CDS

As expected, German CDS are soaring in the aftermath of the failed auction. And even UK CDS are now offered triple digits. What is ironic is that the UK is in far worse shape than Germany. That UK-Germany compression trade gets more attractive by the day.

In addition to broad bloodletting across the board, with Belgium and Spain getting crushed as noted earlier, the core confusion continues with Germany back in triple digits, and the UK, which has roughly 500% total debt/GDP including all debt - corporate and private, or double Germany's, still shockingly in double digits. This won't last long.

Less than two weeks ago, when reporting on the news that Fitch has finally woken up to the reality that European insurers, already massively pregnant with European bonds, are the next shoe to drop, something we have been saying since 2010, we said, "For once, Fitch took the words right out of our mouth, and in the process reminded us that the time of the stupendously named ASSGEN CDS (357 bps, +41 today) is here (for our previous coverage on Generali, read here, here and here)." We also added: "And just because we like to live dangerously, we believe the time has come to knock on the door of the grand daddy of all: Pimco parent, German uber-insurer Allianz, where the crisis will eventually hit like a ton of anvils if and when things really get out of control." Here is the first trade update, 12 days later: Generali is 100 bps wider, Allianz is 40 bps. So as traders stock up on even more default protection to the companies which are certainly not too big to fail (ALZ used its trump card with the EFSF as CDO squared idea... and failed), we urge them whatever they do, to not tell Bill Gross to look at the soaring default risk of his parent company.

Belgium is the latest entrant to the fully inverted 5s10s club. Yet what is scary is that even Austria and France have just 14 bps to go before they also invert. And most worryingly, Germany is just 4 bps behind. Keep a close eye on the 5s10s. If it inverts for everyone in Europe, including the UK and German, it is game over.

Remember when MS CDS was back at 300 bps a few days ago when it reported it was perfectly hedged?

Remember how prohibiting the use of naked sovereign CDS was supposed to make the CDS market tame as a docile lamb? Well, as it turns out, the bulk of the marginal moves were not CDS driven, but simply basis traders putting on, and taking off hedges. Ignoring the fact that many desks have experienced "Boaz Weinstein" like events in the past month (perhaps even Mr. Basis "$4.7 billion AUM" Trade himself), it seems that CDS is now simply tracking moves in cash. And those moves, if you are France, are not pretty. As the chart below shows, French CDS have just hit 88 MPH and are about to go back to a calmer, more peacful time, when everyone could buy and sell stuff using the French Franc...

It took Europe two days to go from fixed to fully broken all over again. Those curious why they are waking up to a see of red, Italian 10 Year yields back over 7%, stock futures tumbling, the EUR/$ sliding, Italian, French and Belgian CDS at fresh records, and a record scramble for Bund short-dated bonds (2 Year under 0.030%) is due to two main things: a failed Spanish auction now that contagion is back to sleepy Iberia, which sold €3.2 billion of bills, below the €3.5 billion target, with the yield soaring to 5.02% from 3.61% at Oct. auction leading to Spanish 2-, 10-yr yield spreads to Germany both significantly wider to records.  The second main factor is the realization that Mario Monti is not the second coming and will in fact face major resistance to form a government. Bloomberg reports: "Monti, a former European Union competition commissioner, struggled to get political parties to agree to participate in his so-called technical Cabinet during talks in Rome yesterday. A government lacking political representation will find it harder to muster support from the parties in parliament to pass unpopular laws. Monti said he’ll conclude his talks today." And if Monti can't do it, nobody can. Which explains why the fulcrum European security, the Italian 10 year BTPs, just fell off a cliff, and is now yielding back over 7% at a euro price of under 85 cents. This could well be crunch time: there are no more magic rabbits in the hat, or deus ex prime minister resignations in the hat for Italy.

It seems that rotating a few pawns at the top is not quite the bazooka everyone expected it to be last week. Case in point: CDS in the core European trio of France, Spain and Belgium just hit new all time wides. But before anyone blames evil CDS speculators, it is notable that CDS is significantly outperforming cash bonds. And since everything that can be said about Europe's ongoing implosion has been said already, the only question is which Goldman "advisor" will replace Sarko in a few weeks.

UPDATE: EFSF is denying it bought its own bonds. We suspect semantics as the denial is very specifically worded and EIB or ECB involvement is possible and frankly just as incredible. Perhaps the ECB really is the lender of ONLY resort.

