Boeing

One of the best definitions of fascism – the one used by Mussolini himself – is the “merger of state and corporate power“. We’re pretty much there …

• Only the cattle cars are missing: Greece opens detention camp for immigrants as election looms (Reuters)
• China really wants that Iran oil - China mulls guarantees for ships carrying Iran oil (Reuters)
• U.S. eyes testy China talks, Chen backer expects Chinese decision (Reuters, FT)
• Possible arsenic poisoning probed in death of coroner's official (LA Times)
• Europe’s Anti-Austerity Calls Mount as Elections Near (Bloomberg)
• Law firm Dewey dumps executive; talks with rival end (Reuters)
• Greek bank appeals for fresh equity (FT)
• Banks seek to put pressure on small rivals (FT)
• Obama falls short of meteoric expectations abroad (Reuters)

At first we were quite impressed by the following major revenue and EPS beat by Boeing announced earlier today:

*BOEING 1Q EPS $1.22 ON 11C REDUCTION IN RESERVE, EST. 93C
*BOEING 1Q REV. $19.38B, EST. $18.31B :BA US

...until courtesy of Sean Corrigan we found out that Boeing is merely the latest company to discover what GM recently discovered as have so many now defunct other companies. That when in doubt - stuff.

S&P threatening to downgrade India... UK double dipping... Germany having a failed auction. It is all irrelevant, for the great fruit has spoken and people are buying iGadgets at record levels, which can only mean that once the great credit spree ends, Apple will likely be forced to use its $110 billion cash hoard to start an in house "Acceptance Corporation" vendor financing purchases of its products directly. And while the AAPL earnings beat has become a contrarian bet, now that even Gartman has said he is turning bullish on stocks, here is a summary of what happened and what will happen. In a nutshell, just like Apple was the only thing that mattered yesterday, today it is only the Fed and the subsequent press conference that matter, with the market likely to only take away whatever it wants to take away.

Senator Frank Church's Prophetic Warning in 1975

Another political bump in the road?

Bad news is once again good news. Asia sells off on Monday's weaker profit news; the Bank of Spain says that the Spanish economy is expected to see a negative print in Q1 which if confirmed will ensure a fresh recession while the budget statistics released by the Spanish government yesterday showed further deterioration in its fiscal situation, per DB. The deficit for the first two months of the year was €20.7bn and this does not include state and  regional governments’ budgets; lastly American housing slump accelerates as MBA mortgage applications drop for the 7th consecutive week with applications down 2.7%, on the back of a 4.6% decline in refi applications, the lowest since December 7. And futures are...green. Which is to be expected, since good news is good news, and bad news is, thanks to the Fed, and in this case uber-dove Rosengren, who said more stimulus is on the table, better news. It is now obvious that the Fed will not rest until the market is at fresh all time distorted, manipulated, nominal highs.

Remember all those European PMIs which imploded over the past month, destroying any hopes of a rapid rebound from Europe's technical recession? You can forget them now because the one indicator which tracks the level of the manipulated stock market more than anything else, German IFO business survey, just came better than expected, at a whopping 109.8 compared to expectations of 109.6 print, same as the previous one. And that is all it takes for futures, and the EURUSD to ramp, which in turn plants the seeds for another confidence ramp next month and so on. Here is Goldman's take: "The assessment of current conditions remained unchanged at 117.4, while expectations increase to a level of 102.7 after 102.4. Looking at the different sectors it shows that confidence in the manufacturing sector was broadly stable on a high level (14.0 after 14.3), while construction saw a small decline after a surge over the last couple of months (2.3 after 3.3; confidence stood at -13.2 in October). Confidence in the retail sector also recorded a strong gain (106.6 after 3.7), while wholesale saw a decline (12.8 after 15.0). This is a strong report with business conditions remaining significantly above their long-term average of 101.1. The rebound in business conditions after a soft spot during October to January is indicative for a rebound in the underlying momentum in the economy." Well, no, if anything it is indactive that Germans were happy to reap the benefits of a few trillion in liquidity which in turn pushed markets higher, and making Germans even more confident despite the big miss in German PMI in March. But for now a big drop in the market is unwelcome so let's focus on reflexive, Catch 22 indicators. Even Goldman is perplexed on the spin: "Only the release of the 'hard' data in the coming weeks will show which survey is giving the correct signal with respect to the underlying momentum of the German economy. But in any case, the March IFO argues against taking, at least for now, the PMIs at face value."

