Gold $1339.70 up $2.50
Silver 19.52 down 21 cents
In the access market 5:15 pm
Gold: 1338.50
Silver: 19.46
THE DAILY GOLD FIX REPORT FROM SHANGHAI AND LONDON
.
The Shanghai fix is at 10:15 pm est and 2:15 am est
The fix for London is at 5:30 am est (first fix) and 10 am est (second fix)
Thus Shanghai’s second fix corresponds to 195 minutes before London’s first fix.
And now the fix recordings:
Shanghai morning fix Sept 26 (10:15 pm est last night): $ 1338.38
NY ACCESS PRICE: $1334.75 (AT THE EXACT SAME TIME)
Shanghai afternoon fix: 2: 15 am est (second fix/early morning):$ 1337.45
NY ACCESS PRICE: 1334.65 (AT THE EXACT SAME TIME)
HUGE SPREAD TODAY!!
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
London Fix: Sept 26: 5:30 am est: $1336.30 (NY: same time: $1335.70: 5:30AM)
London Second fix Sept 16: 10 am est: $1340.50 (NY same time: $1341.40 , 10 AM)
It seems that Shanghai pricing is higher than the other two , (NY and London). The spread has been occurring on a regular basis and thus I expect to see arbitrage happening as investors buy the lower priced NY gold and sell to China at the higher price. This should drain the comex.
Also why would mining companies hand in their gold to the comex and receive constantly lower prices. They would be open to lawsuits if they knowingly continue to supply the comex despite the fact that they could be receiving higher prices in Shanghai.
end
For comex gold:The front September contract month we had 40 notices filed for 4000 oz
For silver: the front month of September we have a total of 37 notices filed for 185,000 oz
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Tomorrow is options expiry and judging by the open interest reported today, the bankers will surely attack tomorrow. It seems that they have circled $1340 gold and will do everything possible to keep the price below the level. As far as silver is concerned, it looks like they want the price below $19.50.
This is criminal behaviour but since our regulators allows this nonsense to continue we can nothing about it and must wait it out.
After comex options expire tomorrow, we have the LBMA/OTC options which expire on Friday.
Let us have a look at the data for today
.
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In silver, the total open interest ROSE by 862 contracts UP to 203,708. The open interest ROSE DESPITE THE FACT THAT the silver price was DOWN 29 cents in yesterday’s trading .In ounces, the OI is still represented by just MORE THAN 1 BILLION oz i.e. 1.0185 BILLION TO BE EXACT or 146% of annual global silver production (ex Russia &ex China).
In silver we had 37 notices served upon for 185,000 oz
In gold, the total comex gold ROSE by 7,023 contracts DESPITE THE FACT THAT the price of gold FELL BY $3.20 ON FRIDAY . The total gold OI stands at 593,835 contracts.
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With respect to our two criminal funds, the GLD and the SLV:
GLD
LAST NIGHT WE HAD NO CHANGES INTO the GLD/
Total gold inventory rests tonight at: 951.22 tonnes of gold
SLV
we had no changes with respect to inventory at the SLV
THE SLV Inventory rests at: 364.523 million oz
.
First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:
1. Today, we had the open interest in silver ROSE by 862 contracts up to 203,708 as the price of silver FELL by 29 cents with yesterday’s trading.The gold open interest rose by 7023 contracts up to 593,835 as the price of gold FELL $3.20 IN FRIDAY’S TRADING.
(report Harvey).
2.a) The Shanghai and London gold fix report
(Harvey)
2 b) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe, Goldcore
(Mark O’Byrne/zerohedge
and in NY: Bloomberg
end
3. ASIAN AFFAIRS
i)Late SUNDAY night/MONDAY morning: Shanghai closed DOWN 8.42 POINTS OR .28%/ /Hang Sang closed DOWN 73.32 POINTS OR .31%. The Nikkei closed DOWN 53.60 POINTS OR .32% Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED UP 1.06% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 6.6704/Oil FELL to 46.16 dollars per barrel for WTI and 48.03 for Brent. Stocks in Europe: ALL IN THE RED Offshore yuan trades 6.6704 yuan to the dollar vs 6.6753 for onshore yuan.THE SPREAD BETWEEN ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE NARROWS AS MORE USA DOLLARS ATTEMPT TO LEAVE CHINA’S SHORES
REPORT ON JAPAN SOUTH KOREA NORTH KOREA AND CHINA
3a)Korea:
none
b) REPORT ON JAPAN
Last week we commented on the fact that in Japan’s new policy of QE: QQE with Yield Curve Control would basically not work. It is extremely difficult for a central bank to control the long end of a curve. Today we see the long end move again deeper into the negative while at the same time, the yen rose. Mr Yen himself came out and said that the yen will rise to the 90 level which will force BOJ to go more negative NIRP and again that will flatten the yield curve. The thought of “tightening” the long end of the curve means less purchases by the B of J and that will bring on more recessionary pressures and again the flattening of the yield curve..
(courtesy zero hedge)
c) REPORT ON CHINA
The following is very important. China’s total debt to GDP is now over 300%. China’s major bankers (S.O.E.’s..State Owned Enterprises) are the proud owners of much of this debt as this debt has been piling onto their balance sheet with reckless abandon. The smaller SOE’s are in great need of capital so they are borrowing from the Shadow Banking System (remember our Peer to Peer lending?). This is similar to USA banks receiving funding form the money markets before succumbing in 2008 a la Lehman.
(courtesy zero hedge)
4 EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
Germany
i)The big news of the day. Merkel rules out a bail out for Deutsche bank. That means we will see a bail in as depositors and bond holders will suffer greatly. The big problem of course is that there is not enough money in the system to cover all of their derivative losses
( zero hedge)
ii)Deutsche bank tries to instill confidence into the markets but to no avail;
( zero hedge)
iii)The advance of the Euroskeptic AfD party has finally hit home to Merkel. She has now caved on the migrant policy as Germany has “done enough”
( zero hedge)
iv)For the past few years, everybody has been focusing on Greek situation and the Italian + periphery banks. They should have been concentrating on the Deutsche bank reserves and derivative problems
( zero hedge)
v)Things must be real peachy with respect to German economics. And since Germany is the engine for all of Europe, I think we have a real problem here:
Germany’s second largest bank: Commerzbank set to fire 9,000 employees or 18% of its entire work force:
( zero hedge)
5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS
i) FRIDAY NIGHT: Saudi Arabia
The fun begins; Obama vetoes the Saudi bill: 9/11 “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act”. The bill was passed unanimously by both houses and this sets up a re vote:
( zero hedge)
iib)Saudi Arabia bails out its banking system as interbank rates reach sky high limits: 2.35%
( zero hedge)
Russia
ii)This is not good: the war of words between Russia and the USA escalates. The USA calls Russia’s actions “Barbarism” even though the real culprit is the USA
(courtesy zero hedge)
iib)This should be interesting! Syria claims to have a recording of conversations between ISIS and USA military before the strike on the Syrian army.
Turkey
iii)This is going to hurt. Now many funds will have to sell Turkish bonds as they are not allowed to hold any sovereign bonds that are less than investment grade
( Bloomberg)
iv)Turkish assets are plunging as Moody’s downgrades Turkish sovereign debt to junk.I thought that Erdogan was not concerned if they lowered the debt to junk. He lashes out at Moody’s for the downgrade.
(courtesy zerohedge)
6.GLOBAL ISSUES
none today
7.OIL ISSUES
i)Saudi Arabia is hurting real bad with the low oil price as it is killing their balance sheet. They now wish to cut production by 500,000 barrels per day. However they will end Iran to cut production or else the Iranians will gain market share
(zero hedge)
iii)Oil then climbs back over $46.00 on the Saudi hype. Hedgers are buying protection to lock in the higher prices of today.
(courtesy zero hedge)
8.EMERGING MARKETS
none today
9.PHYSICAL STORIES
i)A terrific commentary on the history of Italy’s gold. Surprisingly over 1,000 tonnes of gold is held at the FRBNY , the same facility which houses the Bundesbank’s gold. Italian citizens want all gold of Italy brought back to Rome and then change the ownership of that gold to all Italian citizens.
( Ronan Manly)
ii)With the Fed’s non movement in interest rates, Kim now states that gold and silver will resume northbound.
( JSKim/GATA)
iii)We have brought this story to you last week, but again it is worth repeatingThe Fed want to sharply limit Wall Street’s commodity holdings. Good luck to them. It will take years for this to happen!
(Hamilton/Bloomberg/GATA)
iv)The following is a huge story. An Argentinian judge has ordered an indefinitely suspension at Barrick’s big Veladero gold mine in Argentina due to an extremely serious cyanide leak. The Government of Argentina has filed a complaint against Barrick while the mine manager has fled back to Canada. The mine produces 600,000 oz per year or 10% of Barrick’s annual production. The removal of this gold will hurt badly the company plus the bankers who will no longer get their hands of this supply.
(courtesy Dave kranzler/IRD)
10.USA STORIES WHICH MAY INFLUENCE THE PRICE OF GOLD/SILVER
i)It is now a dead heat btw. Trump and Clinton according to the heavily biased Washington Post. Actually Trump is in the lead by 1 point:
( Washington Post/zero hedge)
ii)A great indicator as to how the USA economy is performing: Individual state tax revenues are plunging in Q2
( zero hedge)
iii)Almost all the co operatives have bowed out of Obamacare and all of them are losing dramatic amounts of money. In November premiums will be jacked up anywhere from 25 to 60%
( zero hedge)
iv)The USA economy continues to falter with the release of new home sales which tumble as prices also fall:
( zero hedge)
v)The Dallas Fed mfg index contracts for the 21 st straight month
( zero hedge/Dallas Fed mfg index)
vi)Last week we warned you that European and Japanese banks were ready to mutiny if the new Basel iii accord when into effect. Now it is USA banks revolting:
( zero hedge)
Let us head over to the comex:
The total gold comex open interest ROSE BY AN HUGE 7,023 CONTRACTS to an OI level of 593,835 even though the price of gold FELL by $3.20 with FRIDAY’S trading. We are now in the NON active month of SEPTEMBER/
The contract month of Sept saw it’s OI FELL by 8 contracts DOWN to 187. We had 50 notices filed yesterday so we gained 42 gold contracts or an additional 4200 gold ounces will stand for delivery. SOMEBODY AGAIN WAS IN GREAT NEED OF PHYSICAL GOLD. The next delivery month is October and here the OI lost 1441 contracts DOWN to 24,149. This level is extremely elevated. To give you an idea as to its size, on Sept 23.2016 ,we had 18,500 contracts outstanding vs (24,149 today). The next contract month of December showed an increase of 6799 contracts up to 453,278. The estimated volume today at the comex: 127,988 which is WEAK. Confirmed volume on Friday: 129,498 which is also weak.
And now for the wild silver comex results. Total silver OI ROSE BY 862 contracts from 202,846 up to 203,708 despite the FALL in price of silver to the tune of 29 cents on Friday. We are moving NOW CLOSER TO the all time record high for silver open interest set on Wednesday August 3: (224,540). We are now into the next active month of September and here the OI fell by 30 contracts down to 532. We had 50 notices filed upon yesterday so we GAINED 20 contracts or 100,000 additional oz will stand for delivery in this active month of September. The next non active delivery movement of October gained 1 CONTRACT TO 430 contracts. The next big delivery month is December and here it ROSE by 495 contracts UP to 177,766. The volume on the comex today (just comex) came in at 50,571 which is very good. The confirmed volume yesterday (comex and globex) was excellent at 50,584 . Silver is not in backwardation. London is in backwardation for several months.
today we had 37 notices filed for silver: 185,000 oz
| Gold |
Ounces
|
| Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory in oz |
NIL |
| Withdrawals from Customer Inventory in oz nil |
61,772.259 oz
Manfra
Scotia
|
| Deposits to the Dealer Inventory in oz | niloz
|
| Deposits to the Customer Inventory, in oz |
nil
|
| No of oz served (contracts) today |
40 notices
4,000 oz
|
| No of oz to be served (notices) |
147 contracts
(14,700 oz)
|
| Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month |
2653 contracts
265,300 oz
8.2519 tonnes
|
| Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers inventory this month | 192.90 oz |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer inventory this month | 449,361.8 oz |
Today, 0 notices were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued form their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 40 contract of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by jPMorgan dealer and 0 notice(s) was (were) stopped (received) by jPMorgan customer account.
| Silver |
Ounces
|
| Withdrawals from Dealers Inventory | NIL |
| Withdrawals from Customer Inventory |
659,907.000 oz
?????
CNT, Scotia
|
| Deposits to the Dealer Inventory |
nil OZ
|
| Deposits to the Customer Inventory |
639,484.940 oz
Brinks
Scotia
|
| No of oz served today (contracts) |
37 CONTRACTS
(185,000 OZ)
|
| No of oz to be served (notices) |
495 contracts
(2,475,000 oz)
|
| Total monthly oz silver served (contracts) | 2713 contracts (13,565,000 oz) |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers inventory this month | NIL oz |
| Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer inventory this month | 7,789,425.6 oz |
end
NPV for Sprott and Central Fund of Canada
end
And now your overnight trading in gold,MONDAY MORNING and also physical stories that may interest you:
“Gold Will Likely Soar To A Record Within Five Years”
“Gold will likely soar to a record within five years as asset bubbles burst in everything from bonds to credit and equities, forcing investors to find a haven”, reported Bloomberg last week, quoting Old Mutual Global Investors’ Diego Parrilla.
The metal is at the start of a multi-year bull run with a “few thousand dollars of upside” in a world of “monetary policy without limits” where central banks print lots of money and low or negative interest rates prevail, said Parrilla, who joined the firm as managing director of commodities last month. He’s worked at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“As some of the excesses in other asset classes get unwound, gold will perform very strongly,” said 43-year-old Parrilla, who has almost 20 years experience in precious-metals markets. The “perfect storm scenario will mean that gold will perform best when other classes are doing worst.”
While gold has climbed 24 percent this year amid low or negative rates, it slumped more than 40 percent from its record in 2011 through the end of last year to what Parrilla called “very oversold, very distressed” levels. With the downside only a few hundred dollars, the risk-to-reward ratio is extremely asymmetric and skewed to the upside, he said in an interview on Sept. 14.
In the first of two monetary-policy announcements on Wednesday, the Bank of Japan shifted the focus of stimulus from expanding the money supply to controlling interest rates, which some economists deemed as further evidence that BOJ policy had reached the limits of its effectiveness. The Federal Reserve is also due to make a policy decision, with traders seeing the probability for an interest-rate hike at only 22 percent.
Gross, Singer
Parrilla joins a slew of investors who are bullish on gold because of low borrowing costs and central-bank bond buying. Billionaire bond-fund manager Bill Gross has said there’s little choice but gold and real estate given current bond yields, while Paul Singer, David Einhorn and Stan Druckenmiller have all expressed reasons this year for owning the metal.
Full article here
Gold and Silver Bullion – News and Commentary
Gold ends lower, but books best weekly gain since July (MarketWatch)
Gold steady as dollar falls vs yen; U.S. politics in focus (Reuters)
Citi Warns Gold May Be Volatile as Bank Boosts Odds of Trump Win to 40% (Bloomberg)
Erdogan sees ‘ulterior motives’ in U.S. case against gold trader (Reuters)
Manufacturing PMI in September slips to three-month lowh (MarketWatch)
Gold and Silver Gain About 2% and 5% on the Week (Goldseek)
Gold Outperforms With U.S. Rates on Hold (Bloomberg)
Fed seeks sharp limit on Wall Street commodity holdings (Bloomberg)
Monetary metals manipulation lawsuits hanging by a thread (ComexWeHaveProblem)
China’s alarming debt pile (MoneyWeek)
Gold Prices (LBMA AM)
26 Sep: USD 1,336.30, GBP 1,033.23 & EUR 1,188.91 per ounce
23 Sep: USD 1,335.90, GBP 1,027.17 & EUR 1,192.16 per ounce
22 Sep: USD 1,332.45, GBP 1,019.59 & EUR 1,186.68 per ounce
21 Sep: USD 1,319.60, GBP 1,015.96 & EUR 1,183.81 per ounce
20 Sep: USD 1,315.40, GBP 1,011.02 & EUR 1,175.84 per ounce
19 Sep: USD 1,315.05, GBP 1,007.99 & EUR 1,177.36 per ounce
16 Sep: USD 1,314.25, GBP 995.68 & EUR 1,170.08 per ounce
Silver Prices (LBMA)
26 Sep: USD 19.44, GBP 15.04 & EUR 17.29 per ounce
23 Sep: USD 19.82, GBP 15.28 & EUR 17.66 per ounce
22 Sep: USD 19.88, GBP 15.22 & EUR 17.69 per ounce
21 Sep: USD 19.43, GBP 14.95 & EUR 17.43 per ounce
20 Sep: USD 19.17, GBP 14.78 & EUR 17.15 per ounce
19 Sep: USD 19.12, GBP 14.65 & EUR 17.13 per ounce
16 Sep: USD 18.91, GBP 14.36 & EUR 16.85 per ounce
Recent Market Updates
– Savings Guarantee? U.N. Warns Next Financial Crisis Imminent
– Gold Up 1.5%, Silver Surges 3% – Yellen Stays Ultra Loose At 0.25%
– Trump and Clinton Are “Positive For Gold” – $1,900/oz by End of Year
– Gold Bugs Rejoice – Central Banks Think You’re On To Something
– ‘Hard’ Brexit Looms For Ireland
– EU Bail In Rules Ignored By Italy – Mother Of All Systemic Threats and World War?
– Buy Gold – Bonds Are ‘Biggest Bubble In World’ – Billionaire Singer Warns
– Silver Bullion Market – “Most Bullish Story Ever Told?”
