Sovereigns

Ok. It’s not that the Greek deal is nothing. But then again, third strike. Eventually expected, or at least hoped for. Hence, lack of concrete follow-through. So, now it’s there. And now what? You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet? What is there to see??? Pitch the markets some input, something concrete, something to feed off, something to see!

We warned on Thursday and Friday of last week that the rally in European risk assets had begun to disperse (with stocks continuing to the final bell on Friday while credit markets were far less excited). Today saw stocks roll over modestly (less than 1% drops in general today) and credit markets continue to slide. Sovereigns leaked modestly wider once again (except for Portugal which weakened considerably - given a good chunk of last week's gains back in its illiquid way). EURUSD is practically unchanged from Friday with cable (GBPUSD) the most active as Carney is named the new BoE head. German 2Y remains at 0%, Swiss 2Y drifts lower (more negative), 3-month EUR-USD basis swaps dropped their most in 2 weeks, LTRO-encumbered bank spreads continue to underperform, and Europe's VIX jumped its most in 3 weeks.

With all bad news on the tape now having a suitable "explanation", be it a prior president, a tropical storm, the weather being too hot, the weather being too cold, the weather being just right, but never, ever someone actually taking blame for the fact that life is what happens when corporate CEOs (and sovereign presidents) are busy making "priced to perfection" plans. So it is with what is now a confirmed flop of a Black Friday, which according to ShopperTrak saw sales drop by nearly 2% to $11.2 from 2011, which in turn was a 6.6% gain over 2010 (and would be revised to far lower once all the refunds and exchanges to cash took place in the two weeks later). This occurred despite a 3.5% increase in retail foot traffic to 307.7 million store visits. The nominal drop in retail sales also occurred despite a nearly 1% increase in the total US population over last Thanksgiving, and a 2% Y/Y inflation. But fear not: the ad hoc excuse for this "surprising" loss in purchasing power is already handy: it is all Black Thursday's fault, or the latest idiotic attempt by retailers to cannibalize their own future sales by diluting the exclusivity of Black Friday, and which will force all retailers to follow the sovereigns in a race to the bottom, as soon every day will be the equivalent of Black Friday. But at least retailers have another 364 years worth of excuses for the conceivable future to excuse any and all store weakness. Next year: it's all Black Wednesday's fault.

With EURUSD hitting one-month highs, Greek and Spanish government bonds pushing higher day after day, and EU stocks up 5% this week, one could be forgiven for thinking all is well across the pond. Tail-risks removed, firewalls in place, and everything ticking along nicely. The reality, of course, is a rather different picture. As Credit Suisse notes, the apparent inability of the euro area to reach any sort of decision on how best to address Greece’s debtload is far more negative in our view than just its impact on Greece. It speaks, once again, in our view, of the inability for progress at the euro area level in the absence of market pressure. The ECB’s (unactivated) OMT backstop has worked extremely well until now, but the ability of it to continue to do so without progress on the political side is limited in our opinion. As we head into year-end, European storm clouds are building. Meanwhile, the private sector is voting with its feet: German exposure to the periphery continues to fall (down 56% from the peak to the end of September), with exposures to Italy and Spain in particular lower this year. As Santander’s CEO said this week: while the Treasury may not need the Spanish bailout, the Spanish economy and firms do.

S&P 500 futures limped 3-4 points higher from last night's close helped by a surge in EURUSD (and its correlated-ness). The most liquid FX pair in the world jumped like a penny stock up to a 1.2899 high this morning (up at three-week highs) just shy of its 50DMA. Merkel sprinkling some hope of a somehow favorable EU budget accord, no news is good news for Greece, and a Spanish reacharound auction seemed the catalysts for hope but we note two significant shifts today from the very recent risk-on regime: 1) credit markets in Europe diverged flat to lower from equities today; and 2) US equity futures also did not follow the path of least resistance higher with FX carry. Whether this is simple illiquidity is unclear; but typically on thin days, everything correlates and levitates - today in European corporate and sovereign bonds and US equities, that was not the case... and 2Y Bunds end the day back at 0.00%

Forget for one moment that the region is mired in a recession-to-depression state; wipe from memory the faltering capital base of the EFSF/ESM mechanisms; dismiss the overnight failure of a Greece agreement; ignore Schaeuble's dismissal of any joint-and-several liability; all you need to do is buy in Europe. Buy dips, buy rips, buy bad news, buy good news - s'all good. Sovereign debt spreads continue to compress on the week - Portugal -99bps and Spain -26bps for example (and GGBs soared on buyback hope). Equity and credit markets have just gone 'Birinyi-rule'-like from lower left to upper right this week without pause or contemplation. Whether EURUSD dips or rips, whether oil prices dip or rip; you buy risky stuff with both hands and feet. Meanwhile LTRO-encumbered bank spreads are underperforming and Swiss 2Y rates deteriorated today.

10.7% bank NPAs, youth unemployment over 50%, Banks stuffed with levered devalued bonds carried as RISK FREE & RE going for half off during a recession: What could go wrong?

