power Co. had considered releasing the contaminated steam
directly into the environment, not through a "suppression pool" as it
did earlier in the crisis. The pressure needs to be lowered to protect the structural integrity of
the reactor, and the first step is to open the valve on a pipe connected
to the suppression pool. By going through the suppression pool, the
reactor's gas would liquefy and thus lower the pressure." And here is where the recent Operation Irrigation is now backfiring: "But if the pool is already filled with water, a valve on the reactor
itself would need to be opened and the radiation level of the released
gas would be higher than with the first method, explained Hidehiko
Nishiyama of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. "Without water, there would be more radioactive substances in the gas released into the environment."" In other words, the attempt (which some say is futile) to fill the containment pool with water is about to lead to another round of irradiation of the environment. And while all that is going on, here is what the already certain chain of downstream events is going to look like for the region, for Japan, and for the world.