Barclays

We were wondering how long Europe's insolvent, and very much scorned, banks would take the constant downgrade abuse (or reacquaintance with reality as we like to call it, but that is irrelevant) by the rating agencies without retorting. After all the same organizations that allowed bank "credit analysts" to pretend they did work for years, when they all merely fell in place in some lemming-like procession, patting each other on the back, pocketing record bonus after record bonus and praising groupthink encapsulated by the made up letters AAA, are now largely non-grata first in Europe, and soon, following the imminent downgrade of American banks, in the US as well. It appears that the response is finally coming. Sky News reports that "some of Europe's largest banks are intensifying discussions about a move to reduce their co-operation with the big three credit ratings agencies amid widespread dissatisfaction with their decision-making." After all, when all they do is downgrade, as opposed to the old standby, upgrade, who needs them. In fact, why not just shut their mouths entirely. Sadly, this is precisely what is on the horizon.

All you can read.

Wait, this can't... Europe is imploding, the world economy is crashing, and the Spanish banking sector has failed, and the BBA is telling us that in over 3 months Libor has moved by at most... 3 bps, has actually been unchanged for weeks and weeks on end, and has been used by construction workers in the place of a spirit level?

• Obama Seeking Ally on Europe Finds Merkel a Tough Sell (Bloomberg) - but he has an election to win
• China rate cut sparks fears of grim May data (Reuters)
• China faces stimulus dilemma  (FT)
• Papademos warns of Grexit vortex (FT)
• China’s Shipyards Fail to Win Orders as Greek Owners Shun Loans (Bloomberg)
• Rajoy Holds Bank Talks With EU Leaders as Fitch Downgrades Spain (Bloomberg)
• Capital Rule Is One Size Fits All (WSJ)... now the modest question of where to get the $3.9 trillion in capital
• Merkel Pokes at Cameron With Backing for Two-Speed Europe (Bloomberg)
• City safeguards set Britain at odds with EU (FT)
• Bernanke says Fed to act if Europe crisis deepens (Reuters)

• Wisconsin's Walker makes history surviving recall election (Reuters)
• China Labor Shortages in Guangdong Show Stimulus Limits (Bloomberg)
• Oil rises toward $100 ahead of ECB (Reuters)
• China's Property Controls to Stay (China Daily)
• Spain Makes Explicit Plea for Bank Aid (FT)
• Fed Considers More Action Amid New Recovery Doubts (WSJ)
• Noda Sales-Tax Push Confronts Rising Japan Majority Opposition (Bloomberg)
• National Interests Threaten EU Bank Reforms (FT)

Everyone's worried about EU soveriegn debt. Once all of that rapidly depreciated real estate collapses mortgages that have been leveraged 30x, you'll really see the meaning of AUSTERITY! I'm trying to make it very clear to you people, you ain't seen nothing yet!!!

When it comes to the future, suddenly torn by economic uncertainty driven by a plunging stock market and a tanking economy, the talking heads and the sellside brigade have opined: more QE, preferably in the form of asset purchases. After all it was none other than Goldman earlier today who said that "our confidence that the FOMC will ease policy once more at the June 19-20 meeting has also grown... Our baseline remains that Fed officials will purchase a mixture of mortgages and long-term Treasuries, financed via balance sheet expansion... If they decide to extend their balance sheet, they could add excess bank reserves or “sterilize” the reserve impact via reverse repos and/or term deposits." In other words: not sterilized, or bye bye Chubby Checker (recall that even Goldman finally admitted two months ago that when it comes to Fed intervention, what matters is flow - as a result Twist has been largely ineffective in recreating the effect of QE1 and 2). To be sure even more respected investors like Pimco have bet the house that the NEW QE will constitute primarily of more MBS purchases. Yet the real question is what is the bond market telling us: after all when it comes to matters such as these, one should completely ignore stocks, and certainly the talking heads, and instead focus on what bonds are saying. And here is where the stock market may be headed for a great disappointment: because now that the bar has been set so far, anything less than full blown LSAP, or a merely extension of Twist, would likely send stocks plunging. Which, ironically, and completely in opposition to stocks, is what bonds are expecting...

All you need to read.

