Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Market Update 02/21/12

 


Submitted by: Francis Soyer

Hi folks!,

It has been a while since I have written. The truth of the matter is there is not a heck of alot to talk about. Yes the ECB continues to kick the can down the road with one BS bailout plan after another with no real cure of realistic plan for a way for Greece to stay in the ECB.

Other than that we have day after day of Fed Pomo with no volume participation in the market from either institutional investors or non pro and retail whatsoever. Therefore the Fed is in the drivers seat and a drift up stairstep style that began in late December has continued un abated. That said I think it reasonable to expect the same for as long as a few weeks from now where we may see a turning point in the market. Until then an uptick to break up the boredom.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

And The Winner Is...Gold

Original Article Here:

Year-to-date, Gold is up an impressive 9.4%, significantly outpacing the S&P 500 at +5.6% and the disappointing 2% loss (in price) for the 30Y bond.
Treasuries sold back off initial knee-jerk rally low yields into the close but the EUR kept going (holding above 1.3100) as Gold and Silver were the big winners on the day (+2.9% and 3.4% on the week now). Stocks and credit roared higher after an initial stumble post FOMC. Financials lagged among all the S&P sectors (and Utilities outperformed post FOMC statement +0.75% vs financials -0.25%). Right up until the close, credit and equity markets were on a tear but very soon after cash closed, futures limped back and HY credit snapped lower (quite dramatically) which makes some sense given just how ridiculously rich it had become to fair-value.


Gold handily outperforming this year.

After HYG signaled an early turn lower in credit and equities, the FOMC statement sent risk on a rip which didn't want to stop until it had taken out recent highs. Average trade size increased significantly once we got over recent swing highs and as is clear we leaked back into the close with quite a significant drop in HY as cash markets closed. The suspicion would be that CDS index levels were just being reracked by market-makers instead of heavy flow driving it up and then some real orders hit as we rolled over and the market hit a small void. We note that IG and HY are now at almost record levels of richness to their intrinsic value (and the 3s5s curves continue to flatten - bearishly in our view).


Commodities, as one might expect, enjoyed the limelight in what was on first glance a disappointing statement lacking any QE-specific expectations and ZIRP moves (it didn't seem that surprising to us). But the squeeze was obviously on in stocks and the reality that the only way the Fed has left to combat the ills of reality is to print drove Gold up to six-week highs over $1710.

Treasuries ripped and then dipped with 30Y ending up back near its high yields and the rest of the curve well off its low yields by the close.

Broadly speaking risk assets moved in a supportive manner for stocks (as is clear from the capital structure - left, and CONTEXT - right).
Charts: Bloomberg and Capital Context

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Market Update 01/10/12 and 2012 Look Ahead


Submitted by: Francis Soyer

This morning earnings season for 4Q 2011 begins. The key to this quarters reports will be the tone of managements look ahead for 2012 and so I will be watching with a critical focus on what companies are seeing in their pipelines. While management by design is usually bullish as they are required to be, the below charts from this mornings Zero Hedge report lays out some fairly grim charts as far as macro econ is concerned.