Physical Silver Surges To Record 30% Premium Over Spot, In Backwardation

One of the main reasons why we have been not so focused on paper representations of real currencies (i.e., gold and silver) is that ever since the MF Global debacle, in which it became all too clear that if physical gold can be "hypothecated" via conflicting ownership, then there is no way that paper versions of precious metals are viable and indeed credible. After all, the only real owner at the end of the day is the certificate holder, which as we have explained before, is none other than DTCC's Cede & Co. Good luck collecting when the daisy chain of counterparties starts falling. Which leaves physical. And for a good sense of what the "real" price of the metal is, not one determined by institutions whose interest it is to preserve the hegemony of paper, one can either try to procure gold and silver at a retail merchant, or one can look to the premium of a dedicated physical ETF over spot. Such as Eric Sprott's PSLV which as of today is trading at an all time high premium of 30%! In other words, someone is willing to pay up to 30% over spot for the right to be closer to the physical metal than merely have a paper claim on a paper claim (pre hyper rehypothecation and what not). Incidentally the last NAV premium over spot record was back in April 2011 just as silver went parabolic and the entire commodity complex experienced the infamous May 1 takedown when it collapsed by $8 dollars in milliseconds on glaringly obvious coordinated intervention. Said otherwise, like back then, so now there is an actual shortage, manifesting itself in the premium. And while last time its was the price plunge which eased supply needs, we are not so sure how one will be able to spin a collapse of the current, far lower paper silver price.

Goldman's Stolper Speaks, Sees EUR Downside To 1.20: Time To Go All In

By now Zero Hedge readers know that there is no better contrarian signal in the world than Goldman's Tom Stolper: in fact it is well known his "predictions" are a gift from god (no pun intended ) because without fail the opposite of what he predicts happens - see here. 100% of the time. Which is why, following up on our previous post identifying the record short interest in the EUR and the possibility for CME shennanigans any second now, it was only logical that Stolper would come out, warning of further downside to the EURUSD (despite having a 1.45 target). To wit: "With considerable downside risk in the short term, within our regular 3-month forecasting horizon, the key questions are about the speed and magnitude of the initial sell-off. If we had to publish forecasts on a 1- and 2-month horizon, we could see EUR/$ reach 1.20. In other words, we expect the EUR/$ sell-off to continue for now as risk premia have to rise initially." In yet other words, if there is a clearer signal to go tactically long the EURUSD we do not know what it may be.

Friday Humor

For our Friday humor section, we pull up the funniest headlines from Bloomberg in ascending order.

Gold Daily and Silver Weekly Charts - Rounding Errors In the Big Scheme of Things

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SP 500 and NDX Futures Daily Charts

Record Consecutive Treasury Dump From Fed's Custody Account

While there were few nuggets worth mentioning in yesterday's H.4.1 update, one item is certainly worth noting. After we pointed out last week when we noted that there was a record monthly dump of Treasury paper from the Fed's custodial account amounting to some $69 billion, the week ended January 4 has seen yet another outflow, this time amounting to $9 billion in US Treasurys. This is the 5th week in a row of foreigners selling US paper, and while it has yet to match the record 6 weeks of outflows from October (discussed here), the consolidated outflow notional is now a record high at $77 bilion, higher than the previous record of $52 billion. Needless to say banks from around the world are repatriating dollars. The question is what they are converting the USD into, and how much longer will the go on for: the last thin the US can afford is a wholesale dumping of its Treasurys. Because as the chart below vividly demonstrates, the traditional diagonal rise in foreign holdings of US paper has not only pleateaued, but it is in fact declining: a first in the history of the post globalization world.

