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from Global Investing:

The Great Switchback and the ERP?

The risk of a whiplash-inducing switchback from core AAA bonds to equity and risk -- now that euro/banking systemic fears have eased and a global economic stabilisation seems to be underway -- is suddenly top of most investors' agendas.  Last week's surge in U.S. Treasury, German bund and British gilt yields as global stocks caught a fresh updraft saw U.S. equity outperform bonds by almost 5 percent, according to Societe Generale. While not historically shocking in itself, SG reckons the cumulative weight of several weeks of this may well be having its impact on asset managers as the Q1 comes to an end.

Coming on the back on several weeks of equity outperformance, those remaining overweight bonds will be finding life particularly uncomfortable right now.

The question for most strategists is whether this is start of a wholesale rebasing of portfolios that could see dramatic asset allocation shifts over the coming quarters.

Deutsche Bank equity strategists said they reckon 10-year U.S. Treasury yields could "easily" rise another 45bp to 2.70% over the remainder of the year if expectations for policy rates remain unchanged. Its "ready reckoner" suggests such a rise in bond yields would take 3% off equities, all else being equal. However, they stress that if this is in tandem with rising growth expectations, the negative impact on equity could be more than offset.

But Goldman Sachs Asset Management Chairman Jim O'Neill told clients at the weekend that his long-standing bullish view on equities remains rooted in the extremely high global Equity Risk Premium -- which measures the global trend growth rate (a proxy for long-term earnings growth) plus dividend yields minus real government bond yields.  O'Neill said that despite a slowdown in the big emerging markets this year, most investors did not take account of the fact that the long-term global trend growth rate was still rising and was now about 4.2%. Real bond yields, meantime, were extraordinarily depressed by a host of policy actions and systemic fears.

Until both the consensus forecast of world GDP growth moves above 4.2 pct, and real bond yields rise a lot, then the ERP offers equity investors a great return. Simple, eh?

from Global Investing:

Three snapshots for Monday

China's trade balance plunged $31.5 billion into the red in February as imports swamped exports.  It followed reports on Friday that inflation cooled in February while retail sales and industrial output fell below forecast, all pointing to a gradual cooling.

Investors ploughed more money into hedge funds over the past month as performance has picked up after last year's losses.

Final Q4 Italian GDP growth came in at -0.7%q/q. This chart showing GDP vs the Markit purchasing managers' index shows the current recession may continue into this year.

from Global Investing:

Three snapshots for Friday

The U.S. economy probably created 210,000 jobs last month, according to a Reuters survey. If the forecasts are accurate, the government's jobs report on Friday would mark the first time since early 2011 that payrolls have grown by more than 200,000 for three months in a row. Refresh chart

China's annual consumer inflation slowed sharply to a 20-month low in February, and factory output and retail sales also cooled more than forecast, giving policymakers ample room to further loosen monetary policy to support flagging growth.

Greece averted the immediate risk of an uncontrolled default, winning strong acceptance from its private creditors for a bond swap deal which will ease its massive public debt and clear the way for a new international bailout.

from Global Investing:

January in the rearview mirror

As January 2012 drifts into the rearview mirror as a bumper month for world markets, one way to capture the year so far is in pictures - thanks to Scott Barber and our graphics team.

The driving force behind the market surge was clearly the latest liquidity/monetary stimuli from the world's central banks.

The ECB's near half trillion euros of 3-year loans  has stabilised Europe's ailing banks by flooding them with cheap cash for much lower quality collateral. In the process, it's also opened up critical funding windows for the banks and allowed some reinvestment of the ECB loans into cash-strapped euro zone goverments. That in turn has seen most euro government borrowing rates fall. It's also allowed other corporates to come to the capital markets and JP Morgan estimates that euro zone corporate bond sales in January totalled 46 billion euros, the same last year and split equally between financials and non-financials..

