Russ focuses on Japan's problems in this article, but Japan's not alone when it comes to the list of countries with ponzi-like financial systems. ~ Ilene 

Largest Central Banks Now Hold Over 15 Trillion in Fictitious Cap Read more.....

Russ focuses on Japan's problems in this article, but Japan's not alone when it comes to the list of countries with ponzi-like financial systems. ~ Ilene 

Largest Central Banks Now Hold Over 15 Trillion in Fictitious Capital

Courtesy of Russ Winter of Winter Watch at Wall Street Examiner  

Submitted by Rational Capitalist Speculator

Weekly Bull/Bear Recap: January 23-27, 2012

Bull

+ The ECB’s Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) has clearly quelled fears of Read more.....

Submitted by Rational Capitalist Speculator

Weekly Bull/Bear Recap: January 23-27, 2012

Bull

+ The ECB’s Long-Term Refinancing Operation (LTRO) has clearly quelled fears of an imminent liquidity crisis; Spanish and Italian 10-yr yields have plunged.  The operation will provide time for policymakers to forge ahead with structural reforms.  Germany is opening the door for pro-growth policies in the periphery.  Furthermore, Greece is an isolated case.  A Greek default is already priced in and a climax would actually lift the air of uncertainty.  Says billionaire investor George Soros, “I think we are on the verge of putting the acute phase of the crisis behind us,” adding that he believed Italian sovereign bonds represent a “very attractive” speculative investment.  Finally, business confidence in Germany increases for the 3rd month in a row, while record low unemployment boosts consumer confidence.  The bloc’s largest economy will avert recession and support investor confidence in the Eurozone region.

+ U.S. economic data continues to shine.  The Richmond Fed’s manufacturing survey increases from 3 to 12, lead by New Orders and expectations of improved business conditions (we have the same bullish result from the Kansas City Fed); note that all regional surveys have improved in January.  Moreover, the ATA Truck Tonnage Index spikes the most in over a decade in December.  Chief Economist Bob Costello hints that a wave of inventory restocking has begun.  Core Durable Goods Orders reestablish their bullish trend, which bodes well for Q1 manufacturing performance.  On the jobs front, state unemployment rates continue their trek lower.  Finally, consumer confidence improves to 75.0 and is the highest in almost a year. 

+ The global economy has clearly stabilized after a brief air pocket in the prior quarter.  According to the Markit PMI, economic activity in the Eurozone unexpectedly grew in January, led by Germany and France.  Meanwhile, monetary easing; such as India’s unexpected decision to cut their Reserve Ratio, Thailand’s interest rate cut, and Brazil’s upcoming rate cut, will further support economic growth.  Copper and comments from Caterpillar support the global re-acceleration thesis.  Even Japan had some good news on the consumer front.  

+ The Fed announces that interest rates will be held low throughout 2014 and state that they will step in with QE III should the global economy deteriorate further.  Risk assets spike as investors are reassured that the Fed will maintain vigilance for any economic slowdown.  Criticism of the program won’t be nearly as intense as QE II due to slowing economic growth in Emerging Markets.  

+ Obama clears the way for an economy that’s “built to last,” by explicitly stating in his State of the Union address that domestic companies will receive government assistance to create jobs.  Leaders understand the grand opportunities that lie ahead. The U.S.  manufacturing renaissance is in its infancy.     

Bear

- Global growth is slowing to a stall.  Japan’s central bank cuts its 2011 and 2012 economic growth forecasts, citing strains from balance-sheet repair in the U.S. and weaker growth due to the European debt crisis.  On a grander scale, the IMF slashes its global growth forecasts and expects the Eurozone to enter a recession.  Meanwhile, Australia and the UK are teetering on the brink of recession, while South Korea reports its slowest economic growth in 2 years.  In China, officials want to see a 30% decline in residential real estate to reach a “reasonable” level —(and in the process cause an uprising of the middle-class).  Meanwhile, protests in Tibet are spiraling out of control.  Finally, Obama ups the ante on protectionism with his State of the Union address.

-  The Eurozone crisis is worsening.  There is still no agreement on the Greek Private Sector Involvement (PSI) negotiations, raising the specter of a credit event and uncontrolled default (how many times have we heard that a deal is close?).  Making matters worse, EU leaders and banks are demanding further austerity on the depression-racked country due to missed targets.  How long before peripheral citizen’s say “The hell with this” or creditor governments say “This isn’t working”?   Meanwhile, Portugal is fast coming down the pipe with 10-yr bond yields hitting record highs, as Antonio Saraiva, the head of the country’s industry confederation, confesses that the nation will need a bailout.  In Spain, recession is knocking at the door, while unemployment is far worse than expectations.  In Italy, Monti’s government is set to face its first real test as truckers have blocked the flow of essential goods into Rome and other large cities.  In France, S&P downgrades 3 banks and the country’s president acknowledges that he’s likely to lose the presidency in 3 months, unleashing a wave of uncertainty in regards to Eurozone economic policy.  Finally, “Trade unions plan (a) pan-EU action against (the) fiscal compact.”     