Commodity Convergence And Debt-Equity Divergence

Equities traded their lowest volume of the week (-19% from yesterday alone). The NFP print this morning provided ammunition for some vol early on but as we drifted into the European close, risk assets in general were pushing lower. Unlike the last few days the circa-Europe-close dip-and-rip only occurred in the equity market today as the USD stayed near its highs and TSYs near their low yields of the day (and high yield credit near its wides of the day) as stocks took off back into the green and meandered either side of VWAP for the afternoon. It seems odd that the afternoon's divergence between TSYs and stocks was not accompanied by Gold or USD weakness (QE hopes) and in fact as we got into the last few minutes, stocks started to push back lower on much larger average trade size but was trapped between VWAP and unchanged on the day. Gold outperformed on the week (+3.4%) just inching out Silver and Oil as they appeared to converge on a 3x beta of the USD 'appreciation' of around 1.2% this week. Treasuries rallied 4-6bps and the curve flattened overall as we saw duration reduction in corporate bonds (with highest quality names (Aaa-Aa3) being net sold). DXY stayed above 81 as the EURUSD scrambled back above 1.27 (down an impressive 1.85% on the week). AUD was the only major to gain relative to the USD on the week (and very marginally). Finally, we saw VIX dropping and stabilize and implied correlation diverged and rose this afternoon which combined with the divergence in risk assets suggests stocks are short-term overdone at best.

Euro Shorts Surge To New Record High - Is An EC Margin Hike Approaching?

The trend of relentless shorting of the Euro currency in the form of non-commercial spec contracts, and as reported by the Commitment of Traders, continues for one more week. As of January 3, EUR shorts rose by another 9%, hitting an unprecedented 138,909 net contracts short - a fresh all time record. What is curious that unlike previously, when an increase in EUR bearishness implicitly meant a increase in USD bullishness, this time that is no longer the case as net spec USD contracts actually declined, and are trading at relatively subdued levels. Overall, this means that FX specs are not playing relative currencies off each other, but are piling into a global European short. Which leads us to the following precautionary observation: just like when a price collapse in gold is required, usually enacted by the reflexive relationship between futures and the underlying, in the form of a margin hike, we wonder how long before Europe, or even the Fed which most certainly does not want a strong dollar, directs the CME to hike EC maintenance margins by some ungodly amount. Because whatever works to keep paper gold weak will most certainly help to keep the dollar even weaker. And with a net drawdown of nearly 250,000 contracts from EUR highs in April to current lows, a EUR margin hike may have as profound an impact as QE, considering the massive amount of shorts currently holed up and demanding the collapse of Europe.

Japanese Zombie Banks Perfected By Europeans

We discussed the start of a new breed of bond issuance in Europe earlier in the week. The Ponzi Bond was born and today Banco Espirito Santo, of Portugal, came to the market (was there really an external demand?) and issued EUR1bn of three-year debt guaranteed by none other than the 16.4% yielding-equivalent three-year Portuguese government. Peter Tchir notes that "If the Japanese created the 'zombie' banks, the Europeans are perfecting them." On the bright side, the ECB has saved itself the effort of creating a "bad bank" and has just become one.

Bonds Versus Stocks In Three Charts

We have previously eschewed the constant refrain of any and every talking head who pounds the table on adding to equity risk on the basis of 'low' interest rates - why wouldn't you earn the higher dividend? or how much lower can rates go? However, aside from the drawdown-risk and empirical failure of the stocks-bonds arguments, there are three very pressing reasons currently for reconsidering the status quo of bonds against equities. Volatility in equity markets has been considerably higher than bonds and even at elevated earnings yields, it is no surprise that risk-savvy investors prefer a 'safer' lower-vol yield. Furthermore, when compared to a long-run modeling of business cycle shifts in stocks and high yield credit markets, stocks remain notably expensive to the credit cycle. Simply put, corporate bonds are at best offering better value than stocks if your macro position is bullish (and are forced to put money to work) and at worst suggest being beta-hedged is the best idea (or market-neutral) or in Treasuries.

Guest Post: By the Pricking of Equity's Thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes

Commodities such as copper have led the market for years; recently they've rolled over while the stock market surges higher. Once again, either historic correlations have been decisively severed or there is a gargantuan divergence that's about to be resolved. Sentiment readings are firmly in extreme bullish territory, but hey, maybe the market will reward the majority with a rally that feeds on rising complacency. And maybe the truism "volume is the weapon of the bull" is also voided, as low volume rallies may well lead to lower-volume rallies. The market has been acting as if all these signs are bullish. Maybe, maybe not. Meanwhile, the witches are cackling quietly over their bubbling brew, and it certainly sounds like some evil is being conjured up.

