Sovereigns

Fear the truth, it shall set fundamental market forces free!

European stocks closed red for the third day in a row amid what we can only assume CNBC's Simon Hobbs would call profit-taking. Spain underperformed Italy but the DAX was worst on the day -0.8%. European govvies were quiet except for Spain. Spanish 2Y yield jumped the most in a month as 10Y spreads rose 10bps. It's a little early to sound the alarms here but the trend does appear to have stalled and with 2Y Swiss at its lowest (most negative) rate in 6 weeks, risk appetite seems to be lagging in Europe as Rajoy just won't says 'Si'. EURUSD is a little stronger on the day. Credit markets were as quiet as sovereigns with equities underperforming into the close and Europe's VIX popped back above 21% for the first time in 2 weeks.

Mostly boring.

European equity resilience seems surprising, given the otherwise gloomier mood. No news still played out as being good news and even catch-up to US levels seems a doubtful explanation.

Beats me.

CNBC is convinced - this is just profit-taking, and think about where we have come from? We prefer to base our positioning on expectations of the future as opposed to extrapolations of the past. If only we could ignore the last two days, Europe would look awesome! Every asset class is indeed up for the week: stocks, EURUSD, sovereign bonds, and corporate and financial credit. However, the last 36 hours or so has seen almost half of the week's gain s chaffed away by them pesky profit-takers (apparently). EURUSD is 100pips off Wednesday's highs; Bloomberg's BE500 (broad equity index) is around 2% off Thursday's highs; IG and Financial credit spreads are around 5-10% riskier from Wednesday's tights; Spain's equity market is 3.5% lower than its peak on Wednesday and Italy down 2.5% from its mid-week highs. Sovereigns have remained relatively resilient - giving back only a few bps of their gains this week (Spain/Italy -40bps on the week). But apart from all that - Europe's doing great apparently. Spot the odd chart out (and which do you trust?)

As the Euro infection commences, is it time to profit?

While European equities, sovereigns, and corporate credit all seem cock-a-hoop at the tail-risk mitigation efforts of the Draghi 'promise'; demand for the safety of Swiss interest rates has quietly been creeping higher. Swiss 2Y rates are now at almost six-week lows (below -18bps), its lowest since the Draghi 'believe' speech... it seems not everyone 'believes'.

"Liquidity trap" was a term coined by John Maynard Keynes in the aftermath of the Great Depression. He argued that when yields are low enough, expanding money supply won't stimulate growth because bonds and cash are already near-equivalents when bonds pay (almost) no interest. Some, like Citi's credit strategy team, would say that it is a pretty apt description of the state of play these days. To their minds (and ours), there is very little doubt that central banks have played an absolutely crucial role in propping up asset prices in recent years, Why have markets responded so resolutely when growth hasn't? The answer, we think, is that in their attempts to free markets from the liquidity trap, central banks are ensnaring markets in what we'll call a "liquidity lure". That lure is three pronged... but tail risks are bound to re-appear and from this position, there is no painless escape.

The fact that the major credit indices have had to resort to 'imaginary credit' in order to generate an actionable market is perhaps the final nail in the coffin of the single-name CDS market in this cycle. An artificially low spread environment, forced their by massive technical flows thanks to central-bankers' financial repression has removed a natural buyer- and seller- from the market - reducing liquidity; and combined with Dodd-Frank and more regulation (higher capital reqs), dealers are also forced to delever risk books (reducing liquidity). But, there is one glaring reason why the single-name CDS market is dying; extremely high correlation. As Barclays notes, in a market where investors’ ears are, more than ever, finely tuned to the statements of politicians and central banks and the tail outcomes for the market, it makes sense for correlation to be high – at this stage, there should be little distinction between individual names – trading the level of systemic risk premia is the focus. And sure enough, index (systemic) volumes is rising as single-name (idiosyncratic risk) trading volumes and exposures are fading fast. So what brings it back?

The exuberant OMT-driven froth of the European equity markets appears to be fading. All major stock indices across the region ended the week red - with Spain worst down 3.3% and Italy down 2.2% (though as CNBC would say - off their lows). This looks like catching-down to European sovereign's less sanguine view of the world as Italy and Spain sovereign bond spreads end almost perfectly unchanged (having been up 15bps and 25bps respectively mid-week). Corporate and financial credit spreads outperformed equities on the week - ending unchanged also - with most of the move occurring today. Interestingly, the LTRO stigma is rising once again - as non-LTRO-encumbered bank credit spreads hit a 14-month low this week and the spread to LTRO-banks widens. Europe's VIX ended the week unchanged at 21.9% - thanks to a significant spike into today's close.

Just two weeks after Egan-Jones started the party, S&P has downgraded Spain to BBB- (with a negative outlook). As we discussed here when Egan Jones pushed all-in with Spain to CC, of course, Moody's (Baa3 Neg) will likely follow shortly with Fitch (BBB Neg) deciding to avoid the office-raid and keep its French parents happy. The main reasons - and concern going forward, via Bloomberg:

• *S&P MAY CUT SPAIN IF POLITICAL, EUROZONE SUPPORT WANED
• *S&P MAY CUT SPAIN IF NET GOVT DEBT RISES ABOVE 100%/GDP '12-'14
• Doubts over some eurozone governments' commitment to mutualizing the costs of Spain's bank recapitalization are, in our view, a destabilizing factor for the country's credit outlook.
• In our view, the shortage of credit is an even greater problem than its cost.