– “Sorry, You Can’t Have Your Gold Bullion”
– Global Stocks, Bonds Fall Sharply – Gold Consolidates After Two Weeks Of Gains
– Gold, Silver, Blockchain and Fintech – Solutions To Negative Rates, Bail-ins, Cash Confiscations and Cashless Society
– Jan Skoyles Appointed Research Executive At GoldCore
– Silver Bullion Surges 3.5% To Over $20/oz
(courtesy Ronan Manly)
Your early MONDAY morning currency, Asian stock market results, important USA/Asian currency crosses, gold/silver pricing overnight along with the price of oil Major stories overnight
:
1 Chinese yuan vs USA dollar/yuan up to 6.6690( REVALUATION NORTHBOUND /CHINA UNHAPPY TODAY CONCERNING USA DOLLAR RISE/MORE $ USA DOLLARS LEAVE CHINA/OFFSHORE YUAN WIDENS TO 6.6789 / Shanghai bourse CLOSED DOWN 53.47 POINTS OR 1.76% / HANG SANG CLOSED DOWN 368.56 POINTS OR 1.56%
2 Nikkei closed DOWN 209.46 OR 1.25% /USA: YEN FALLS TO 100.44
3. Europe stocks opened ALL IN THE RED ( /USA dollar index DOWN to 95.32/Euro UP to 1.1251
3b Japan 10 year bond yield: LOWERS TO -.064%/ !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 100.44/ THIS IS TROUBLESOME AS BANK OF JAPAN IS RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY.
3c Nikkei now JUST BELOW 17,000
3d USA/Yen rate now well below the important 120 barrier this morning
3e WTI:: 44.93 and Brent: 46.47
3f Gold DOWN /Yen UP
3g Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa./“HELICOPTER MONEY” OFF THE TABLE FOR NOW /REVERSE OPERATION TWIST ON THE BONDS: PURCHASE OF LONG BONDS AND SELLING THE SHORT END
Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.
3h Oil UP for WTI and UP for Brent this morning
3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10 yr bund FALLS to -.096%
3j Greek 10 year bond yield RISES to : 8.44%
3k Gold at $1337.40/silver $19.49(7:45 am est) SILVER FINAL RESISTANCE AT $18.50 WILL BE DEFENDED
3l USA vs Russian rouble; (Russian rouble UP 16/100 in roubles/dollar) 63.92-
3m oil into the 44 dollar handle for WTI and 46 handle for Brent/
3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation (already upon us). This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/China forced to do QE!! as it lowers its yuan value to the dollar/GOT a REVALUATION UPWARD from POBC.
JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 INITIATES NIRP. THIS MORNING THEY SIGNAL THEY MAY END NIRP. TODAY THE USA/YEN TRADES TO 100.44 DESTROYING WHATEVER IS LEFT OF OUR YEN CARRY TRADERS
30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the SF. It is not working: USA/SF this morning .9686 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF is 1.0897 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.
3p BRITAIN VOTES AFFIRMATIVE BREXIT
3r the 10 Year German bund now NEGATIVE territory with the 10 year FALLS to -.096%
/German 10+ year rate BASICALLY negative%!!!
3s The Greece ELA NOW at 71.4 billion euros,AND NOW THE ECB WILL ACCEPT GREEK BONDS (WHAT A DISASTER)
The bank withdrawals were causing massive hardship to the Greek bank. the Greek referendum voted overwhelming “NO”. Next step for Greece will be the recapitalization of the banks and that will be difficult.
4. USA 10 year treasury bond at 1.599% early this morning. Thirty year rate at 2.329% /POLICY ERROR)
5. Details Ransquawk, Bloomberg, Deutsche bank/Jim Reid.
(courtesy Jim Reid/Bloomberg/Deutsche bank/zero hedge)
Global Stocks Tumble, US Futures Slide On Deutsche Bank Fears, Central Bank And Commodity Concerns
While today’s biggest event for both markets and politics will be tonight’s highly anticipated first presidential debate between Trump and Hillary, markets are waking up to some early turmoil in both Asia and Europe, with declines in banks and energy producers dragging down stock-markets around the world, pushing investors to once again seek the safety of government bonds (and yes, flattening the JGB curve even more much to the chagrin of the BOJ) and the yen.
As JPM points out early this morning, stocks are trading poorly pretty much everywhere. Nothing necessarily “happened” as far as single headline but poor trading in Eurozone banks (DB is off ~6%, hitting fresh all-time lows) and a reassessment of last week’s central bank decisions (in particular the BOJ which wasn’t really “dovish” and opened the door to tapering) appear to be the main motivations behind the Mon morning softness. Also the media tone in Brexit-related commentary has turned dramatically in just the last few weeks w/the process now described as a lot more acrimonious and disruptive than initially anticipated.
The driver of sentiment, however, is surely the latest collapse in Deutsche Bank shares, which plunged to new all time lows after a German press report that Merkel will not provide state aid to the German lender, resulting in fresh fears about another capital raise by the German lender, if not worse.
As reported previously, Deutsche Bank fell 6.5% after a report that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ruled out any state assistance before the national election next year. Concern that the lender’s capital buffers will be undermined by mounting legal charges has weighed on the shares, which have tumbled more than 50 percent this year. The bank’s 1.75 billion euros ($2 billion) of 6 percent additional Tier 1 bonds, the first notes to take losses in a crisis, fell about 2 cents on the euro to 72 cents, near a seven-month low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
DB’s pain has led to the biggest loss for European shares since July 6.

The pain is focused on Europe’s banks, where as the FT points out DB’s collapse has dragged down the entire banking sector lower:

European stocks are now down the most since July 6 day with Spanish, Italian bourses leading declines. All 19 Stoxx 600 sectors fall with banks, insurers underperforming and food & bev, technology outperforming. 96% of Stoxx 600 members decline, 4% gain.
“The drama around Deutsche Bank puts the European financial sector in the spotlight once again,” said Michael Woischneck, who manages about $180 million as senior equities manager at Lampe Asset Management in Dusseldorf, Germany. “We’re also entering a quarter with a lot of political event risks and I’d expect big swings in volatility.”
The CBOE Volatility Index of U.S. stock swings jumped 14 percent, while the VStoxx Index for euro-area shares rallied 17 percent. The European gauge closed at its lowest since 2014 on Friday, a level that showed complacency among investors, according to Simon Wiersma, an investment manager at ING Bank NV.
Among the 24 Stoxx 600 shares that rose, Lanxess AG surged more than 8 percent after the German chemical maker agreed to buy U.S. rival Chemtura Corp. for about $2.1 billion in cash. Chemtura soared 17 percent in early New York trading.
Deutsche Bank’s crunch adds to the accumulating risks for global investors. Oil prices are volatile before Wednesday’s meeting of Russia and OPEC members after similar discussions failed in April. U.S. Democratic and Republican Party candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are tied in a two-way race for the presidency as they head for the first of three debates on Monday. Western powers traded barbs with Russia during an acrimonious emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to halt intensive bombing of Aleppo. And speeches are due from the head of the European Central Bank, as well as regional Federal Reserve chiefs.
Energy firms also fell as crude held most of Friday’s slump on doubts that producers will agree on action to support prices when they meet Wednesday, although there has already been a spike in volatility as an early bout of headlines has sent oil back over $45. Some of the more prominent oil-related headlines so far this morning:
- U.A.E. SUPPORTS OIL FREEZE IF EVERYONE PARTICIPATES: MINISTER
- OIL PRODUCTION CUT IS NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION IN ALGIERS: U.A.E.
- THE MAXIMUM EXPECTED FROM ALGIERS IS OIL FREEZE: U.A.E MINISTER
- OPEC WILL ONLY TALK TO OTHER PRODUCERS IF IT REACHES AGREEMENT
All but one energy producer in the Stoxx 600 Oil & Gas Index retreated, with Total SA and Royal Dutch Shell Plc down more than 1.6 percent before this week’s OPEC meeting.
The MSCI Emerging Markets Index declined 1.2 percent. All 11 industry groups dropped, paced by industrial and consumer-discretionary companies. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which makes chips for Apple Inc., led shares of suppliers lower on concern of slower iPhone 7 sales.
The Risk-off mood also spread to Emerging markets which tumbled after Turkey’s lira slid the most since July after Moody’s Investors Service cut the nation to junk and the Philippine peso reaching a seven-year low on international mistrust of President Rodrigo Duterte.
The MSCI All-Country World Index of shares fell 0.5 percent as of 10:59 a.m. London time, declining for a second day. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 1.5 percent, heading for its biggest slide since early July, while S&P 500 Index futures expiring in December lost 0.6 percent.
As a result of the equity selloff, sovereign bonds rallied across most of Asia and Europe, with 10-year yields falling to -0.11% in Germany and -0.06% in Japan. The Bank of Japan last week shifted the focus of its monetary policy to managing yields and Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said Monday the shape of the yield curve will remain broadly where it is. So far it has flattening notably since the announcement.
US Treasuries advanced, with 10Y yields dropping two basis point to 1.60 percent. The U.S. is selling $26 billion of two-year securities on Monday, before sales of a combined $62 billion of five- and seven-year bonds later this week.
Market Snapshot
- S&P 500 futures down 0.5% to 2147
- Stoxx 600 down 1.4% to 340
- FTSE 100 down 1.3% to 6821
- DAX down 1.5% to 10466
- German 10Yr yield down 2bps to -0.1%
- Italian 10Yr yield down less than 1bp to 1.21%
- Spanish 10Yr yield up less than 1bp to 0.97%
- S&P GSCI Index down 0.1% to 351.1
- MSCI Asia Pacific down 0.8% to 141
- US 10-yr yield down 2bps to 1.6%
- Dollar Index down 0.08% to 95.4
- WTI Crude futures up 0.3% to $44.63
- Brent Futures up 0.2% to $45.98
- Gold spot down 0.2% to $1,336
- Silver spot down 1.3% to $19.44
Top Global News
- Lanxess $2.1b Chemtura Purchase Bulks Up Additives Unit: Shareholders of lubricant-additives, flame-retardants co. will get $33.50/share.
- GE Credit Rating Cut by S&P on Possible Deal-Related Debt: Long-term corporate rating for GE, GE Capital Global Holdings reduced to AA- from AA+, S&P said Friday.
- Yahoo Said to Have Detected Hack Tied to Russia in ’14: WSJ: Hackers were seeking data on 30-40 specific users of co.’s online services.
- Target Digital Chief Leaves as Company Shakes Up Online Roles: Jason Goldberger, tasked with helping co. take on rival Amazon, has left TGT as it overhauls its online ops.
- Treasury Market’s Biggest Buyers Are Selling as Never Before: Foreign central banks have become yet another worry for investors in the world’s most important bond market.
- Marriott to Nearly Double Workforce in Mideast, Africa: Co. expects to add 30k more people to its regional workforce of 41k as new properties open.
- Viacom Said to Consider Three Internal Candidates for CEO: 3 are CFO Wade Davis, international TV head Robert Bakish, HR/chief admin. officer Scott Mills.
- Tudor Said to Close Singapore Trading Desk Amid Global Cuts
- ‘Magnificent Seven’ Is No. 1 Movie With $35m: ComScore: Warner Bros.’s “Storks” 2nd with $21.8m; also debut film.
- Oil Speculators Abandon Hope OPEC Reaches Supply Agreement: Oil investors turned negative at fastest pace in >1 year; Saudis Willing to Act on ‘Critical’ Oil Market: Algeria
- Trump, Clinton Assure Netanyahu on Future of U.S.-Israel Ties: Each candidate met privately with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu Sunday.
Looking at regional markets, we start in Asia where stocks began the week in negative territory following last Friday’s losses in the US, where a decline in crude of over 3% dampened sentiment. Nikkei 225 (-1.3%) was among the region’s worst performers as exporters suffered from a firmer JPY, while ASX 200 (flat) was initially pressured by energy names amid doubts of an output freeze deal, although the index recovered in late trade. Shanghai Comp. (-1.7%) and Hang Seng (-1.6%) conformed to the downbeat tone with property and financials weighed after Nanjin City announced property restrictions and on reports Goldman Sachs are cutting HK-based jobs, while Munich Re are also scaling back its presence in Hong Kong. Price action in 10yr JGBs was relatively subdued despite weakness in stocks and the BoJ in the market under its massive bond-buying program, as participants await tomorrow’s 40yr JGB auction. PBoC injected CNY 120bIn in 14-day reverse repos and CNY 10bIn in 28-day reverse repos. (Newswires) PBoC set mid¬point at 6.6744 (Prey. 6.6670)
Top Asian News
- Contagion Risks Rise as China Banks Fund Each Others’ Loans: Wholesale funding 34% of smaller banks financing, Moody’s says.
- PBOC Drains Most Funds in Six Months Amid Debt Curb Speculation: Intention to limit leverage is obvious, bank analyst says.
- Barclays to Pare Office Space in Tokyo’s Roppongi After Job Cuts: U.K. bank asked 100 equity staff to leave earlier this year.
- Singapore Shipbuilder Says Australian Units Face Court Action: Otto Marine says management plans to dispute the debts.
In Europe, the indication of end of summer is clear in financial markets with almost forgotten market volatility witnessed in European trade as bears continue to drive the major EU indiceswhich have continued to print fresh lows throughout the morning. (Euro Stoxx -1.7%) Financials and Energy both find themselves down over 2%, the former weighed upon by Deutsche Bank (-6%) as the bank continues to print fresh intraday lows following comments from Angela Merkel stating that she has no intention to bail out the Co. This, adding to a pending USD 14bIn fine for Deutsche, whom have a market cap of just USD 17bIn shows no sign of any immediate recovery for the institution. Friday’s decline in oil markets has left the energy sector with no reprieve as participants await any commentary or possible decision in Algiers’s OPEC meeting (26th-28th). The risk off sentiment has been evident in fixed income markets and the sell-off in equity markets has resulted in slight bullish pressure seen in the Bund, breaking through Friday’s high and teasing with the 165.50 level and finding itself trading once again in negative yield.
Top European News
- Deutsche Bank Slumps to Fresh Record Low on Capital Concerns: Bank’s capital buffers may be undermined by mounting legal charges including settlement tied to sale of U.S. securities.
- Corbyn Victory Leaves Little Resolved for U.K. Labour Party: Second victory in 12 months did little to resolve differences.
- Brexit Leads 3/4 of Britain’s CEOs to Consider Moving: 69% said they’re confident Britain’s economy will continue to grow over next year; 76% are mulling some form of relocation.
- German Business Confidence Increases to Highest Level Since 2014: Gauges for current conditions rose to 114.7, and expectations increased to 104.5.
- Hollande: U.K. Must Still Help Handle Migrants After Brexit: “The U.K. is not freed of its obligations because of the sovereign decision that it took,” Hollande said Monday in Calais.
- Soros Helping to Turn Back Tide of Hedge-Fund Outflows in Europe: New crop of money managers is starting to buck the trend in Europe with backing from some of industry’s biggest names, including George Soros, Donald Sussman.
In currencies, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed following a 0.6 percent loss last week. The yen strengthened 0.5 percent to 100.50 per dollar as investors sought havens. Former Japanese top currency official Eisuke Sakakibara forecast on Monday that Japan’s currency will slowly strengthen, saying in a Bloomberg TV interview that he wouldn’t be surprised if it reaches 90 by the end of next year. Sakakibara, dubbed “Mr. Yen” for his ability to influence the exchange rate while a senior Ministry of Finance bureaucrat in the 1990s, correctly predicted the currency’s advance this year from near 120 to beyond 100. Turkey’s lira led losses among emerging-market currencies and the nation’s stocks and bonds tumbled after Moody’s cut the nation’s credit rating. Currencies of commodity-exporting nations fell with oil, led by the Malaysian ringgit and Russian ruble. The Philippine peso sank 0.5 percent and stocks dropped as investors were unnerved by Duterte’s policies on combating drug trafficking and efforts to boost economic and defense ties with China and Russia.
In commodities, crude oil was about 1% higher fluctuating around $45 a barrel in New York after a 4% slide on Friday. As reported on Sunday, Algeria’s Energy Minister said Saudi Arabia, the world’s No. 1 oil exporter, has offered to cut production to January levels to help convince other major producers to agree output curbs this week in Algiers. Nickel declined 1.7 percent in London, pulling back from a one-month high. Investors are awaiting the result of an environmental audit in the Philippines, which may close mines in the world’s largest supplier. Copper retreated 0.7 percent from a seven-week high. Gold was little changed, after climbing 2.1 percent last week. The precious metal’s price swings may become more severe in the final quarter owing to the U.S. presidential election and an expected interest-rate increase by the Fed, according to Citigroup Inc.
Bulletin Headline Summary From RanSquawk and Bloomberg
- A risk averse start to the week has put all European indices in the red with further concerns around Deutsche Bank hampering the financial sector
- In FX, the week has started with another bout of heavy selling on the usual suspects, with GBP and CAD under pressure again
- Looking ahead, highlights Include German IFO survey, US New Home Sales, ECB’s Draghi, Mersch, Coeure, Nowotny and Fed’s Kashkari
- Treasuries higher overnight with global equities lower amid bank and commodity company woes; week’s auction begin with $26b 2Y notes, WI 0.765%; last sold at 0.76%, stopped through by 1bp.
