Yield Curve

With everyone and their mom confused at how bonds can rally when stocks (the ultimate arbiter of truthiness) are also positive, we have seen Deutsche confused (temporary technicals), Bloomberg confirm the shortage, and BofA blame the weather (for a lack of bond selling). Today, we have two more thoughtful and comprehensive perspectives from Gavekal's Louis-Vincent Gave (on why yields are so low) and Scotiabank's Guy Haselmann (on why they' stay that way).

Bank of America, whose stubborn, and quite abysmal "short Treasurys" call, has been one of the worst sellside trade recos in recent history and cost investors countless losses, has an update. Only instead of doing a mea culpa and finally admitting it was wrong, the bailed out bank has decided to provide humor instead. Namely it too has joined the ranks of countless others providing an "explanation" (or in its case, an "excuse") for the relentless bond bid. The punchline: "cold weather."

I do have a heightened sense of alertness to what may be in store should the hubris of the current market run fail to permeate into forecasts and expectation announcements over the coming months.

The risky borrowing indicators are troubling. They show that we’ve reverted to old habits of borrowing far more than we can fund with non-money savings. At almost 10% of GDP in 2013, risky borrowing is higher than in all but the early 1970s and middle part of the last decade. This tells us that we’re accumulating risk at a rapid clip, although not for as long as in those earlier episodes. (Yet.) Worse still, policymakers and mainstream economists are unperturbed, failing to acknowledge that some types of financing are riskier than others. It’s as if we’re stuck at a 1970s Pepsi Challenge booth, watching people debate cola tastes with no mention of health risks. With ample evidence of these risks, how can this be? One theory is that the current generation of mainstream economists staked their careers on the soda business, filling resumes with research on topics such as sweetness and carbonation, but nothing on health. It’s just too big a step for them to acknowledge that the old research is unhelpful and the resumes hollow. We can only hope that the unpopular, long-term thinkers who are willing to take that step become more influential over time. In the meantime, keep an eye on the sources of financing and, in particular, the three indicators of risky borrowing discussed below.

Stocks just could not figure it out - good jobs data, bad jobs data, WWWIII? But Treasuries and gold did. 30Y yields tumbled to fresh 11 month lows (lot of desk chatter of GPIF buy orders ahead of their holiday), 10Y to 2014 lows, but the short-end sold off as 5s30s flattened to 5 year lows (under 170bps). Despite some smackdowns this week, precious metals bounced back notably today with gold's best day in a month, back over $1300 and unch on the week. Despite yields tumbling, Utility stocks were the week's losers (-1.2%) while homebuilders were best (oh yeah because lower mortgage rates is all that is holding back pent-up demand for homes!!). On the week, Trannies outperformed but Russell 2000 was worst of the major indices (the opposite of today's action). The USD pumped and dumped around the jobs data, but ended the day unch (down 0.25% on the week). Credit markets closed at their wides of the day, notably divergent from stocks on the week. A massive VIX-selling effort began late in the day (because with 38 dead in Odessa who would need to hedge?) - but stocks ignored it.

Last month it was a tribute to his cat. This month, the manager of the world's largest bond fund discusses sneezing: "A sneeze is, to be candid, sort of half erotic, a release of pressure that feels oh so good either before or just after the Achoo! The air, along with 100,000 germs, comes shooting out of your nose faster than a race car at the Indy 500. It feels sooooo good that people used to sneeze on purpose." He also discusses the aftermath: "The old saying goes that when the U.S. economy sneezes, the world catches cold. That still seems to be true enough, although Chinese influenza is gaining in importance. If both sneezed at the same time then instead of “God bless you” perhaps someone would cry out “God have mercy.” We’re not there yet, although in this period of high leverage it’s important to realize that the price of money and the servicing cost of that leverage are critical for a healthy economy. " He also talks about some other things, mostly revolving around long-term rates of return assumptions and what those mean for investors.

Housing data weaker than expected? Check. Consumer confidence weaker than expected? Check. New cycle highs in stocks - check, check, and check. Why not - after all, as we noted this morning, what really matters is JPY and the fact that it's Tuesday. The Dow is now practically unchanged year-to-date... but ex-Tuesdays is down over 7%. Despite stocks hitting new highs, treasury yields continue to slide, gold is up, and credit markets are not making new tights. Just remember, when it comes to investing, "it's not the economy, stupid! It's Tuesday.. oh and tomorrow is FOMC."

The last time Goldman Sachs urged clients to "sell", it was gold - and in the next quarter, they were the largest acquirer of the precious metal via ETFs. So when the muppet-murdering bank suggests this morning that, while "we have been caught in choppy action" there is a slow awakening of Treasury bears and recommends shifting from a neutral to short-duration position in bonds... one can't help but wonder just what the bank will do with all the bonds clients sell to them...