We earlier discussed the desperate actions that occurred surrounding the EFSF self-aggrandizement this week and Peter Tchir, of TF Market Advisors, notes that the whole situation was bizarre and is becoming more and more Enronesque every day. But the lack of demand for EFSF debt is simply, as we have repeatedly pointed out, a factor of their own design and a symptom of the actions that a bloated lobbying IIF and the feckless politicians have taken. One of the obvious consequences of the EU and IIF decision to pursue this restructuring is they cannot fully rely on CDS, and markets will treat net exposure numbers with skepticism.

So banks will sell bonds/loans and unwind their CDS positions and manage their exposure the old fashioned way, by adding or reducing to their bond/loan position. That impact seemed obvious to everyone other than the EU and IIF. So the pseudo-private money (EU banks, EU pension funds, and EU insurance companies) are reluctant to buy EFSF bonds because they already have too much sovereign exposure, and the EU is likely to force "voluntary" changes on EFSF debt before it would on actual outright sovereign debt.  Real private money is confused by the structure. Who does that leave?  Only sovereign wealth funds and other supra-national entities.

EFSF is the bond only a mother could love.

The spike in yields on sovereign debt of Italy was attributable, only in part, to the Italian political turmoil we are witnessing. The other aspect dealt with CDS on Italian debt. Those holders thought they had one type of CDS protection. They realized from the events in Greece that they had something else.

For once, Fitch took the words right out of our mouth, and in the process reminded us that the time of the stupendously named ASSGEN CDS (357 bps, +41 today) is here (for our previous coverage on Generali, read here, here and here). And just because we like to live dangerously, we believe the time has come to knock on the door of the grand daddy of all: Pimco parent, German uber-insurer Allianz, where the crisis will eventually hit like a ton of anvils if and when things really get out of control. ALZ CDS + 12 at 136. Going much wider. After all, recall that the deus ex machina of the EFSF as a CDO Cubed came from, that's right, Allianz. So now that it has failed, guess who has the most to lose... If we had more time we would attach the recent Credit Sights piece on ALZ here, but we don't: we hope readers can track it down on their own.

Well what do you know: you can beat them, you can trash them, you can make them illegal, you can even leave them for dead. But at the end of the day all Credit Default Swaps do is tell the truth better than any career politician.

Before MF Global went bankrupt due to European sovereign exposure, the smart money was that Austria's Erste would be "it." After all, recall from our October 10 post "that Erste disclosed some major losses on its €5.2 billion CDS portfolio, consisting of "EUR 2.4 billion related to financial institution exposures, and EUR 2.8 billion related sovereign exposures". Why is this a surprise? UK-based financial advisory Autonomous explains: "The fact that Erste had a sovereign CDS portfolio which was not marked-to-market has left many investors scratching their heads. As a reminder the EBA stress test data showed Erste to have zero sovereign CDS exposure within its sovereign mix compared to the €2.8bn it now appears to have ‘fessed up’ to (taking a cumulative €460m hit). They also have €2.4bn exposure to banks via writing of CDS. The bulk is non-PIIGS but banks spreads have moved in the same manner as sovereigns (albeit wider and more volatile)." And there you have it: the bogeyman that everyone has been warning about, yet nobody has seen, CDS written (as in sold) in bulk against other sovereigns and other banks which up until now were only mythical, as they, to quote the EBA (which had Dexia as its safest bank) simply did not exist. Oh, they exist all right, and what they do is create a toxic spiral of accentuating losses whenever the risk situation deteriorates, creating positive feedback loops of ever increasing losses until the next Dexia appears... and then the next... and the next. Expect the market to latch on to this dramatic revelation like a rabid pitbull once the hopium high from today's EURUSD short covering squeeze wears off." Of course, the market ignored this loud warning bell, and next hting you know MF was under. This time it won't be so easy, especially since Moody's just announced it is about to downgrade Erste precisely for this reason. This move also explains why the market is suddenly rife with rumors of a broad Austria downgrade.

The horror...The horror

The futures are tumbling with U.S. futures falling in sympathy with plunge in European stocks; Italy’s FTSEMIB index down 5.3%, DAX down 4.4%, CAC down 4.3%, Spain’s Ibex down 4.1%, FTSE down 2.9%. But here is the true reason why Europe already needs another bailout, or the promises thereof, courtesy of those so vile CDS which no matter how hard it tries, Europe just can't kill:

• Italy CDS Rise 45.5 bps to 491; update +53 495/505
  
• France CDSs rise 14 bps to 190; update + 17 191/196
• Spain CDSs rise 33.5 bps to 374.5; update + 41 375/385
  
• Portugal CDSs rise 57 bps to 1,028; update + 71 1015/1055

The reason? Why Greece of course: the same referendum decision that it took the market yesterday 45 minutes to process before the sell off began.