- Deutsche Bank AG shares dropped to a record low amid concerns that mounting legal bills, including a looming fine over its pre-crisis mortgage bond business, may force the lender to raise capital
- German business sentiment surged to the highest level in more than two years in September in a sign that corporate concerns are easing over the economic outlook and the consequences of Britain’s decision to leave the European Union
- OPEC’s decision to hold informal talks in Algiers this week has fanned speculation that the group might be about to deviate from a two-year-old policy of pumping without limits
- China and Japan have culled their stakes in Treasuries for three consecutive quarters, the most sustained pullback on record and the decline has accelerated in the past three months
- China’s banking regulator told the nation’s city banks to learn the lesson of the global financial crisis and get back to their traditional businesses, building pressure for the lenders to curb opaque shadow financing
- Japan’s central bank has effectively positioned itself for an era of monetary stimulus that extends beyond the radical tenure of Governor Haruhiko Kuroda
- The Bank of Japan will make the utmost effort to achieve stability in exchange rates, Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said during a speech in Osaka on Monday
- Turkey’s sovereign credit rating was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service, which concluded a review initiated after an unsuccessful coup attempt on July 15
- As hedge funds hemorrhage cash at the fastest pace since the financial crisis, a new crop of money managers is starting to buck the trend in Europe with backing from some of the industry’s biggest names, including George Soros
- Saudi Arabia’s central bank stepped up efforts to support lenders, giving banks about 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) of time deposits and introducing seven-day and 28-day repurchase agreements, as part of its “supportive monetary policy”
- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are locked in a tied two- way race for the presidency as they head to Hofstra University in New York on Monday night for one of the most highly anticipated debates in modern politics
* * *
DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap
With central bank meetings out of the way for a while this last week of September will probably lead to a step up in focus on the US election. At 2am BST tonight we’ll see the first televised debate between Clinton and Trump which is expected to be watched by over 100 million – the most ever for such a debate. According to DB’s Frank Kelly the stakes are high as the opinion poll leader after this first debate has won the election each time over the last 40 years.
One of the other interesting stats I’ve learned from Frank is that 9 of the 14 recessions since WWII have been in the first year of a presidential term. In seeing a lot of clients over the last couple of weeks many have speculated as to whether fiscal spending from the new President could actually prolong this cycle. Our view as it stands is that the likely stimulus won’t be big enough to majorly change the natural forces of the cycle. However the fiscal plans of the candidates will be fascinating to hear about tonight amongst other things. I suspect the early part of tomorrow’s EMR will write itself.
Other interesting events this week include the side OPEC meeting at the International Energy Forum in Algeria which kicks off today and runs through until Wednesday. Oil is only up 1% since this get together was first flagged back on August 8th but that doesn’t really reflect the full story with the high-to-low range during that time of 17% a more appropriate reflection of the back and forth jawboning that has gone on. The latest suggestion from Algeria’s energy minister is that Saudi Arabia is ready to freeze production at January levels. Who knows how true this is, but hopefully the path forward for the oil market is made a little more obvious by the end of this week. Also the first BoE corporate bond purchases begin tomorrow with additional reverse auctions on Wednesday and Friday. There’s also a flurry of Fedspeak to watch out for along the way. The usual week ahead with is at the end of the EMR.
Meanwhile in light of the BoJ moving away from an era of monetary policy emphasis on quantity of money towards interest rates, it’ll also be important to see how markets settle down this week and digest the latest policy shifts. In the time since the BoJ meeting, the Yen is +0.71% stronger (at a shade under 101 this morning), 10y JGB’s are 3bps lower at -0.067% (although did break up into positive territory immediately following the announcement) and the Nikkei is +0.48% (including -0.84% this morning). The moves aren’t particularly eye catching although perhaps this reflects the divergent range of views over what the BoJ shift in strategy actually means.
On this, our Japan economists published a note on Friday titled the ‘Future path of monetary policy’. They suggest the strategy is a de-facto tapering in which the speed of JGB purchases by the BoJ and the monetary base should slow. They believe that a reduction in the monetary base growth at a too rapid pace could negatively affect economic activity, even allowing for the saturation in loan demand and diminishing marginal returns on economic activity under the QQE over the past three years. They don’t believe that this is the last turnaround in the BoJ’s monetary policy framework and the decision does not resolve inherent issues with the 2% inflation targeting. They note that central banks in developed countries appear to be trapped in a prisoners’ dilemma, as they are obsessed with i) achieving inflation targeting at any cost and ii) independence in monetary policy, and they do not want to admit the diminishing marginal returns on economic policy. However, in time, our colleagues believe they will begin to acknowledge that they cannot cope with these circumstances on their own, and they will return to re-evaluating the impossible trinity in international finance, which states that we cannot obtain all of the following three but only two of them: independent monetary policy, stability in exchange rates, free capital mobility. The team surmise that the new equilibrium (or compromise) is hopefully to be found in a restriction of capital mobility by introducing a financial transaction tax, a return to a semi-fixed exchange rate by allowing for a band in the movement of exchange rates, and global coordination of monetary policy (a truce to prevent infinite rounds of currency depreciation), although the path to this is well beyond their imagination.
In terms of the rest of Asia this morning it’s been a pretty soft start to the week with most major bourses following the lead from the US on Friday. Along with the drop for markets in Japan, the Hang Seng (-0.63%), Shanghai Comp (-0.63%), Kospi (-0.25%) and ASX (-0.23%) are also lower. That’s despite a modest bounceback for WTI (+0.76%) this morning. In FX markets the Turkish Lira (-0.70%) is the big underperformer following Moody’s downgrade of Turkey’s sovereign rating to Ba1 from Baa3 late on Friday.
Moving on. There wasn’t too much to report from the weekend news flow. Spain held its latest regional elections with PM Rajoy’s People Party securing 41 of the 75 seats at the Galica elections, with Podemos affiliate En Marea gaining 14 seats and pushing the Socialists into 3rd place. Podemos took 3rd place in Basque country elections which was won by the Basque Nationalist Party (29 of the 75 seats). The Socialists were beaten into 4th place meaning they suffered heavy losses in both elections.
Meanwhile in the UK the Sunday Telegraph ran a story suggesting that the UK International Trade Secretary, Liam Fox, is to make a major speech tomorrow to the World Trade Organization, signalling that the UK intends to become an independent member of the WTO when it eventually leaves the EU and so enabling it to negotiate its own trade deals outside of the EU. This follows on from a number of headlines in the last couple weeks suggesting that the UK is heading for a potentially difficult negotiating period ahead and a possible ‘hard brexit’. Sterling closed down -0.86% on Friday and back below $1.30. It’s now fallen for the last three weeks.
In terms of markets elsewhere, in the wake of the Fed and BoJ outcomes last week, the rally in equity markets finally came to an end on Friday with a 4% or so fall for Oil certainly helping matters. The S&P 500 closed -0.57% and in turn brought to an end three consecutive daily gains, although the index did still close up +1.19% over the five days. The Stoxx 600 (-0.72%) was also down on Friday but still +2.23% over the week. The US Dollar and 10y Treasuries were both little changed while yields in Europe were generally a couple of basis points higher.
The highlight data-wise came in Europe where the September flash PMI’s were out. The Euro area composite reading eased from 52.9 to 52.6 (vs. 52.8 expected) this month which our Europe economists suggest points to +0.3% qoq GDP growth and a slowdown compared to the recovery pace seen during late 2014 to early 2016. The softer composite PMI was a result of a slowdown in the services sector (-0.7pts to 52.1; 52.8 expected), which is now down by 2 points since Q4 2015. The manufacturing sector on the other hand has been stable with the export outlook slightly improving according to our colleagues. By country, the notable takeaway was an improvement in the composite in France (+1.2pts to 53.3; 51.8 expected) which is now ahead of Germany (-0.6pts to 52.7; 53.6 expected) for the first time since 2012. The PMI’s also implied a 1.1pt decline across the composite for the periphery. Meanwhile, the flash manufacturing PMI in the US (-0.6pts to 51.4) was softer after expectations were for no change.
Wrapping up, there was also some Fedspeak to highlight on Friday. The Boston Fed’s Rosengren, who dissented at the FOMC meeting last week, said that ‘I am arguing for modest, gradual tightening now, out of concern that not doing so today will put the recovery’s duration and sustainability at greater risk’. The Dallas Fed’s Kaplan, on the other hand, said that ‘we can afford to be patient in removing accommodation’.
Turning over to the week ahead now. Kicking things off this morning will be Germany where the September IFO survey is due to be released, while the UK will follow with the latest CBI reported sales data for this month. In the US the only data scheduled to be released are August new home sales and the September Dallas Fed manufacturing survey. We start in Asia on Tuesday where Japan PPI and China industrial profits data are both scheduled to be released. The only data worth highlighting in Europe on Tuesday is the M3 money supply growth figure for the Euro area. In the US tomorrow we’ll firstly get the S&P/Case-Shiller house price index for July, followed by the remaining flash PMI’s (services and composite), consumer confidence in September and the Richmond Fed manufacturing survey for this month. Turning to Wednesday, during the Asia period we’ll get small business confidence in Japan and also the latest consumer sentiment reading in China. During the European session we’ll then get consumer confidence readings out of Germany, France and Italy. There’s important data in the US on Wednesday with the flash August durable and capital goods orders numbers. We’ve got a reasonably busy calendar on Thursday to get through. In Japan we’ll get the August retail trade and sales data. During the European session we’ll get September CPI and unemployment data out of Germany, along with Euro area confidence indicators in September and also UK money and credit aggregates numbers for August. During the US session all eyes will be on the third revision to Q2 GDP (expected to be nudged up two-tenths to +1.3% qoq), while the August advance goods trade balance, wholesale inventories, initial jobless claims and pending homing sales for August are also due. We close the week in Japan with a bumper set of releases include the jobless rate, household spending, industrial production, housing starts and the August CPI print. China will also release the Caixin manufacturing PMI print. During the European session we’ll get CPI and PPI in France, the final Q2 GDP print for the UK and also CPI for the Euro area in September. In the US we end the week with the personal income and spending report for August, PCE core and deflator readings, Chicago PMI and finally the last revision to the University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading.
If that wasn’t enough, there’s plenty away from the data too. ECB President Draghi is due to speak at EU parliament in Brussels today at 3pm BST while the Fed’s Tarullo and Kaplan are also due to speak. The first US Presidential election debate also takes place overnight (2am BST) while the OPEC meeting in Algeria is also obviously worth keeping an eye on given the informal sideline meeting of producers. The forum will run through to Wednesday. It’s also expected that Italy PM Renzi will set the date for the planned referendum on constitutional reform at some stage today. Tomorrow the Fed Vice-Chair Fischer is due to speak. On Wednesday there’s more Fedspeak with Bullard and Evans are also due to speak along with Fed Chair who is testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on the topic of bank supervision, although this is a platform not commonly associated with the Fed Chair expressing opinions on either the economic outlook or monetary policy. On Thursday we hear from the Fed’s George and also the BoJ’s Kuroda during the Asia session – although we’re not sure if Kuroda will be speaking on monetary policy at all. The Fed’s Harker, Lockhart, Powell and Kashkari are also due to speak, as is Yellen again before a minority banking conference. With little in the way of key data since the FOMC it’s unlikely that this will be hugely market moving. The European Banking Summit also kicks off in Brussels on Thursday. Finally on Friday during the Asia session we get the BoJ summary of opinions from last week’s meeting.
3.REPORT ON JAPAN SOUTH KOREA NORTH KOREA AND CHINA
i)Late SUNDAY night/MONDAY morning: Shanghai closed DOWN 8.42 POINTS OR .28%/ /Hang Sang closed DOWN 73.32 POINTS OR .31%. The Nikkei closed DOWN 53.60 POINTS OR .32% Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED UP 1.06% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed DOWN at 6.6704/Oil FELL to 46.16 dollars per barrel for WTI and 48.03 for Brent. Stocks in Europe: ALL IN THE RED Offshore yuan trades 6.6704 yuan to the dollar vs 6.6753 for onshore yuan.THE SPREAD BETWEEN ONSHORE AND OFFSHORE NARROWS AS MORE USA DOLLARS ATTEMPT TO LEAVE CHINA’S SHORES
3a)NORTH KOREA:
none today
b) REPORT ON JAPAN
Last week we commented on the fact that in Japan’s new policy of QE: QQE with Yield Curve Control would basically not work. It is extremely difficult for a central bank to control the long end of a curve. Today we see the long end move again deeper into the negative while at the same time, the yen rose. Mr Yen himself came out and said that the yen will rise to the 90 level which will force BOJ to go more negative NIRP and again that will flatten the yield curve. The thought of “tightening” the long end of the curve means less purchases by the B of J and that will bring on more recessionary pressures and again the flattening of the yield curve..
(courtesy zero hedge)
The “Nightmare Scenario” For The Bank Of Japan Is Starting To Come True
On Friday, when we summarized why “It May Be Over For The BOJ” we presented a variety of sellside opinions, all of which were unanimously pessimistic on the BOJ’s latest policy, we observed that the weakest link for the BOJ’s latest incarnation of QE, aka QQE with Yield Curve Control, or QQEWYCC (which even rhymes) would be if the 10Y JGB resumed its drift lower into negative territory, coupled with a return to curve flattening, two adverse side effects of its own prior policy which the BOJ is now explicitly trying to undo due to their adverse impact on the local banking and pension sectors.
However, as we noted overnight, in a very ominous development, or what already dubbed the BOJ’s “nightmare scenario” – for both the credibility of the BOJ and the return of VaR shocks first in Japan and soon elsewhere – the 10Y JGB did indeed resume sliding into deeper negative territory, away from Kuroda’s 0% price target, resulting immediately an a resumption in curve flattenting.

As RBC’s Charlie McElligott confirms, upon upon the reopening post-holiday late last week, “we saw the JGB curve ominously FLATTENING, despite the BoJ’s desired steepening message from its Wednesday meeting. More flattening has again occurred to start the week, and as you can see below, JGB 2s10s / 5s30s / 2s30s have all sharply reversed their prior steepening course on what looks to be tactical profit-taking through the BoJ meeting results.”
The developing narrative / question is how does the BoJ “control the message” that an attempt at steepening the curve is NOT interpreted by markets as a tapering of QE? The further complication is the new 10Y JGB yield ‘targeting’ policy as well, where theoretically you would see the BoJ conducting outright “tightening operations” in the case where yields were turning sharply negative again—because then the BoJ would then turn a SELLER of JGBs to drive yields back to their zero percent target.”
In other words, with the 10Y now yielding well below the BOJ’s own “fair value” target, the BOJ may have no choice but to telegraph it will buy less in this maturity bucket, leading not only to a further skewing of the JGB yield curve but an implicit tightening, or “tapering” of purchases, which may send not just the long end, but the short end also sharply higher, potentially flattening the yield curve even more!
Or, as McElligott elegantly puts it, “tangled web indeed, and as such, we see $yen probing back towards the 100 level (FWIW, RBC’s Todd Cross informs us this morning that MOF “legend” Sakakibara (“Mr. Yen himself) is now on the record as anticipating a Y90 by next year…if that were the case, I’d expect that next BoJ rate cut to even deeper NIRP at the very least, and further discussions on even more unconventional policy i.e. foreign bond purchases).”
And this is why the BOJ is now trapped and may have no way out from the nightmare scenario it itself has unleashed:
The problem is, the BoJ is currently back in “buying time” mode and needs at least a few months to watch their policies “play out”…it’s unlikely they could make further tweaks before Dec earliest, but most likely next calendar year. As such, my colleague Mark Orsley is pushing a trade in Nov Yen future upside via 102/104 calls (JYX6C) for spread of 0.40 in the case that the market turns vigilante and accelerates the Yen buying (USDJPY downside).
RBC’s conclusion: “JGB CURVES FLATTENING POST BoJ: Not part of the plan.”
* * *
But worst of all for the Bank of Japan is that even Goldman Sachs, which arguably has the answer for everything, admitted last week that it has no idea how the central bank will control both the yield on the 10Y and the overall shape of the curve:
“it is very unclear at this time exactly how the BOJ intends to “control” the yield curve in the future. Based only on the official statement, we think it is likely it will maintain the yield curve at more or less the current level for the time being. However, the question is how it will control the overall level and shape of the curve when financial and economic conditions change in the future. While the JGB market needs to take time to study the BOJ’s intentions, with interest rate movements lessening, we think the pricing function of interest rates as a mirror reflecting real economic and financial conditions will be increasingly lost.”
Good luck Peter Pan, you will need it.

end
c) Report on CHINA
The following is very important. China’s total debt to GDP is now over 300%. China’s major bankers (S.O.E.’s..State Owned Enterprises) are the proud owners of much of this debt as this debt has been piling onto their balance sheet with reckless abandon. The smaller SOE’s are in great need of capital so they are borrowing from the Shadow Banking System (remember our Peer to Peer lending?). This is similar to USA banks receiving funding form the money markets before succumbing in 2008 a la Lehman.
(courtesy zero hedge)
Chinese Contagion Risks Surge: Banks’ Reliance On Each Other For Funding Hits All Time High
It’s getting increasingly more difficult for China to deny its massively overindebted reality.
The latest striking confirmation that things in the world’s former growth dynamo are deteriorating rapidly, come yesterday from none other than PBOC advisor Huang Yiping, who during a speech in Beijing said that China’s “deleveraging isn’t making progress” and that the “high leverage ratio is becoming a big financial problem for the country” noting that the household leverage ratio has “surged sharply in China.” Adding something ZH readers have known for the past year, Yiping said that “mining and property sectors have the highest leverage ratio” in the country and while the M2/GDP ratio is “not the best gauge to measure leverage for China” he notes that the “leverage ratios in state-owned companies have kept growing since 2008.”
None of this is a secret: one look at the chart below from the IIF according to which China’s gross leverage is now roughly 300% of GDP, confirms just that.
Worse, in a troubling report by SocGen from September 21, the French bank found that depository banks’ claims on the government are surging, up 80% and nearly CNY7tn yoy. As SocGen notes, the simultaneous and rapid rise in the PBoC’s claims on domestic banks has raised questions as to whether China is conducting a modified form of quantitative easing.
SocGen’s explanation is partial affirmation of this question:
“In our view, the surge in banks’ claims on the government is because of the debt-to-bond programme for local governments. These claims only include banks’ holding of central government bonds (CGBs) and local government bonds (LGBs). Any borrowing of quasi-government institutions from banks in the form of either loans or (corporate) bonds was and is still categorised as corporate borrowing.
The National Audit Office conducted two nation-wide audits on local government debt in 2010 and 2013, and the State Council finalised the count of local government debt at CNY16tn as of end-2014, on which the swap programme was based, designed and kicked off in 2015. However, the label was never changed in creditors’ record despite the formal recognition. Only when local government bonds (LGBs) are issued and banks buy them do banks’ claims on the government increase.