George Orwell was right. He was just 30 years early.

In its April cover story, Wired has an exclusive report on the NSA's Utah Data Center, which is a must read for anyone who believes any privacy is still a possibility in the United States: "A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks.... Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”... The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013." In other words, in just over 1 year, virtually anything one communicates through any traceable medium, or any record of one's existence in the electronic medium, which these days is everything, will unofficially be property of the US government to deal with as it sees fit... As former NSA operative William Binney who was a senior NSA crypto-mathematician, and is the basis for the Wired article (which we guess makes him merely the latest whistleblower to step up: is America suddenly experiencing an ethical revulsion?), and quit his job only after he realized that the NSA is now openly trampling the constitution, says as he holds his thumb and forefinger close together. "We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state."

• Tainted Libor Guessing Games Face Replacement by Real Trades (Bloomberg) - so circular, self-reported data is "tainted" - but consumer confidence is great for pumping a stock market?
• Japan Sets up $12 Billion Program for Dollar Loans, Increases Growth Fund (Bloomberg)
• China Hints at Halt to Renminbi Rise (FT)
• Spain Pressed to Cut More From Its Budget (FT)
• Bailout can make Greek debt sustainable, but risks remain: EU/IMF (Reuters)
• Banks to Face Tough Reviews, Details of Mortgage Deal Show (NYT)
• U.S. and Europe Move on China Minerals (WSJ)
• Use of Homeless as Internet Hot Spots Backfires on Marketer (NYT)
• Obama administration seeks to pressure China on exports with new trade case (AP)

And so the transition to the QE3 "economic disappointment" regime begins. Because after the ECB is done with the LTRO it's over for global QEasing, and the Fed is next. Remember- Bernanke's semiannual testimony to Congress is tomorrow. Whatever will he say....

• Headline Durable Goods plunges from +3.2 to -4% on expectations of -1%
• More painfully, Durable goods non-defense ex aircraft down a whopping -4.5% on Exp of -1.3%, down from +3.4%.

Visually, this is the lowest Durable Goods number since January 2009

Benefitting from two diametrically opposed systems.

Chuckles, no laughs.

And so the volatility continues: initial claims go from 402K to an upward revised 356K, to 377K, on expectations of 370K. The swings in this data series are getting as big as those in the stock market on those rare occasions when reality sets in. The miss is in line with the Fed perceived weakness in the economy. Continuing claims also missed coming at 3554K up from an upward revised 3466K, higher than expectations of 3500K. A whopping 146K dropped out of extended claims: in fact, in the past year the unemployed collecting post 6 month benefits either EUCs or Extended Benefits have plunged from 4.6 million to 3.4 million. As for last week's massive drop of nearly 50K initial claims, we learn that somehow it was New York to thank for this, with 27.7K less claims than the week before due to "Fewer layoffs in the transportation, educational, and construction industries." How about layoffs in the financial services industry, and also how much do those jobs pay vs "transportation, educational and construction" jobs?  What however does not justify the Fed's ZIRP through 2015 or so, is the Durable Goods number which came at 3.0%, on expectations of 2.0%, down from an upward revised 4.3%. The bulk of this was in airplane orders thanks to Boeing as noted previously. However what was surprising is that Durable Goods ex transportation came in at a blistering 2.1% on Exp of 0.9%, and Capital Goods Orders ex Non-Def and Aircraft which rose 2.9% on expectations of 1.0%. However since the Fed has made it clear it will boost its balance sheet, and as of today the implied increase is over $800 billion, at the smallest whiff of trouble, the risk bubble is in full on mode as bad news is good news, and good news is better news.

Today's key economic data comes early in the day. The rest will be punctuated by ongoing rumors out of Europe and Iran.