Jim Cramer

There appears to be a level of optimism priced into every macro-economic forecast. Whether this is simply mean-reverting models or a systematic need to justify an ever-increasing equity market is unclear but over the past few years the consensus GDP growth forecast has fallen by around 0.7 percentage points over the year before its final release (as hope turns to reality). So just how bad is the current environment? With the latest update of Q2 2013's GDP consensus forecast now at 1.0%, the last year has seen the consensus drop a stunning 2.0 percentage points (almost triple the average loss of hope). Of course, as we noted here, we'll make it all up in H2 2013 (even as CEO after CEO adjust down their outlooks). Have no fear though - as Jason Schenker from Prestige Economics still believes we will get a +2.2% print for Q2 2013.

Yesterday, just as AAPL was plumbing its intraday lows ahead of its earnings announcement, and just as gold was about to break out to the upside (at least until Dennis Gartman turned bullish on the metal) we relayed a "rumor" suggesting that the most sturdy pair-trade of the past few months: the AAPL-Gold compression was Ben Bernanke's #timestamp for the day.

Rumor Bernanke is pitching the AAPL-gold compression trade

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 23, 2013

Sure enough, following yesterday's AAPL spike and today's gold take-down, Bernanke Asset Management can claim one more win in its impeccable recommendation track record.

Presented with little comment aside to ask, rhetorically, when do our existing valuation methodologies fail and we shift to Price-to-Fed-Balance-Sheet metrics?

Any day now...

US equities closed the week at new all-time highs - and yay-verily the world of long-only asset-gethering talking heads celebrated this as in some way confirming their long-held 'belief' that the US is the cleanest dirty shirt and where-else are you going to invest (you dummy!!). Of course, reality is far different - as Seth Klarman noted, if it's all so great then why did Bernanke need to stick-save us again this week? The bottom-line from the top-down is that the US is in fact the 2nd worst performing macro-economy of the year of the majors (2nd only to China) compared to expectations. What the following charts indicate though, is an interesting divergence between macro-reality and market-perception that is evident among the nations of the world that print money to save themselves... and those that are not (yet)...

Sometimes it is what is not discussed among the mainstream media that is most critical to understanding the new normal...

Presented with little comment aside to hope that it is clear just what this 'recovery' is all about...

Even with duelling Fed members today (Bullard vs Plosser) the message from 'the man' led markets on a one-way street all week. Even though Boeing impacted the Dow (and Trannies):

• S&P managed its best week in 6 months (+2.6%);
• Gold's best week in almost 8 months (+5.1% or $62);
• Treasuries' best week in 13 months (10Y -14.5bps);
  
• High Yield bonds best week in 20 months (+3%); and the
• USD's equal worst week in 21 months (-1.8%).

VIX remains modestly bid and IG credit spreads are underperforming. Market breadth today was weak as S&P volume was very low and the intraday range the lowest in 5 months. The 330ET Ramp was 10 minutes late but just as effective in its goal of running stops to a green Dow as Bullard's words seemed magical.

In a surreal and deja vu-ish turn of events, three days ago we reported that in parallel with the ongoing collapse in CNBC viewership, the ratings of some of its shows namely Jim Cramer's Mad Money and Larry Kudlow's Report had just hit all time lows. This was met with an immediate response by Larry Kudlow himself who, alongside Groundhog Phil-fodder Joe LaVorgna, decided to take Zero Hedge to task for reporting that part-time jobs are not really full-time jobs and invited us over to their show to explain how dare we point out the weakness in the manipulated BLS datadump. We were kind enough to remind Mr. Kudlow that the last time someone from CNBC "invited" us over, i.e., Dennis "Digital Dickweed" Kneale, their show was promptly cancelled. To wit: "While we appreciate the offer, the last thing we intend to do is suffer Mr. Kudlow the same fate as that experienced by his predecessor Dennis Kneale who also invited Zero Hedge on his laughable excuse for a show in 2009, only to be sacked a few months later." Make it two for two as irony strikes again. The NY Post reports that Kudlow's show is over.

As if predicting the jump in interest rates in June, consumers took advantage of cheap credit condition two months ago to load up on credit, pushing the May Consumer Credit higher by $19.6 billion, well above expectations of a $12.5 billion jump. This was the second highest sequential jump post the consumer credit data set revision, only second to the $19.9 billion from last May. And just like a year ago, revolving credit jumped by $6.6 billion following months of stagnating levels. It did the same in May 2012 when it rose by $6.8 billion when consumers also appeared to be prepaying summer purchases. The balance of credit expansion was once again driven by a surge in student and car loans, which amounted to $13 billion of the total May increase. Whether this credit growth continues into June is skeptical following the jump in interest, and especially following the doubling of the prevailing subsidized Stafford Loan rate which will likely cripple future student loan extraction.

Presented with little comment aside to note that US equities are once again resurgent near all-time highs fully supported by err... umm... fundamentals.

Presented with no comment...

Since we lost the deer yesterday as it was run over by bond sellers, it appears everyone else came to the realization that QE cannot be infinite, that EU event risk never went away, and that China does have a credit bubble and so it is time for the monkey. Where-ever we look today there is carnage. The superlatives are all extreme but are the biggest since Europe collapsed in October/November 2011 (preceding the coordinated global central bank bailout) - 1-day and 2-day drops in stocks the biggest in 19 months, Gold and Silver's second largest 1-day drop in 20 months, investment-grade and high-yield credit's worst 1-day and 2-day widening in 19 months, EM currencies (e.g. MXN) worst day in 19 months, Copper's worst day in 19 months, and the heaviest volume day in S&P futures in 20 months. While stocks closed at the lows of the day, Treasuries did see some buying come in the last hour or so - which appears to be safe-haven scrambling - and EUR weakness (post IMF) was trumped by JPY strength (unwinds) to drag the USD off its highs into the close.

With Bernanke seemingly getting his pink slip from Obama, the herd of academia is amassing for the prized job of winding down this catastrophe. From Yellen to Summers and from Geithner to Liesman, they all are equally qualified but as the following job description shows, it may not be as much fun as it seems.

Bravo again to Jim for his expert work in helping people make money, just not the people he claims, not his viewers, another P.T. Barnum Show folks.  Good thing this one hasn't shown he is running a business taking subsidies from the Conneticut government based on the number of employees he has, hat's off to you too Keith Mccullough.