Even if the proceeds of LGBs issued under the swap programme have not gone to repay the borrowing of quasi-gove rnment institutions, banks’ claims on the gove rnme nt still increase nonetheless as long as banks buy up the LGBs.
This means that it is the rapidly expanding swap programme that enables local governments to issue so many LGBs so quickly.
The programme commenced in May 2015 and reached over CNY3tn by the end of 2015. In the eight months this year, the stock of LGBs under the programme added another CNY3.6tn. Along with the increases in budget bonds issued by central and local governments, the increases in government securities are in line with the increase in banks’ claims on the government.
* * *
Of course, this massive transfer of obligations to the government should mean that the local banks are more stable as a result of their liabilities being effectively insured by the government. Well, not necessarily.
As it turns out, while China’s big banks, most of which are state-owned enterprises already, may indeed have become inextricably interconnected with the fabric of China’s own sovereign stability, China’s smaller banks have never been more reliant on each other for funding, prompting rating companies to warn of contagion risks in any crisis.
“Contagion risks are definitely rising,” said Liao Qiang, Beijing-based senior director for financial institution ratings at S&P Global Ratings. “The pace of the development is concerning. If this isn’t stopped in time, the central bank will lose some control and flexibility of its monetary policy.”
According to Bloomberg, wholesale funds – notably those raised in the interbank market – accounted for a record 34% of small- and medium-sized bank financing as of June 30, compared with 29% on Jan. 31 last year, Moody’s Investors Service estimated in an Aug. 29 note that analyzed central bank data. Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.’s first-half earnings showed its short-term borrowings and repurchase agreements surged by 75% in the past three years, while its consumer deposits rose just 24% .
As Bloomberg adds, “policy makers have sought to sustain an economic recovery by keeping the seven-day repurchase rate at round 2.4 percent for the past year, a level that has encouraged borrowing for investment in property, corporate bonds or risky loans, often packaged as shadow banking products.CLSA Ltd. estimates total debt may reach 321 percent of gross domestic product in 2020 from 261 percent in the first half, while the Bank for International Settlements also warned lenders are at risk from surging leverage.”
What China’s attempts to stabilize its financial system have achieved is forced banks to rely not on deposits as sources of funds, but intermediaries such as the dreaded shadow banks, aka WMPs, and worse, other banks: a precarious balance which threatens a domino-like effect should even one counterparty fail.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank told Bloomberg in an e-mailed response on Sept. 24 it has been using appropriate financing and its regular deposits and interbank borrowing have been developing properly and in synchronization. Total liabilities will be kept under control in the long run and all liquidity gauges meet regulatory requirements, it said. Rising short-term borrowing doesn’t mean its risks have climbed as well, the bank said.
Meanwhile, as reported previously, the PBOC resumed longer-term reverse repos to boost borrowing costs in August and deputy governor Yi Gang said in a television interview earlier this month that the nation’s short-term goal is to curb leverage. The benchmark 10-year government bond yield climbed slightly, to 2.75% from a 10-year low of 2.64% on Aug. 15, effectively setting a rate floor for China’s plunging sovereign bond yields which recently also hit an all time low. Interbank market stability only makes it more appealing for traders to borrow money and invest in illiquid assets of longer tenors, S&P and Moody’s warned.
The good news – for now – is that a worse case scenario would likely be cushioned by depositor bail-ins. China’s financial system is backstopped by some 148.5 trillion yuan ($22.3 trillion) of savings, even though regulators removed a rule that limited loans to 75 percent of deposits in 2015. Industrywide, the ratio was 67% on June 30, up from 64% five years ago, China Banking Regulatory Commission data show. Including shadow banking, it is closer to 100 percent for some lenders, such as Shanghai Pudong, Moody’s wrote. The rating company said the big four state banks still have “strong deposit franchises and a more prudent growth strategy.”
Of course, the rapid flight of deposits offshore is the biggest risk that has been facing China, and is why the PBOC has spent hundreds of billions in reserves over the past 18 months trying to stabilize the Yuan, which has been hit as a result of depositors rushing to park their savings abroad, aware that it is only a matter of time before China’s banking syste, suffers a major crisis.
Meanwhile, China’s shadow banking problems continue to grow: short-term borrowings and repos accounted for 37% of Industrial Bank Co.’s total liabilities as of June 30, up from 34% three years ago, according to its filings. The lender’s loan-to-deposit ratio rose to 73.8 percent, from 67.8 percent at the end of 2015. The ratio for Hong Kong banks’ local currency business was 78.2 percent on June 30, while that for Australian lenders was 114.9 percent, according to official data.
Why is this a danger? As Christine Kuo, a Hong Kong-based senior vice president at Moody’s said, the higher the reliance on wholesale funds, the greater the risk of a liquidity crunch.
“When banks face fund withdrawals by other financial institutions, this will in turn prompt them to call back their own funds,” she said. In other words, just as the “breaking” of money markets in the aftermath of Lehman is what many say catalyzed the freeze of interbank funding as a result of virtually no regulation of shadow banking in the US, it is now China’s turn to aggressively rely on short-term and even overnight sources of funding.
It gets worse: in a sign that China’s financial system has already moved beyond the Ponzi point on its way to the inevitable Minsky moment…
… banks are also buying each others’ wealth-management products and accounting for the transactions as investment receivables.
As a reminder, the “Ponzi finance” stage in a financial regime, is where borrowers have insufficient cash flows to pay either principal or interest and therefore must either borrow or sell assets to make interest payments. This is where China finds itself now. As Bloomberg writes, a record 26.3 trillion yuan of WMPs were outstanding as of June 30, doubling over two years, China Banking Wealth Management Registration System data showed. Investment receivables at 25 listed Chinese banks grew 13.4 percent in the first half to 11 trillion yuan, earnings reports show.
Some exampled:
- China Minsheng Banking Corp.’s receivables surged 77% in the first half, while its short-term borrowings and repos more than doubled in the past two years, company filings show.
- Industrial Bank declined to comment and China Minsheng didn’t reply to an e-mail seeking comment.
As He Xuanlai, a Singapore-based analyst at Commerzbank AG, says “banks’ use of wholesale funds to buy WMPs only makes the contagion risks higher.”
* * *
We anticipate that all of the above warnings, as has traditionally been the case, will be ignored until it is too late to engage in proactive damage control, instead forcing China to “fix” a problem of massive leverage by throwing even more debt at the problem as the country joins the rest of the “developed” world in doing “whatever it takes” to keep its insolvent financial system alive by kicking the can as far as it possibly can.
end
4 EUROPEAN AFFAIRS
The big news of the day. Merkel rules out a bail out for Deutsche bank. That means we will see a bail in as depositors and bond holders will suffer greatly. The big problem of course is that there is not enough money in the system to cover all of their derivative losses
(courtesy zero hedge)
Deutsche Bank Stock Plunges To All Time Low After Merkel Rules Out State Bailout; Default Risk Surges
As reported over the weekend, in an unexpected announcement Angela Merkel announced that she has ruled out state aid for Deutsche Bank, and the market reaction has been swift and brutal, with the bank’s shares tumbling to a new all time low, sliding more than 6% this morning to €10.70, amid concerns that mounting legal bills, including a looming fine over its pre-crisis mortgage bond business, may force the lender to raise capital.
As has been extensively documented here, in just 2016, the bank has lost over half of its value.
The 38-member Bloomberg Europe Banks and Financial Services Index slipped 1.5 percent, with Deutsche Bank the worst performer.
The company’s contingent convertibles have been likewise dragged down. The lender’s 1.75 billion euros of 6 percent additional Tier 1 bonds, the first notes to take losses in a crisis, fell about 2 cents on the euro to 73 cents, near a seven-month low, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Just as important, DB’s CDS are surging, sending the bank’s default risk higher, and at 245bps DB is now the widest name in the Markit iTraxx index.
Quoted by Bloomberg, Daniel Regli, an analyst at Main First, said that “clearly headlines around the DoJ settlement and those $14 billion continue to weigh on the stock. Nobody believes that they will end up paying that amount, but for some investors it might be a concern that even the German government is discussing Deutsche Bank’s situation.”
For those who missed it on Saturday, chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out state aid for Deutsche Bank ahead of national elections in September 2017, Focus magazine reported last week, citing unidentified government officials. The German leader also declined to step into the bank’s legal imbroglio with the Justice Department, the magazine reported.
Germany’s biggest bank would be “significantly under-capitalized” even assuming enough provisions to cover the settlement in the mortgage securities case, Andrew Lim, an analyst at Societe Generale SA, said in a note earlier this month. A settlement range of $3 billion to $3.5 billion would leave the bank room to settle other legal issues, while any additional $1 billion in litigation charges would erode 24 basis points in capital, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts wrote.
Meanwhile, the government is stepping its rhetoric, with Merkel’s government saying it sees “no grounds’’ for speculation over state funding for Deutsche Bank, top spokesman, Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin moments ago, adding that there “are no grounds for such speculation” Seibert tells reporters in Berlin. “The government won’t participate in any such speculation.”
Seibert responded to report in Focus that Merkel has ruled out state assistance for Deutsche Bank. Merkel regularly meets German banking executives, Seibert says, declines to confirm a meeting with Deutsche Bank CEO John Cryan. Seibert reiterates Germany expects a “fair result” in Deutsche Bank talks with U.S. authorities.
Not everyone is sad this morning, however: short sellers have renewed their wagers against the bank. Bearish bets rose to 3% of shares outstanding on Sept. 22 from almost a three-month low of 1.7% on Sept. 16, according to data compiled by Markit Ltd. At this rate, many more short sellers are expected to join the fray.
end
Deutsche bank tries to instill confidence into the markets but to no avail;
(courtesy zero hedge)
A Crashing Deutsche Bank Scrambles To Assure Markets That It Is “Fine”
With Deutsche Bank stock plunging to fresh all time lows in early trading after Merkel reportedly ruled out state aid the embattled German lender, the bank found itself in the unenviable position of once again having to defend its balance sheet to avoid further stock price declines, especially as doubts mounted if the German government response was due to a pre-emptive request for aid. DB quickly tried to squash such speculation when a bank spokesman said that “CEO John Cryan at no point asked the German Chancellor for the government to intervene in the U.S. Justice Department’s mortgages case.”
He added that Deutsche Bank will solve its problems without relying on help from Berlin, Germany’s flagship lender said on Monday.
The market remains unconvinced: shares in Germany’s biggest bank hit a record low of 10.62 euros on Monday…
… with its default risk once again spiking.
Naturally, DB had no option but to project confidence: “Deutsche Bank is determined to resolve its challenges on its own,” the spokesman said. “There is currently no question of a capital increase. We are meeting all regulatory requirements,” the spokesman added. Cryan and Merkel met in July to discuss Brexit repercussions but did not touch on the matter of potential help with U.S. legal proceedings, a person close to the matter said according to Reuters.
That said, the sellside suspects that a new capital raise appears inevitable. Analysts at Mediobanca said that a rights issue looked inevitable. “John Cryan always said that a rights issue would only be triggered by a larger-than expected litigation charge and it appears increasingly likely that Deutsche Bank investors will be asked to post bail for Deutsche’s past crimes,” they said in note on Monday.
Meanwhile, the defense continued after Jorg Eigendorf, head of communications at Deutsche Bank told CNBC, that Deutsche bank liquidity position is very comfortable, adding that the credit portfolio is very strong, while the “liquidity position very comfortable, third quarter almost over and I can tell you that we are fine and very comfortable here.”
Touching on the stock price, Eigendorf said that the “share price is low but that is not what is worrying us and that is not what we are looking at. What is really important to us is our credit story which is very strong, it is fundamentally strong.”
If only the market agreed.
But perhaps the most sober – and realistic – assessment came from Andreas Utermann, Allianz Global Investors’ chief investment officer, who said on BBG TV that Germany would ultimately help out a struggling Deutsche Bank: “I don’t buy at all what’s coming out of Germany in terms of Germany not wanting to step in ultimately if Deutsche Bank was really in trouble.”
“Deutsche Bank is “too important for the German economy.” The bank’s tussle with the U.S. Department of Justice over a potential $14 billion legal settlement is “a political issue which will get resolved at a lower price,” he said in an interview with Francine Lacqua and Tom Keene on Monday.
The only question is just how will Germany, which has been so staunchly against an Italian bailout of its own insolvent banks, will i) pass such a deal with popular sentiment strongly against more bank bailouts and ii) what will a bailout look like: with €162 billion in debt and only €17 billion in equity, the government check would be substantial. And that, of course, excludes the €42 trillion in gross notional exposure which few if any have been willing to discuss in recent weeks.
end
Germany states that you cannot compare Deutsche bank to Lehman. The market says otherwise!
(courtesy zero hedge)
Germany Goes There: “You Can’t Compare Deutsche Bank To Lehman”
“When it’s important, you have to lie,” is the now well-known mantra from European leaders when the crisis hit. So when a German politician proclaims “you can’t compare Deutsche Bank with Lehman. The bank is in a position to get out of this situation on its own,” it’s time to panic. Just a week after the 8th anniversary of Lehman’s collapse, the multi-trillion dollar derivative book of Deutsche Bank dwarfs that of Lehman… and the credit markets are starting to wake up again.
Following government exclamations that there will be no bailout for Deutsche Bank, Hans Michelbeck – from Merkel’s Christian Democrat-led bloc and a member of German lower house’s finance committee – confirms it is “unimaginable” that the German government would support Deutsche Bank AG with taxpayers’ money.
“It would lead to a public outcry.”
“You can’t compare Deutsche Bank with Lehman. The bank is in a position to get out of this situation on its own”
German govt “would lose credibility if it jumped in” after “it was always said in the past that Deutsche Bank isn’t affected by the financial crisis”
It appears the CDS market is starting to wake up to the reality of the situation..
.
end
For the past few years, everybody has been focusing on Greek situation and the Italian + periphery banks. They should have been concentrating on the Deutsche bank reserves and derivative problems
(courtesy zero hedge)
“It All Has A Very 2008 Feel To It” – For Deutsche Bank, The News Just Keeps Getting Worse
It has already been an abysmal day for Germany’s biggest lender: overnight Deutsche Bank plunged to fresh all time lows on speculation whether the German government would or wouldn’t provide state aid to the bank (if needed), forcing the bank to state it does not need the funds at the same time as the government urged markets that “you can’t compare” Deutsche Bank and that “other” bank, Lehman Brothers, although looking at the chart, one may beg to differ.
However, while DB stock closed at session lows, over 7% lower on the day, with its market cap of $16 billion now rapidly approaching the $14 billion litigation settlement demanded by the DOJ, the bad news did not stop there.
In a report issued an hour ago by Citigroup titled “Capital, Litigation & AT1 Coupon Risks”, bank analyst Andrew Coombs says that Deutsche reported an end-June CET1 ratio of 11.2% pro-forma for the HXB stake sale, but still only targets c11% by end-2016 as further litigation charges are assumed, with management expecting to resolve four of the five major outstanding litigation cases this year. To this Citi says that it “struggles” to see how Deutsche Bank can reach the fully-loaded SREP requirement of 12.25% in the medium-term.
Furthermore Coombs notes that “the leverage ratio, at 3.4%, looks even worse relative to the 4.5% company target by 2018 and an IPO of Postbank looks increasingly challenging to execute upon.”
Worse, he calculates that while he only models €2.9bn in litigation charges over 2H16-2017 – far less than the $14 billion settlement figure proposed by the DOJ – and includes a successful disposal of a 70% stake in Postbank at end-2017 for 0.4x book he still only reaches a CET 1 ratio of 11.6% by end-2018,meaning the bank would have a Tier 1 capital €3bn shortfall to the company target of 12.5%, and a leverage ratio of 3.9%, resulting in an €8bn shortfall to the target of 4.5%.
He then observes that while “management should be reluctant to raise capital with the bank trading on only 0.3x P/TB”, the only viable alternative is to further cut balance sheet, which would be even more detrimental to earnings. As a result, he says that “a rights issue looks inevitable, in our view.”
The most direct implication from this is that the bank’s AT1 coupon is now once again at risk: “Deutsche has confirmed the HXB stake sale and HGB 340 e/g reserves would lift Available Distributable Item (ADI) reserve capacity to €4.3bn versus c€0.4bn of annual AT1 coupon payments. Deutsche can potentially create another €1-2bn from releasing some of its Dividend Blocked Amounts.”
This would explain the ongoing deterioration in the bank’s “loss buffer” contingent convertible bonds.
Ironically, the longer DB waits to address the market’s concerns, not to mention its untenable balance sheet, the worse it will get. Citi’s conclusion is that the bank now faces two “negative feedback loops.”
We highlight two feedback loops: one short-term and one long-term. Widening credit spreads can exacerbate market fears, result in negative press coverage and damage counterparty confidence. The February tender offer for senior debt, coupled with a solid funding and liquidity position, has helped to address this loop. However a longer-term feedback loop still exists. Deutsche needs to raise capital in our view. It may choose to wait until litigation issues have been resolved, but the further the share price falls, the more dilutive a capital raise becomes (and vice versa).
Naturally, all of the above assumes a slow-burn scenario for DB stock. What happens if what happens next is a more aggressive liquidation of exposure? Well, in that case we would have something that theTelegraph’s Matthew Lynn would dub a “German banking crisis.”
Our image of German banks, and the German economy, as completely rock solid is so strong that it takes a lot to persuade us they might be in trouble.
Maybe so, but a “German banking crisis” would certainly delight the Italians, who have been on the receiving end of Germany’s stern lecturing about “sticking to the rules,” not to mention Schauble’s insistence not to engage in state-funded bailouts in this day and age of mandatory bail-ins, and explains why Merkel’s party has been so careful not to admit that a bailout may ultimately be the endgame.
