Baltic Dry Index. 313 +06 Brent Crude 34.08
LIR Gold Target in 2019: $30,000. Revised due to QE programs.
Experience, however, shows that neither a state nor a bank ever have had the unrestricted power of issuing paper money without abusing that power; in all states, therefore, the issue of paper money ought to be under some check and control; and none seems so proper for that purpose as that of subjecting the issuers of paper money to the obligation of paying their notes either in gold coin or bullion.
David Ricardo.
Though it’s not quite a done deal, nothing in the EUSSR ever gets quite decided or fixed, this morning it’s looking better than ever that John Bull is headed for the exit of the EUSSR lunatic asylum. More on GB salvation tomorrow, after the final results of the Great Pow Wow in Brussels are known.
We open with a little sanity returning in the rest of the world. Hype and hopium wears off quite fast in our new bear market. Each fix is less and less effective requiring more hopium.
“The problem with fiat money is that it rewards the minority that can handle money, but fools the generation that has worked and saved money.”
“Adam Smith” aka George Goodman.
Asian shares slip from three-week high as oil rally reverses
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.7 percent, but gains in previous sessions left it up 4 percent for the week.
Japan's Nikkei .N225 dropped 2.2 percent as the yen firmed, but remained on track for a weekly gain of 5.9 percent.
"This week is the first sign of change I have seen in 2016," Evan Lucas, market strategist at trading services provider IG, wrote in a note.
But "most fund managers are nearing their maximum levels of cash under their respective mandates. This capital needs to be deployed to confirm the change is on."
MSCI's emerging market index .MSCIEF hit a six-week high overnight on hopes that oil prices were stabilizing, but the positive sentiment didn't flow through to U.S. shares.
The S&P 500 .SPX shed 0.5 percent, dragged down by lackluster earnings from Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N).
Oil prices reversed earlier gains on Thursday following a rise in U.S. stockpiles but look set to post their first rise in three weeks after the battered market took heart from a tentative deal by major producers to freeze output at January's highs.
More
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-markets-idUSKCN0VS03O
Global leaders must act now as fresh downturn looms, warns OECD
OECD urges collective action to fight threat of low-growth trap
Global leaders must take "urgent" action to stop the world
becoming stuck in a low-growth trap, according to the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development.
The OECD slashed its growth forecasts across the board on Thursday as it
urged policymakers to deploy a "full set of tools" to prevent another
slowdown.
Higher investment, loose monetary policy and structural reforms would
all be needed to boost the recovery and ward off the financial stability risks
"plaguing" the economy, it said.
The OECD slashed its growth forecasts for all major economies apart from China, which the think-tank said was also facing challenges.
Global growth this year is expected to match expansion of 3pc in 2015,
which was the slowest pace in five years. This is down from a forecast of 3.3pc
just three months ago.
Growth in 2017 is now projected to be 3.3pc, from 3.6pc in November.
Morehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/12162902/Global-leaders-must-act-now-as-fresh-downturn-looms-warns-OECD.html
S&P could downgrade more CoCo bonds
The ratings agency downgraded Deutsche Bank's risky bonds
More banks could see their contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds downgraded, Standard and Poor's has warned, a week after Deutsche Bank's bonds were targeted by the credit ratings agency.The price of the risky bonds has crashed by as much as 25pc in recent weeks as a wave of fear swept the market, with investors panicking that Deutsche Bank could struggle to pay the interest coupon on the bonds.
The bank insisted that it has plenty of liquidity available to service its debts and bought back almost €5bn (£3.9bn) of senior bonds to illustrate the point. Since then Deutsche Bank's CoCos have shown some signs of rebounding.
Standard and Poor's said it is analysing more of the bonds across the market, and could choose to downgrade them, too.
"Our ratings are under constant survellience. [The Deutsche downgrade is] not the end of the story, there are quite a few points yet that need to be clarified with additional disclosure from the banks," said S&P's Alexandre Birry.
"We will have to reflect all this new information as it comes to light and see if in some cases there could be a case to widen notching. The risks around coupon deferral seems to be clearer to markets in the current environment. We will continuously try to reflect this new information."