Barclays Estimates ECB Losses On Bond Purchases At €30 Billion, Or Nearly Half Of Eurosystem Capital

One of the recurring questions ever since the ECB's foray into sterilized monetization in May 2010, when it started buying up Greek bonds, is what is the total loss that the Eurosystem (with an €81.5 billion in capital) has accumulated over the life of the Securities Market Programme (SMP). And while the answer "lots" is often times sufficient, and in reality would be "many, many lots" if it weren't for the fact that for the ECB cost basis does not matter courtesy of several money printers, thus allowing it become a marginal buyer just when everyone else is a seller, here is a more granular analysis by Barclays' Laurent Fransolet who calculates total paper losses of about €30 billion to date for the €211 billion of securities purchases since program inception. In other words, over the past year and a half the ECB has lost 14% on its monetization portfolio: which while not horrible, is not very good for an entity that can simply bid up any security to a price of its choosing - remember: there is no cost basis, and no opportunity cost to investment decisions, when you happen to print the instrument of purchase. As such, in theory, the ECB could easily have a 100 limit bid on all PIIGS bonds and it would experience zero losses. Furthermore, with BTP yields once again north of 7.1%, we are quite confident that the €90 or so billion in Italian bonds held by the ECB will i) increase substantially ii) will record many more losses, especially once 2012 unrolls completely and the ECB has to deal with not only portfolio liquidations of Italian bonds but primary issuance.

Guest Post: Be Careful What You Wish For, Such As ECB Printing Money

Last month, global equity markets fairly demanded that the ECB hurry up and print, through buying euro zone debt. Effete euro elites publicly demurred at first, insisting that unlike crass Anglo-Saxons, they didn’t let financial markets push them around. Shortly thereafter, to markets’ thrill, LTRO was launched, i.e. backdoor money printing, since any sentient investor realizes that the debt being bought by the ECB is effectively like a loan to a family member: One should only expect repayment if the recipient has a chance encounter with a winning lottery ticket. Market euphoria over this intensely desired outcome was briefly interrupted a week later, when investors had a look at the shockingly bloated ECB balance sheet, causing a Euro chart breakdown, with a concomitant breakout for the dollar. This now unremitting dollar strength will doubtless temper company outlooks due to be delivered in the next few weeks. Ironically, it is the most crowded trade of late, the Dow Dividend Darlings, whose earnings are likely to be singularly impacted by this newfound dollar strength, as at current rates the dollar is looking to be ~10% higher in H1/12 vs. H1/11.

Sarkozy Threatens With War If Euro Fails

At least the altitude, but certainly not attitude, challenged French president has finally jumped the shark when it comes to fire and brimstone pronouncements of mutual assured destruction:

• SARKOZY "END OF EURO WOULD MEAN END OF EUROPE, END OF PEACE"  - BBG

Or... it would mean the end of the current generation of crony, corrupt, and criminally stupid leaders. Because last we checked, the Euro just celebrated its 10th birthday (with a vast majority wishing said anniversary had never occurred), and Europe was quite "war free" in the days before the globalist wet dream currency. But what do we know.

Art Cashin Explains What Is Really Happening In Iran

Despite the barrage of geopolitical headlines involving Iran, and as of today, the US and Israel, especially as pertains to wargame exercises in the Straits of Hormuz, a different, and potentially much more important story is to be found in the country's capital markets, and specifically its currency, which has continued to tumble ever since Obama signed the Iran financial boycott on New Year's Day as reported here. And, as we predicted, it is the aftershocks of the boycott which may have the most adverse impact on geopolitics. Because if the Iran regime finds itself in a lose-lose situation with its economy imploding and its currency crashing, the opportunity cost of doing something very irrational, from a military standpoint or otherwise, gets lower and lower. Then again, something tells us the US administration has been well aware of this sequence of events all along. Here is Art Cashing explaining it all.

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