Wednesday, 4 February 2015

The Big Rig.



Baltic Dry Index. 577 -13    Brent Crude 57.62

LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000.  Revised due to QE programs.

There can be few fields of human endeavour in which history counts for so little as in the world of finance. Past experience, to the extent that it is part of memory at all, is dismissed as the primitive refuge of those who do not have the insight to appreciate the incredible wonders of the present.

J. K. Galbraith.

For the last three days, the big central bankster market rig was on. In a last ditch central bankster “Battle of the Bulge,” with the desperate central banksters in the role of the Germans, everything was thrown in to fuel a new bubble in oil and stocks. The new Greek government had blinked, and was buckling under the pressure from Brussels, Berlin and Washington. They weren’t. The USA was about to suddenly under produce fracking oil. They weren’t. The Saudis and the Russians were about to cut oil production. They weren’t. The commodities markets had fallen to far too fast. They had, and were oversold, vulnerable to  a central bank short squeeze. But a short squeeze, while good fun to all but the shorts, is far from a global recovery. This time in the Battle of the Bulge, the central banksters ran into too much oil.

The Great Global Slowdown has excess crude oil piling up everywhere. If the Great Global Slowdown really was ending, would the Baltic Dry Index be collapsing to new daily lows? This big rig may have bust a few shorts, but it isn’t going to change the outcome of the war. The EUSSR is dying and unsavable, not that anyone should try. The Great Nixonian Error of fiat money is deep into the final act. Abenomics is about to blow up a rapidly aging Japan. China’s Great Era of Malinvestment has reached the end of the road. There is no sustainable demand for many if not most, industrial commodities at current prices. Come Spring, unless Washington’s War Party calls off the ill-judged puppet war in the Ukraine, a hot murderous war is about to breakout. Reality is about to resume.

Oil retreats from highs as inventory data show huge build

Published: Feb 3, 2015 10:53 p.m. ET
By MichaelKitchen
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Benchmark U.S. crude-oil futures headed solidly lower in early electronic trade Wednesday, giving away a chunk of the gains made in a monster rally the previous day as inventory data showed more oil on hand than expected.

West Texas Intermediate crude for March CLH5, -1.24%  was down $1.48, or 2.8%, at $51.57 a barrel by midday in East Asia.

The retreat took a sizeable bite out of the contract’s 7% surge in regular New York Mercantile Exchange trade Tuesday, with analysts citing hope that a cut in U.S. production would whittle down crude stockpiles.

But such hopes were dampened, at least for the short term, as American Petroleum Institute data released after the Nymex close reportedly showed weekly inventories rising by more than double what the market had expected.

Crude stocks for the week ended Jan. 30 increased to the tune of 6.1 million barrels, analysts cited the API as saying, compared to a consensus forecast for a rise of just 2.8 million barrels, according to a Platts survey.
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Asia Stocks Extend Global Gains; Oil Slips as Bonds Slide

11:26 PM WET February 3, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks headed for the biggest gain in six weeks and emerging-market currencies strengthened after a three-day rally in commodities. Australian bonds plunged while German yields were below Japan’s for a second day.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 1.5 percent by 7:10 a.m. in London, as sub-indexes of materials and energy companies surged. Futures on the Euro Stoxx 50 Index and Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. U.S. oil slipped 1.3 percent after a four-day, 19 percent rebound. Russia’s ruble climbed and China’s yuan jumped. The rate on Japan’s 10-year bond rose three basis points, holding above the yield on similar German notes. Australia’s 10-year yield advanced by the most in 19 months a day after the central bank unexpectedly cut rates.

Global stocks have erased 2015 losses this week as energy companies jumped amid speculation that crude prices may have found a bottom and as Greece softened its stance on a debt writedown. Oil is paring gains before data Wednesday that may show stockpiles in the U.S. rose last week. A gauge of China’s services industry expanded at the weakest pace in six months before similar measures in Europe and the U.S.

“There are still underlying issues out there, but the market is choosing to ignore it right now,” said Matt Riordan, a Sydney-based portfolio manager who helps oversee about $7.5 billion at Paradice Investment Management Pty. “When push comes to shove, it’s all about central banks at the moment. When the oil supply report does come out, it will potentially cause quite a bit of volatility. To try and see where the price is going from here will just be guesswork.”
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Here We Go Again: The Robo Machines Are Raging

by David Stockman • 
Here we go again. The robo machines have been raging for the past two days, and by mid-afternoon we were hovering around 2045 on the S&P 500. Since that’s only 2.3% below the all-time high reached at the end of December, bubblevision’s amen chorus was back out in force, pronouncing that all is well, the momentary headwinds are fading and, yes, the bottom’s in.

Not exactly. The robo machines are actually drunk. The S&P 500 first shot through 2045 back on about November 13th, and was then on its way to 2070 by early December. It then reversed course and plunged through 2045 from above on December 10, reaching a low of 1989 a few days later. Shortly thereafter the market erupted back over 2045 on December 18th—-as it soared along an upward path to its year-end and all-time peak of 2090.

As is evident in the chart below, the zigzagging has only gotten more intense and frequent since the turn of the year. By January 2, the S&P 500 plunged back below the 2045 mark, but five days later was back above it; then it was down again on January 9, back up on January 21, and back down on January 26. So here we are on February 3 back above 2045——virtually the same spot as early November.

The market is cycling, but the economic facts on the ground are not. Everywhere the trends are getting worse, and not by trivial or debatable increments. Were the stock market an actual discounting device engaged in price discovery, it would be heading south— not in circles.