But to the extent that the ECB move was aimed primarily at preventing a seizure of the banks, then one measure of  success can be seen in the degree to which it steepened government yield curves in Spain and Italy. A positive yield curve, which measures the gap between short-term  and long-term interest rates,  is effectively commercial banks' ATM -- they  make money by simply borrowing short-term and lending long. This chart then shows some normality returning to the benchmark interest structure.

from Global Investing:

Sparring with Central Banks

Just one look at the whoosh higher in global markets in January and you'd be forgiven smug faith in the hoary old market adage of "Don't fight the Fed" -- or to update the phrase less pithily for the modern, globalised marketplace: "Don't fight the world's central banks". (or "Don't Battle the Banks", maybe?)

In tandem with this month's Federal Reserve forecast of near-zero U.S. official interest rates for the next two years, the European Central Bank provided its banking sector nearly half a trillion euros of cheap 3-year loans in late December (and may do almost as much again on Feb 29). Add to that ongoing bouts of money printing by the Bank of England, Swiss National Bank, Bank of Japan and more than 40 expected acts of monetary easing by central banks around the world in the first half of this year and that's a lot of additional central bank support behind the market rebound.  So is betting against this firepower a mug's game? Well, some investors caution against the chance that the Banks are firing duds.

According to giant bond fund manager Pimco, the post-credit crisis process of household, corporate and sovereign deleveraging is so intense and loaded with risk that central banks may just be keeping up with events and even then are doing so at very different speeds. What's more the solution to the problem is not a monetary one anyway and all they can do is ease the pain.

Low interest rates and liquidity schemes can't solve what ails the developed world. Societies must accept that in order to alter their current perilous course they must undergo great change, moving away from entitlements to which they have become accustomed. The alternative is weak economic growth, a loss of competitiveness and negative external balances -- a loss of face and place in the global hierarchy.

As if to reinforce the underlying point that the developed world faces a protracted reform period that tests political, economic and social priorities, credit rating firm Standard & Poors' -- not the most popular company in corridors of power over the past year -- warned on Tuesday  that it may downgrade the debt of "a number of highly-rated" Group of 20 countries from 2015 if their governments fail to enact reforms to curb rising healthcare spending and other costs related to ageing populations.

For Pimco, the political and social resistance to this sort of change is already showing itself to be significant both in Europe and the United States. People clearly don't want to see pensions and benefits cut but politicians have already grown government and sovereign indebtedness close to their maximum. Accommodative central banks that helped them get there only ended up fueling credit, consumption and housing bubbles and distorting the balance of the economy away from production and into an increasingly bloated financial sector. That, clearly, ended in tears as finance itself needed bailing out and compounded the sovereign debt burden.

So if harder, longer-term choices and reforms are now needed, central banks ability to continually  reflate the world economy by monetary means alone is at best uncertain, Pimco argues. The risk of major upheavals along the way in Europe, for example, has the potential for major market volatility and economic seizures.

from Global Investing:

Can Eastern Europe “sweat” it?

Interesting to see that Poland wants to squeeze out more income from its state-owned enterprise (SOE) sector in the face of slowing economic growth and financing pressures.

Warsaw wants to double next year's dividends from stakes in firms ranging from copper mines to utility providers to banks.

Fellow euro zone aspirant Lithuania has also embarked on reforms aimed at increasing dividends sixfold from what UBS has dubbed "the forgotten side of the government balance sheet". It wants to emulate countries such as Sweden and Singapore where such companies are managed at arm's length from the state and run along strict corporate standards to consistently grow profits.

The impetus isn't entirely ideological. Poland and Lithuania are desperately trying to balance their books and under European Commission rules, privatisation proceeds cannot be taken into account when calculating the budget deficit but SOE dividends can.

But "sweating" government assets to yield higher profits doesn't always come easy for central and eastern Europe. After all, this is a region where state ownership has been synonymous with inefficiency and stagnation.

Even so, the track record of emerging European governments on privatisation is mixed.

The haste at which state resources were sold off following the collapse of the Soviet Union had disastrous repercussions for economies such as Russia and Croatia. Recent efforts at state divestment from Poland to the Czech Republic to Romania have run aground on unrealistic price expectations, corruption or regulatory obstruction.

from Global Investing:

Hungary and the euro zone blame game

More tough talk from Hungarian officials on the 'unjustified' weakness of the country's currency, which has dropped 11 percent against the euro this year to all-time lows.

This time, it's central banker Ferenc Gerhardt arguing that the weakness of the forint is out of sync with economic fundamentals and blaming it on the debt turmoil in the euro zone.