CoCos, classed as AT1 securities, are bonds that are designed to prop up banks if they get into financial trouble, and to make sure that investors contribute to supporting lenders.
The biggest risk is that banks' capital buffers fall below a set level - typically 7pc of assets - this will convert the bonds either into shares or wiping them out altogether.
More
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/12162003/SandP-could-downgrade-more-CoCo-bonds.html
Opinion: Longtime bull turned bear says S&P 500 could tumble 34.1%
Published: Feb 18, 2016 5:12 a.m. ET
If you were encouraged by stocks’ big rally that began last Friday and had
catapulted the Dow Jones Industrial Average almost 800 points by Wednesday’s
close, one longtime market bull has some cautionary words for you: Don’t be.Jim Stack, president of Stack Financial Management and InvesTech Research, has been bullish since early 2009, sticking with stocks in the face of investors’ doubt and disbelief.
But he’s gotten more cautious over the past year, gradually lightening clients’ and subscribers’ recommended equity exposures. Now, the other shoe has dropped.
Last Friday, in his long-running InvesTech newsletter, he wrote: “Judging by the depth, duration, and broadening sector contribution to the ‘distribution’ in leadership, we must conclude that Wall Street is currently in a bear market.” “Distribution” is Wall Street-speak for “selling.”
“If it looks like one, walks like one, growls like one, then, yeah, we better assume there is one,” he told me in an interview Monday.
And it may be just the beginning, so stocks could fall more and the pain could last longer than many are ready for. The bear’s depth and duration will depend on whether the U.S. economy slips into recession.
Right now, Stack doesn’t see that happening, but several classic signs of a bear already are here:
• Daily volatility has spiked. “This is a war between the bulls and the bears ... and so far the bulls are losing.”
• Margin debt peaked last spring and has been falling ever since. “Past peaks in margin debt have coincided with, or led, peaks in the stock market.”
• Many stocks already are in bear markets. Over 60% of the stocks in the S&P 500 Index are down 20% or more from their highs, and so are the small-cap Russell 2000 Index and Dow Jones Transportation Average. Bear markets in the Russell and Dow Transports haven’t preceded bear markets in the broader indexes “only three times in the past 35 years.”
More
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/longtime-bull-turned-bear-says-sp-500-could-tumble-341-2016-02-18?dist=beforebell
Oil prices fall on oversupply concerns after US crude stocks hit record
Oil futures fell in Asian trade on Friday as a record build in U.S.
crude stocks stoked concerns about global oversupply, outweighing moves by oil
producers including Saudi Arabia and Russia to cap oil output.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels last week, to a peak
of 504.1 million barrels, the third week of record highs in the past month,
data from the U.S. government's Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed
on Thursday.
That came as Iraq's oil minister Adel Abdul Mahdi said on Thursday that
talks would continue between OPEC and non-OPEC members to find ways to restore
"normal" oil prices following a meeting on Wednesday.
"The market is expecting continuing inventory builds," said
Tony Nunan, oil risk manager at Japan's Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo.
"Key to any deal (to cap production) is Iran. But Iran has been
clear, saying it wants to get back to its pre-sanctions (production)
level," Nunan added.
"Everything is pointing to the end of this year (before there is an
agreement) when Iran gets to 4 million barrels per day. By that time the pain
will be so great everybody will come to the table (to agree output caps),"
Nunan said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-oil-idUSKCN0VS00ZThe Stressed-Out Oil Industry Faces an Existential Crisis
February 18, 2016 — 11:00 PM GMT Updated on February 19, 2016 — 4:00 AM
GMT
The Saudis may go public,
OPEC’s in disarray, the U.S. is suddenly a
global exporter, and shale drillers are seeking lifelines from
investors as banks abandon them.Welcome to oil’s new world order, full of stresses, strains and fractures. For leaders gathering in Houston next week at the IHS CERAWeek conference -- often dubbed the Davos of the energy industry -- a key question is: what will break first? Will it be the balance sheets of big U.S. shale companies? The treasuries of Venezuela and Nigeria? The resolve of Saudi Arabia, whose recent deal with Russia to freeze output levels offered the first hint of a rethink?