After plunging 50 pips or so on the France downgrade news, EURUSD trickled back up to yesterday's highs just before the US open and is going out at the EU close unchanged from yesterday as French bond spreads are now 1bp tighter on the week (yes tighter). European stocks extended their gains on the day - playing catch up to yesterday afternoon's US equity ebullience but this time corporate and financial credit are not playing along with the exuberance (though sovereigns are better). The Israel ceasefire prompted some modest risk-off interestingly in stocks (though Shekel strengthened) as Oil plunged (Brent relatively underperformed WTI as they both fell). More squeeze... or basis traders 'arb'ing the 130bps spread between Spain bonds and CDS? In an illiquid market, who knows...

Another day, another melt up overnight wiping out all the post-Moody's weakness, this time coming courtesy of Europe, where following the French downgrade, the EURUSD filled its entire gap down and then some in the span of minutes following the European open, when it moved from 1.2775 to 1.2820 as if on command. And with the ES inextricably linked to the most active and levered pair in the world, it is is no surprise to see futures unchanged. It appears that the primary catalyst in the centrally planned market has become the opening of said "market" itself, as all other news flow is now largely irrelevant: after all the central planners have it all under control.

The French banking problem is woefully unrecognized, although I'm sure the rating agencies will pick up on it this time next year, after the collapse and/or bank run.

"With EUR now at 1.2773 versus 1.2816 just before the announcement there is probably more downside till the kneejerk reaction is out of the way. But on the whole it seems likely that this more reflects an already existing reality than new information for the market so the downside should be relatively limited, and nothing that could not be cured by an aggressive Fed indication on balance sheet expansion."

After hours shots fired, with Moody's hitting the long overdue one notch gong on France:

• MOODY'S DOWNGRADES FRANCE'S GOVT BOND RATING TO Aa1 FROM Aaa
  
• FRANCE MAINTAINS NEGATIVE OUTLOOK BY MOODY'S

Euro tumbling. In other news, UK: AAA/Aaa; France: AA+/Aa1... Let the flame wars begin

After 40 years of boozing on easy money and feasting on fantastical asset price inflations, the global monetary system is approaching catharsis, its arteries clogged and instant cardiac arrest a persistent threat. ‘Muddling through’ is the name of the game today but in the end authorities will have two choices: stop printing money and allow the market to cleanse the system of its dislocations. This would involve defaults (including those of sovereigns) and some pretty nasty asset price corrections. Or, keep printing money and risk complete currency collapse. We think they should go for option one but we fear they will go for option two. In this environment, how can people protect themselves and their property? Our three favourite assets are, in no particular order, gold, gold and gold. After that, there may be silver. We are, in our assessment, in the endgame of this, mankind’s latest and so far most ambitious, experiment with unconstrained fiat money. The present crisis is a paper money crisis. Whenever paper money dies, eternal money – gold and silver – stage a comeback. Remember, paper money is always a political tool, gold is market money and apolitical.

Together, the market and democracy are what we like to call "the system." The system has driven and enticed bankers and politicians to get the world into trouble. One of the side effects of the crisis is that all ideological shells have been incinerated. Truths about the rationality of markets and the symbiosis of market and democracy have gone up in flames. Is it possible that we are not experiencing a crisis, but rather a transformation of our economic system that feels like an unending crisis, and that waiting for it to end is hopeless? Is it possible that we are waiting for the world to conform to our worldview once again, but that it would be smarter to adjust our worldview to conform to the world? At first glance the world is stuck in a debt crisis; but, in fact, it is in the midst of a massive transformation process, a deep-seated change to our critical and debt-ridden system, which is suited to making us poor and destroying our prosperity, social security and democracy, and in the midst of an upheaval taking place behind the backs of those in charge. A great bet is underway, a poker game with stakes in the trillions, between those who are buying time with central bank money and believe that they can continue as before, and the others, who are afraid of the biggest credit bubble in history and are searching for ways out of capitalism based on borrowed money.

Earlier today, the BIS, which has been doing everything in its power today to defend the 1.27 support in the EURUSD since the market open this morning, released its H1 OTC derivatives presentation update. There was little of material note: total OTC derivatives were virtually unchanged at $639 trillion gross, representing $25 trillion in net outstanding (market value), and $3.7 trillion in gross credit exposure. Here the PhD theorists will say gross is irrelevant because Finance 101 said so, while the market practitioners will point to Lehman, counterparty risk, and less than infinite collateral to fund sudden implosions of weakest links in counterparty chains, and say that it is gross (which until a recent revision of BIS data had been documented at over $1 quadrillion) that mattered, gross which matters, and gross which will always matter until finally everything inevitably collapses in a house of missing deliverable cards. Because not even the most generous sovereigns and central banks can halt the Tsunami once there is a failure of a major OTC Interest Rate swap counterparty. And whereas Basel III had some hopes it would be able to bring down the total notional in derivative notionals slowly over the next few years with a gradual deleveraging across all financial firms, the bankers fought, and the bankers won, because the last thing the current batch of TBTFs can afford it admit there is any hope they can ever slim down. The will... but never voluntarily.