What would the weekend be without at least one rumor that Europe is on the verge of fixing everything, or failing that, planning for a master fix, OR failing that, planning for a master plan to fix everything. Sure enough, we just got the latter, which considering nobody really believes anything out of Europe anymore, especially not something that has not been signed, stamped and approved by Merkel herself, is rather ballsy. Nonetheless, one can't blame them for trying: "The chiefs of four European institutions are in the process of creating a master plan for the euro zone, the daily Die Welt reports Saturday, in an advance release of an article to be published Sunday. Suggestions targeting a fiscal, banking, and political union, as well as structural reforms, are being worked out..." Less than credible sources report that Spiderman towels (which are now trading at negative repo rates) and cross-rehypothecated kitchen sinks are also key components of all future "master plans" which sadly are absolutely meaningless since the signature of Europe's paymaster - the Bundesrepublik - is as usual lacking. Which is why, "the plan may well mean that the euro zone adopts measures not immediately accepted by the whole of the European Union, the article adds." So... European sub-union? Hardly strange is that just as this latest desperate attempt at distraction from the complete chaos in Europe (which will only find a resolution once XO crosses 1000 as we and Citi suggested two weeks ago and when the world is truly on the verge of the abyss), none other than George Soros has just started a 3-month countdown to European the European D(oom)-Day.

We have explained in the recent past just why the rotation from a professional European bond-run to a retail bank-run is critical to the euro-zone banking system - with deposit losses creating even more encumbered asset levels among European banks, which would then exaggerate contagion problems as funding pressures mount. The problem is existing deposit guarantee schemes are implemented at the national level and are not currently funded to handle a systemic crisis - this is why there has been so much chatter of a pan-Europe guarantee scheme. However, not only does a euro-wide guarantee rely on credible commitments from core European governments but it misses the redenomination risk - as unlike the US FDIC, it would need to explicitly guarantee the euro-value of deposits. Barclays shares our doubts on the implementation (short- and long-term) of such a solution, noting that Eurozone deposits are greater than eurozone GDP (as opposed to US deposits at ~68% of US GDP). Between operational difficulties, the size of redenomination losses, moral hazard, and the massive (deposit/GDP) contingent liability dependent on actual exit of a member state, we would urge any exuberance over 'talk' of a guarantee to be stymied once again by the dismal reality of implementation and agreement.

• Merkel Prepares to Strike Back Against Hollande (Spiegel)
• China to subsidise vehicle buyers in rural areas (Reuters) - what could possibly go wrong
• Bankia’s Writedowns Cast Doubts on Spain’s Bank Estimates (Bloomberg) - unpossible, they never lie
• Shares in Spain's Bankia plunge on bailout plan (AP) - oh so that's what happens when a bank is bailed out.
• SNB’s Jordan Says Capital Controls Among Possible Moves (Bloomberg)
• Greeks Furious Over Harsh Words from IMF and Germany (Spiegel)
• Tehran defiant on nuclear programme (FT)
• Finally they are getting it: Greece needs to go to the brink (Breaking Views) - of course, Citi said it a week ago, but it is the MSM...
• OTC derivatives frontloading raises stability concerns (IFRE)
• Wall Street Titans Outearned by Media Czars (Bloomberg)

The full set of DTCC data is in (that is the repository for reporting CDS data) and reading between the lines provides us with some significant color on what was occurring at JPM's CIO office. First things first, JPM has derisked some/all of the tranche position but remains (we suspect) long IG9 credit hedged by a plethora of liquid on-the-run credit hedges. There appears to have been a delta-neutral HY short credit unwind (in mid-Feb) but no HY9 tranche positioning and nothing since then. However, when we look into IG9 gross and net notionals between tranched (the tail-risk hedge we believe they put on originally) and UnTranched (the index market where the whale managed to delta of the tail-risk hedge) the story becomes both confirming of our hunches and also very concerning. The charts below tell the story of an early unwind of the Fed-induced-failure tail-risk hedge but an arrogant momentum chaser that left the massive long credit index position (hedge of a hedge) that had been the cause of dislocations in the Index-arb business (that other media entities have focused on) flapping into and after LTRO2 into around early-to-mid April (when we are sure Jamie got the call). The changes in gross notional suggest a $120bn tranche position - which adjusted for leverage and the unhedged 'hedge' left on through March adds up to a $2.5bn loss. Add to this the guesstimate cost of 10% of notional (based on mezz price moves) to unwind the remaining tranche position ($5.5bn further losses) and the total could be around $8bn loss on this mess. However, there has been huge 'technical flow' in almost every liquid credit index (IG18, HY18, HYG, and JNK for example) which would have reduced the loss - though left considerable basis risk (hedging the loss with an imperfect hedge). Perhaps given the tranche unwind last week (and the skew compression), the rally in credit indices this week reflects some more unwinds of the tail-risk's hedge and a slowing of the technicals in the market - leaving just weak fundamentals - though we note IG9 index notionals did not shift much meaning they will likely try and unwind this position against the random market hedges they picked up in the last month (leaving huge basis risks for anyone who cares to press).

