RBS

Golf-clap, Janet... you really screwed this one up...

The Nikkei 225 has fallen over 300 points from the v-shaped recovery close at the end of the US day session and is now trading below the lows of the day at 2-week lows. USDJPY has plunged over 100 pips having briefly neared 120.00, now back below 119.00. JGB Futures are trading near record highs prices as yields collapse to near-record lows (30Y -23bps since QQE, 20Y -15bps) only seen during last year's yield-crash. No surprise then with the bond market "dead" according to market participants and yields negligible, that RBS has decided to exit the Japanese fixed-income business, slashing 200 jobs, and surrendering its primary bond dealership.

Europe's banks are vulnerable in 2015 due to weak macroeconomic conditions, unfinished regulatory hurdles and the risk of bail-ins according to credit rating agencies  ...  Oh what a tangled web, we weave  ...

• China’s Stocks Sink Most Since 2009 as Turnover Jumps to Record (BBG)
• Greek Stocks, Bonds Tumble (WSJ)
• China tightens LGFV funding screws (BBG)
• Crude Rebounds From Five-Year Low Amid Shale-Oil Spending Curbs (BBG)
• Sexual threats, other CIA methods detailed in Senate report (Reuters)
• U.S. Takes Security Precautions Overseas Ahead of CIA Report (WSJ)
• Light-Speed Treasury Trading Governed by Rules Dating to 1998 (BBG)
• Delhi to ban all internet taxi firms after Uber rape claim (Reuters)
• Supreme Group Fined $389 Million for Overcharging Pentagon (WSJ)

Not a quarter passes without a bank announcing, as part of its earning statement, that - it just so happens - it has incurred a few hundreds million (or billion) in legal fees, expenses and charges for breaking the law and manipulating this market or that (recall that for banks "Crime Is Now An Ordinary Course Of Business"), but it's ok, because it is a one-time, non-recurring thing, so please exclude it from the EPS calculation.... Until the next quarter when everything repeats once more. But the repetition of "one-time" events is not the only constant: the other one, of course, is that nobody ever goes to jail. The latter is also the reason why, as the WSJ reports, British regulators are "getting exasperated with banks failing to clean up their act after repeated wrongdoings." No, really: the UK's equivalent to the SEC truly can't understand how banks refuse to stop breaking the law when the have a paid for by others - and quite literal - get out of jail card.

• Ferguson in Flames (Reuters)
• Ferguson Cop Told Grand Jury He Feared for His Life (BBG)
• Sharpton: Grand Jury Announcement ‘An Absolute Blow’ (Daily Caller)
• Gunshots echo as violence returns to Ferguson, protests across U.S. (Reuters)
• BoJ members warned on costs of more easing (FT)
• Hagel Exit Shows Obama Has Taken Power Away From Pentagon (BBG)
• Ukraine leader, under pressure from West, pledges new government soon (Reuters)
• Eurozone Stagnation Poses Major Risk to Global Growth, OECD Warns (WSJ)
• ECB’s Coeure Says Officials Won’t Rush as They Debate All Assets (BBG)

Just two months after the OECD cut its global growth outlook, overnight the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development cut it again, taking down its US, Chinese, Japanese but mostly, Eurozone forecasts. In the report it said: "The Economic Outlook draws attention to a global economy stuck in low gear, with growth in trade and investment under-performing historic averages and diverging demand patterns across countries and regions, both in advanced and emerging economies.  “We are far from being on the road to a healthy recovery. There is a growing risk of stagnation in the euro zone that could have impacts worldwide, while Japan has fallen into a technical recession,” OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria said.  “Furthermore, diverging monetary policies could lead to greater financial volatility for emerging economies, many of which have accumulated high levels of debt.” And sure enough, the OECD's prescription: more Eurozone QE. As a result, futures in the US are in fresh all time high territory ignoring any potential spillover from last night's Ferguson protests, just 30 points from Goldman's latest 2015 S&P target, Stoxx is up 0.5%, while bond yields are lower as frontrunning of central bank bond purchases resumes. Oil is a fraction higher due to a note suggesting the Saudi's are preparing for a bigger supply cut than expected, although as the note says "it is unclear if the cut sticks."

On one hand, the US middle class has rarely if ever had it worse. At least, if one actually dares to venture into this thing called the real world, and/or believes the NYT's report: "Falling Wages at Factories Squeeze the Middle Class." In short, it says that America's manufacturing sector, and thus middle class, is being obliterated: "A new study by the National Employment Law Project, to be released on Friday, reveals that many factory jobs nowadays pay far less than what workers in almost identical positions earned in the past. And then, paradoxically, at almost the same time, there's this from Bloomberg: "Lower-wage workers saw bigger pay gains over the past year than the highest earners, reversing the trend from earlier stages of the recovery." In short: the state of the US middle class is truly in the eyes of the beholder.