Perhaps he should look a little closer to home.

Hungary's drift from orthodox economic policy since the centre-right government took over the reins last year has made it the most exposed of eastern European economies.

The ruling party Fidesz swept into power  promising to create a new social contract that would subject the economic system to the "popular democratic will". Ironically, the policies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban have made Hungarian markets more sensitive to the global sentiment than ever.

Domestic investor participation in local bonds and stock markets has fallen since the government controversially seized private pension fund assets to boost state coffers this year.

Average daily trading volumes on the Budapest stock exchange have slipped 25 percent this year while non-resident ownership of local-currency bonds are at elevated levels -- as high as 40 percent -- and estimated to be worth a considerable 4.8 trillion forints ($20 billion)

from Global Investing:

Phew! Emerging from euro fog

Holding your breath for instant and comprehensive European Union policies solutions has never been terribly wise.  And, as the past three months of summit-ology around the euro sovereign debt crisis attests, you'd be just a little blue in the face waiting for the 'big bazooka'. And, no doubt, there will still be elements of this latest plan knocking around a year or more from now. Yet, the history of euro decision making also shows that Europe tends to deliver some sort of solution eventually and it typically has the firepower if not the automatic will to prevent systemic collapse. And here's where most global investors stand following the "framework" euro stabilisation agreement reached late on Wednesday. It had the basic ingredients, even if the precise recipe still needs to be nailed down. The headline, box-ticking numbers -- a 50% Greek debt writedown, agreement to leverage the euro rescue fund to more than a trillion euros and provisions for bank recapitalisation of more than 100 billion euros -- were broadly what was called for, if not the "shock and awe" some demanded.  Financial markets, who had fretted about the "tail risk" of a dysfunctional euro zone meltdown by yearend, have breathed a sigh of relief and equity and risk markets rose on Thursday. European bank stocks gained almost 6%, world equity indices and euro climbed to their highest in almost two months in an audible "Phew!".

Credit Suisse economists gave a qualified but positive spin to the deal in a note to clients this morning:

It would be clearly premature to declare the euro crisis as fully resolved. Nevertheless, it is our impression that EU leaders have made significant progress on all fronts. This suggests that the rebound in risk assets that has been underway in recent days may well continue for some time.

So what exactly have investors and been doing while waiting for the fog to clear in Brussels?  The truth on most benchmark prices and indices is "not very much" -- at least not since world markets got the collywobbles in early August about US downgrades and debt ceilings, euro sovereign debt angst and double dip recession. Yet, since the European stocks nadir in late September prodded the Franco-German alliance into more serious action, there has been some impressive market gains of between 10 and 20% across most equity sectors and national indices. More broadly, after a year of intense political and financial turmoil across the globe, developed market equities are only down about 4% year-to-date -- a 10 point outperformance on emerging markets, for example.

And the clearing of the euro fog now allows investors to start looking beyond the Brussels cauldron and review how the rest of the world is shaping up. What they find, surprisingly for those drowning in disaster commentaries, is‘not all that bad – especially, but not exclusively in the United States. There's been a string of more positive economic data releases throughout October and these have continued through the back end of last week and early this week. The bellwether Philadelphia Fed industrial index rose to its highest in six months; U.S. durable goods orders (excluding volatile aircraft orders) rose at their fastest pace in six months in September; U.S. new home sales rose at their fastest in five months; business surveys show Chinese manufacturing is back expanding again in October for the first time in three months; U.S. power firms are reporting a pickup in industrial activity in H2, Ford has increased fourth quarter forecast for North American vehicle production. The U.S. Q3 earnings season hasn’t been half bad either – with a third of the S&P500 reported, some 70 percent beat forecasts and the main strength was in the industrial world. What’s more for markets, seasonal equity flows are typically in an updraft for the rest of the year, all things being equal. Fund managers already started rebuilding equity positions in September.

European business and consumer sentiment surveys have continued to push lower through the policy logjam, unsurprisingly, even if real data contradicts some of that anecdotal ‘evidence’. And this may well translate into the wider investment theme as the euro crisis ebbs. Europe may agree to adapt grudgingly to solve its immediate problem but tyhen pay the price in economic growth because it’s less worse than the alternative of financial chaos.

