Sovereigns

While not to the level of US sophistry, European equities enjoyed the day driven by further compression in Europe's VIX. The big winners were Spanish and Italian stocks (now up 2% on the week) as Europe's VIX drops to one-month lows. However, the correlated risk-on awesomeness did not flop over into anything but the high-beta nominal prices of equities. EURUSD slid all day (with a slight bump into the close); Italian and Spanish sovereigns bled wider all day (with a slight give back in the latter part); and corporate and financial credit stayed wide as stocks soared. With EUR weakness (remember the Fed/ECB framework), we wonder if European equity strength is merely rotation from US to Europe? Or is it merely front-running the sell-the-news event at the ECB tomorrow?

The epic farce that is the opaque balance sheets of European banks, sovereigns, NCBs, and the ECB, continues to occur under our very eyes. Only when one sniffs below the headlines is the truth exposed with no apology or recognition of 'cheating' anywhere. To wit, following November's farcical over-payment on collateral by the ECB to Spanish banks (that was quietly brushed under the carpet by Draghi et al.), Germany's Die Welt am Sonntag has found that the Bank of France overpaid up to EUR550mm ($720mm) on its short-term paper financing to six French and Italian banks. The reason - incorrect evaluation of the crappy collateral (i.e. the NCB not taking a big enough haircut for risk purposes) on 113 separate occasions. The problem lies in the increasingly poor quality of collateral the CBs are willing to accept (and the illiquidity of the underlying markets) - as higher quality collateral disappears; which leaves the central bankers clearly out of depth when it comes to 'risk management', no matter how many times Draghi tells us this week.

It has been an 'epic' week in European sovereign bonds. Whether it was returning traders or pension fund asset managers forced to reach-around, Spain and Italy 10Y spreads are 44bps tighter this week and Portugal a ridiculous 92bps (on what!!? - US fiscal cliff?), though Spain and Italy stabilized today. Broad European equities surged the most during the first 3-days of 2013 in five months (with Spain and Italy up 3.6-4%) but today saw credit notably divergent from the ongoing exuberance in stocks. EURUSD gave up some significant strength this week as repatriation flows reversed but Europe's VIX has been crushed just like in the US. Europe's Composite PMI is still below (though modestly rising) but it is the stagnation of the New Orders sub-index that should be most concerning - perhaps that is what credit is anticipating.

There is much debate whether when it comes to the total notional size of outstanding derivatives, it is the gross notional that matters (roughly $600 trillion), or the amount which takes out biletaral netting and other offsetting positions (much lower). We explained previously how gross is irrelevant... until it is, i.e. until there is a breach in the counterparty chain and suddenly all net becomes gross (as in the case of the Lehman bankruptcy), such as during a financial crisis, i.e., the only time when gross derivative exposure becomes material (er, by definition). But a bigger question is what is the actual collateral backing this gargantuan market which is about 10 times greater than the world's combined GDP, because as the "derivative" name implies all this exposure is backed on some dedicated, real assets, somewhere. Luckily, the IMF recently released a discussion note titled "Shadow Banking: Economics and Policy" where quietly hidden in one of the appendices it answers precisely this critical question. The bottom line: $600 trillion in gross notional derivatives backed by a tiny $600 billion in real assets: a whopping 0.1% margin requirement! Surely nothing can possibly go wrong with this amount of unprecedented 1000x systemic leverage.

Presenting Dave Collum's now ubiquitous and all-encompassing annual review of markets and much, much more. From Baptists, Bankers, and Bootleggers to Capitalism, Corporate Debt, Government Corruption, and the Constitution, Dave provides a one-stop-shop summary of everything relevant this year (and how it will affect next year and beyond).

Since the crisis first began in 2006, developed world equities are still lower, real GDP has struggled to grow above its pre-crisis peak in most countries, core bond yields are sharply lower with peripheral yields higher and with credit yields generally performing well albeit it with fairly extreme volatility. Credit has been helped by the fact that the authorities way of dealing with this crisis to date has been through money printing and liquidity facilities to help prevent mass defaults which, as is is clear in the chart below, has led to a weakening in the normal relationship between GDP and defaults. Just as one of the features of the last 20 years in Japan’s post-bubble adjustment and lost growth period is that defaults have remained very low; it appears as long as money printing props up the debt market, defaults are likely to be much lower than the underlying economic environment suggests they should be. However, as we noted previously, the mark-to-market volatility on the way may just become too much to bear for all but the most long-term bond rotators.