Then again, Merkel’s stated position opens up a can of worms. As Lynn correctly notes, “if the German government does not stand behind the bank, then inevitably all its counter-parties – the other banks and institutions it deals with – are going to start feeling very nervous about trading with it. As we know from 2008, once confidence starts to evaporate, a bank is in big, big trouble. In fact, if Deutsche does go down, it is looking increasingly likely that it will take Merkel with it – and quite possibly the euro as well.”
Even without counterparty risk rearing its ugly head, the market appears to already be pricing it in.
The damage can be seen in its share price. Last October, the shares were at 27 euros. Back in 2007, they were over 100 euros, and even in the spring of 2009, when banks were crashing all across the world, they were still trading at close on 17 euros. For most of this year they have been sliding fast. On Monday, they crashed again, down another 6pc. Its bonds have slumped as well, while the cost of credit default swaps – essentially a way of hedging against a collapse – have jumped. It all has a very 2008 feel to it.
Indeed, but what is Merkel to do: admit that all the posturing about a stable banking system was just a lie, and the demands for Italy to get its house in order were sheer hypocrisy… or do what Allianz admitted that ultimately Deutsche Bank will have to be bailed out?
As Lynn points out, “there is something to be said for a hard-line position. It is hard to be sure the massive bank bail-outs of 2008 were such a great idea. Perhaps we would be better off now if a few had been allowed to fail. That said, Merkel is surely playing with fire. In the markets, investors, along with other financial institutions, have rightly or wrongly come to assume that major banks are, as the saying has it, ‘too big to fail’. You didn’t really have to worry about how solid they were, because if the crunch came the state would always ride to the rescue.”
In Germany, that appears not to be the case – certainly for Deutsche, and possibly for its next biggest player, Commerzbank, which is hardly looking much healthier. Would you want to trade a few billion with Deutsche right now, and would you feel sure you’d get paid next month? Nope, thought not. The risk is that confidence evaporates – and as we know, once that is gone a bank is not long for this world.
To be sure, the politics of a Deutsche rescue would be terrible. Germany, with is Chancellor taking the lead, has set itself up as the guardian of financial responsibility within the euro-zone. Two years ago, it casually let the Greek bank system go to the wall, allowing the cash machines to be closed down as a way of whipping the rebellious Syriza government back into line. This year, there has been an unfolding Italian crisis, as bad debts mount, and yet Germany has insisted on enforcing euro-zone rules that say depositors have to shoulder some of the losses when a bank is in trouble.
And this is why Merkel is cornered: “for Germany to then turn around and say, actually we are bailing out our own bank, while letting everyone else’s fail, looks, to put it mildly, just a little inconsistent. Heck, a few people might even start to wonder if there was one rule for Germany, and another one for the rest. In truth, it would become impossible to maintain a hard-line in Italy, and probably in Greece as well.”
“And yet” Lynn adds, “if Deutsche Bank went down, and the German Government didn’t step in with a rescue, that would be a huge blow to Europe’s largest economy – and the global financial system. No one really knows where the losses would end up, or what the knock-on impact would be. It would almost certainly land a fatal blow to the Italian banking system, and the French and Spanish banks would be next. Even worse, the euro-zone economy, with France and Italy already back at zero growth, and still struggling with the impact of Brexit, is hardly in any shape to withstand a shock of that magnitude.”
What we do know is that if some €42 trillion in derivatives – some three times more than the GDP of the European Union – were to suddenly lose their counterparty, the systemic damage would be unprecedented.
And just like that, Germany finds itself in the same position the Fed and US Government were in September 2008: let the bank fail and deal with the devastating consequences, or inject a few more billion and keep the bank alive for a few more quarters. Indeed, “the politics of a rescue are terrible, but the economics of a collapse are even worse. By ruling out a rescue, she may well have solved the immediate political problem. Yet when the crisis gets worse, as it may do at any moment, it is impossible to believe she will stick to that line. A bailout of some sort will be cobbled together – even if the damage to Merkel’s already fraying reputation for competence will be catastrophic.”
Lynn’s conclusion is spot on:
Merkel is playing a very dangerous game with Deutsche – and one that could easily go badly wrong. If her refusal to sanction a bail-out is responsible for a Deutsche collapse that could easily end her Chancellorship. But if she rescues it, the euro might start to unravel. It is hardly surprising that the markets are watching the relentless decline in its share price with mounting horror.
In retrospect, the irony is delightful: for so many years the markets erroneously focusing only on the periphery as the source of potential banking contagion, when the biggest ticking time bomb in Europe’s banking sector was smack in the middle of what was considered the safest and most stable country, until now…. or as we put it in 2014: “The Elephant In The Room: Deutsche Bank’s $75 Trillion In Derivatives Is 20 Times Greater Than German GDP“
end
Things must be real peachy with respect to German economics. And since Germany is the engine for all of Europe, I think we have a real problem here:
Germany’s second largest bank: Commerzbank set to fire 9,000 employees or 18% of its entire work force:
(courtesy zero hedge)
Germany “Other” Bank: Commerzbank To Fire 9,000, 18% Of Its Entire Workforce
While the market’s attention has been transfixed by the latest crash in the stock of Europe’s biggest bank, now that concerns about Deutsche Bank’s $2 trillion balance sheet have violently resurfaced, it is worth recalling that Germany’s “other” mega bank, DB’s smaller rival, Commerzbank, whose balance sheet is hardly looking much healthier, is planning to cut around 9,000 jobs over the coming years as Germany’s second biggest lender pushes ahead with a restructuring plan, Handelsblatt reported earlier today, citing unnamed sources in the finance industry.
The round of layoffs would eliminate a massive 18% of the bank’s entire workforce.
Like in the case of Deutsche Bank, squeezed by negative European Central Bank interest rates, Commerzbank has been seeking ways to boost revenue by passing on costs to corporate customers and increasing fees for retail depositors, but profit margins remain thin. That leaves cost cutting high on the agenda.
Handelsblatt said it’s not clear yet whether Commerzbank will resort to outright dismissals. The bank’s restructuring will run through 2020 with costs of up to 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion), according to the newspaper.
In addition to the massive layoffs, the bank will scrap its dividend payments for 2016 as part of the strategy revamp due to be published by Chief Executive Martin Zielke on Friday, Handelsblatt reported.
All the soon to be laid off workers can send their thank you notes to Mario Draghi: no need to even pony up for international postage – the ECB is conveniently located in Frankfurt.
end
The advance of the Euroskeptic AfD party has finally hit home to Merkel. She has now caved on the migrant policy as Germany has “done enough”
(courtesy zero hedge)
Merkel Caves To Pressure On Migrant Policy: “Germany Has Done Enough”, As Support For AfD Hits All Time High
After getting pummeled in recent elections and polls, Angela Merkel seems to be finally coming around to the notion that German citizens may not be that supportive of her “open-door” policies which have resulted in over 1 million migrants flowing into Germany in just a year. Speaking in Vienna at a meeting with nine other heads of government, Merkel proclaimed that “Germany has done enough” and called on the rest of the EU to do more saying “other EU countries will have to jump in.”
The Vienna summit included leaders of nations along the Balkans migrant route and was called in a bid to unblock disagreements at the heart of the immigration problem. Per the Sunday Express, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern commiserated with Merkel saying “you will never be able to close a border completely, but for Germany it’s been too much and I understand the concern.”
As for Austria, Kern has called for a financial deal with Northern African countries as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan along the same lines of the EU-Turkey deal that would involve returning migrants in exchange for travel visas and financial aid.

The controversial EU-Turkey deal gives Greece the ability to send back
Syrian migrants to Turkey in exchange for the EU providing Turks with visa-free
travel across Europe as well as financial aid. That said, the agreement has stirred some controversy in Europe as Turkey has refused to change its counter-terror policy, and even pulled its border control guards from Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The disputes have left thousands stranded on Greek islands after Austria and its Balkan neighbors shut their borders, closing off the migrant route to western Europe.

As a result of the growing tensions with Turkey, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is famous for his hardline on immigration and has built reinforced fences on his borders, has called for preparations to be made in the event the EU-Turkey deal collapses. Orban said that backup plans must be established now because “when the migrants descend on us and trouble arrives it will be too late to reach for blueprints, for fences, for physical barriers, for new police and soldiers.”
All of this comes after the CDU’s latest disastrous showing in last week’s Berlin election, which asreported last week saw Germany’s conservative party end second with only 17.6% of the vote, dropping 5.7% from the 2011 election, and marking its worst performance in the capital since German reunification. Angela Merkel took responsibility for her party’s disastrous showing in Berlin’s state election, “admitting mistakes in her handling of last year’s refugee crisis.”
As reported by the Guardian, in an unusually self-critical but also combative speech, the German chancellor said she was “fighting” to make sure that there would be no repetition of the chaotic scenes on Germany’s borders like last year, when “for some time, we didn’t have enough control” adding that “no one wants this to be repeated, and I don’t either.”
Merkel also admitted she had in the past failed to sufficiently explain her refugee policy, and that her phrase “Wir schaffen das” (“We can do it ”) had “provoked” some of those who didn’t agree with her political course. Her words will be interpreted as an olive branch to the leader of her CDU’s sister party, the Bavarian CSU, who have in recent months repeatedly called on her to distance herself from the much-cited slogan.
The 62-year-old also rebutted the CSU’s calls for a “static upper limit” to the amount of asylum seekers Germany could accept in 2016, arguing that it “would not solve the problem”. Banning people from entering the country on the basis of their religion, she said, would be incompatible with Germany’s constitution and her own party’s “ethical foundation”.
Of course, Merkel is seemingly starting to wake up to the fact that the only alternative is watching as her approval rating implodes in not so slow-motion, and as her CDU continues to tank in future elections.
And speaking of the surge in AfD, late last week Reuters reported that the the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany party would capture 16% of the vote if a federal election were held now, according to an opinion poll on Friday, the most support it has drawn in a poll in history.
The poll released by public broadcaster ARD said Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives would get 32% of the vote, while the Social Democrats, junior partner in the ruling coalition, would get 22%. Together they would have 54 percent, enough for the ruling “grand coalition” to continue, at least for the time being.
The AfD made huge gains in two regional elections this month and will now have seats in 10 of 16 state assemblies, benefiting from a backlash against Merkel’s open-door refugee policy and the arrival of nearly a million migrants last year. The next federal election is a year from now. The party’s latest score of 16 percent is more than three times the 5 percent it would need to win seats in the Bundestag or parliament for the first time.
end
5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS
This is not good: the war of words between Russia and the USA escalates. The USA calls Russia’s actions “Barbarism” even though the real culprit is the USA
(courtesy zero hedge)
US Slams Russian “Barbarism” In Syria; Moscow Responds Peace “Almost Impossible Now”
Just three weeks after yet another “landmark” Syria peace deal was signed, the agreement is not only in tatters but the war drums are beating louder than ever before after the US slammed Russia’s action in Syria as “barbarism,” not counter-terrorism, while Moscow’s U.N. envoy said ending the war “is almost an impossible task now” as Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow, bombed the city of Aleppo.
As Reuters reported overnight, the UN Security Council met on Sunday at the request of the United States, Britain and France to discuss the escalation of fighting in Aleppo following the announcement on Thursday of an offensive by the Syrian army to retake the city. “What Russia is sponsoring and doing is not counter-terrorism, it is barbarism,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, told the 15-member council.
Instead of pursuing peace, Russia & Assad make war, attacking aid workers, civilian families, and the first responders trying to save lives
Told emergency mtg of #UNSC there can be no #Syria peace if Russia wants war. Attacks on civilians & lies must stop:http://go.usa.gov/xKetx
“Instead of pursuing peace, Russia and Assad make war. Instead of helping get life-saving aid to civilians, Russia and Assad are bombing the humanitarian convoys, hospitals and first responders who are trying desperately to keep people alive,” Power said.
As reported previously, the September 9 ceasefire deal between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov aimed at putting Syria’s peace process back on track effectively collapsed in what may be a record short period of time last Monday when an aid convoy was bombed. Russsia and the US have both accused each other of being the party responsible behind the bombinb.
“In Syria hundreds of armed groups are being armed, the territory of the country is being bombed indiscriminately and bringing a peace is almost an impossible task now because of this,” Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council. Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, said on Sunday the U.S. and Russian bid to bring peace to Syria “is very, very near the end of its life and yes the Security Council needs to be ready to fulfill our responsibilities.”
“The regime and Russia have instead plunged to new depths and unleashed a new hell on Aleppo,” Rycroft told the council. “Russia is partnering with the Syrian regime to carry out war crimes.”
However, any attempts to “rein in” Russia are doomed to fail as the country is one of five veto-powers on the council, along with the United States, France, Britain and China. Russia and China have protected Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government by blocking several attempts at council action.
Unfazed by the logistical impossibility of the UN to actually do anything, Power said that “It is time to say who is carrying out those air strikes and who is killing civilians. Russia holds a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. This is a privilege and it is a responsibility. Yet in Syria and in Aleppo, Russia is abusing this historic privilege.”
As Syria’s U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari began addressing the council, Power, Rycroft and French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre walked out of the chamber, diplomats said. “Any political solution can only be successful by providing the requisite conditions through intensified efforts to fight terrorism,” Ja’afari told the council. “The real war on terrorism has never started yet. The advent of Syrian victory is imminent.”
* * *
Earlier today, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the US and its Western partners are trying to steer the world’s attention away from their airstrikes on the Syrian Army by accusing Russia of attacking a UN humanitarian convoy outside the Aleppo. “I would like to emphasize that the Americans and their Western allies, for one thing, want to distract public attention from what had happened in Deir-az-Zor,” Lavrov told NTV on Monday following the urgent meeting of the UN Security Council.
“When the humanitarian convoy was hit [outside Aleppo], we demanded that an investigation be conducted. [US Secretary of State] John Kerry, a good partner of mine, behaved the way he never has done previously. He claimed that the investigation might take place, but they know who did it, namely the Syrian Army or Russia, and that it was Russia’s fault in any case,” he said quoted by RT.
Kerry appeared to be “pinned down by stark criticism from the American military apparatus,” Lavrov noted, which may indicate that the US military does not comply with its commander-in-chief’s orders.
“[President] Barack Obama always supported, as I was told, cooperation with Russia, and he confirmed it himself during the meeting with [President] Vladimir Putin in China. It seems to me that the military may not be obeying their supreme commander too much.”
Lavrov went on by saying that Washington is trying to continue finger-pointing at Russia and hold it accountable for what is happening in Syria. Such approach is counterproductive and leaves Moscow wary of the US-led coalition’s actions, the FM said, adding that there is no room for “100 percent trust.”
In turn, Moscow will push for a detailed investigation into the attack on the humanitarian convoy, the minister said. The US and the West are not coping with their obligations on combating the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), Lavrov said. “It is clear that the West, led by the US which runs the anti-IS coalition and, as they put it, Al-Nusra Front in Syria, do not cope with their obligation.”
* * *
Meanwhile, as the peace process has completely fallen apart, the bombing campaign of Aleppo has resumed.According to the WSJ, Syria and its Russian allies pressed an assault on Aleppo amid what the United Nations called the most intense bombing in years of warfare there, and residents said hundreds of civilians have been killed since a cease-fire fell apart last week. The surge in deaths came as a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over the weekend cited reports of “bunker buster bombs.” The bombs have left large craters in the rebel-held part of the divided city, Aleppo residents said, and caused shock waves felt blocks away from the point of impact.

A man walks on the rubble of damaged buildings after an airstrike on the
rebel held al-Qaterji neighbourhood of Aleppo, Syria September 25, 2016
Rebels and opposition leaders blamed Russia, Syria’s key ally, for the bunker-buster bombs. The Russian Defense Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. “The first time one struck, everyone thought there was an earthquake,” said Muhammad al-Zein, who helps oversee hospitals in the rebel-held part of Aleppo. “But the next day another one hit and we realized it was not an earthquake.”
President Bashar al-Assad has vowed to retake all of Aleppo and the offensive was the latest indication that he aims to win the war militarily despite repeated efforts by the U.S. and Russia to reach a lasting cease-fire and a diplomatic solution. Syrian state media reported that the army on Saturday seized control of an area north of Aleppo city called Handarat Camp. Within hours, rebels said they had retaken the territory.
With the Syrian war once again front and center, and this time the possibility of a Chinese intervention – on the side of the Assad regime all too real – the recent warning by a Syrian politican that World War III has started in Syriasuddenly does not appear too far fetched.
Syria Claims To Have Recording Of Conversation Between ISIS And US Military Before Strike On Syrian Army
In a stunning allegation, one which would lead to dramatic gepolitical implications, the speaker of the People’s Council of Syria said on Monday that the Syrian intelligence possesses an audio recording of conversation between Islamic State terrorists and the US military taken just prior to the Washington-led coalition’s airstrikes on the government troops near Deir ez-Zor on September 17 which left over 60 Syrian troops dead.
As reported last weekend, coalition warplanes hit Syrian government troops near the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor on September 17, leaving 62 military personnel killed and a hundred wounded. The Pentagon said initially that the airstrike was a mistake and targeted ISIS militants. Britain, Australia and Denmark confirmed their air forces’ participation in the deadly airstrikes.
“The Syrian Army intercepted a conversation between the Americans and Daesh before the air raid on Deir ez-Zor”, Hadiya Khalaf Abbas said as quoted by the Al Mayadeen broadcaster.
Hadiya Khalaf Abbas, the head of the Syrian parliament, added during her visit to Iran that after the coalition’s airstrikes on the government troops US military directed terrorists’ attack on the Syrian army.
The attack on government positions, followed by an attack on a UN humanitarian convoy which the US has accused Russia of organizing, with Russia in turn putting the blame on US-supported rebels, has led to the collapse of the September 9 Syrian ceasefire. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said last Friday it was necessary to separate Daesh terrorists from “moderate” opposition forces in order to salvage the truce.