The coming week will be busy in terms of data releases in the US; highlights include an improvement in consumer confidence, anemic 1Q GDP growth, and solid non-farm payrolls (consensus expects 215K). Wednesday brings advanced 1Q GDP - consensus expected a pathetic 1.1% qoq, on the back of what Goldman scapegoats as "weather distortions and an inventory investment drag", personal consumption (consensus 1.9%), and FOMC (the meeting is not associated with economic projections or a press conference). Thursday brings PCE Core (consensus 0.20%). Friday brings non-farm payrolls (consensus of 215K) and unemployment (6.6%). Other indicators for the week include pending home sales, S&P/Case Shiller home price index, Chicago PMI, ADP employment, personal income/spending, and hourly earnings.

In the last few months, the yield curve spread between 5Y Treasuries and 30Y has collapsed almost 80bps - this is the fastest relative drop since February 2007. The yield curve is down further today - at its flattest since September 2009. As BofAML's Macneil Curry warns, the flattenin trend is ongoing and sees medium-term targets down to 143bps (over 30bps below current levels) which would raise a number of eyebrows among the excuberant equity crowd (and the Spanish bond-buyers).

This doesn't happen very often. Marketwatch reports that Jim Bianco points out in a recent market comment that the 67 economists taking part in a regular Bloomberg survey have a unanimous forecast regarding treasury bond yields: they will be higher 6 months from now... and a separate poll of economists recently showed that exactly zero expect the economy to contract. This is an astonishing degree of consensus thinking, but it perfectly mirrors the complacency we see in stock market sentiment and positioning data. The probability that such a unanimous view will turn out to be correct is traditionally extremely low. The economy is likely resting on a much weaker foundation than is generally believed. This is not least the result of massive monetary pumping and deficit spending, both of which tend to severely weaken the economy on a structural level, even though they can create a temporary illusion of 'growth'.

As we noted earlier, The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has continuously been overly optimistic regarding its expectations for economic growth in the United States. A major reason for the FOMC’s overly optimistic forecast for economic growth and its incorrect view of the effectiveness of quantitative easing is the reliance on the so-called 'wealth effect'. However, "There may not be a wealth effect at all. If there is a wealth effect, it is very difficult to pin down..." Since the FOMC began quantitative easing in 2009, its balance sheet has increased more than $3 trillion. This increase may have boosted wealth, but the U.S. economy received no meaningful benefit. Furthermore, the FOMC has no idea what the ultimate outcome of such an increase will be or what a return to a ‘normal’ balance sheet might entail. Given all of this, we do not see any evidence for economic growth as robust at the FOMC predicts. Without a wealth effect, the stock market is not the “key player” in the economy, and no “virtuous circle” runs through the stock market.

It seems yesterday's decoupling (stocks up, and everything else risk-off) has unwound today as equity markets were broadly weaker. The Dow and S&P traded in a very narrow range on the day closing slightly negative and breaking the 6-day winning streak. Nasdaq and Russell underperformed notably as "most shorted" stocks appeared to gain some momentum to the downside once again (ahead of tonight's AAPL/FB results) as high-beta caught down to low-beta today. Away from the oddly decoupled equity markets, Gold, silver and copper all closed unch to modestly higher as WTI crude prces dropped further (to $101.50). The USD rallied off European open weakness to end unchanged for the week (with notable AUD weakness overnight). Treasuries rallied with 30Y outperforming once again and the yield curve flattening to fresh 5 year lows. Credit markets continues to push wider and are not sustaining any of the exuberance remaining in the S&P.

VIX-slamming, USDJPY-ramping, BTFDe-escalating muppetry and we end the week near the highs with the S&P and Trannies comfortably green YTD (though notably underperforming gold still). Treasuries were sold hard today (7Y +10bps) as the D word was bandied about by the politicians (while in reality de-escalation was anything but what was happening), but the 5s30s still flattened modestly further. 10Y saw one of its worst days of the year and yields pressed up to their 200DMA. Gold and silver were flat to modestly lower as copper and oil limped higher. FX markets were relatively calm as the USD pushed higher on the week (+0.5%). Stocks closed weak into the close but after 3 days of ramp, it's hardly surprising.

We have bad news for hedge funds who, like Hugh Hendry in December of last year, threw fundamentals and caution to the wind and, with great reservations, jumped into this momo bandwagon in which mere buying beget more buying until nobody knew why anyone bought in the first place... and then everything crashed, leading to the worst day for hedge funds in a decade: according to Goldman's David Kostin, whose job is to be a cheerleader for the intangible "wealth effect" leading to all too tangible Goldman bonuses: "The stock market will likely recover during the next few months... but not momentum stocks."