• Grand jury expected to resume Ferguson police shooting deliberations (Reuters)
• PBOC Bounce Seen Short Lived as History Defies Bulls (BBG)
• Home prices dropped in September for the first time since January (HousingWire)
• UPS Teaches Holiday Recruits to Fend Off Dogs, Dodge NYC Taxis (BBG)
• US oil imports from Opec at 30-year low (FT)
• Hedge Funds Bet on Coal-Mining Failures (WSJ)
• Putin Woos Pakistan as Cold War Friend India Buys U.S. Arms (BBG)
• How the EU Plans to Turn $26 Billion Into $390 Billion (BBG)
• The $31 Billion Bet Against Brazil’s New Finance Minister (BBG)

Dear Mr. Draghi, we are very sorry but we messed up on the 'stress test'. The Royal Bank of Scotland shares are sliding after it admitted that it made an error - not in favor the bank - in its stress test calculations...

*RBS: CET1 STRESS TEST RATIOS OVERSTATED ON CALCULATION ERROR

Under the corrected Adverse Scenario, RBS capital cushion was slashed from 6.7% to 5.7% (just barely above the 5.5% minimum). Still - we should all trust the stress tests as 'proof' how strong Europe's banking system is. What a farce!!

• They go all in: China’s PBOC Cuts Interest Rates for First Time Since 2012 (BBG)
• And all in-er: ECB's Draghi throws door to quantitative easing wide open as recovery wanes (Reuters)
• Global Markets Rally: ECB Head Says Central Bank Is Ready to Expand Stimulus Program After China Cuts Rates (WSJ)
• Obama unveils U.S. immigration reform, setting up fight with Republicans (Reuters)
• U.S. increasing non-lethal military aid to Ukraine (Reuters)
• Russia warns U.S. against arms to Ukraine as Biden due in Kiev (Reuters)
• Ukraine slashed gold holdings in October, Russia added more - IMF (Reuters)
• Abe Dissolves Japan’s Lower House of Parliament (WSJ)

• Banks Had Unfair Advantage From Commodity Units (Bloomberg)
• Report Notes Deals Between Goldman, Deutsche and Others Drove Up Aluminum Prices (WSJ)
• Goldman, Morgan Stanley Commodity Heyday Gone as Units Faulted (BBG) - because when you can no longer manipulate, you move on...
• Lenders Shift to Help Struggling Student Borrowers (WSJ)
• Immigrants face major hurdles in signing up to new Obama plan (Reuters)
• Distressed Debt in China? Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, Buyers Say (BBG)
• Banking culture breeds dishonesty, scientific study finds (Reuters)
• Amazon Robots Get Ready for Christmas (WSJ)

• Scuttled deals worth $580 billion put hedge funds on back foot (Reuters)
• Mounting Pressure on OPEC Spurs More Wagers on Oil Rally (BBG)
• It's not just US real estate: Chinese Students at U.S. Universities Jump 75% in Three Years (BBG)
• Frankfurt Open for Yuan Clearing as Liquidity Rises (BBG)
• Obama defends healthcare law after adviser criticism (Reuters)
• Michael Hasenstab Bets Big in Controversial Places (WSJ)
• Facebook seeks foothold in your office (FT)
• Russia Seen as Greatest Threat in Poll as Oil Erodes Putin Power (BBG)
• Falling Oil Prices Test OPEC Unity (WSJ)

• "The hate us for our..." Americans’ Cellphones Targeted in Secret U.S. Spy Program (WSJ)
• Ukraine and Russia take center stage as leaders gather for G20 (Reuters)
• Moscow and Kiev trade accusations; U.S. warns Russia against escalation (Reuters)
• Heartland Central Banker Calls Asset Bubbles Top Concern (BBG)
• U.S. Said to Give Banks December Deadline in FX Probe (BBG)
• Series of Failures Enabled White House Breach, Report Finds (WSJ)
• Yen plumbs seven-year trough on likely Japan sales tax delay (Reuters)
• JPMorgan Chase Bankers Said to Lead Moscow Departure (BBG)

As today's latest example of pervasive, apparently endless criminality at the world's largest banks, where once again the shocked public is exposed to a culture of sociopathic, unchecked greed and perpetual raping of clients, showed, one is either part of the all too literal "cartel", or one loses money. However, for those who are unfamiliar with the nuances of FX trading, one doesn't even have to be on the other side of the world's most criminal, above the law, cartel of bankers to have no P and only L: the fundamental premise of currency trading, whereby one can and will be stopped out thanks to leverage as high as 50x - by others but mostly by one's own brokers as we learned today courtesy of JPM, Citi, RBS, HSBC and UBS - is the very same reason why as retail FX trader Dan Gratton, a 71-year-old retiree who lives on Social Security in Kingman, Arizona has found out: "Probably the most consistent thing is losing."