Cited by Sputnik, the politician noted that the details would be made public later. If indeed the audio is confirmed, it would put to rest years of speculation that the US military has been directly coordinating with the Islamic State
end
The fun begins; Obama vetoes the Saudi bill: 9/11 “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act”. The bill was passed unanimously by both houses and this sets up a re vote:
(courtesy zero hedge)
Siding With Saudi Arabia, Obama Vetoes Sept 11 Bill Passed Unanimously In Congress
It has been a day of Friday afternoon surprises: just one hour after Ted Cruz pretended to endorse Donald Trump when he really meant don’t vote for Hillary, president Obama denied what all American citizens demanded – and got – after both chambers unanimously passed the Sept 11 law several weeks ago, when he decided to veto the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act bill.

As The Hill reports, Obama on Friday vetoed legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia in U.S courts, setting up a high-stakes showdown with Congress. Obama’s move opens up the possibility that lawmakers could override his veto for the first time with a two-thirds vote in both chambers. Worse, it now appears – with reason – that Obama has now sided not with the US population but with a small minority of Saudi emirs.
Republican and Democratic leaders have said they are committed to holding an override vote, and the bill’s drafters say they have the support to force the bill to become law.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) unanimously passed through both chambers by voice vote.
But the timing of the president’s veto is designed to erode congressional support for the bill and put off a politically damaging override vote until after the November elections. Obama waited until the very end of the 10-day period he had to issue a veto, hoping to buy time to lobby members of Congress against the measure.
More details:
White House officials also hope congressional leaders will leave Washington to hit the campaign trail before trying for an override, kicking a vote to the lame-duck session after the election.
But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said the upper chamber will remain in session until the veto override vote is done. Under current law, 9/11 victims’ families may sue a country designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, such as Iran. JASTA would allow U.S. citizens to sue countries without that designation, including Saudi Arabia.
The measure has touched a political nerve ahead of an election in which terrorism has emerged as a central issue. It has strong bipartisan support and is backed by 9/11 families’ organizations.
Those families have sought damages from Saudi Arabia, since 15 of the 19 hijackers on Sept. 11, 2001 hailed from that country. Critics have long been accused the Saudi government of directly or indirectly supporting the attacks, though a concrete link has never been proven.
* * *
Obama has strongly opposed the legislation, arguing it would undermine sovereign immunity and open up U.S. diplomats and military service members to legal action overseas if foreign countries pass reciprocal laws.
But most of all, the administration is also wary of angering Saudi Arabia – one of the most generous donors to the Clinton Foundation and an alleged sponsor of Hillary’s presidential campaign – which is forcefully lobbying against the measure.
end
Saudi Arabia bails out its banking system as interbank rates reach sky high limits: 2.35%
(courtesy zero hedge)
Saudi Arabia Bails Out Banking System After Interbank Rates Hit 2009 Highs
Amid what some might call self-inflicted economic collapse, Saudi Arablia has announced a $5.3 billion bailout of its banking system as interbank borrowing rates near the highest since Lehman. In what the supposedly central bank calls “supportive monetary policy…on behalf of government entities,” is easing liquidity constraints with 28-day repo agreements and is the second liquidty injection this year.
While Saudi default risk has fallen – as the entire world has been liquified in recent months – it remains worse than Mexico, Russia, and South Africa.
As Bloomberg reports, The Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, as the central bank is known, is giving banks about 20 billion riyals ($5.3 billion) of time deposits “on behalf of government entities.” It’s also introducing seven-day and 28-day repurchase agreements, as part of its “supportive monetary policy.” It didn’t provide further details.
The announcement, which comes as the kingdom prepares for its first international bond sale, is the latest step by the central bank to ease a cash crunch in the banking system. The Saudi Interbank Offered Rate, a key benchmark for pricing loans, has surged to the highest in seven years after the plunge in oil prices forced the government to withdraw money from the country’s banking system, squeezing liquidity.
The cash crunch risk undermining bank’s ability to lend to businesses, adding to the strain facing economic growth at a time when the government is cutting spending to shore up its public finances. The economy will likely expand 1.1 percent in 2016, according to a Bloomberg survey, the slowest pace since 2009.
The central bank was said to have offered lenders 15 billion riyals in short-term loans in June to help ease liquidity constraints.
“Sama is being proactive to ensure liquidity meets economic and financial requirements, said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, using an acronym for the central bank.
“This will provide a breather to the banks and the planned sovereign bond issue will also help. However the government’s funding requirements are much larger and the issue of tight liquidity is likely to persist.’’
Bankers and analysts alike hope that this action “will show investors that the government is committed to support the banking system,” but – as with the US in 2008, and EU in 2012, this is more likely to drive risk aversion as instea do picking winners, traders broadly avoid the sector in an attempt to not get caught holding the sacrificial lamb.
The move is “the next step in the continuing story we’ve been hearing since the start of the year on the tightening of liquidity among Saudi banks and a follow-on to the first injection provided to banks earlier this year,” said Murad Ansari, a Riyadh-based analyst at investment bank EFG-Hermes.
“The liquidity situation remains challenging. However, it shows that the central bank will continue to support Saudi banks.”
Even worse – some might say – A royal decree read on the channel following the broadcast announced a cut to ministers’ salaries by 20 percent and to members of the appointed Shoura Council by 15 percent.
“The cabinet has decided to stop and cancel some bonuses and financial benefits,” read a line of text on Ekhbariya TV, as a minister read to assembled ministers and royals, including King Salman, a list of cuts to be made in various grades in the civil service.
With all eyes on Algiers this week – and the outcome very unlikely to be a freeze deal – as we detailed previously, Saudi Arabia is becoming increasingly desperate for higher oil prices, and the need to bail out its banking system is a big red warning flag that this is far from over.
end
This is going to hurt. Now many funds will have to sell Turkish bonds as they are not allowed to hold any sovereign bonds that are less than investment grade
(courtesy Bloomberg)
Turkey Cut to Junk as Moody’s Concludes Its Post-Coup Review
Turkey’s sovereign credit rating was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service, which concluded a review initiated after an unsuccessful coup attempt on July 15.
Moody’s cited rising risks related to Turkey’s external financing needs and a weakening in its credit fundamentals as economic growth slows. The rating was cut to Ba1 from Baa3, leaving Fitch Ratings as the only major ratings company to keep Turkey at investment grade.
Erdogan Doesn’t Care at All If Turkey Gets Downgraded to Junk
“The risk of a sudden, disruptive reversal in foreign capital flows, a more rapid fall in reserves and, in a worst-case scenario, a balance of payments crisis has increased,” Moody’s said in an e-mailed statement announcing the decision late Friday. “This slow deterioration in Turkey’s credit profile will continue over the next two to three years and the balance of risks are better captured at a Ba1 rating level.”
With the rating cut, the difficulties Turkey faces in attracting the foreign capital needed to cover its current-account deficit, the fourth largest in the G-20 group of major economies, are likely to be compounded. The downgrade could drive forced selling of as much as $8.7 billion in Turkish bonds, JPMorgan Chase & Co said in August. Many of the world’s biggest funds require investment-grade ratings from two of the three major ratings companies — Fitch, Moody’s and S&P Global — to consider an asset for investment.
Erdogan’s View
The lira had weakened 0.9 percent to 2.9689 by the close of trading at midnight in Istanbul. The currency has lost about 40 percent of its value against the dollar since 2013, when the U.S. Federal Reserve announced it was phasing out its extraordinary monetary stimulus program, raising the prospect of reduced investment flows to emerging markets such as Turkey.
The Moody’s cut came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized rating companies in an interview with Bloomberg in New York. “I don’t care at all” if they downgrade, he said, accusing the ratings companies of making decisions based on politics rather than economic fundamentals.
“I’m inviting them to be honest,” he told Bloomberg. “Whether you’re honest or not, Turkey’s economy is strong in any case, it’s standing upright and it will continue to stand upright.”
‘Shock’ Risk
Moody’s placed the rating on review for downgrade three days after a faction of Turkey’s military tried to overthrow Erdogan on July 15. The president blamed members of the Fethullah Gulen religious movement, and responded by declaring a three-month state of emergency that allows him to rule by decree. Thousands were arrested, and tens of thousands of suspected Gulenist sympathizers have lost their jobs.
Writing on Twitter the morning after Moody’s concluded its review, the country’s Economic Minister Nihat Zeybekci said the decision to cut Turkey’s rating ”does not comply with macroeconomic fundamentals in any way.” Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek tweeted that the best response to credit-ratings agencies was to power on with structural reforms. His colleague Nurettin Canikli said in a statement that Moody’s ”either didn’t see or didn’t want to see” the improvements Turkey is making.
Credit markets were already treating Turkey’s debt as speculative. The cost to insure its 5-year bonds against default was 248 basis points on Friday, more than double countries that were rated the same including Slovenia and Romania, and about 40 basis points higher than junk-rated Russia.
“The risk of a shock arising as a result of the country’s weak external position has become more pronounced, given the combination of persistently high political risks and volatile investor sentiment,” Moody’s said. It set the outlook as “stable,” citing Turkey’s “large and flexible economy which continues to register positive growth and the government’s strong fiscal track record.”
end
Turkish assets are plunging as Moody’s downgrades Turkish sovereign debt to junk.I thought that Erdogan was not concerned if they lowered the debt to junk. He lashes out at Moody’s for the downgrade.
(courtesy zerohedge)
Turkey Lashes Out At Moody’s After Downgrade To “Junk” Sends Turkish Assets Plunging
Late on Friday, rating agency Moody’s cut Turkey’s sovereign credit rating to Ba1 or “junk” from Baa3, citing worries about the rule of law after an attempted coup and risks from a slowing economy, in a move that could deter billions of dollars of investment. “The drivers of the downgrade are … the increase in the risks related to the country’s sizeable external funding requirements (and) the weakening in previously supportive credit fundamentals, particularly growth and institutional strength,” Moody’s said in an e-mailed statement. “The government’s response to the unsuccessful coup attempt raises further concerns regarding the predictability and effectiveness of government policy and the rule of law.”
“The large-scale suspensions in the civil service raise doubts over the capacity of Turkey’s policy-making institutions to make meaningful further progress in both legislating and implementing the reform program,” Moody’s said.
Moody’s did however keep its rating outlook “stable,” saying Turkey’s flexible $720 billion economy and strong fiscal track record offset the balance-of-payments pressures it faces. As Reuters notes, Turkey depends on investment flows to fund its current account deficit – one of the biggest in the G20 – and service its foreign debt. Ratings downgrades could force it to pay more to borrow money in international markets.
The cut is Turkey’s second since a failed (or as some claim orchestrated) coup in July threatened to destabilize national security. Many of the world’s biggest funds require investment-grade ratings from two of the three major ratings companies to consider an asset for investment. The downgrade could drive forced selling of as much as $8.7 billion in Turkish bonds, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in August. Turkey relies on capital inflows to finance one of the widest current-account deficits among the Group of 20 countries. Fitch is the only one left that has Turkey on investment grade, however, and it is due to review that rating at the start of 2017.
The market reaction was prompt and Turkish assets plummeted the most since the “attempted” coup in July, with the yield on Turkish 10Y bonds spiking 41bps to 9.91%, for now holding at the 40-week moving average of 10%, while the Turkish Lira tumbled, sending the USDTRY as much at 2.9868, up nearly 1% from Friday’s close. Turkish CDS widened by 12 to 260 bps.
As Bloomberg summarized, the currency was headed for the the lowest level in eight weeks in Istanbul morning trading, the Borsa Istanbul 100 Index posted the steepest decline among about 90 gauges tracked by Bloomberg globally, and the nation’s dollar debt due 2026 sank the most since July. Notably, the lira fell 0.6 percent against the dollar to 2.9868. The Borsa Istanbul 100 Index slumped 3.7%, the most since July 21, led by Akbank TAS and Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS, both of which retreated at least 4.6 percent. The yield on the nation’s $1.5 billion debt due April 2026 rose 27 basis points to 4.55 percent, and the yield on the government’s 10-year local currency bonds advanced the most in more than two months to 9.96 percent.
The following are some of the biggest movers in Turkey’s market on Monday:
- The Borsa Istanbul Banks Sector Index sank the most since July 18
- All but two of the 100 companies on Turkey’s benchmark stock gauge fell
- The yield on Turkey’s 10-year debt soared 45 basis points, the most among emerging peers
- Five-year credit default swaps rose 15 basis points
The decline in Turkey’s assets will “be a slow burn,” said Viktor Szabo, a portfolio manager at Aberdeen Asset Management in London who owns some of the country’s bonds and is betting against the currency. The rating cut hasn’t made Turkish “credit blow up, but it will put it on a more risky path,” he said.
* * *
In immediate response to the downgrade and in keeping with Turkey’s policy of direct confrontation, Turkey’s administration lashed out at Moody’s with Prime Minister Binali Yildirim saying the action showed Moody’s was not being impartial nor basing its rating solely on economic factors. “We don’t believe that these assessments are highly impartial. We believe they are attempting to create a certain perception of the Turkish economy,” he told reporters.
Erdogan has criticised the rating agencies for being politically motivated, and even accused S&P of siding with the coup plotters after its move in July. Investors will watch how the government responds to the Moody’s downgrade and hope for a “grown-up approach” that does not merely blame the rating agencies, wrote Timothy Ash of Nomura International.
Prior to Yildirim’s response, Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said Moody’s had turned a blind eye to the reforms and steps the government has taken to boost growth and savings. “Despite all of the global and regional risks, the Turkish economy’s pace of growth is among the top five economies,” he added in a statement. Gross domestic product growth slowed to 3.2 percent in the second quarter. Turkey may cut its official target for 4.5 percent GDP growth this year as the impact of the coup attempt takes its toll on the economy.
Moody’s was partially right in noting some vulnerabilities in Turkey’s economy, but it was unfair to downgrade before the govt published its medium-term program to address them, Finance Minister Naci Agbal tells Cumhuriyet. “The MTP we were going to announce in a week or two included both a perspective on what we’re going to do in three years and a program with regards to structural reforms. Moody’s knew that”. He added that “what Moody’s did was the worst-case scenario. That in global economic conditions, there’s going to be a shock” adding that there’s no risk of a shock in Turkey tied to Fed tightening or the currency, and Turkey’s current-account balance has improved. While oil prices could be a point of vulnerability, medium- term expectation is that they continue to hover around $50/barrel. “The full side of the glass wasn’t seen. They kept their expectations for the future worse than the average expectation in the market.”
Considering the market’s “shocked” response today, he may have to evaluate; then again this being Turkey the most likely response is even more bellicose rhetoric aimed at the rating agencies with little in terms of actual reform of economy-friendly policies.
end
6. GLOBAL ISSUES
7. OIL ISSUES
Saudi Arabia is hurting real bad with the low oil price as it is killing their balance sheet. They now wish to cut production by 500,000 barrels per day. However they will end Iran to cut production or else the Iranians will gain market share
(courtesy zero hedge)
Saudis Offer To Cut Production By 500,000 Barrels: “The Oil Market Situation Is Much More Critical”
Saudi Arabia’s oil policy, unveiled just under two years ago, at the November 2014 OPEC meeting where it effectively splintered the OPEC cartel by announcing it would produce excess quantities of oil in hope of putting shale and other high-cost producers out of business has backfired spectacularly: not only has OPEC failed to crush the US shale industry, which as a result of increasing efficiencies, and debt-for-equity exchanges has seen its all in production costs tumble, making even far cheaper oil prices profitable (especially with the addition of hedges), not to mention Wall Street’s ravenous desire to buy any debt paper that offers even a modest yield allowing US oil producers to delay or outright avoid bankruptcy.
But while shale has avoided annihilation, it is Saudi Arabia that has been suffering. In “Kingdom Comedown: Falling Oil Prices Shock Saudi Middle Class“, the WSJ reports that “a sharp drop in the price of oil, Saudi Arabia’s main revenue source, has forced the government to withdraw some benefits this year—raising the cost of living in the kingdom and hurting its middle class, a part of society long insulated from such problems.”
The kingdom is grappling with major job losses among its construction workers—many from poorer countries—as some previously state-backed construction companies suffer from drying up government funding. Those spending cuts are now hitting the Saudi working middle class.
Saudi consumers in major cities, the majority of them employed by the government, have become more conscious about their spending in recent months, said Areej al-Aqel from Sown Advisory, which provides financial-planning services for middle-class individuals and families. That means cutting back on a popular activity for most middle-class Saudis: dining out.
“Most people are ordering less food or they change their orders to more affordable options,” she said.

We have previously documented the soaring interbank funding costs and plunging bank stock prices, but that’s just part of it: Saudi’s entire economy is suddenly collapsing. To boost state finances, Saudi Arabia cut fuel, electricity and water subsidies in December, after posting a record budget deficit last year. It also plans to cut the amount of money it spends on public wages and raise more non-oil revenue by introducing taxes. But in response to these moves, inflation more than doubled from last year to about 4% now, crimping consumers even more.
Making matters worse, Saudis are beginning to speak out about a sense of anxiety about the economy. “I think we are going through a difficult period,” said Emad al-Majed, a Riyadh-based pharmacy technician. “There will be suffering.”
Which is probably why as OPEC prepares for an “informal” meeting in Algiers this week, Saudi Arabia is now officially panicking and, according to Algeria’s oil minister is prepared to slash its production by as much as half a million barrels.
As Bloomberg reported, Saudi Arabia offered to cut its oil output to January levels, according to Algeria’s energy minister, as the group’s members seek ways to stabilize crude prices at talks this week in Algiers.“Saudi Arabia is ready to freeze production at the January level,” Boutarfa said, calling the offer “an interesting step.” Saudi Arabia pumped a record 10.69 million barrels a day in August compared with 10.2 million in January, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Fellow OPEC member Algeria wants the group to cut its collective output by 1 million barrels a day, Boutarfa said.