After watching prices crash through floor after floor in the worst slump for a generation, the industry is eager for answers. Insiders say it’s not too hard to visualize what markets might look like after the storm -- say five years down the line, when today’s cost-cutting creates a supply vacuum that will push up prices. But it’s what happens in the meantime that’s got them scratching their heads.
“This is a weird thing for a market analyst to say because it’s usually the opposite case, but I have more conviction in my five-year outlook than my one-year outlook,” said Mike Wittner, head of oil market research for Societe Generale SA. “Maybe I’m letting my head get turned upside down by the last couple months.”
In a less volatile year, the long-term viability of fossil fuels might
have been high on their agenda after December’s breakthrough climate deal in
Paris. But within the industry, that debate has “fallen into the abyss of $27
oil,” said Deborah Gordon, director of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace’s energy and climate program.
---- The one thing the stress on companies hasn’t done is destroy production. Engineers have found ways to lower costs and boost output at oil wells, allowing cash-starved drillers to keep enough rigs active so that output is still within 5 percent of last year’s high.
Meanwhile, on the international scene, the Saudi-Russian accord announced Tuesday, to which Venezuela and Qatar have also signed up, would cap production at January’s levels -- a record high in Russia’s case, and not far off for the Saudis. Iran isn’t a party to the plan, and its imminent return to world markets could add to the glut. Historically the No. 2 OPEC producer, the Islamic Republic is preparing to ramp up exports after sanctions were lifted last month.
More
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-18/there-s-a-new-world-order-to-talk-about-at-the-davos-of-energy
In the absence of the gold standard, there is no way to protect savings from confiscation through inflation. Deficit spending is simply a scheme for the “hidden” confiscation of wealth. Gold stands in the way of this insidious process. It stands as a protector of property rights.
Alan Greenspan. Gold bug. Failed fallen former guru. Gold sellout.
At the Comex silver depositories Thursday final
figures were: Registered 28.91 Moz, Eligible 128.20 Moz, Total 157.11
Moz.
Crooks and Scoundrels Corner
The bent, the seriously bent, and the totally
doubled over.
We close for the week with more on the new European
death spiral. Is it possible to have permanent negative interest rates? Won’t
that just convert bank accounts in to gold and silver and other tangible
holdings? Poland looks to alchemy to turn Swiss Franc mortgages in to Zloty
ones. Desperate times need desperate measures and this is about as desperate as
they come.
If
all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
J. K.
Galbraith.
Top Nordic Fund Asks What If Negative Rates Are Permanent
February 17,
2016 — 11:01 PM GMT Updated on February 18, 2016 — 9:08 AM GMT
The top performing Nordic stock fund is concerned there may soon be
no way out.
After returning 46 percent last year, Oeyvind Fjell, who manages
the 5 billion-krone ($600 million) Storebrand ASA Delphi Nordic fund,
is becoming increasingly concerned that investors will lose faith in the
central banks.
“What happens the day when you have negative rates and growth still
doesn’t pick up?” he said in an interview in Oslo Monday. “What happens when
the market says that the central banks are worthless? They have done everything
but it doesn’t work. I’m a bit afraid that negative rates become the new
normal.”
With global stock markets last week entering a bear market for the first
time in five years, Fjell is clearly not the only one asking these fundamental
questions. Central banks across the world are going all out to revive
growth and inflation, with policy makers from Tokyo to Frankfurt cutting rates
below zero.
More
Poland at Odds Over Franc-Loans Fix Belka Calls `Pure Evil'
February 17,
2016 — 2:35 PM GMT Updated on February 17, 2016 — 4:39 PM GMT
Top Polish officials sent mixed signals on Wednesday over how the government
wants to defuse the challenge of $42 billion in foreign currency loans after a
proposal to convert them into zloty was dismissed by the central bank governor
as “pure
evil.”The Finance Ministry denied that it’s working on amending a draft law put forward by the president just hours after Development Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the proposal was going to be changed, and that any solution should be voluntary. The current plan, if implemented, risks dragging the country into legal disputes with foreign investors, Morawiecki warned. There is no argument between the ministers about Swiss franc-loan legislation, said Marta Lau, Morawiecki’s spokeswoman.