But robo machines and day traders do not weigh and assess comprehensive market and economic information, nor do they give a wit for trends; they simply careen between chart points based on headlines. And most of the headlines in question have to do with a very specific thing. Namely, some new indication that the worldwide central bank Ponzi has found yet another way to prolong the day of reckoning.

Today the headline ramp was that the new Greek government was backing off from its confrontation with the EU and looking for a 10-week “bridge” to a new deal that would have everything coming up roses by June 1. Shortly thereafter, of course, the Germans and the ECB issued a ringing “nein!” But the chart points were in for the day.
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Today we give the last word on the big rig to Mike Shedlock. As new bedrock to build a new central bankster bubble, this comes  close to building on quicksand.

Smart Debt Engineering: Markets Giddy Over Greek Debt Proposal; ECB Nixes Plan Already; Party On Dudes
Mish

The markets are giddy today over a Plan to End Debt Standoff released yesterday by Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis.

Varoufakis said the government would no longer call for a headline write-off of Greece’s €315bn foreign debt.

Instead, Greece wants "Smart Debt Engineering" that would avoid the need to use a term such as a debt “haircut”, politically unacceptable in Germany and other creditor countries because it sounds to taxpayers like an outright loss.

Apparently a haircut is OK as long as it's not called a haircut! 

Varoufakis seeks a “menu of debt swaps” to ease the burden, including two types of new bonds. The first type, indexed to nominal economic growth, would replace European rescue loans, and the second, which he termed “perpetual bonds”, would replace European Central Bank-owned Greek bonds.

Perpetual bonds: clearly never meant to be paid back. Gotta love the honesty of the idea.

ECB Nixes Plan Already

Today the European Central Bank Said "No" Latest Greek Bailout Plan.
Yanis Varoufakis, Greek finance minister, had proposed to European officials that Athens raise €10bn by issuing short-term Treasury bills as “bridge financing” to tide the country over for the next three months while a new bailout is agreed with its eurozone partners.

But the ECB is unwilling to approve the debt sale. It will not raise a €15bn ceiling on t-bill issuance to $25bn as requested by Athens, according two officials involved in the deliberations. “The Greek plan relies fully on the ECB,” said another eurozone official briefed on the talks. “The ECB will play hardball.”

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, is expected to press Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek prime minister, to ask for a “technical” extension of the current bailout when the two men meet in Brussels on Wednesday.

Eurozone finance ministers are expected to hold emergency talks in Brussels on February 11 to discuss Mr Varoufakis’s plans. The Greek finance minister is due to meet Mario Draghi, ECB president, in Frankfurt on Wednesday.

Officials who have met Mr Varoufakis say he has insisted the new government cannot ask for an extension for political reasons, since it would send a signal they are willing to go along with the current bailout — a message Mr Varoufakis reiterated at meeting on Monday in London with leading bankers.

Markets Giddy Over Greek Debt Proposal

Even though no one has agreed to the Greek plan, the markets are giddy anyway, simply over the prospect of a settlement.
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“It is difficult not to marvel at the imagination which was implicit in this gargantuan insanity. If there must be madness something may be said for having it on a heroic scale."

J. K. Galbraith. The Great Crash: 1929.

At the Comex silver depositories Tuesday final figures were: Registered 67.78 Moz, Eligible 110.26 Moz, Total 178.04 Moz.   

Crooks and Scoundrels Corner

The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally doubled over.

Today, is flying in Asia safe? Did Asia over expand in air travel and new airlines, without putting in place enough checks and balances. Are the new airlines pilots fully trained and psychologically background checked?

TransAsia Plane Hits Taxi Before Plunging Into River; 12 Killed

3:51 AM WET  February 4, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- A TransAsia Airways Corp. turboprop plane crashed into Keelung River near Taipei after hitting a taxi, killing at least 12 people. It was the second accident in less than a year for the Taiwanese airline.

Sixteen people were injured and 30 people are missing from Flight 235, Taipei City Government said today. There were 53 people and five crew members on board. GE235 crashed at about 10:45 a.m. local time, Thomas Wang, a spokesman for the Aviation Safety Council said. Two people in the taxi were injured when the plane collided, the government said.

The plane lost contact after takeoff, Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said. Two tour groups from mainland China with 31 members were aboard the ATR-72 aircraft, a propeller plane made by Toulouse, France-based ATR.

Unconfirmed footage taken from a dashboard-mounted camera of a vehicle showed the plane flying at an angle, swerving close over a bridge, with one wing clipping the taxi and the railing before plunging down into the river.

A TransAsia turboprop plane had crashed in July last year, killing 48 people. That plane went down after the pilots couldn’t find the runway seconds before their aircraft slammed on Taiwan’s outlying Penghu islands, according to the accident report. Ten people survived that crash, which was also an ATR 72 twin-engine turbo-propeller aircraft.

Last year was the deadliest year for air travel since 2005 globally. Malaysia Airlines lost two Boeing Co. 777s -- one thought to have disappeared in the Indian Ocean, and flight MH17 presumed shot down over Ukraine. Then last month, AirAsia Bhd. lost a plane in Indonesia. The global annual toll was 884, according to safety consultant Ascend Worldwide.
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"For more than two thousand years gold's natural qualities made it man's universal medium of exchange. In contrast to political money, gold is honest money that survived the ages and will live on long after the political fiats of today have gone the way of all paper."

Hans F. Sennholz

The monthly Coppock Indicators finished January

DJIA: +124 Down. NASDAQ: +220 Down. SP500: +178 Down.  

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