On the more immediate horizon, there may be groans  from those hoping to escape summit mania as G20 leaders are set to meet in Cannes next Thursday and Friday -- with a hoped-for endorsement of the euro plan and a specific interest in the EFSF/IMF/SPV idea that seems to be courting sovereign wealth funds from China and other emerging giants from the BRICs to use a special conduit to buy euro sovereign bonds. ECB rate cuts too may be firmly back in the frame on Thursday as Mario Draghi takes the helm of the central bank for the first time. The Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee gives us its latest decision on Wednesday. US payrolls looms large on Friday, with a heavy European earnings sked including Barclays, BMW, ING, BNPP, Unilever, CS, ArcelorMittal, RBS, Commerzbank, and many more.

from Global Investing:

Is end-game approaching for Turkey’s policy experiment?

In less than two months, Turkey will mark the first anniversary of the start of an unusual monetary policy experiment, and it may well do so by calling it off.  The experiment hinged on cutting interest rates while raising banks' reserve ratio requirements, and as recently as August, the central bank was hoping  it would be able to slow a local credit boom a bit but still protect exports by keeping the currency cheap.  Instead, an investor exodus from emerging markets has put the lira to the sword, fuelling at one point a 20 percent collapse in its value against the dollar.  That has forced the central bank to roll back some of the reserve ratio hikes and last week it jacked up overnight lending rates in an attempt to boost the currency. It has also sold vast quantities of dollars and is promising  to unveil more  measures on Wednesday.

But what the market really wants to see is an increase in Turkey's main interest rate.  "Not sure that 'measures' short of rate hikes will help," RBS analyst Tim Ash writes.

Given Turkey's massive current account deficit of almost 10 percent of GDP, an interest rate of 5.75 percent will provide little protection to the lira if emerging markets come under serious pressure again. Even if the lira stabilises at current levels, an inflation spike to double-digits looks inevitable.  Meanwhile the central bank's hard currency reserves are vanishing at an alarming rate -- just last week it spent $2.7 billion. That's a lot given Turkish reserves are just $86 billion, or  four months of imports.  Current central bank policy is  "an open door to reserve depletion," Societe Generale strategist Guillaume Salomon says,  noting that despite the massive dollar sales,  the lira is not far off record lows hit earlier this month.

Undoubtedly, the central bank's misfortunes have a lot to do with global sentiment. But the overall verdict on its policies is negative -- analysts point out that annual credit growth still close to 40 percent, the current account gap is narrowing far too slowly and inflation is spiralling. Some even predict a recession next year. Ash of RBS argues that a modest half point rate increase now is the way to go and could save Turkey from much bigger rate rises  in coming months.

Many saw last week's increase to overnight lending rates as a step back towards policymaking orthodoxy.  "The end-game could be higher policy rates going forward," SocGen's Salomon says, though he expects the central bank to try a while longer before it throws in the towel on its experiment.

from Global Investing:

Avoid financial meltdown – use a thesaurus

So it's not just investors who are guilty of moving in a herd-like fashion.

Financial journalists use the same verbs and nouns with greater frequency as stock markets overheat but display more variety in their phraseology after the bubble bursts, a study by Irish computer scientists has shown.

Trawling through nearly 18,000 on-line news articles that mention the Dow Jones, FTSE and Nikkei stock indices between 2006 and 2010, Aaron Gerow of Trinity College Dublin and Mark Keane of University College Dublin found that the language used by the writers had become more similar in the run-up to the global financial crisis.

"Meaningful regularities" in language employed before the crash showed "progressively greater agreement" in "positive perceptions of the market".

Financial commentaries from The Financial Times, the New York Times and the BBC as well as news wire services such as Reuters, for instance, deployed increasingly similar noun-phrases as the market overheated, possibly reflecting a "narrowing of reporting to a relatively smaller number of key events/companies."

The verbs "rise", "fall", "close" and "gain" were most popular through 2007 but their usage peaked the week of October 12 when the crash begins.

Gerow and Keane argue that this convergence of language can be used to identify stock market bubbles and supplement traditional volatility analyses.