“I hope some common-sense solution will prevail on Swiss francs,” Morawiecki said in Warsaw. “I believe that in several months we’ll get out of a political and emotional stage and move into an analytical one.”
The controversy highlights how the issue of mostly Swiss franc-denominated mortgages has become a point of contention for the ruling party as it seeks to deliver on election promises without damaging banks and the broader economy. President Andrzej Duda’s plan to make lenders accept repayment on such loans in zloty at a fixed exchange rate has received a scathing assessment from central bank Governor Marek Belka, who said it could cost 44 billion zloty ($11 billion) and push 70 percent of the financial industry into the red.
Poland is following other eastern European countries that moved to
convert mortgages denominated in foreign currencies after they proliferated
prior to the 2008 financial crisis. While allowing many borrowers to take
advantage of lower interest payments, the loans exposed them to currency
swings.
Morawiecki said he favors resolving the issue on a voluntary basis
because any other approach was risky for banks and could weaken the zloty or
lead to interest-rate increases. While saying that he isn’t planning to present
his own plan, the minister said Duda won’t “push” the legislation in its
current form either.
The statement comes a day after Morawiecki unveiled plans to harness 1
trillion zloty for investment in manufacturing and innovation to help the
nation catch up with richer European Union neighbors. While money for the
multi-year program is set to come mostly from EU transfers, it also lists
savings of domestic companies and excess liquidity at banks and loans as
potential sources of funding.
Poland’s financial industry has already been enduring a special tax on
assets, which will siphon off about a third of banks’ annual profit, and help
the government raise money for its flagship program of child benefits.
More
Paper
money eventually returns to its intrinsic value: zero
Voltaire.
Solar & Related Update.
With events
happening fast in the development of solar power and graphene, I’ve added this
new section. Updates as they get reported. Is converting sunlight to usable
cheap AC or DC energy mankind’s future from the 21st century
onwards? DC? A quantum computer next?
The oil industry has invented an ironic new use for solar power
18/02/2016
There’s a huge project taking shape in the deserts of Oman. It will
extract crude oil from the ground by pumping vast quantities of steam into it.
To produce the steam, water will be brought to a boil using as much as a
gigawatt of energy. The source of that energy: the sun.
Using solar power to get fossil fuels out of the ground will strike some
as ironic—especially since, if that method weren’t available, the high cost of
extracting the oil might lead to more pressure to use cleaner energy sources,
such as solar, instead.
But GlassPoint, the American company behind the new
technology, says that the project and others like it will help fossil-fuel
drillers limit carbon emissions. The process of “enhanced oil recovery,” where
steam is used to loosen thick oil and make it easier to pump, usually involves
burning natural gas to heat water. GlassPoint says its technology can cut that
gas consumption, and the consequent carbon emissions, by up to 80%.
Work began
in November 2015 on the Oman project, called Miraah, which will eventually
be one of the largest solar thermal plants in the world (a smaller pilot scheme
has been in place there since 2012).
Large, thin, curved mirrors are
used to concentrate the sun’s rays onto tubes containing water. The
mirrors—enclosed in greenhouses (see top image) to protect them from dust and
other harsh conditions—move to track the sun’s progress through the sky. The
company has already deployed
its technology at an oilfield in its native state, California.
Funding comes from Petroleum Development Oman, the largest
oil producer in the sultanate. GlassPoint also has
investment from Royal Dutch Shell and Total, as well as venture capital.
The region is
increasingly capitalizing on its reliable sunshine and large open spaces to
produce power from the sun—though up to now it’s usually been in order to
generate electricity, not more oil.
Another weekend and
a warm and wet one expected here. A warm and wet one expected for HMG’s Prime
Minister Chamberlain on his humiliating return from Brussels too. Have a great
weekend everyone and don’t forget to check in for the weekend Brexit update.
An
empty taxi pulled up at number 10 Downing Street and Cameron got out.
With
apologies to Churchill and Atlee.
The monthly Coppock Indicators finished January
DJIA: -06 Down. NASDAQ:
+75 Down. SP500: -02 Down.
Both the DJIA and the S&P 500 have
now turned negative.
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