High Yield

Let’s see. Between July 2007 and January 2009, the median US residential housing price plunged from $230k to $165k or by 30%. That must have been some kind of super “tax cut”.

The global oil price collapse now unfolding is not putting a single dime into the pockets of American households - the CNBC talking heads to the contrary notwithstanding.  What is happening is the vast flood of mispriced debt and capital, which flowed into the energy sector owning to the Fed’s lunatic ZIRP and QE policies, is now rapidly deflating. That will reduce bubble spending and investment, not add to economic growth. It’s the housing bust all over again.

I realise that it is not normal to have a bearish risk view for December through to mid-January. Normally markets tend to ramp up in December and early January before selling off later in January. But this year I do think things are different. One look at the moves in core bond markets over 2014, when almost everyone I talked to had been bearish bonds, paints a stunning picture. I would entitle this picture ‘The Victory of Deflation’, or (as many folks now talk about (but still generally dismiss)) ‘The Japanification of the World’. I may end up eating my words in 2015 if the US consumer does come through, but if he or she does not, then we may well need QE4 from the Fed to battle the incredibly strong headwinds of deflation around the world. And I will revert on this subject, but to me the coming ECB QE and more BOJ QE are woefully inadequate substitutes for USD Fed QE.

Goldman's Sven Jari Stehn answers the 11 most critical questions regarding to day's "most-important-FOMC-meeting-ever."

Let's pause for a moment, take a breath, and reflect on what has happened. As Scotiabank's Guy Haselmann notes, "The current market environment means that prices of securities can move wildly and to previously unforeseen and unexpected levels. For many, P&L management and financial survival will trump economic valuation." But what does all this mean for The Fed tomorrow?

While the market, and America's media, was focusing over the passage of the Cromnibus, and whether Wall Street would dump a few hundred trillion in derivatives on the laps of US taxpayers once again (it did), quietly and unanimously both houses passed The Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, which authorizes providing lethal assistance to Ukraine’s military as well as sweeping sanctions on Russia’s energy sector. And as has happened for the entire duration of the second Cold War, any action by the US was promptly met with a just as provocative reaction by Russia. In this case, a leftist member of the Russian Duma said the US Senate’s decision to arm the Kiev regime should prompt ‘adequate measures’ from Russia, such as deploying military force on Ukrainian territory before the threat becomes too high. "It is quite possible that we should return to the decision by our Upper House and give the Russian president an opportunity to use military force on Ukrainian territory preemptively. We should not wait until Ukraine is armed and becomes really dangerous."

This is a MAJOR warning signal that the great “recovery” in risk assets was ending. The Fed spent over $4 trillion and managed to create another stock market bubble, but that bubble is ending.

If prices fall any further (and what’s going to stop them?), it would seem that most of the entire shale edifice must of necessity crumble to the ground. And that will cause an absolute earthquake in the financial world, because someone supplied the loans the whole thing leans on. An enormous amount of investors have been chasing high yield, including many institutional investors, and they’re about to get burned something bad. We might well be looking at the development of a story much bigger than just oil.

Sometimes I wish I could just passively accept what my government monarchs and their mainstream media mouthpieces feed me on a daily basis. Why do I have to question everything I’m told? Life would be much simpler and I could concentrate on more important things like the size of Kim Kardashian’s ass... The willfully ignorant masses, dumbed down by government education, lured into obesity by corporate toxic packaged sludge disguised as food products, manipulated, controlled and molded by an unseen governing class of rich men, and kept docile through never ending corporate media propaganda, are nothing but pawns to the arrogant sociopathic pricks pulling the wires in this corporate fascist empire of debt.

Once again, following a strong 10 Year auction, today's 30 Year reopening of CUSIP RJ9 was an absolute stunner, and with the When Issued trading at 2.875%, the high yield was a very much scorching 2.848%, stopping through nearly 3 bps through the WI, and the lowest 30 Year auction yield since November 2012. The reason for this impressive surge in last minute interest: a record low takedown by Dealers who got just 25.9% of the auction as they were pushed out by the other two bidding groups. Sure enough, there was an absolute scramble by Indirects (49.8%) and Directs (24.3%) both of which received, logically, a record high takedown for a 30 Year.  And finally with the Bid to Cover soaring to 2.762, this was the highest since January of 2013.

Are much lower oil prices good news for the U.S. economy?  Only if you like collapsing capital expenditures, rising unemployment and a potential financial implosion on Wall Street.

Another 10 Year auction (or technically 9 Year, 11 Month reopening), and another round of blistering demand by the Indirects. With the When Issued trading at the lowest since the June 2013 high yield, today's 10 Year issuance did not disappoint, and at a 2.214% High Yield, the 10Y priced just through the when issued which was at 2.215% at 1 pm, making this third consecutive month of declining 10 Year yields (and the lowest in 18 months). The Bid To Cover sizzled, surging from last month's 2.52 to 2.97, the highest since March of 2013. The internals saw Indirect demand surge to 53.8%, the highest since December of 2011, however offset by Directs of just 6.9%. Dealers took the remaining 39.3%.

At the latest ECB press conference Draghi said that. “The monetary policy team had this week discussed buying all assets except gold”; qualifying a claim by fellow member Yves Mersch two weeks ago that gold bullion could be included.” If central bankers truly believed in sound monetary policy the headline would have said “We’ll buy all your gold”. That would have propelled both gold and the European equity markets upwards. As it is markets on the continent get cheaper as the good doctor fiddles.

The rather amusing and broadly cited economic fact is that US growth has become more robust and we should only expect a “tailwind” from lower gas prices that will put more dollars in the US consumers’ pockets , but 3 charts might indicate a less optimistic outcome.

VIX has been unable to make lower lows as stocks made higher highs in recent weeks as it appears managers protected these insane gains of the last few weeks rather than piled in - beta-chase-style - as financial media would have us believe. VIX has broken back above 16 this morning adding to its biggest 2-day surge in 2 months and suggesting notably more downside for stocks from here. We suspect credit hedgers are spilling over into the equity protection markets as bond liquidty dries up and protection costs soar.

High-yield energy bond spreads are crashing-er. Up 15bps to 880bps today, these are record wides and massively impact the economics of these firms - no matter how much investors want to ignore it. This is contagiously spreading across the broad high yield and even investment grade credit markets as high yield bond prices crash below the mid-October Bullard lows...