- Despite all the hoopla in the past month, the U.S. remains vulnerable to an exogenous shock.  4th Quarter GDP disappoints, growing 2.8% vs. expectations of 3.0%; note that the economy hasn’t grown over 3% since the Q2 2010.  Final demand registers a paltry 0.8% and Personal Consumption underperform expectations.  Meanwhile, Fed President Dudley sees “significant impediments” to economic growth this year.  Finally, weekly consumer metrics continue to flag a significant slowdown in January versus an already weak December.

- The probability of an oil price spike, likely upending the global recovery, grows.  The EU imposes an embargo of Iranian oil (to begin July 1st), despite Iranian threats of a blockade of the Straits of Hormuz or just cutting off supply immediately.  Meanwhile, oil producers are now content with $100 oil, saying that it won’t affect global growth; we’ve heard this before, but the threshold price keeps rising.  Azerbaijan police foil another Iran plot to assassinate the country’s Israeli ambassador.  

- Japan reports a trade deficit for the first time since 1980.  While sporting a debt to GDP ratio of over 200%, any consistent trade outflow from the country would conjure anxiousness towards its real paying ability (not printed Yen, which implies a loss of real value of interest payments).   

Once again, hope is pervading the media that an agreement might be reached between the Greek government and private sector investors on a debt swap, maybe even this weekend, though everyone is hobnobbing at the World Economic Forum in Davos where all sorts of things have already been said and leaked between drinks. EU Finance Commissioner Olli Rehn was the bearer of the good news: the 50% haircut, though now judged insufficient by practically everyone, appears to be in the can, and the Read more.....

Once again, hope is pervading the media that an agreement might be reached between the Greek government and private sector investors on a debt swap, maybe even this weekend, though everyone is hobnobbing at the World Economic Forum in Davos where all sorts of things have already been said and leaked between drinks. EU Finance Commissioner Olli Rehn was the bearer of the good news: the 50% haircut, though now judged insufficient by practically everyone, appears to be in the can, and the only remaining thing left to fight over is everything else, including the trivial matters of coupon rate and maturity.

So we follow Rehn into hopefulness. We've been hearing forever that large vulture hedge funds, which were holding these bonds by the shipload, essentially blocked the debt swap negotiations as they were hoping to push Greece into default, which would then finally be declared a “credit event” that would trigger CDS payouts. Then more recently we read practically everywhere that almost the opposite was true, that the largest such funds actually spurned Greek bonds, and that some had gone through the unusual trouble of outright denying involvement. And now the Frankfurter Allgemeine suddenly, coup de théâtre, knows that hedge funds aren't even at the negotiating table because their participation is so inconsequential.

It appears they have figured out that waiting for a "credit event" that would trigger a CDS payout is like waiting for Godot. So then, who are these private investors who hold about €206 billion of these crappy bonds? Well, the usual banks and financial institutions, and ... German retail investors. The dumb money is moving in.

The Stuttgart bourse is Germany's leading exchange for derivative products and bonds, including euro sovereign bonds. It handles 60% of the transactions by individual German investors. And Greek sovereign bonds are suddenly trading like there is no tomorrow. Oh, wait.... There is no tomorrow? At any rate, trading volume in these bonds has more than doubled since mid-December and is now second among all European sovereign bonds. Only German Bunds trade at a higher volume.

Bonds due in March make up 80% of the trading volume. The lure: they’re “cheap.” They go for 39 cents on the euro, down from 50 cents on the euro at the end of December, after a spike. So they’re volatile, and volatility leaves room for hope. Bonds due in May are trading below 30 cents on the euro.

These investors are throwing the dice. Left to its own devices, Greece will not be able to redeem these bonds when they mature in March or May. Whatever they're worth afterwards will be significantly less than what they are worth now, if Argentina is any guide.

If there is an agreement with private sector bondholders, and if there is sufficient participation, and if the debt swap actually takes place, then these bonds may turn into a profitable investment. But those are big ifs. One thing is for sure, which leaves little room for hope: the smart money was selling them those bonds.

Speaking of smart money: read....  Bribery, Kickbacks, and Money Laundering at the Austrian National Bank.

Courtesy of the BBC's Andrew Neil, on the back of the previously noted formal annexation demand of Greece by Germany:

Of course, this is what we, and everyone else whose frontal lobe has not bee hijacked by the sta Read more.....

Courtesy of the BBC's Andrew Neil, on the back of the previously noted formal annexation demand of Greece by Germany:

Of course, this is what we, and everyone else whose frontal lobe has not bee hijacked by the status quo, said back in January 2010...

JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley better pray they are right when they say they are 100% insulated from contagion, because we are all about to find out.

Ordinarily this space would be reserved for Friday humor, but unfortunately, this is nothing short of a tragedy, especially since as of today the US debt target is $16.394 trillion, a number which will be breached before the end of the year, and possibly before the presidential election in November. As a reminder, in 2011, the US economy grew by 1.7%. It almost, but not quite, offset the growth of US debt held by the public, which grew at a brisk 11.3% pace in the past year...

Bloomberg's Trish Regan (yes, she is no longer at CNBC), has just announced that the bank which earlier announced it is shutting down its catastrophic prop trading desk (at which point shreholders let out a sigh of relief), has proceeded with slashing banker pay by 30% for overall comp and some bonuses by as much as 70%. This follows earlier announcements by Read more.....

Bloomberg's Trish Regan (yes, she is no longer at CNBC), has just announced that the bank which earlier announced it is shutting down its catastrophic prop trading desk (at which point shreholders let out a sigh of relief), has proceeded with slashing banker pay by 30% for overall comp and some bonuses by as much as 70%. This follows earlier announcements by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley which earlier said they would limit cash bonuses to $150K for senior positions. At the end of the day, the biggest losers are secondary, non-financial New York jobs (supposedly there are some: rat exterminators; strippers; limo drivers; food spitters also known as waiters?) as each banker jobs indirectly supports up to 3 downstream jobs. In other words between layoffs and comp cutting, the immediate impact will likely be to leave New York City, which is the farthest point on the economic procyclical receiving end, with hundreds of thousands of layoffs. Which incidentally, to the bizarro crazy scientists at the BLS, means that initial claims are about to go negative (with the traditional upward revision in the following week).

A chart showing average salaries in NYC for financial professionals and "all other"

And while bankers are general reviled, the truth is that in NY they are largely responsible for keeping the city cranking. From the most recent report on banker comp by the NYC comptroller:

The securities industry is critically important to the economies and budgets of New York State and New York City. It now seems likely that profits will decline sharply from last year’s level, job losses will grow, and cash bonuses will be smaller. Such developments would have a ripple effect through the rest of the local economy and hinder the recovery. In addition, tax collections are likely to fall short of expectations for this year and next year, complicating already tough fiscal situations for New York State and New York City

And why every banker job is reponsible for at least three other jobs:

OSC estimates that each job created (or lost) in the securities industry leads to the creation (or loss) of almost two additional jobs in other industries in the City. (The large income losses during the crisis have slightly reduced the value of the multiplier compared with earlier estimates.) OSC also estimates that each new Wall Street job creates one additional job elsewhere in New York State, mostly in the City’s suburbs. Based on these multipliers and the current level of Wall Street employment, 1 in 8 jobs in the City and 1 in 13 jobs in the State are linked (directly or indirectly) to the securities industry.

Below is full most recent report.

While Silver had a better week than Gold (+5.4% vs 4.3%), Gold managed its biggest gain in three months as the Fed's QE-ness seemed to separate the precious metals from other asset classes. Oil underperformed relative to the USD's weakness (-2% on the week in DXY) managing only a 1.3% gain (and ending below $100). Silver and Gold have no managed four weeks in a row of gains as the latter has more than retraced half of the all-time high sell-off range. With 5 minutes to go, NY Read more.....

While Silver had a better week than Gold (+5.4% vs 4.3%), Gold managed its biggest gain in three months as the Fed's QE-ness seemed to separate the precious metals from other asset classes. Oil underperformed relative to the USD's weakness (-2% on the week in DXY) managing only a 1.3% gain (and ending below $100). Silver and Gold have no managed four weeks in a row of gains as the latter has more than retraced half of the all-time high sell-off range. With 5 minutes to go, NYSE volume was -32% from yesterday, by the close of the cash markets it was only down 2.5% leaving the week -10% from last week (so 32% of the day's NYSE volume was done in the last 1.3% of the day). In credit, HYG underperformed stocks, HY credit stayed synced with stocks and IG outperformed (touching 100bps as we closed). Treasuries ended the day (and week) at their low yields with 5s to 10s all lower by around 14bps on the week and 30Y rallying to -4bps on the week by the close. FX markets were a little odd as EURUSD squeezed higher and higher all day (largely ignored until a late ramp) by stocks as JPY's strength kept EURJPY (carry driver) relatively flat. EURUSD ended at 1.3227 (up around 300pips on the week) at its highest in 7 weeks as CFTC net shorts rose once again to new record highs at 171k. Broadly speaking risk assets and ES (the e-mini S&P 500 futures contract) have been highly correlated all week. This afternoon saw CONTEXT pull ES higher (mainly on EURJPY strength, and Oil stability versus TSY/Curve compression) but after the cash market close, ES limped back down to its VWAP to end its worst-performing week of the year (+0.15%) though not down (which we are sure would scare investors away) as stocks handily underperformed credit on the week as high beta starts to unwind.