There was some hope that today's European summit would provide some more clarity for something else than just the local caterer's 2012 tax payment. It wont. Per Reuters: "Germany does not believe that jointly issued euro zone bonds offer a solution to the bloc's debt crisis and will not change its stance despite calls from France and other countries to consider such a step, a senior German official said on Tuesday. "That's a firm conviction which will not change in June," the official said at a German government briefing before an informal summit of EU leaders on Wednesday. A second summit will be held at the end of June. The official, requesting anonymity, also said he saw no need for leaders to discuss a loosening of deficit goals for struggling euro zone countries like Greece or Spain, nor to explore new ways for recapitalise vulnerable banks at Wednesday's meeting." In other words absolutely the same as in August 2011 when Europe came, saw, and did nothing. Yes, yes, deja vu. Bottom line: just as Citi predicted, until the bottom falls out of the market, nothing will change. They were right. As for the summit, just recycle the Einhorn chart from below. Elsewhere, the OECD slashed world growth forecasts and now officially sees Europe contracting, something everyone else has known for months. "In its twice-yearly economic outlook, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development forecast that global growth would ease to 3.4 percent this year from 3.6 percent in 2011, before accelerating to 4.2 percent in 2013, in line with its last estimates from late November... The OECD forecast that the 17-member euro zone economy would shrink 0.1 percent this year before posting growth of 0.9 percent in 2013, though regional powerhouse Germany would chalk up growth of 1.2 percent in 2012 and 2.0 percent in 2013." Concluding the overnight news was a meaningless auction of €2.5 billion in 3 and 6 month bills (recall, Bill issuance in LTRO Europe is completely meaningless) in which borrowing rates rose, and a very meaningful downgrade of Japan to A+ from AA, outlook negative, by Fitch which lowered Japan's long-term foreign currency rating to A plus from AA, the local currency rating to A plus from AA minus, and to the country ceiling rating to AA+ from AAA. Yes, Kyle Bass is right. Just a matter of time. Just like with subprime.

• Is Insider Trading Part of the Fabric on Wall Street? (NYT) ... uhm, next question
• Nasdaq Says Glitches Affected Millions of Shares; IPO System to Be Redesigned (WSJ)... it's all the robot's fault... And the weather... And Bush
• Special Report: The algorithmic arms race (Reuters)
• Barclays to Sell Entire BlackRock Stake (WSJ) ... but they don't need the money... and it's not a market top.
• BoE's Posen: some European banks need more capital (Reuters)... some?
• Limbo on Bankia Undermines Confidence in Spain's Handling of Crisis (WSJ)
• JPMorgan CIO Risk Chief Said to Have Trading-Loss History (Bloomberg)... a guy called Goldman, blowing up JPM... the irony
• Pentagon's tone softens on Chinese military growth (China Daily)
• EU summit to raise pressure on Merkel (FT)
• Romney Super PAC raises less, still tops Democrats (Reuters)
• JPMorgan’s Home-Loan Debt in Europe Increases Anxiety: Mortgages (Bloomberg)

The World Gold Council has released the Q1 2012 Gold Demands Trend report. Gold demand grew 16% over the past 12 months to 1,098 tonnes. This had a US dollar value of just $59.7 billion spent on gold, globally, in Q1 2012. While global demand was down 5% from the record high of Q4 2011, it was significantly higher than demand in Q1 2011 suggesting that global demand may be consolidating at these higher levels.  Probably the most important aspect of demand and one of the most important fundamentals in the gold market is that of still very robust and increasing Chinese demand. In this the Chinese Year of the Dragon – China is becoming a fundamental driver of the gold market. Global demand was boosted by China posting a quarterly record of 98.6 tonnes of investment demand up 13% from Q1 2011. This increase was a result of investors’ continued move to preserve wealth amid ongoing concerns over inflation, volatility in equity markets and price falls in some property markets. Jewellery demand in China, much of which is also store of wealth demand, increased to 156.6 tonnes – 30% of the global appetite.  This increase places China as the largest jewellery market for the third consecutive quarter.