As in any other Ponzi scheme, when the weakest link breaks, the chain breaks. The risk of such a break-up, applied to economics, is known as systemic risk or “correlation going to 1”. As the weakest link (i.e. the Euro zone) was coupled to the chain of the Fed, global systemic risk (or correlation) dropped. Apparently, those managing a correlation trade in IG9 (i.e. investment grade credit index series 9) for a well-known global bank did not understand this. But it would be misguided to conclude that the concept has now been understood, because there are too many analysts and fund managers who still interpret this coupling as a success at eliminating or decreasing tail risk. No such thing could be farther from the truth. What they call tail risk, namely the break-up of the Euro zone is not a “tail” risk. It is the logical consequence of the institutional structure of the European Monetary Union, which lacks fiscal union and a common balance sheet.... And to think that because corporations and banks in the Euro zone now have access to cheap US dollar funding, the recession will not bring defaults, will be a very costly mistake. Those potential defaults are not a tail risk either: If you tax a nation to death, destroy its capital markets, nourish its unemployment, condemn it to an expensive currency and give its corporations liquidity at stupidly low costs you can only expect one outcome: Defaults. The fact that they shall be addressed with even more US dollars coming from the Fed in no way justifies complacency.

Europe may be fixed for the next week or two (until someone once again figures out that by manipulating the market, the ECB is merely making it easier for peripheral governments to do nothing to fix their unprecedented intra-Eurozone imbalances, as has been the case all along with the only strategy Europe has deployed to date namely kicking the can), but that doesn't mean all event and newsflow ends. Here is what to expect out of the insolvent continent as it attempts to put a very volatile (and violent) 2012 to bed with just one more month. Of particular note: €123 billion in Euro coupon payments in the month of December, which serves as a timely reminder that in 2013 European banks better be ready to buy up the record gross and net issuance of their sovereigns with gusto, or else Europe may promptly become "unfixed" all over again.

Supposed progress on the Greek buyback (which as we noted earlier has merely served to line the pockets of the short-term traders) and misunderstandings over Spanish bailout requests (amid mixed PMIs) was enough to drive European stocks up and sovereign bond spreads down as the morning progressed. EURUSD strengthened. Then around 8ET things changed (as the bailout request was realized for what it was): European stocks reverted lower in a hurry (catching down to a less robust credit market), Sovereign bond spreads bled notably wider off the day's tights, and gold fell notably. EURUSD seemed to manage a completely uncorrelated levitation (repatriation?) even as broad risk assets fell into the European close - ending at their lows. A weak close to a hope-full day.

S&P futures are bleeding back down again after-hours (and EUR -30pips) as Moody's announces the downgrade of the EFSF and ESM from AAA to Aa1. "Moody's decision was driven by the recent downgrade of France to Aa1 from Aaa and the high correlation in credit risk which Moody's believes is present among the ESFS' and ESM's entities' largest financial supporters." Of course, this is nothing to worry about as we are sure that some Middle East sovereign wealth fund will still buy their bonds? Or China? Or Supervalu?

• *MOODY'S DOWNGRADES ESM TO Aa1 FROM Aaa, EFSF TO (P)Aa1 FROM Aaa

Not entirely surprising given the underlying rating moves - but yet more AAA-rated collateral bites the dust.

Awful unemployment, dismal German retail sales, huge uncertainty over the Greek buy back plan. Have no fear, "buy stocks and you're good to go" seemed to be the message this week in Europe. However, as the afternoon went on in Europe, so equities gave back their day's gains and started to catch down to the far less exuberant credit markets. European sovereign credit rallied into the close leaving Spain and Italy -25bps on the week. The European week was dominated the massive squeeze in the US driving a wedge overnight from Wednesday's close to Thursday's open in Europe - the squeeze seems to be done for now as we are fading back today. EURUSD pushed higher on the week by a mere 25pips to close its week in Europe above 1.30. Europe's VIX stabilized today at 16.5% (after falling 1.25 vols on the week). Bottom Line - Europe closed weak and equities feel very lonely up here.

We warned yesterday that European equity's surge was not supported by credit and that truism is massively obvious in today's market moves. European stocks soared (especially Italy and Spain) to new cycle highs as corporate and financial credit capped in its recent range - actually widening from its opening gap tights. European sovereigns also gapped tighter on the open and then proceeded to bleed wider all day long - most notably in Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Spanish 2Y jumped over 25bps from low to high yield today (and we suspect Spain bond yields have bottomed in teh short-term). EURUSD remains practically unch on the week - having dropped from over 1.30 earlier when Van Hollen let some truth out on the US fiscal cliff deal. Oil recovered from its spike lows yesterday (as did Silver). GGBs were very quiet and stable at around 35 but Weidmann's comments into the close on transfer unions and not rewarding failure did spook some weakness into risk-assets. Europe's VIX, meanwhile, closed at 16.49% - its lowest since June 2007!

Just as the ever soaring Argentina default swaps indicated that a technical default for the Latin American country - one which would eventually morph into a second full blown default in a decade - was all but inevitable (and previews extensively here), the twisting and turning multi-year story of Argentina vs its "vulture" holdout creditors got its latest dramatic installment last night. Shortly after market close, the Second Circuit court of appeals once again override last week's critical order by Judge Griesa that Argentina promptly pay everyone or face monetary exclusions, lumping together any and all agents who facilitated the ongoing isolation of the holdout hedge funds from the broader group which in Griesa's view had pari passu status throughout.