Weekly change in the major economically sensitive commodities.

Intraday changes on the week in commodities - Silver putting in an incredible rise of more than 7% off its lows on Wednesday.

VWAP played an important part in today's ES price action in stocks (as it always tends to) but the reversion and rejection has the smell of institutional sell orders need to grind the market up to sell into and each time we touched VWAP, average trade size increased and selling immediately occurred. The afternoon surge seemed more about catching up to EURJPY (more EUR) strength but once we hit unchanged, sellers came back in size once again.

Financials managed to surge up in the last hour to save their week (ending the week practically unch - though some of the majors looked very different and CDS has started to widen). Materials outperformed (QE?) and Staples underperformed on the week.

Charts: Bloomberg and Capital Context

Update 2: the first local headlines are coming in now, from Spiegel: Griechenland soll Kontrolle über Haushalt abgeben (loosely Greece must give up domestic control), and Kathimerini: Germany proposes Greece relinquish some fiscal powers, sources say

Update: Forma Read more.....

Download:  Click the image through to desired size and download.

Download:  Click the image through to desired size and download.

"Reach for yield" is a phrase that never gets old, does it? Whether it's the "why hold Treasuries when a stock has a great dividend?" or "if this bond yields 3% then why not grab the 7% yield bond - it's a bond, right?" argument, we constantly struggle with the 100% focus on return (yield not capital appreciation) and almost complete lack of comprehension of risk - loss of capital (or why the yield/risk premium is high). Arguing over high-yield valuations is at once a focus o Read more.....

"Reach for yield" is a phrase that never gets old, does it? Whether it's the "why hold Treasuries when a stock has a great dividend?" or "if this bond yields 3% then why not grab the 7% yield bond - it's a bond, right?" argument, we constantly struggle with the 100% focus on return (yield not capital appreciation) and almost complete lack of comprehension of risk - loss of capital (or why the yield/risk premium is high). Arguing over high-yield valuations is at once a focus on idiosyncrasies (covenants, cash-flow, etc.), and technicals (flow-based demand and supply), as well as systemic and macro cycles, which play an increasingly critical part. Up until very recently, high yield bonds (based on our framework) offered considerably more upside (if you had a bullish bias) than stocks and indeed they outperformed (with HYG - the high-yield bond ETF - apparently soaking up more and more of that demand and outperformance as its shares outstanding surged). With stocks and high-yield credit now 'close' to each other in value, we note Barclay's excellent note today on both the seasonals (December/January are always big months for high yield excess return) and the low-rate, low-yield implications (negative convexity challenges) the asset-class faces going forward. The high-beta (asymmetric) nature of high-yield credit to systemic macro shocks, combined with the seasonality-downdraft and callability-drag suggests if you need to reach for yield then there will better entry points later in the year (for the surviving credits).

Compare the flow of shares outstanding (black line) as increasing demand for yield drove investors into the high-yield ETF. However, unlike what one might expect (demand-based price action), prices have not risen significantly in the last few months (as demand for creation of shares has blown up). The rally in HYG over the last week or two is notable though as the December/January seasonals come into play.

The seasonals in high-yield credit are astounding as Barclays points out and with so many now watching credit markets for signs of stress, the seasonal front-running and implicit flow has likely reflexively led and confirmed the risk-on rally. That seasonal strength is about to end.

With interest rates so low, and spreads compressing, high-yield bond all-in yields have compressed significantly leaving more than 30% of Barclays HY Index trading above their next Call Price. This means that high yield credit is increasingly prone to negative convexity concerns. In English this means that as yields fall (and prices rise) on high yield bonds (which often have a call option embedded to enable the borrower to repurchase the debt - and perhaps refi at the new lower rate), then it becomes increasingly likely that the firm would exercise the call and buy back the debt. This impact is called negative convexity as it causes the price of the bond to stabilize instead of following up the 'normal' convexity curve (so will underperform).

The point is that the higher the price of high-yield bonds get, the more of a negative impact of this callability and the less attractive the bonds become. The chart above shows that we are already above the levels of the peak in 2007 and are rapidly heading to the peaks in 2011 especially as the Fed flattens the curve out to 5-7Y (where most HY debt is maturing before this).

If the demand for HYG shares could not pump up prices, and seasonals are abating, and negative convexity concerns are increasing, and relative valuation with stocks is not compelling, perhaps the asymmetric nature of high-yield bond returns will be too much for even the 'reachers' to bear as we face a series of known and unknown unknowns in the coming months that will more than less impact credit markets (liquidity and all) first.

Chart: Bloomberg