Monday, June 2, 2014

The Best And Worst Performing Assets In May

If April was supposed to be the best month of the year only to leave everyone scarred, bruised and battered, another confirmation that in the Fed's New Normal all the folksy old aphorisms no longer work came with the last trading day in May when we learned that the old adage of "sell in May and go away" has not yet paid off with broad gains for most asset classes in the past month. Equities, Rates, Credit and EM were all generally stronger. Commodities delivered the key underperformance largely led by a sell-off in softs and precious metals.
And while the best performer in May was by far the Russian stock market (which may have crushed Jay Carney's hopes for a macro hedge fund career in his post-White House life), the highlight has certainly been the global rally in DM rates. Indeed the global rally saw nearly all (except for Denmark, Iceland and Greece) the 10-year yields of developed government bond markets finish the month lower.
The Best And Worst Performing Assets In May

Other observations on the past month's performance from Deutsche:
The strong performance in US rates has definitely provided a boost to EM and spread products across the world. This has trumped good or bad data/fundamentals as the driver of assets in the last few weeks. Having said that, a strong election outcome in India and some emergence of stability in the Russia/Ukraine stand-off were also helpful for EM sentiment. EM bonds were up nearly 2.5% in May bringing their YTD gains to 5%.

Away from EM fixed income, DM spread products also did well with positive total returns seen across IG and HY indices on both sides of the Atlantic. Given the performance in rates, IG has generally outperformed HY but much of this is due to the longer duration of IG indices. It’s worth noting that European and US IG/HY credit benchmarks have yet to have a negative month so far this year.

Turning to equities, the MSCI EM equity index added 3.5% in May. The ongoing market chatter around Chinese stimulus has also helped sentiment in the Hang Seng (+5.4%), which posted its best gains in 8 months. Staying in the region, Japan’s Nikkei (+2.3% in May) also enjoyed its best month this year although the index is still down 9.4% YTD. Away from Asian equities, the S&P 500, the DAX, and the Stoxx600 all recorded their best performance since February although overall European markets (especially the peripherals) are still outperforming their American counterparts so far this year.

Soft commodities were the worst performers in May largely driven by an improving supply outlook for grains. Wheat (-12%) posted its worst monthly drop since 2011 as better rainfall across the Great Plains in the US has apparently improved crop conditions. Away from softs, WTI Oil (+3.0%) and Copper (+3.1%) have been doing better though with the latter posting its best monthly performance this year on talks of Chinese stimulus. Let’s see if we see further momentum on the back of the better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing PMI print that was released over the weekend!
Looking at returns YTD:
YTD gains (including dividends) for the Stoxx600 and the S&P 500 are 7% and 5% respectively. These performances are being overshadowed by gains in Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain which are up by +13%, +9%, +16% and +11%, respectively this year.  Overall it has been a pretty good ride for Fixed Income so far this year, across both rates and credit, with total returns in DM credit ranging between as low as 3.3% (USD Fin Senior) to as high as +7.9% (Spanish bonds).
And visually:
The Best And Worst Performing Assets In May

Chinese smelters to soon restart 500,000 tonnes aluminum capacities

The rebounded aluminum prices and anticipated government incentives by provincial government have led to some smelters restarting some of the idled capacities.
According to analysts, the decision by the smelters is likely to weigh heavy on domestic aluminum prices in China. This may also boost exports of primary aluminum and other products from the country, which in turn may exert pressure on the international prices too.
Earlier, the country had faced severe oversupply crisis. The domestic prices of aluminum had dropped to five-year lows. This had forced many aluminum majors to cut down production by idling high-cost capacities. As per Antaike estimates nearly 2 million tonnes of aluminum smelting capacity were idled in China during the past five to six months. The country’s annual operating capacity as on December 2013 was reported at 23 million tons.
According to industry sources, nearly one-fourth of the closed 2 million tonnes of closed facility is likely to start functioning during the forthcoming months. Estimates provided by Antaike also suggest that approximately 500,000 tonnes of smelting capacity is likely to be restarted soon.
However, the production of primary alumina may be adversely hit due to shortage of bauxite. The ban on ore exports by Indonesia may curtail the production of primary alumina.

