On December 11, 2014, spot WTI closed at $60.01, down sharply from $76.52 the week before that Thanksgiving. In the space of only a few weeks, oil prices had collapsed far more than anyone thought possible; and yet there was very little urgency to the outcome. Economists, in particular, parroted throughout the media, were quick to assert both a supply [...]
If China is struggling with the various facets of the interconnected nature of eurodollar function, then we don’t have to go far to see that in almost perfect clarity. By many accounts, funding and liquidity remain highly disturbed and becoming more uniformly so. From gold to francs to copper to junk debt, pricing reflects more so a combined economic and [...]
To say that the “dollar” is a mess to begin the week is to state the obvious. The condition left at Friday’s close has persisted, with commodities and such being sold heavily from the outset. Japan’s renewed “recession” (I use quotes only in the conventional sense, given that the Japanese economy never truly left) hasn’t helped in that regard, but [...]
The duality of gold in the modern wholesale fabric has perhaps been on display this year more so than at any time since 2008. That year, the year of the eurodollar-drawn panic, gold was seemingly more volatile than any other asset – if only for its virtuous tendency to as sharply rebound for every major crash. And in 2008 there [...]
The capital and now loss projections for Deutsche Bank are, as much as they can be, more straight forward. In terms of Credit Suisse, the dubiousness of the implications is proportional to the “story.” Whereas Deutsche last week shocked Wall Street (and Europe) with a huge potential loss in FICC activities (their CB&S segment), any actual surprise was far overdone [...]
It has certainly been much calmer in October so far, especially compared with the deep deviations following the FOMC’s lack of activity. Stocks have rallied since October 1 along with many commodities, especially crude. Currencies have been almost mellow, with the ruble following oil prices upward, the real departing (for now) from its devastation and even those like the Indian [...]
It never fails when you issue a stark liquidity warning that in the day right after almost everything enjoys a nice rebound: stocks were up, including REM slightly, while even copper was bid almost $0.10 higher. There is, in all seriousness, no account for timing which is beyond any attempts here. In describing liquidity what we are taking into account [...]
The behavior of mortgage REIT’s lately embody a great deal of confusion about what they actually are and what that really represents. The first aspect to understand is that they are not participants in actual real estate, rather more closely aligned as a specialty financial firm akin to a non-registered bank. They make money as banks do (or supposedly they [...]
As stocks selloff today, so too does the junk bubble. I think the implication traces back to the Asian “dollar” and the unsteady state of wholesale finance in that part of the eurodollar system (while contemplating the potential for mitosis to have occurred there at some point in the recent past, likely 2012). Junk prices not only remain depressed but [...]
While outward asset markets have clearly been upended by the implications (at long last) of the Fed not doing anything, the internals of the money/”dollar” markets are actually worse. I don’t know if it could be classified as another forming “dollar” wave, but it doesn’t look good from this vantage point heading into an uncertain weekend. In many ways, the [...]
Stay In Touch