Gundlach

WTI crude oil prices are now down almost 55% from the June highs, the impossible just happened... WTI Crude broke into the $40s... the 6-month plunge is the largest since the pre-Lehman plunge and 2nd biggest plunge in 28 years.

'... assuming equity prices rise by 10% this year, for their bond allocation to stay at 37% (same as of Q3 2014), US pension funds and insurance companies would have to buy $550bn of bonds in 2015."

Having totally and utterly failed in 2014, the consensus for 2015 is once again higher rates (well they can't go any lower right?) with year-end 2015 expectations of 3.006% currently (having already plunged from over 3.65% in July). However, at the other end of the spectrum, DoubleLine's Jeff Gundlach told Barron's this weekend, the 10-yr Treasury yield may test the 2012 low of 1.38% as the Fed’s short-term rate increase is poised to trigger "surprising flattening" of yield curve.

Despite the authorities' best efforts to keep everything orderly, we know how this global Game of Geopolitical Tetris ends: "Players lose a typical game of Tetris when they can no longer keep up with the increasing speed, and the Tetriminos stack up to the top of the playing field. This is commonly referred to as topping out."

"I’m tired of being outraged!"

Every year, David Collum writes a detailed "Year in Review" synopsis full of keen perspective and plenty of wit. This year's is no exception. "I have not seen a year in which so many risks - some truly existential - piled up so quickly. Each risk has its own, often unknown, probability of morphing into a destructive force. It feels like we’re in the final throes of a geopolitical Game of Tetris as financial and political authorities race to place the pieces correctly. But the acceleration is palpable. The proximate trigger for pain and ultimately a collapse can be small, as anyone who’s ever stepped barefoot on a Lego knows..."

As an investor, it is simply your job to step away from your "emotions" for a moment and look objectively at the market around you. Is it currently dominated by "greed" or "fear?"  Your long-term returns will depend greatly not only on how you answer that question, but to manage the inherent risk.  “The investor’s chief problem – and even his worst enemy – is likely to be himself.” - Benjamin Graham

There can be only one bond king. And with Gross in cross-asset limbo, that means that the undisputed fixed income crown, for now, goes to the one true monrach Jeffrey Gundlach. And in a few moments, said fixed income royal will be discussing the economy, the markets and his outlook for what he believes may be the best investment strategies and sector allocations, in his latest webcast titled, to borrow Barron's latest headline, "This Time It's Different."

The reason why the first article we wrote on Friday after news hit that PIMCO co-founder was shockingly leaving the firm on Friday, was listing the massive bond fund's biggest holdings, was because it was only a matter of time: it, being of course, the massive redemptions that would follow Gross' departure by people that his 30+ tenure at the bond fund made very rich, and who couldn't care less about a brief central planning-inspired flame out. After all Gross isn't the first person who has lost the plotline due to the Fed's manipulation of every market. So just how bad is it? Not for Gross of course: he has made his billions and is simply doing what he and Icahn do in their age: what they love. No, for Pimco, where the redemptions requests are already flooding in. According to the WSJ, just two days after the Gross announcement (both of which non-workdays), already some $10 billion has been withdrawn. And that is just the beginning.

Overnight the most notable move has been the ongoing weakness in rates, with USTs reversing earlier Tokyo gains after BoJ Deputy Governor Iwata, in addition to commenting on a lot of things that didn't make much sense,  said he didn’t see any difficulties in money market operations even if BoJ bought bought government debt with negative yields, as InTouch Capital Markets notes. As a reminder, yesterday we noted that in a historic first the "Bank Of Japan Monetizes Debt At Negative Rates." As Bloomberg notes, this may be interpreted that BoJ may target negative yields to penalize savers, which "all boosts the appeal of yen-funded carry trades." In other words, first Europe goes NIRP, now it's Japan's turn! So while this certainly lit the fire under the USDJPY some more, which overnight broke about 106.50 and hit as high as 106.75 on Iwata's comments, it does not explain why the 10Y is currently trading 2.52% - after all the fungible BOJ money will eventually make its way into US bonds and merely add to what JPM has calculated is a total $5 trillion in excess liquidity sloshing in the global market.

In a few moments, the up and coming "bond king challenger", Jeffrey Gundlach will hold one of his signature free to all webcasts, this time focusing on what Gundlach calls the "Fixed Income Playbook." Will he agree with David Tepper that the bond bubble is now bursting, or, on the contrary, side with JPM and its estimation that there is $5 trillion in excess liquidity which will inevitably find its way into the bond market and send yields to even lower record lows, find out in minutes.

If the market signs are blurry, your best option is to look at what the top investors are doing.

The econ data this week signal the US Economy is in a bull market (not the same as the Fed -roided stock and commodity markets), now let`s hope we can keep inflation from spoiling the party! 

Give me Football Season over the Federal Reserve any day of the week in terms of actual ‘boots on the ground’ stimulus.

When we first brought the market's attention to high-yield credit's flashing red warning, it was shrugged off as unimportant by most - stocks are rallying so who cares (even though we explained in detail why equity investors should care). Now that the mainstream media has all become high-yield bond experts we thought it worth considering how much worse this could get. As Barclays notes, for those keeping track, retail funds have thus far seen 22 consecutive days of redemptions for a total of $16.9bn in assets - the longest streak in history and while the effect of retail selling on valuations has not been negligible, it has also not been proportionate to the magnitude of the outflows (yet).

We discussed the major rotation, overvaluation, and underperformance of high-yield credit markets recently as relevering stock-buying-back firms find their source of funding starting to dry up. The question is - why now? Perhaps this chart of the wall of maturing corporate debt ($3.9 trillion by 2019 which will need massive liquidity to roll-over and will eat earnings thanks to higher coupons) is what triggered the anxiety as the end of QE and start of rate-hikes looms close...