Weekly Economic Data for the week 31-May-14 to 06-Jun-14

Weekly Economic Data for the week 31-May-14 to 06-Jun-14
Expected impact on price: This indicator shows the effect of the anticipation of data on the prices of related country’s major indices. We have categorized it as below:
Very Good Good Neutral Bad Very Bad
Actual: Refers to the actual/latest figures after its release.
Data for the week 31-May-14 to 06-Jun-14
Date Time (IST) Country Data Exp. Prior Exp. chg today Avg. chg of last 1 year Exp. Impact on Price
02-Jun-2014 07-30 PM United States ISM Manufacturing PMI 55.5 54.9 0.60 1.35 Neutral
 
03-Jun-2014 11-00 AM India RBI Cash Reserve Ratio 4.0% 4.0% 0.00% 0.03 Neutral
03-Jun-2014 11-00 AM India RBI Repurchase Rate 8% 8% 0.00% 0.16 Neutral
03-Jun-2014 11-00 AM India RBI Reverse Repo Rate 7% 7% 0.00% 0.16 Neutral
03-Jun-2014 11-30 AM United Kingdom Nationwide Housing Prices PX (MoM) 0.6% 1.2% -0.60% 0.00 Neutral
03-Jun-2014 02-30 PM European Monetary Union Unemployment Rate 11.8% 11.8% 0.00% 0.12 Neutral
 
04-Jun-2014 10-30 AM India HSBC India Services PMI - 48.5 -48.50  
04-Jun-2014 06-00 PM United States Trade Balance -40.6B -40.4B -0.20% 3.21 Neutral
04-Jun-2014 08-00 PM United States EIA Crude Oil Stocks change -- 1.6 -1.60 3.45  
 
05-Jun-2014 07-15 AM China HSBC China Services PMI   51.4   1.41  
05-Jun-2014 07-15 AM China HSBC Composite PMI   49.5   0.97  
05-Jun-2014 04-30 PM United Kingdom Bank of England Bank Rate 0.5% 0.5% 0.00 0.00 Neutral
05-Jun-2014 05-15 PM European Monetary Union ECB Interest Rate Decision 0.10% 0.25% -0.15% 0.07 Good
05-Jun-2014 08-00 PM United States EIA Natural Gas Storage change -- 114 -114.00 33.60  
 
06-Jun-2014 11-30 AM Germany Industrial Production s.a. (MoM) 0.40% -0.50% 0.90% 2.36 Neutral
06-Jun-2014 06-00 PM United States Nonfarm Payrolls 215K 288K -73.00 43.00 Good
06-Jun-2014 06-00 PM United States Unemployment Rate 6.40% 6.30% 0.10% 0.13 Neutral

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Warren Buffett's Excellent Quotes

Warren Buffett's Excellent Quotes

Dollar Going to Collapse 80% or 90%, Gold Can Touch $ 7000 To $ 9000 - James Rickards



Dollar Going to Collapse 80% or 90%, Gold Can Touch $ 7000 To $ 9000 - James Rickards
   You Can Buy This Book @ Rs 509 By Clicking On The Picture.
More about James Rickards Click HERE

“Massive Shortages” In Gold Coming and “Typical Investor” Will Not Be Able To Get Bullion - James Rickards

“Massive Shortages” In Gold Coming
   You Can Buy This Book @ Rs 509 By Clicking On The Picture.

Gold extended losses down over 4% this Week.  It fell to 16 week lows, possibly due to slightly weaker physical demand in top buyer China and technical selling.
In China, gold premiums ticked slightly higher to $2 to $3 per ounce. They have remained roughly the same since before the price drop, which suggests demand in China has not picked up on the price falls.
We are bearish in the short term and technically, gold is vulnerable to further falls. Potentially to test what appears to be a double bottom between $1,180/oz and $1,200/oz. Gold is particularly vulnerable in the very short term.

It is also worth considering seasonal trends and in recent years, June is one of the weakest months for gold. Gold's five year and ten year average performance in June is negative. We will look at this in more detail tomorrow.
While gold is vulnerable technically to further falls, it’s 14-day relative strength index (RSI) has dipped into very oversold territory.
This morning Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan signed the historic Eurasian Economic Union which will come into effect in January 2015. "The just-signed treaty is of epoch-making, historic importance,"Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
The Eurasian Economic Union expects Armenia to join within a month, Kyrgyzstan within a year.
Cutting down trade barriers and comprising over 170 million people it will be the largest common market across the ex-Soviet states. The troika of countries will cooperate in energy, industry, agriculture, transport and monetarily.
 
