Silver Surges 4.5% To Over $37/Oz On "Massive Fund Buying"

Silver as ever outperformed gold yesterday and traders attributed the surge to “massive fund buying” and to “panic” short covering. Some of the bullion banks with large concentrated short positions covered short positions after the technical level of $35.50/oz was breached easily. Massive liquidity injections and ultra loose monetary policies make silver increasingly attractive for hedge funds, institutions and investors. This time last year (February 28th 2011) silver was at $36.67/oz. Two months later on April 28th it had risen to $48.44/oz for a gain of 32% in 2 months. There then came a very sharp correction and a period of consolidation in recent months. Silver’s fundamentals remain as bullish as ever and the technicals look increasingly bullish with strong gains seen in January and February.

 

ECB LTRO 2: €529.5 Billion As 800 Banks Ask For A Handout, Total 3 Year ECB Liquidity > €1 Trillion

The results for the second European 3 year discount window operation, pardon LTRO are in, and the winner is...

• ECB ALLOTS EU 529.5BLN IN 1,092 DAY REFINANCING TENDER
• ECB SAYS 800 BANKS ASKED FOR THREE-YEAR LOANS

Since the expected range was €200 billion - €1 trillion, and just above the median €500 billion, this is clearly within expectations, however notably less than what the Goldman investor survey expected at €680 billion. What is certainly scary is that the number of banks demanding a hand out was a whopping 800, well above the 523 from the first LTRO: clearly many banks are capital deprived.

James Murdoch Steps Down As News International Executive Chairman

As if we didn't have enough news on this Leap Wednesday, here's this.

Jump the Creek for Silver

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 43 minutes ago

I agree with Jim, silver more a game than monetary solution, but it's still one heck of a game. Paper silver keeps chewing through resistance (swing highs) on increasing volume. The absorption of supply, i.e. the breach of resistance on increasing volume, illustrates what Richard Wyckoff described as a technical sign of strength (SOS). The 9/22/11 gap from 36.22 to 38.34 represents one of the... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] more »

 

 

The Collapse of Another Virtuous Cycle Will Burn Investors Again

Eric De Groot at Eric De Groot - 1 hour ago

The gold to silver ratio (GSR) represents an excellent measure of liquidity (QE) within the financial system. A rising GSR trend occurs when gold outperforms silver. This setup implies a scramble for liquidity or safety during uncertainty. A falling GSR occurs when silver outperforms gold. This setup suggests a growing appetite for risk and reluctance to hold cash. The counter trend rally of... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] 

All I Want For (Early) Christmas Is A Bank License And LTRO X+1

Dear Santa, I know Christmas is a long way off, but I was hoping that you could get me a European Bank License and another round of LTRO.   I promise to be a good boy, and borrow as much money as the ECB will possibly give me, with minimal equity, and buy as much 3 year in and in paper as I can.  I’m afraid I might not be able to bring myself to buy Spanish or Italian debt, but with the broad range of assets available against the money, I’m sure I can find something I like.  I’m not greedy, I don’t need to make 2% of carry, I would be happy with 1%, after all, I my only qualification is having a bank license, and I have no real equity in the deal (though after 3 years if all goes well, I will be a very rich man, or bank).

The Relentless Household Deleveraging In Charts

While the narrower spreads in Europe created the unintended consequence of perversely reducing the urgency for banks to delever their over-stuffed balance sheets (and in fact in many cases likely make them worse thanks to the ECB), the US Household continues to (sensibly) slowly but surely reduce their leverage. As today's Bloomberg Brief notes though, the slow pace of deleveraging will continue to weigh on growth over the next few years - even as they have drawn down debt as a percentage of personal income from its peak in June 2009 at 114.76% to 101.1% at the end of 2012. There is a long way to go to the apparent Maginot line of supposedly sustainable 90% and with wage growth stagnant, the bulk will come from debt reduction in true balance-sheet-recession style - putting still more pressure on a perniciously polarized government to do anything about it.

Following "Fine-Tuning", Second Print Of Q4 GDP Lifts It Back To Initial Estimate Of 3.0%

Back on January 27, before the impact of the trillions in liquidity injections by the central banks was fully appreciated, the advance Q4 GDP print came in below estimates of 3.0%, printing at 2.8%. Today, we just got the flip flop to that, after the second revision just printed at 3.0%, on expectations of an unchanged print at 2.8%. The reason: a fine-tuning, whether seasonally adjusted or not, which improved 4 of the components of Q4 GDP (Fixed Investment, Personal Consumption, Imports, Government Expenditures), while reducing two (Inventories and Exports) nominally. Net result, a slight bump from 2.8% to 3.0% for the second Q4 GDP print. The final GDP revision will be made public on March 29 - if history is any precedent, it will be back down to 2.8%. As for the reason why the market is less than delighted with this "beat" is that with EUR Brent at record highs, courtesy of everyone else but primarily the ECB doing the equivalent of QE 3 in 2011's biggest deception play, it firmly take the Fed's punchbowl away at least for 3 months. More at 10 am when The Bernank testifies.