Between the IMF's European growth expectations and deleveraging needs, it seems reality is sinking in a little in Europe. All equity indices are closing red today with Spain and Italy worst and banks underperforming. The most interesting feature we noticed is that once again - now the seventh day in a row - European sovereign spreads have deteriorated notably from the US day-session open to the European close. Spain and Italy 10Y bond spreads are 15 and 8bps wider (only) on the week but notably Spanish and Italian equities are down 3.2% and 2.8% respectively this week. EURUSD is practically unch at the EU close - up 60 pips from overnight weakness.

Just as we will not tire of pointing out the unintended consequence of the Fed's central-planning efforts, so it is time, courtesy of the IMF's latest missive, to point out the vicious circle that the ECB has created and encouraged in Europe. The unintended consequence of the ECB's intervention - as both perpetual backstop and lender of last resort - has created an ever-increasing fragmentation between the core and the periphery (exactly the supposed 'issue' Draghi is attempting to fix with his OMT). The toxic-debt-loop as capital leaves the periphery for the core, pressuring peripheral bond yields/spreads, and forcing private sector borrowing to be replaced by public-sector not only clouds the true picture for real-money investors or depositors (risk-based pricing has been destroyed) but encourages front-running fast-money flows which do nothing but provide short-term cover for banks/sovereigns to delay the inevitable (and potential market-clearing) deleveraging/restructuring that is required. Because the fundamental issue is one of solvency - not liquidity - the ECB's continued artifice of plugging liquidity shortfalls does nothing but lessen the confidence in the system and reduce any faith in price levels as without addressing the real insolvency, trust will never return.

While yesterday it was the sovereigns who suffered the wrath of the IMF's wholesale growth outlook downgrade (unbeknownst to Christine Lagarde), today it is the turn of the financial sector (which is increasingly being blurred with the former in a world in which central banks are used to both backstop bank liabilities and fund endless public deficits, unafraid of the consequences in a closed loop fiat world in which defection is, so far, impossible) to be greeted by a cold dose of reality emanating from the IMF's "Global Financial Stability Report" especially as pertains to Europe's insolvent banking system. The most notable finding of said report is the admission that the IMF was only kidding when it said six months ago, in April of this year, that the worst case outlook now has European banks deleveraging to the tune of $3.8 trillion through the end of 2013, or over the next 14 months: now this number is 18% higher, or a gargantuan $4.5 trillion (12% of bank assets). This is how much debt Eurobanks will need to shed in a "weak policies" case in which Europe continues to delay implementing fiscal reform, aka austerity, as per Figure 2.14. Even the baseline (and this being the IMF it means it has zero chance of happening) scenario is not much better, at a revised $2.8 (7.3%) trillion in deleveraging. The reason for the increase is due to "lower expected earnings, higher losses linked to worsened economic conditions, and greater funding pressures on banks."

"The recovery continues but it has weakened" is how the IMF sums up their 250-page compendium of rather sullen reading for most hope-and-dreamers. The esteemed establishment led by the tall, dark, and handsome know-nothing Lagarde (as evidenced by her stroppiness after being asked a question she didn't like in the Eurogroup PR) has cut global growth expectations for advanced economics from 2.0% to only 1.5%. Quite sadly, they see two forces pulling growth down in advanced economies: fiscal consolidation and a still-weak financial system; and only one main force pulling growth up is accommodative monetary policy. Central banks continue not only to maintain very low policy rates, but also to experiment with programs aimed at decreasing rates in particular markets, at helping particular categories of borrowers, or at helping financial intermediation in general. A general feeling of uncertainty weighs on global sentiment. Of note: the IMF finds that "Risks for a Serious Global Slowdown Are Alarmingly High...The probability of global growth falling below 2 percent in 2013––which would be consistent with recession in advanced economies and a serious slowdown in emerging market and developing economies––has risen to about 17 percent, up from about 4 percent in April 2012 and 10 percent (for the one-year-ahead forecast) during the very uncertain setting of the September 2011 WEO. For 2013, the GPM estimates suggest that recession probabilities are about 15 percent in the United States, above 25 percent in Japan, and above 80 percent in the euro area." And yet probably the most defining line of the entire report (that we have found so far) is the following: "Central bank capital is, in many ways, an arbitrary number." And there you have it, straight from the IMF.

Friday's ramp-fest in European stocks - which did not appear to be correspondingly followed by European sovereign debt - was largely retraced today. Extended by the bullish bias from the US NFP data (and closed before the US data BLShit sunk in), it seems that not just the catch down drove stocks in Europe (and Europe's VIX) but anxiety ahead of the expected wall of noise from European leaders ahead of their meetings (which we have already suffered today). European government bonds leaked lower (yields/spreads higher) and Swiss 2Y rates dropped to their lowest in a month (though still well above the mid-crisis safety panic levels of a few months ago). European credit also slid - tending to follow equities this time.