However, for that to happen, Iran would have to agree to curb its output at current levels, which is precisely the intent of Saudi Arabia, which went into a production spree in the past few months, just so it can appear to be “generous” with its production cut offer which will keep the Kingdom’s output just shy of all time high supply, while impairing Iran’s ability to capture further market share, mostly in India, Japan and various other Asian importers.
The oil market is in a “much more critical” state than when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries last met three months ago, and its members must seek ways to shore up crude, possibly by freezing or trimming production, Noureddine Boutarfa, said Sunday in an interview. Aside from the Saudis, producers have made additional proposals, he said later at a news conference, without giving details. OPEC ministers plan talks in the Algerian capital on Sept. 28.
What until recently was sound assurances that the global market would return to balance as soon as, well, a few months ago remains oversupplied by as much as 1 million barrels if not more. According to Bloomberg, more than 800,000 barrels a day of additional crude is flooding into the global market this month compared with August as Russia pumps at an all-time high and Libya and Nigeria restore disrupted supplies, according to statements from their ministry officials in those nations. The surplus will last for longer than previously thought, persisting into late 2017 as demand growth slumps courtesy of a suddenly plunge in Chinese teapot refinery demand, as well as a slowdown in Chinese imports to fill the country’s almost full strategic petroleum reserve, while supply – mostly out of the US – proves resilient, the International Energy Agency said. Tumbling crude has put financial pressure on OPEC members from Saudi Arabia to Gabon.
In fact, some calculate that even an 800,000 barrel cut would not be sufficient to bring the market back into balance.
Meanwhile, it is not just Saudi Arabia who is panicking: “The situation since the last meeting in June has worsened, the situation is much more critical,” said Boutarfa, who’s been involved in talks with Saudi Arabia and other members in the run-up to the meeting. “So it’s important to see what measures can be adopted in the short term and very short term to find a solution to this situation that isn’t helping any OPEC country.”
That said, it’s all up to Iran which however resolutely refuses to cut production knowing it can easily capture market share – from Saudi Arabia at that – even if the price of oil remains under pressure and capping maximum potential revenues.
Saudi Arabia and Iran, whose rivalry blocked a deal with other major producers in April, did not reach an agreement after two days of preparatory talks in Vienna, including a Saudi offer to pump less crude if Iran caps output at current levels, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. Saudi Arabia doesn’t anticipate any formal decision on supply in Algiers, a delegate familiar with its policy said.
The main difference between the Algiers talks and producers’ failed attempt to agree on a freeze in April in Doha is that Iran will be present for this week’s discussions, Boutarfa said. Iran is more concerned with its market share than with actual output levels, he said.
OPEC’s talks in Algiers will be informal but can be converted into an extraordinary meeting, which could result in a decision by the group, Boutarfa said.
While odds of a deal in Algiers are virtually nil, keep an eye on oil vol: with a barrage of “headlines” (mostly from anonymous Reuters “sources”) imminent, the only guarantee move is that oil will move dramatically higher and lower in the next three days.
Headlines Lift WTI Above $45 Despite Oil Speculators Abandoning Hope Of OPEC Deal
Oil prices have bounced off Friday’s plunge lows, with WTI hovering around $45. The market for now is being driven by short-term headlines offering hope of a deal/production cuts (and rapid denial) and medium-termspeculators unwinding bullish bets.
Oil is bumping up and down this morning…
As headlines from the OPEC/Algiers meeting dominate short-term swings…
- Saudis open to output cut in “critical” market – Some have questioned this, suggesting, “It looks like the Saudis are laying the groundwork for blaming the Iranians for the lack of a deal,” said Bill O’Grady, chief market strategist at Confluence Investment Management in St. Louis, which oversees $5.2 billion. “They will be able to say it’s the Persians who are responsible, and then they’ll present something when it suits them.”
- U.A.E. says freeze is maximum that could emerge from Algiers discussions- Production cuts not up for discussion in Algiers: Oil Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei
- Iraq oil minister confident OPEC will reach good decision
- Iran said to have put a proposal “on the table” at recent meetings that it should have 12.7% of OPEC output, or 4.173m b/d.
- Nigeria says “surely there will be” an oil agreement in Algiers, having said yesterday that it’s “questionable that any freeze deal would be sufficient to affect the market”
“The Saudis and the Iranians are talking and they’re not as far apart as they were in the Doha meeting” in April when a proposal to freeze output failed, said Michael Poulsen, an analyst at Global Risk Management Ltd. “The symbolism would be more important than the actual number in the event that something is agreed to be cut.”
But Money managers increased bets on falling WTI prices by half…
Money managers’ short position in WTI climbed to 151,637 futures and options. Longs fell 1.9 percent to the lowest level since July. The resulting net-long position decreased 28 percent.
“The rhetoric around the meeting is ringing hollow,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital LLC, a New York hedge fund focused on energy. “What they say and do are completely different since they continue to increase production.”
end
Oil then climbs back over $46.00 on the Saudi hype. Hedgers are buying protection to lock in the higher prices of today.
(courtesy zero hedge)
WTI Crude Surges Back Above $46 On Saudi Hype But Traders Pile Into Protection
The machines are in charge again as Saudi cut hopes created just the right amount of momentum to fill the gap to the drop highs from Friday (after Iran’s denial of any deal)…However, Oil volatility is spiking as hedgers pile into protection.
U-shaped recovery…
But something very odd is going on in the Oil Vol markets…
Seems like hedgers are very actively buying Oil protection (inverted in chart) as oil prices levitate.
end
Your early morning currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings MONDAY morning 7:00 am
Euro/USA 1.1251 UP .0029/REACTING TO NO DECISION IN JAPAN AND USA)
USA/JAPAN YEN 100.44 DOWN 0.271(Abe’s new negative interest rate (NIRP), a total DISASTER/SIGNALS U TURN WITH INCREASED NEGATIVITY IN NIRP/JAPAN OUT OF WEAPONS TO FIGHT ECONOMIC DISASTER/KURODA: HELICOPTER MONEY ON THE TABLE AND DECISION ON SEPT 21 DISAPPOINTS WITH STIMULUS/OPERATION REVERSE TWIST
GBP/USA 1.2934 DOWN .0025
USA/CAN 1.3174 up .0005
Early THIS MONDAY morning in Europe, the Euro ROSE by 29 basis points, trading now well above the important 1.08 level RISING to 1.1179; Europe is still reacting to Gr Britain BREXIT,deflation, announcements of massive stimulation (QE), a proxy middle east war, and the ramifications of a default at the Austrian Hypo bank, an imminent default of Greece, Glencore, Nysmark and the Ukraine, along with rising peripheral bond yield further stimulation as the EU is moving more into NIRP, and NOW THE USA’S NON tightening by FAILING TO RAISE THEIR INTEREST RATE / Last night the Shanghai composite CLOSED DOWN 53.47 OR 1.76% / Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 368.56 POINTS OR 1.56% /AUSTRALIA IS HIGHER BY 0.13% / EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL IN THE RED
We are seeing that the 3 major global carry trades are being unwound. The BIGGY is the first one;
1. the total dollar global short is 9 trillion USA and as such we are now witnessing a sea of red blood on the streets as derivatives blow up with the massive rise in the rise in the dollar against all paper currencies and especially with the fall of the yuan carry trade. The emerging market which house close to 50% of the 9 trillion dollar short is feeling the massive pain as their debt is quite unmanageable.
2, the Nikkei average vs gold carry trade ( NIKKEI blowing up and the yen carry trade HAS BLOWN up/and now NIRP)
3. Short Swiss franc/long assets blew up ( Eastern European housing/Nikkei etc.
These massive carry trades are terribly offside as they are being unwound. It is causing global deflation ( we are at debt saturation already) as the world reacts to lack of demand and a scarcity of debt collateral. Bourses around the globe are reacting in kind to these events as well as the potential for a GREXIT>
The NIKKEI: this MONDAY morning CLOSED DOWN 209.46 POINTS OR 1.25%
Trading from Europe and Asia:
1. Europe stocks ALL IN THE RED
2/ CHINESE BOURSES / : Hang Sang CLOSED DOWN 368.56 OR 1.56% ,Shanghai CLOSED DOWN 368.56 POINTS OR 1.56% / Australia BOURSE IN THE GREEN: /Nikkei (Japan)CLOSED IN THE RED INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE RED
Gold very early morning trading: $1336.75
silver:$19.33
Early MONDAY morning USA 10 year bond yield: 1.599% !!! DOWN 3 in basis points from FRIDAY night in basis points and it is trading WELL BELOW resistance at 2.27-2.32%. The 30 yr bond yield 2.329, DOWN 2 IN BASIS POINTS from YESTERDAY night.
USA dollar index early MONDAY morning: 95.32 down 12 CENTS from FRIDAY’s close.
This ends early morning numbers MONDAY MORNING
END
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And now your closing MONDAY NUMBERS
Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 3.38% PAR in basis point yield from FRIDAY (does not buy the rally)
JAPANESE BOND YIELD: -.064% DOWN 2 in basis point yield from FRIDAY
SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD:0.918% DOWN 5 IN basis point yield from FRIDAY (this is totally nuts!!/
ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.184 DOWN 3 in basis point yield from FRIDAY
the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 27 points HIGHER than Spain.
GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: -0.116% DOWN 3 IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY
END
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IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR MONDAY
Closing currency crosses for MONDAY night/USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/2:30 PM
Euro/USA 1.1258 UP .0036 (Euro UP 36 basis points/ represents to DRAGHI A COMPLETE POLICY FAILURE/
USA/Japan: 100.36 DOWN: 0.351 (Yen UP 35 basis points/POLICY ERROR ON BANK OF JAPAN
Great Britain/USA 1 .2969 UP 0.0009 ( POUND UP 9 basis points
USA/Canada 1.321 UP 0.0043 (Canadian dollar DOWN 43 basis points AS OIL ROSE (WTI AT $46.05). Canada keeps rate at 0.5% and does not cut!
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This afternoon, the Euro was UP by 36 basis points to trade at 1.1258
The Yen ROSE to 100.36 for a GAIN of 35 basis points as NIRP is STILL a big failure for the Japanese central bank/HELICOPTER MONEY IS NOW DELAYED/BANK OF JAPAN NOW WORRIED AS AS THEY ARE RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY AS BOND YIELDS RISE /OPERATION REVERSE TWIST ANNOUNCED SEPT 21.2016
The POUND ROSE 9 basis points, trading at 1.2969/
The Canadian dollar FELL by 43 basis points to 1.3212, WITH WTI OIL AT: $46.05
the 10 yr Japanese bond yield closed at -.064% DOWN 2 IN BASIS POINTS / yield/ AND THIS IS BECOMING BOTHERSOME TO THE BANK OF JAPAN
Your closing 10 yr USA bond yield: DOWN 2 IN basis points from FRIDAY at 1.620% //trading well below the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic
USA 30 yr bond yield: 2.343 DOWN 2 in basis points on the day /*very problematic as all bonds globally rose in yield (lowered in price)
BANKS NEED THE LONGER BOND HIGHER IN YIELD: INSTEAD THE SPREAD LESSENS.
Your closing USA dollar index, 95.49 UP 12 CENTS ON THE DAY/4 PM
Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for MONDAY: 2:30 PM EST
London: CLOSED DOWN 91.39 POINTS OR 1.21%
German Dax :CLOSED DOWN 233.26 OR 2.19%
Paris Cac CLOSED DOWN 80.84 OR 1.80%
Spain IBEX CLOSED DOWN 112.20 OR 1.27%
Italian MIB: CLOSED DOWN 260.36 POINTS OR 1.58%
The Dow was DOWN 166.62 points or 0.91% 4 PM EST
NASDAQ DOWN 48.25 points or 0.91% 4 PM EST
WTI Oil price; 44.50 at 4:00 pm;
Brent Oil: 45.95 4:00 EST
USA DOLLAR VS RUSSIAN ROUBLE CROSS: 63.82(ROUBLE UP 26/100 ROUBLES PER DOLLAR FROM FRIDAY) 2:30 EST
TODAY THE GERMAN YIELD FALLS TO -0.116% FOR THE 10 YR BOND 2:30 EST
END
This ends the stock indices, oil price, currency crosses and interest rate closes for today
Closing Price for Oil, 5 pm/and 10 year USA interest rate:
WTI CRUDE OIL PRICE 5 PM:$45.61
BRENT: $46.97
USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.582%
USA DOLLAR INDEX: 95.30 down 13 cents
The British pound at 5 pm: Great Britain Pound/USA: 1.2975 up 0.0015 or 15 basis pts.
German 10 yr bond yield at 5 pm: -0.116%
END
And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver
TRADING IN GRAPH FORM
Stocks Wipe Out Post-Fed Gains As Deutsche Dread Batters US Banks
“Contained”…
VIX spiked to 14.5, its 100-day moving average, ahead of tonight’s debate…
As Deutsche Bank contagion concerns…
Spark spike in European bank counterparty risk…
and Germany CDS is starting to show signs of concern…
Sent US bank stocks tumbling… (among the worst days for Financials since Brexit…
But financials have a long way to catch down to the yield curve…
Goldman and JPMorgan weighed on The Dow but S&P and Nasdaq also tumbled to pre-Fed levels..
Dow closed below its 100DMA…
But Post-fed Bonds & Bullion are stil green…
TWTR spiked above 2015 close levels, crushing shorts, on DIS rumors…
Bonds extended their post-Fed gains with the entire curve dropping 2-4bps today (small flattening)…10Y yield broke back below 1.60%. 5th streight down down in yields.
The USD Index slipped lower on Yen strength (helped by CAD weakness – despite oil gains)…
Gold was flat on the day and Silver slipped BUT crude kneejerked higher on Saudi cut hopes…
The machines ramped oil on Saudi headlines to take out stops from Iran headlines… oil faded aftwer NYMEX close…
Notably, heavy protection buying is evident in the crude complex…
Charts: Bloomberg
Bonus Chart: Treasury positioning remains extremely short…
Bonus Bonus Chart: “Contained”
end
The USA economy continues to falter with the release of new home sales which tumble as prices also fall:
(courtesy zero hedge)
New Home Sales Tumble As Prices Hit 2-Year Lows
Following July’s exuberant spike, August saw new home sales tumbled 7.6% MoM (better than expected 8.3% drop)catching down to Existing and Pending Home Sales (and Housing Starts) plunge. Perhaps more problematic, the median new home price slipped to $284k, its lowest since September 2014.
Spot the odd one out…
As Home prices tumble…
The median sales price decreased 5.4 percent from August 2015 to $284,000.
Purchases fell in three of four regions, including a 12.3 percent slump in the South, the area that makes up the bulk of nationwide sales. Purchases declined 2.4 percent in the Midwest, and climbed 8 percent in the West to the highest level since September 2007.
The supply of homes at the current sales rate rose to 4.6 months from 4.2 months in the prior month. There were 235,000 new houses on the market at the end of August.
Probably a good time to hike interest rates…
Charts: Bloomberg
end
The Dallas Fed mfg index contracts for the 21 st straight month
(courtesy zero hedge/Dallas Fed mfg index)
“My Order Book Is Abysmal” – Dallas Fed Contracts For 21st Straight Month
For the 21st month in a row, Dallas Fed’s manufacturing outlook remains stuck in contraction (-3.7 vs -2.5 exp). This is the longest streak outside of recession in the survey’s history as new orders cratered (one respondent noting “my order book is abysmal”) and inventories tumbling (not good for GDP).
Probably nothing…

The respondents had some very clear insight into the state of the ‘recovery’:
The labor pool we draw from is the same as construction home building. Since that segment is going strong, we have had to hand out more money to our senior employees in order to keep them.
Finding qualified skilled and unskilled workers continues to be a problem. Customers want price reductions and employees want higher wages; neither will be satisfied.
It appears our customers are basically on hold waiting for the election and for the Saudis to determine the direction of oil prices. The market continues to be very soft, and competitors are pricing extremely aggressively to simply stay in business. I am expecting that several of our suppliers will go out of business after the first of the year unless business picks up significantly.
We have seen a somewhat muted seasonal pickup in new orders.
Sales of food service equipment are projected to slow down slightly over the next 12 months. Spending by fast food chains, convenience stores and big box retail are all slowing. Most chain growth is outside of North America, led by India.
We are very pessimistic about the deep-water drilling industry. We’ve tried to hold on to a critical mass, but the slowdown has now reached a point where we have to cut so much of our staff that we’ll be only a fraction of a company going forward. My order book is abysmal. I’ve had a couple of vendors go into bankruptcy and a few more that are precariously sitting on the edge of bankruptcy.
We continue to bump along in a low-growth environment. We don’t see that changing at any point in the future. Things are not bad, but are not good.
A portion of our business remains impacted by low oil prices, impacting our offshore helicopter operations.
We are adding new products. Our same products remain unchanged. The economy is still a big concern.
We are busy now. We are worried mightily about what the winter and early spring 2017 will hold, especially after the election in November.
Our export activity has remained challenged due to Latin American economic issues and the strong dollar. We are also challenged by a shortage of skilled and unskilled labor in the DFW market. Our domestic business remains robust and growing, driven by innovation not market demand.
It would appear the Dallas area is full of cynics, skeptics, and fiction-peddlers… Deplorable!
end
It is now a dead heat, according to the heavily biased Washington Post. Actually Trump is in the lead by 1 point:
(courtesy Washington Post/zero hedge)
Hillary, Trump “In Dead Heat” WaPo Finds, As Latest Poll Gives Trump 1 Point Lead Ahead Of Debate
According to the strongly anti-Trump WaPo, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are set to meet Monday night for their first debate “in a virtual dead heat in the race for the White House, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, with the Democratic nominee’s August advantage erased after recent difficulties and the GOP nominee still facing doubts about his qualifications and temperament.”
The latest poll, conducted Sept. 19-22 among a random sample of 1,001 adults reached on cellular and landline phones, finds that likely voters are split 46% for Clinton vs. 44% for Trump, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson at 5 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein at 1 percent.
