News recap comments

The news flow from last week was so voluminous it was nearly impossible to process. For good measure I want to start today’s commentary with a simple recap of what happened.

On the negative side

· Greece called a referendum and threw bailout plans up in the air taking Greek 2yrs from 70% to 90% or +2000bps.
· Italian 10yr debt collapsed 40bps with spreads to Germany out 70bps. The moves were far larger in the 2yr sector.
· France 10y debt widened 25bps to Germany. At one point spreads were almost 40 wider.
· Italian PMI and Spanish employment data were miserable.
· German factory orders plunged 4.3 percent on the month.
· The planned EFSF bond for 3bio was pulled.
· Itraxx financials were +34 while subs were +45.
· Draghi predicted a recession for Europe along with disinflation.
· The G20 was flop – there was no agreement on IMF involvement in Europe.
· The US super committee deadline is 17 days away with no clear agreement.
· The 8th largest US bankruptcy in history took place.
· US 10yr and 30yr rallied 28bps, Spoos were -2.5%, the Dax was -6% and EURUSD was -3%.
· German CDS was up 16bps on the week.

On the positive side

· The Fed showed its hand with tightening dissents now gone and an easing dissent in place.

Too bad what they call ‘easing’ at best has been shown to do nothing.

· The Fed’s significant downside risk language remained intact.

Downside risks sound like bad news to me.

· In the press conference Ben teed up QE3 in MBS space.

Which at best have been shown to do little or nothing for the macro economy.

· US payrolls, claims, vehicle sales and productivity came in better than expected.

And the real output gap if anything widened.

· S&P earnings are coming in at +18% y/y with implied corporate profits at +23 percent q/q a.r.

Reinforces the notion that it’s a good for stocks, bad for people economy.

· Mortgage speeds were much faster than expectations suggesting some easing refi pressures.

And savers holding those securities saw their incomes cut faster than expected.

· The ECB cut 25bps and indicated a dovish forward looking stance.

Which reduced euro interest income for the non govt sectors

· CME Margins were reduced.

Just means volatility was down some.

· There was a massive USDJPY intervention which may be a precursor to a Swiss style Japanese policy easing.

Which, for the US, means reduced costs of imports from Japan, which works against US exports, which should be a good thing for the US as it means for the size govt we have, taxes could be lowered to sustain demand, but becomes a bad thing as our leadership believes the US Federal deficit to be too large and so instead we get higher unemployment.

· The Swiss have indicated they want an even weaker CHF – possibly EURCHF 1.40.

When this makes a list of ‘positives’ you know the positives are pretty sorry

· The Aussies cut rates 25bps

Cutting net interest income for the economy.

SZ News: Leading Indicators Rise, Signaling Slump Is Abating


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Yes, seems to be world wide.

The combined global fiscal measures both pro active and ‘automatic’ seemed to have halted the slide.

Depressions are highly improbable with non convertible currency and floating fx policies.

Swiss Leading Indicators Rise, Signaling Slump Is Abating

By Klaus Wille
July 31 (Bloomberg) — Switzerland’s leading economic
indicators rose more than economists forecast in July, adding to
signs the worst economic slump in three decades is bottoming
out.

The KOF’s monthly aggregate of indicators that aims to
predict the economy’s direction about six months ahead increased
to minus 0.99 points from a revised minus 1.49 in June, the
Zurich-based research institute said today. Economists had
forecast that the index would rise to minus 1.45 from an
initially reported minus 1.65, based on the median of 13
estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

Switzerland’s economy is moving toward a recovery after a
0.8 percent contraction in the first quarter, reports this month
showed. The UBS consumption indicator increased for the first
time in three months in June and the slump in manufacturing
eased. In the euro area, the biggest buyer of Swiss exports,
confidence in the economic outlook rose to an eight-month high.

“This figure is still low, meaning that Swiss gross
domestic product is likely to continue declining significantly
over the coming months relative to the previous year,” KOF said
in the statement. “However, the current barometer trend
indicates that the GDP growth rate should bottom out soon.”

The Swiss National Bank forecasts that the Alpine country’s
economy will shrink as much as 3 percent this year, which would
be the steepest decline since 1975.


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