Head Of Eurogroup Admits To Lying About "Secret Greek Meeting" Out Of Fears For Market Collapse - "When It Becomes Serious, You Have To Lie" 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/09/2011 13:54 -0400

On Friday the misinformation floated about the Greek expulsion event hit a fever pitch: while we correctly speculated that nobody would be expelled from the Eurozone, the amount of conflicting info was at an all time record, with glaring inconsistencies between various quoted authoritarians. Now, courtesy of the WSJ blog, we learn that, for the first time in history, a spokesman for Jean Claude Juncker, the PM of Luxembourg, and the head of the Eurogroup council of eurozone finance ministers, admits openly to having lied to media outlets. "In a phone call and text messages with two reporters for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Schuller repeatedly said no meeting would be held. He apparently said they same to other news outlets; at least one more moved his denials on financial newswires. Of course, there was a meeting–although not, apparently, to talk about Greece quitting the currency, which would be an extreme step to say the least. Mr. Juncker even said a few words to reporters who had hustled to Luxembourg to stake out the gathering. So why the lie? “I was told to say there was no meeting,” said Mr. Schuller, reached by telephone Monday. “We had certain necessities to consider.”  Necessities? Why yes: such as perpetuating the now open lie that is the ponzi market: "Evening in Europe is midday in the United States. “We had Wall Street open at that point in time,” Mr. Schuller said. The euro was falling on the Spiegel report, which had overhyped the meeting. “There was a very good reason to deny that the meeting was taking place.” It was, he said, “self-preservation.”" And there you have it: the Eurozone itself now admits that it will sacrifice credibility at the expense of a few FX pips and a few basis points in the ES.Everything else is smoke and mirrors. And people think that central bankers will consider the threat of inflation should the Russell 2000 ever retrace back into bear market territory...

And The Surreal Morphs Into The Tragi-Pathetic: Portugal Opens Criminal Inquiry Into Rating Agencies 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/09/2011 13:36 -0400

Just a ROFL-inducing headline from Bloomberg for now:

• PORTUGAL OPENS CRIMINAL INQUIRY INTO RATING AGENCIES

Are blogs next?

So Much For John Burbank Turning Bearish On Gold 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/09/2011 13:27 -0400

One of the key catalysts that precipitated the perfect storm in precious metals selling last week was the WSJ article that John Burbank, among others, had sold off some or all of his holdings. Today, in a Bloomberg TV interview, Burbank refutes all the skeptics who think the top of gold is here, and makes it clear that while his offloading of the precious metal was merely a temporary trade to lock in profits, the long term fundamentals for gold are as strong as they have every been. So here it is: "The biggest reason to stay in gold is because central banks around the world can see the writing on the wall long term, which is that the dollar will be devalued one way or another and that Congress has no appetite for hard decisions which would be deflationary in nature, and therefore, make the dollar higher than gold and not as much of a necessary holding. You also have the Chinese consumer, who has become a very large buyer, matching almost the Indian consumer and I think quite clearly, will exceed the Indian consumer. I think ultimately, physical gold is the story. It is a scarcity story. The more the U.S. dithers and the more the Fed is willing to print money, as opposed to dealing with inflation properly, the more this trend will happen. That is the biggest reason to stay in gold right now. Otherwise, most of the beneficiaries of quantitative easing will be backing off as most investors get back to neutral."... "I think that long-term it is clear sovereign yields will be weak and commodities will be strong. It just a question of when we get there and when we price that in." As for risk assets heading toward June 30: "I think risk assets sell off.  I think they sell off now into it and we bottom again in commodities this summer." And there you have it, straight from the horse's mouth, instead of from some FRBNY pre-cleared journalist.

Goldman Turns "Tactically" Neutral On Stocks, Believes S&P Not Pricing In "Downshift In Macro Picture", Proposes "Zero Cost Cross-Asset" Hedge For SPX Drop 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/09/2011 12:32 -0400

In another key note out of Goldman, we now learn that it is not only Jim O'Neill who is the natural hedge to the firm's other diametrically opposing views (as discussed earlier). While it is no secret that the firm's chief strategist David Kostin continues to ignore warnings from Jan Hatzius et al warning that the economy is set for a period of slower than expected growth, we now find that Goldman's Roman Maranets is out with a note in which he says that "the downshift in the macro picture (excluding Friday’s payrolls print) has not been fully reflected in the level of SPX, prompting us to shift the tactical trading stance in equities to neutral." Hmm, it is somewhat odd that nobody else has noticed that Goldman is now, well, neutral (and we all know what that means in sellside lingo) on the market. Now, the question is whether this is an honest opinion, or merely a way for the firm's prop desk to accumulate ES at the expense of its clients. Judging by the market's sudden surge, asset managers seem to be convinced it is the latter. That said, the firm is now proposing a USD long as a "Zero Cost Cross-Asset Hedge for SPX"  due to the firm's motivation "to find application of our framework in construction of “cheap” cross-asset hedges for investors being long SPX." Of course, why not just buy the USD and the market. We are long past the point where anything makes logical sense any longer courtesy of central planning. We wonder how Thomas Stolper feels now that his thunder has been stolen by both Maranets and Fiotakis, who predicted the EURUSD toptick to within minutes of the near-800 pip plunge in the pair in less than a week.

And Moody's... 

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/09/2011 12:22 -0400

Moody's Investors Service has today placed Greece's B1 local and foreign currency government bond ratings on review for possible downgrade...Moody's says that a multi-notch downgrade is possible if it concludes that there is large risk that Greece's debt metrics are on an unsustainable path. In Moody's view, such conditions would materially increase the risk of debt restructuring over the short to medium term. Under such conditions, euro area policymakers have stated that future loans from the Exchange Stability Mechanism would be extended only if private creditors were to bear some of the losses. If the path of Greek debt-to-GDP were to appear unsustainable, then Greece might itself have an incentive to seek a change in the terms of its debt obligations.