Among registered voters, Clinton and Trump are tied at 41 percent, with Johnson at 7 percent and Stein at 2 percent.
In a two-way matchup between the major-party nominees, Clinton tops Trump by 49 percent to 47 percent among likely voters, and the two are again tied at 46 percent among all registered voters.Clinton’s two-point edge among likely voters, in both the four-way and two-way ballot tests, is within the survey’s 4.5 percentage-point margin of sampling error. The margin of sampling error for overall results is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points;
The findings underscore how much the presidential contest has tightened in recent weeks, after Clinton emerged from the two national conventions with a clear lead and with Trump on the defensive. In early September, Clinton led Trump by five points among likely voters. In early August, she led by eight points.
* * *
Some other national polls currently show Clinton with a slightly larger lead, but on balance, the pre-debate survey averages show the margin in the race in low single digits. The tightened race is a reminder of how much will be at stake Monday night at Hofstra University when the two meet at 9 p.m. before what could be one of the largest television audiences ever for a presidential debate.
Eight in 10 voters say they plan to watch Monday’s debate, and 44 percent expect Clinton to win vs. 34 percent expecting Trump to come out ahead. Expectations for Clinton are lower than they were for President Barack Obama against Mitt Romney ahead of the 2012 debates, when 56 percent thought Obama would prevail vs. 29 percent for Romney. Although 17 percent of registered voters say the debate could change their minds, only 6 percent say there is a good chance of that occurring.
* * *
As broken down below, the latest poll by WaPo/ABC provides a glimpse into which demographic groups Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are attracting and how that support has changed over time. Certain groups have wavered in their support since we started polling between the candidates, but others have been more stable.
Most notable is that the race is now close to tied among likely voters: as observed previously, Clinton has a two-point edge over Trump among likely voters – statistically noise due to the poll’s sampling error – down from a five-point lead earlier this month. Several groups tracked here moved in Trump’s direction in the latest poll
Among the most notable shifts in the last poll, Clinton received a larger post-convention bump than Trump, but that’s eroded since then. In July, she had a six-point edge over Trump among likely voters, and in August, after the convention, she had an eight-point lead, and as mentioned, she had a five-point lead earlier this month that’s now at two points. While many groups remained safely in either Clinton’s or Trump’s voting blocs, some groups are torn. The include independents, who were split in June, shifted toward Trump in July and August, and leaned toward Clinton in early September, and now Trump again leads among independent registered voters – by nine points. Among independent likely voters, Trump has a five-point lead.
The biggest changes between June and the end of September among registered voters were all in Trump’s favor. White Catholics, suburbanites and voters with a high school education or less, conservatives, men, seniors and white women without college degrees have moved toward Trump by at least 15 points since June.
Some other key takeaways:
- Party support solidifying: Democrats and Republicans have aligned behind their candidates. Democratic voters support Clinton by a 73-point margin; Democrats who are likely voters support her by an 80-point margin. Republican voters support Trump by a slightly larger 76-point margin; that rises to 85 points among Republicans who are likely voters.
- A consistently large gender gap: Clinton has consistently led by double digits among female voters, while men have fluctuated from a 42 percent tie between the candidates in June to a current 16-point edge for Trump. Among likely voters, Clinton has a 19-point lead among women, and Trump has an identical lead among men.
- A sharp racial divide between Clinton and Trump: Clinton leads big with black and Hispanic voters. Trump’s campaign has been making a push to attract minority voters, but Clinton leads by 80 points among African American voters in combined September polls. That is similar to earlier polling, but smaller than Obama’s 86-point margin among this group in 2012. Clinton leads among Hispanic voters by 43 points in combined September polls – a group Obama won by a similar 44 points in 2012.
- Whites also divided by race and education: No Republican in the past nine presidential cycles has lost among whites with college degrees. Romney won the group by 14 points in 2012. Trump, however, has lost the advantage with them, at least for now, according to the late September Post-ABC poll. Clinton has a four-point edge over Trump among voting whites with degrees (and a nine-point lead among likely voters). That’s bad news for Trump when viewed alongside his performance among minorities.
- A divide among white voters by education and sex: The divide among whites is even larger when looking at education and sex together, with Clinton receiving the most support from white, college-graduate women and Trump faring best among white men without college degrees. Trump has regained his advantage among registered-voter white men with college degrees, at least for now, leading the group by 12 points (and by 11 points among likely voters). But Trump did not make inroads among white women, college degree or not, in the latest poll.
* * *
The latest poll results are visualized below:
* * *
And while WaPo has Hillary either tied (among registered voters), or just fractionally ahead among likely voters, the latest, just released poll by Morning Consult, shows Trump leading Hillary Clinton by 1 point among likely voters.
Trump is favored by 39 percent of likely voters and Clinton is backed by 38 percent, according to the poll. Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson is supported by 9 percent and Green Party nominee Jill Stein is backed by 4 percent.
More troubling for Hillary, In a head-to-head matchup, Clinton leads Trump by 2 points among likely voters, 44 to 42 percent.
The poll again confirms the trend observed by WaPo, whereby Trump support has picked up in the recent past: a Morning Consult poll taken earlier this month, Sept. 15-16, Clinton had a 2-point lead over her Republican rival in a four-way matchup.
Not surprisingly, among white likely voters in the Morning Consult poll, Trump leads Clinton, 44 to 33 percent. But Clinton has a large advantage over her Republican rival among Hispanic likely voters, 54 to 20 percent and among African-American voters, 75 to 7 percent.
Respondents were split on who they expect to win the first presidential debate, with 29 percent of registered voters predicting a victory for Trump and 36 percent predicting Clinton will win. Another 35 percent say they don’t know or have no opinion about what will happen Monday night. Half of voters say the debates will be at least somewhat important in deciding which candidate they vote for. Another 23 percent say the debates won’t be important at all.
Still, in the most recent RealClearPolitics average of polls, Clinton maintains a 2.5 point lead, so it will be all up to tomorrow’s historic showdown between the two candidates.
end
A great indicator as to how the USA economy is performing: Individual state tax revenues are plunging in Q2
(courtesy zero hedge)
State Tax Revenues Plunge In Q2
The latest confirmation that the US economy continues to deteriorate comes not from the Federal Government but from state-level data, where year-over-year growth in state tax revenues slowed in the first quarter to its lowest rate since the second quarter of 2014, according to the latest data published yesterday by the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Worse, preliminary data for the second quarter show an outright decline in state tax collections relative to the second quarter of last year.

As SMRA notes, state tax collections were up 1.6%, year-over-year, in the first quarter, the smallest increase since the second quarter of 2014. After adjustment for inflation, revenues were up 0.4%. Personal income tax collections, which account for roughly 36% of total state revenue, increased 1.8% in the first quarter, down from 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Sales tax collections – the second largest source of state revenue – increased 2.4% in the first quarter, up from 2.0% in the first quarter.

The trend deteriorated further in preliminary Q2 data with personal income tax tumbling nearly 5% Y/Y.
Corporate tax receipts, which account for less than 5% of state revenues, were down sharply for the second consecutive quarter, while motor fuel taxes, which also account for just under 5% of revenues, were up 2.0%, down from 3.5% increase in the fourth quarter.
According to preliminary estimates from Rockefeller, tax collections will be down 2.1% in the second quarter relative to last year, reflecting a decline of 3.3% in personal income taxes and a 9.2% plunge in corporate tax collections.
Sales tax revenue is estimated to have increased.
Rockefeller attributes the recent softness in personal income tax collections to a variety of factors, including weakness in the stock market, in both 2015 and the earlier part of this year, which has depressed tax collections related to investment income. Tax collections have been particularly weak in states with economies that are heavily reliant on oil or other natural resources. In the second quarter, growth in individual income taxes from withholding has slowed considerably.
The suddenly plunge in state income tax should not come as a surprise: the trend in individual income taxes at the state level in recent quarters tracks the sharp decline we have reported previously at the federal level.

For most states, the second quarter marks the end of the fiscal year and the current fiscal year began on July 1. According to Rockefeller, most states forecast weak income and sales tax growth for fiscal 2017. Also, in many states 2017 budget projections were prepared before the second quarter and don’t yet reflect the downside surprise in April tax receipts. In the words of the analysts at the Rockefeller Institute the outlook for state budgets in the 2016-2017 fiscal year “remains gloomy.”
end
Almost all the co operatives have bowed out of Obamacare and all of them are losing dramatic amounts of money. In November premiums will be jacked up anywhere from 25 to 60%
Obamacare is a complete disaster..
(courtesy zero hedge)
Obamacare “Death Spiral” Looms As Co-Op Losses Mount
Failing insurers. Rising premiums. Financial losses.As Bloomberg details, the deteriorating Obamacare market that the health insurance industry feared is here.
As concerns about the survival of the Affordable Care Act’s markets intensify, Bloomberg notesthe role of nonprofit “co-op” health insurers — meant to broaden choices under the law — has gained prominence.
Most of the original 23 co-ops have failed, dumping more than 800,000 members back onto the ACA markets over the last two years.
Many of those thousands of people were sicker and more expensive than the remaining insurers expected — and they’re hurting results. With more of the nonprofits on the brink of folding, the situation for the remaining providers looks dire. Anthem Inc., for example, is facing an estimated $300 million in losses on its exchange business for individual plans this year, after turning a profit in 2014 and almost breaking even on the program in 2015, according to the company.
“These co-ops have attracted, we think, disproportionately high health-care utilizers,” Gary Taylor, an analyst with JPMorgan who follows the industry, said in a telephone interview. Their former members “are now enrolled in these for-profit health plans. That’s been a factor driving the deterioration in their profitability.”
In a death spiral:
As options for coverage shrink, insurers attract increasingly sick patients and suffer losses.
That forces them to raise rates, driving away healthy, profitable customers.
Facing more losses, they raise rates again, causing more healthy people to leave, and so on — until all that’s left are high premiums and a small pool of the unwell.
And that is what is occurring as some insurers may already be feeling the burden of increasingly sick patients.
Anthem’s then-Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt said in April the company was “disproportionately picking up market share” in states where co-ops had folded.
On a July conference call, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Swedish said that as the insurer had brought in new membership, its costs of caring for patients with heart disease, diabetes and especially dialysis had increased. Jill Becher, an Anthem spokeswoman, said the CEO’s comments referred to the company’s overall ACA membership.
The administration remains in denial…
People getting insurance in the ACA markets still have access to affordable plans, said Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which oversees the health-care program.
“America is on stronger footing today because of the Affordable Care Act with 20 million gaining health coverage and the uninsured rate is at the lowest point on record,” he said in an e-mail. “Consumers are satisfied with their coverage, have better access to care, and greater financial security — core metrics of success.”
But, we already know what a health insurance death spiral looks like because we’ve seen them before, in states such as New York, New Jersey, and Washington. As we noted previously,
The experience in those states varied somewhat, but they all shared several essential qualities: The states put in place regulations requiring health insurers to sell to all comers (guaranteed issue), and strictly limiting the ways that insurance could be priced based on individual health history such as preexisting conditions (community rating). As a result, insurers ended up with large numbers of very sick customers who were very expensive to cover. Because they were subject to limits on how they could price health history, they responded by signficantly raising premiums for everyone. The new, higher premiums caused the healthiest, most price sensitive people to drop coverage entirely, which caused insurers to raise premiums further, resulting in yet more individuals dropping coverage, and so on and so forth, until all that remained was very small group of very sick, very expensive individuals.
Washington state’s experience in the 1990s is particularly instructive: After the state put in place guaranteed issue and community rating rules, carriers saw an influx of unusually sick and expensive beneficiaries, as well as individuals gaming the system by signing up for coverage in advance of an expensive medical event, then cancelling as soon as that event was over. Insurers simply couldn’t make money in the individual market, and so between 1993 and 1998, 17 of the state’s 19 plans stopped selling individual insurance plans. The next year, the final two carriers left the individual market. It was a total meltdown.
The lesson most observers took from this was that insurance market regulations would not work without a mandate: In 1994, a Republican-led legislature had killed an individual requirement to carry coverage but left guaranteed issue and community rating in place.
Obamacare, of course, has a mandate, but what’s happening in the health law’s exchanges is starting to echo what happened in Washington and other states that experienced death spirals.
In the meantime, as we noted previously, Obamacare will likely continue to falter… as the remaining co-ops are deep in the red…
It’s not clear whether the remaining co-ops can survive without additional funding, said Deep Banerjee, an analyst with S&P Global.
The law, of course, has avoided multiple potential near-death expenses thus far, and it may still survive. But at the moment, at least, it looks like one sick patient. As The Daily Sheeple’s Joshua Krause concludes,
If the financial well-being of the Millennial generation doesn’t improve, there are really only one of two things that are going to happen in the near future, and they both involve the collapse of Obamacare. Perhaps the Affordable Care Act is going to crumble, and Americans are going to demand that we all go back to a mostly privatized healthcare system, Obama’s legacy be damned.
On the other hand, if Obamacare falls apart, that event could be used as an excuse to roll out a fully socialized healthcare system. This shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone. Every time socialist policies fail, their socialist engineers double down, and claim that the real problem with their policy, was that it wasn’t socialist enough.
Which has to make you wonder, was that the plan all along for the Affordable Care Act? To create a semi public healthcare system that was so expensive and so dysfunctional, that the American people would eventually come to despise it? That instead of discarding it, the public would clamor for a system that was even more socialist?
Perhaps Obama will get to keep his legacy after all.
end
(courtesy zero hedge)
US Bank Stocks Slide After New Fed Tests Suggest Need For “Significant Increase In Capital”
Two weeks after European and Japanese banks threatened mutiny against new banking capital requirements set forth by the Basel Committee, Bloomberg reports that Wall Street would have to come up with billions of dollars in additional capital in a proposed revamp of the Fed’s stress tests. US bank stocks are sliding on the news, falling back to the reality of lower and flatter yield curves as well as systemic threats from Deutsche Bank.
The European banking system is in trouble. Despite stocks relatively sober reaction, Sub CDS are exploding higher…
William Coen, secretary general of the Basel Committee, told reporters on Sept. 13 that the regulator’s goal is not to drive capital requirements higher as it finishes up Basel III.
“If we wanted to increase capital, that would be far easier than what we’re doing at present,” Coen said.
“We’re doing this work to reduce risk-weighted asset variability. And why are we doing that? To restore confidence in the risk-weighted capital ratios and to fully restore credibility to the capital adequacy framework.”
And now the US banking system is seeing threats mount systemically and The Fed warns its new stress tests “would generally result in a significant increase in capital requirements”…(as Bloomberg reports)
As the Fed has previously signaled, it is considering changes that would raise the minimum capital targets that each bank has to have to receive a passing grade, Fed Governor Daniel Tarullo said Monday. But the Fed is also mulling concessions that Wall Street has sought, such as eliminating its assumption that lenders would continue to pay out the same level of dividends and buy back shares during periods of severe financial duress, Tarullo said.
The purpose of the overhaul is to try to merge stress testing with related capital rules, including incorporating the largest banks’ so-called capital surcharges that each bank must meet based on how big and complex it is, Tarullo said in prepared remarks for a speech at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut.
“This would generally result in a significant increase in capital requirements,” he said.
Tarullo has been indicating for months that the Fed plans to ramp up capital demands in stress tests and Wall Street has been anxiously awaiting the agency’s proposal. The exams already represent the highest capital hurdle that U.S. banks must clear to show they can survive a hypothetical crisis devised by regulators, such as an extended economic downturn. What bankers may not have been counting on was that the Fed might add something besides surcharges to the mix.
Tarullo said the central bank will swap out its old 2.5 percent capital conservation buffer — one of the pieces tallied into each firm’s capital target — for a new “stress capital buffer” derived from each firm’s own stress-test results. That new number is the product of a simple subtraction: How much capital the bank starts with before the stress scenario the Fed hatches, minus how much the firm has at its lowest point in the nine quarters of the hypothetical stress period. If the institution started with 13 percent and dropped to 8, its buffer is 5 percent. And the buffer won’t be allowed to be less than the old 2.5 percent.
And US banks are sliding…
And, as we concluded, after European and Japanese banks threw a tantrum over Basel demands last week…
So to summarize: German, Italian, and Japanese banking regulators just admitted that it they are forced to meet The Basel Committee’s (long-warned) capital regulations there will be chaos… and therefore Basel should back off or they will all revolt and leave (signaling to investors that they are – for intent and purpose – under-capitalized as far as the world’s top regulator is concerned). Now we have just one question – will you leave your cash on deposit at any of the banks that ‘mutiny’ from global risk regulations? ….. Thought not.
And now, after Tarullo’s comments, it makes you wonder about those “fortress balance sheet” US banks too, eh?
end
Enjoy the debate tonight.
I will see you tomorrow
Harvey



















































[…] SEPT 26/BIG DEBATE TONIGHT BETWEEN TRUMP AND CLINTON/CHINA’S TOTAL DEBT APPROACHING 300% AS SM… […]
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Did I really read that correctly just now, “…could be receiving higher prices in Shanghai”? Higher prices in terms of WHAT?!?! Some nation’s bogus fiat paper currency/electronic bookkeeping entry financial system’s markers?? Come on now, you can’t have it both ways here, either the fiat paper currency/electronic bookkeeping entries are a valid medium of exchange, or they are not! If they are valid, then why would anybody want to trade them for a PM, and if they are not valid, then again, why would anybody want to trade them for a PM?? Nobody goes down to a bank and exchanges 10 brand new one dollar bills for another 10 brand new one dollar bills. It’s a waste of time to engage in an activity where there is no demonstrable profits to be made.So WHERE is the profit when one trades a fiat paper currency or some electronic bookkeeping entries which have no intrinsic value to them, for a PM??
Would anybody who is sane waste their time in collecting/processing a PM and then trading it off for a without worth fiat paper currency? Or some bookkeeping entries that were created out of thin air?
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