“Massive Shortages” In Gold Coming and “Typical Investor” Will Not Be Able To Get Bullion - Rickards
Financial expert, Pentagon insider and bestselling author James Rickards has warned that “typical investors” may not be able to acquire physical gold when prices begin to surge hundreds of dollars a day as “massive shortages” will take place.
In another fascinating interview, this time with the always worth a watch Greg Hunter, formerly of ABC and CNN and now of USA Watchdog, Rickards said that gold will become the preserve of the “big guy” in the form of sovereign wealth funds and central banks.
This is something we have warned of since 2003. There is another risk in the form of ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in Russia, China and elsewhere also attempting to corner the physical gold and silver markets.
In the 1970’s, the Hunt Brothers made the mistake of not accumulating enough physical silver outside the reach of the U.S. authorities. Some billionaires today will likely not make the same mistake.
Rickards latest book, ‘The Death of Money’ predicts “the coming collapse of the international monetary system” and is being very well received. In recent days alone, Rickards has conducted a huge amount of media interviews with most leading financial networks. 
One of the signposts of the coming collapse of the international monetary system is countries like Russia declaring it will no longer use the U.S. Dollar as a reserve currency in international trade.
Rickards explains, “Putin said he envisions a Eurasian economic zone involving Eastern Europe, central Asia and Russia.  The Russian Ruble is nowhere near ready to be a global reserve currency, but it could be a regional reserve currency.”
Rickards is surprised at how fast the economic situation is unfolding.  Rickards says, “If you ask me what has happened since you finished writing the book that comes as a surprise, I would say a lot of the things I talk about in my book are happening faster than I would have expected. Things that I thought would happen in the 2015 or 2016 time frame seems to be happening now in some ways.  If anything, the tempo of events is faster than expected. “
“Therefore, some of these catastrophic outcomes may come sooner than I wrote about.”
Rickards told Hunter that “right now, we are on the precipice now”.
“When you are on the precipice, it doesn’t mean you fall off immediately, but you are going to fall off because you can see the forces in play.  What I tell clients and investors is it’s not as if we are going to make some mistakes and some bad things are going to happen.  The mistakes have already been made.  The instability is already in the system.  We’re just waiting for that catalyst that I call the snowflake that starts the avalanche.   You don’t worry about the snowflakes; you worry about the snow and that it’s unstable and it’s just waiting to collapse.  That’s what the system is right now; we are just waiting for a catalyst.  People ask me all the time, what could it be?  
Technically, my answer is it doesn’t matter because it will be something.  It could be a failure to deliver physical gold.  It could be an MF Global financial failure.  It could be a natural disaster.  It could be a lot of things.  The thing investors need to understand is the catalyst doesn’t matter.  It’s coming because the instability is already there.”
On gold manipulation and when it will end, Rickards says, “It will end when the physical shortage gets to the point that someone fails to deliver; which, at that point, there will be a buying panic.  There could be a buying panic or what some people call a demand shock.  One of the things I said about gold manipulation is if I was the manipulator, I would be embarrassed at this point.  The manipulation is obvious.  The evidence is coming in from all directions. . . . The manipulation is clear.  When will it end?  It will end when there is a physical shortage that pops up somewhere, or it will end with a short squeeze.”
“We are going to get a very large demand shock coming from China and India”, said Rickards.
“Let me explain those two cases.  We have a brand new government in India, and they are going to repeal the import tax on gold.  We also have the wedding season coming up. . . . So, India is set up for a very large surge in demand in the fourth quarter.  Now, over to China, this is one of the things that it’s happening faster than I originally thought.  The credit collapse story is happening in real time.  I said (in my book) this might be a 2015 event, but it looks like it is happening now.  Defaults are piling up.  We are seeing money rise.  We’re seeing people march down to the banks . . . trying to get their money back. . . . So, if they can’t buy foreign stocks, domestic stocks, don’t want to put their money in the bank and are getting out of real estate, then what’s left?  The answer is gold. . . . I see a demand shock coming from China. . . . You could see a scramble to buy gold.  It is going on anyway, but you could see it accelerate.  That will take down the manipulation.  Once the markets prevail over the manipulators, then watch out.”
Rickards, Washington and Wall Street insider, is certain the collapse will happen. He is just not sure when it will happen. 
“It is the thing you won’t see coming that will take the system down.  Things happen much more quickly than what investors expect.” 
“What will happen in gold is that it will chug along and then all of a sudden–boom.  It will be up $100 an ounce, and then the next day it will be up another $200 an ounce.  Then everyone will be on TV saying it’s a bubble—boom.  It’s up $300 an ounce, and before you know it, it will be up $1,000 per ounce.”
“Then people will say gee, I better get some gold, and they’ll find out they can’t get it because the big guy will get it.  You know, like central banks and sovereign wealth funds will be able to get the gold.  The typical investor will run down to the coin shop and they will be sold out, and the U.S. Mint will say sorry, we’re not shipping.” 
“You’re going to find out you can’t get it because the whole thing is set up for massive shortages in supply.”

More about James Rickards Click HERE In Video Chat with Mr Greg Hunter.

Gold & Silver Moving Closer to Bottom

The chart shows an 11-year trendline marking what should be rock solid support at or slightly above $17. A final decline could touch the trend line and then begin a strong reversal.
Precious Metals Moving Closer to Bottom
Gold has more downside potential and could easily make a new low. If and when the weekly low of $1200 breaks, Gold could plunge to its bottom within a few weeks. Keep an eye on $1080, which is the 50% retracement of the entire bull market.