LTRO 2 Bring Down: €529.5 Billion Gross, €311 Billion Net; Discount Window Stigma Resurfacing

Just like the first time around, the net gain from the LTRO when taking into account rolling off instruments, will be lower than the Gross amount. How much? According to SocGen, the final number by which the ECB's deposit account will increase will be about €210 billion less than the overhead number. From SocGen's Lauren Rosborough: "The LTRO outcome: €529.53bio was allocated to 800 institutions (compared with €489.19bio allocated to 523 institutions in Dec). The net increase, according to our economists, is €311bio (adjusted for yesterday’s MRO reduction, 3m LTRO allotment this morning, and the roll-off of the 3m and 6m LTROs tomorrow). The allocation was above our and at the upper end of the market range of expectations. After a brief and limited positive risk move (AUD/USD spiked to 1.0857), currencies are broadly unchanged and the EUR/USD is lower, possibly reflecting positioning unwinds. The LTRO outcome opens the way for further positive risk moves (high-beta, non-Japan Asia, lower DXY) but recent price action suggests to us that the rally is fatigued." Net: this means that following settlement, European banks will park not €500 billion but up to €810 billion with the ECB, on which they will collect 25 bps (while paying 1%, aka inverse carry as described here first). It also means that in three years Europe's bank will have to not only pay the ECB €1 trillion in case (assuming there is no perpetual rollover of the LTRO, which there will be), but also delever by another €2.5 billion, for net asset drop of €3.5 trillion. Good luck building up shareholder equity by the same amount to offset unchanging liabilities.

With LTRO Out Of The Picture, Portugal Is Back In Play - Bonds Sliding

As the ECB has stopped its SMP bond-buying and now the LTROs are all done (until the next one of course), Portuguese bond spreads have been increasing rapidly and post-LTRO today even more so.  While broadly speaking European sovereign risk is modestly higher this week (and notably steeper across the curve) leaving funding costs still very high for most nations, Portugal has exploded over 100bps wider (and almost 70bps of that today post-LTRO) to back over 1200bps wider than Bunds. Only Italian bonds are better and even there they are leaking back to unch from pre-LTRO. Perhaps, shockingly, more debt did not solve the problem of too much debt and with growth and deficits being questioned in Ireland and Portugal (and Spain), it's clear the newly collateralized loan cash the banks have received won't be extended to the medium-term maturities in sovereign bonds.

Busy Leap Day: Today's Full Schedule Of Events

On this leap day, we have a busy schedule which includes the second Q4 GDP revision, Chicago PMI (expect another massive beat courtesy of consumers confident that they can have Apple apps, if not so much food, since they still don't pay their mortgages), various Fed speakers, of which most important will be Ben Bernanke who takes the podium in Congress at 10 am for his semi-annual monetary policy report.

Summary Of Wall Street's Opinions On LTRO 2

The following people are paid to have an opinion, whether right or wrong, so it is our job to listen to them. Supposedly. Reuters summarizes the professionals kneejerk reaction to the LTRO 2. Because when it comes to explaining why Europe's banks are not only not deleveraging but increasing leverage while paying an incremental 75 bps on up to €700 billion in deposits soon to be handed over to the ECB, one needs all the favorable spin one can muster.

Frontrunning: Leap Year Edition

• Euro-Area Banks Tap ECB for Record Amount of Three-Year Cash (Bloomberg)
• Papademos Gets Backing for $4.3B of Cuts (Bloomberg)
• China February Bank Lending Remains Weak (Reuters)
• Romney Regains Momentum (WSJ)
• Shanghai Raises Minimum Wage 13% as China Seeks to Boost Demand (Bloomberg)
• Fiscal Stability Key To Economic Competitiveness - SNB's Jordan (WSJ)
• Bank's Tucker Says Cannot Relax Bank Requirements (Reuters)
• Life as a Landlord (NYT)

As A Reminder, Here Is What Happened To Risk Following The Surge In Fed Discount Window Borrowings

Since for all intents and purposes the ECB's LTRO is equivalent (and likely accepts even 'looser' collateral) to the Fed's massive (for its time) liquidity injection following the failure of Lehman, a good question is what happened to stocks after the Discount Window usage spiked back in the fall of 2008. Spoiler alert: nothing good.

Initial Rally Fades In PMs, FX, And Equities Post LTRO

UPDATE: European Sovereigns not excited and PORTUG getting ugly...and corporate credit spreads leaking wider
EURUSD and equity markets are undecided, European sovereigns have rallied modestly back to earlier day tights but no further (and Portuguese debt is underperforming), and credit markets in Europe are leaking modestly wider so far. The biggest movers initially appeared to be AUD (carry FX as we noted earlier) and the precious metals (with Silver outperforming Gold so far). Cable (GBP) is weakening relative to USD and EUR and that is holding DXY up a little here. Treasuries are doing better. As we post, the USD is now strengthening, ES is losing steam, and gold and silver are slipping back. CONTEXT is lower than pre-LTRO as risk is leaking off for now.

LTRO 2 - Goldman's Take

Goldman waited exactly 20 minutes to try to comfort the market, especially the EURUSD which is getting increasingly jittery, that €1 trillion in Discount Window borrowings is a "positive." We beg to differ that trillions in more debt collateralized by candy bar boxes and condoms will cure an excess debt problem, especially with all the good collateral now gone, and we are confident that ongoing deleveraging needs will put a major cog in the system, especially since the only liquidity expansion move now is "fade", at least until the next major crisis.




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