After sticking around 53 bps since the middle of September, 1-month LIBOR has jumped almost 7 bps since November 11 to register above 60 bps for the first time in years. With the December 2016 FOMC meeting fast approaching, it is quite natural to assume eurodollar markets are picking up what has been “hawkishness” over recent weeks. This would be [...]
That the repo market, as noted yesterday, has been beset by a persistent collateral shortage is relatively uncontroversial. Where once large blocks of MBS tranches were central to interbank flow and funding, their absence is still a fact of operation though that repudiation was a very long time ago. Even with that backdrop, however, it doesn’t explain a whole lot [...]
It is an apparent contradiction to where we can describe a desperate money supply situation yet stock prices, in particular, are at all-time highs or at least outwardly unconcerned about all of it. This isn’t anything new, however, as noted last week where we may be witnessing the third or fourth iteration of the same repeating cycle. It was, after [...]
With money market reform (2a7) more than a month in the rear view, LIBOR rates continue to rise regardless. Three-month LIBOR jumped to 91.622 bps Friday, up from 88.4 bps to begin the month of November. The 1-year maturity is now well over 160 bps, up more than 100 bps going back to November 2014. Since 2a7 is behind us, [...]
So how does it end? It’s the only question that matters, more so perhaps than asking when this “end” might occur. We see the “dollar” tanking currencies again, though mostly the majors this time, but currencies have tanked for as long as they have floated; and a great many before that time, too. Is there something different now that wasn’t [...]
The Treasury Department’s Treasury International Custody (TIC) estimates for September were released, and though I wish they were timelier they do typically confirm what we suspect about the months at each update. There were negatives all over this latest month, including private flows, which would fit the overall narrative where Chinese money markets were all over the place and repo [...]
In another case of government meeting reality, Saudi Arabia sacked its long-serving Finance Minister at the end of October. In a move reminiscent of the recent shakeup in Beijing’s Finance Ministry, with longstanding technocrat Lou Jiwei being ousted, Saudi Arabia has had to face up to more than just oil prices. Ibrahim al-Assaf had been in that position since 1996, [...]
A big reason why Chinese banks struggled yesterday in their daily bid for “dollars” (CNY DOWN) was the relatively unchanged economic statistics for November. Many in the media have tried to frame China’s economic situation in 2016 as if stabilizing were a positive outcome. Markets, especially funding markets, aren’t so enthused about the prospects for “weak but not getting weaker.” [...]
The rout in EM’s continued into this week, suggesting that the negative reactions last week may have been more than reflexive recoiling to whatever catalyst. The media is struggling to figure it out, and so has brought up the usual suspects even though there is great inconsistency in doing so. Expectations of fiscal stimulus, infrastructure spending and reflationary policies under [...]
These things evolve, and they take time. There are a great many similarities between what is going on now and what happened in 2007 and 2008 pertaining to money, then finance, finally economy. Starting August 2007, the eurodollar system fell apart in condensed fashion, almost a typical “run” if but one of and between only banks. Starting in August 2011, [...]
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