Hair of the dog? Citi says more LTROs in store
Just as global markets nurse a hangover from their Q1 binge on cheap ECB lending — a circa 1 trillion euro flood of 1%, 3-year loans to euro zone banks in December and February (anodynely dubbed a Long-Term Refinancing Operation) — there’s every chance they may get, or at least need, a proverbial hair of the dog.
At least that’s what Citi chief economist Willem Buiter and team think despite regular insistence from ECB top brass that the recent two-legged LTRO was likely a one off.
Even though Citi late Wednesday nudged up its world growth forecast for a third month running, in keeping with Tuesday’s IMF’s upgrade , it remains significantly more bearish on headline numbers and sees PPP-weighted global growth this year and next at 3.1% and 3.5% compared with the Fund’s call of 3.5% and 4.1%.
But its euro zone calls are gloomiest of all. First off, it sees two consecutive years of economic contraction of the bloc as a whole — a 1.0% shrinkage this year followed by 0.2% drop in 2013. Against this dire backdrop, it expects Spain to be forced to seek Troika (EU, IMF and ECB) support later this year that will be focussed on recapitalizing and restructuring its ailing banks and it also expects both Portugal and Ireland to need second bailouts from the same source.
And with that sort of pressure from deleveraging, austerity, sovereign debt stress and recession , the ECB will have to bring out yet another punchbowl, it reckons.
We expect that renewed EMU strains will prompt the ECB to launch at least one more multi-year LTRO and continue to pencil in one or two more rate cuts by end-2013.
Yet, just like the euphoric effects of both the binge and “morning after” drink, the problem with LTRO is that it risks causing more problems than it solves by tying the banks of weak peripheral euro states ever closer to their ailing sovereigns.
Three snapshots for Tuesday
Italy and Spain are back in focus as bond yields and spreads start rising again.
The latest Sentix euro zone investor sentiment index also seemed to confirm the feeling that crisis worries are back falling to -14.7 in April.
U.S. small business confidence dropped in March for the first time in six months:
Japanization of euro zone bonds?
Fear of many years of stagnation in the major western economies has everyone fretting about a repeat of the “lost decades” that Japan suffered after its banking and real estate bubble burst in the early 1990s. Indeed HSBC economists were recently keen to point out that U.S. per capita growth over the noughties was already actually weaker than either of Japan’s lost decades.
But in a detailed presentation on the impact of two years of soveriegn debt crisis on euro zone government bond holdings, Barclays economist Laurent Fransolet asks whether that market too is turning into the Japanese government bond market — where years of slow growth, zero interest rates, current account surpluses and captive local buyers have depressed borrowing rates for years and turned JGBs into an increasingly domestic market dominated by local banks, pension funds and insurers. Non-residents hold less than 10 percent of JGBs, compared to more than 50 percent for the EGB as a whole, and Japanese banks hold up to 35 percent of their own government bond market.
But is the euro government market heading in that direction after successive crises have seen foreign investors flee many of the peripheral markets of Greece, Portugal, Ireland and even Italy and Spain? Fransolet argues that the seniority of substantial European Central Bank holdings built up in the interim (now about 15 percent of each of the five peripheral markets) may be one reason why these foreign investors will be wary of returning. Meantime, euro zone banks, who have traditionally held a high 20-25 percentage point share of euro government markets, withdrew sharply late last year amid balance sheet repair pressures but have rebuilt holdings again sharply in early 2012 after the ECB’s liquidity injections — particularly in Italy and Spain.
In answer to the longer-term question of whether euro bonds will turn into a more insular market dominated less by interest rate signals than liquidity, regulatory and balance sheet issues, Fransolet is equivocal. On one level they are still very different — state-sector holdings of euro debt are still far from Japan’s, the euro market has clearly fragmented and net new issuance of euro debt is also still way below Japan.
However, the trend is clearly toward a more domestically driven market in the periphery of euro bloc in particular and local banks are becoming bigger players. And, crucially, although foreign investors may not return en masse soon, their impact on those markets via futures and CDS markets and index weightings may still be high.
Time for a slice of vol?
As the global markets consensus shifts toward a “basically bullish, but enough for now” stance — at least before Fed chief Bernanke on Monday was read as rekindling Fed easing hopes — more than a few investment strategists are examining the cost and wisdom of hedging against it all going pear-shaped again. At least two of the main equity hedges, core government bonds and volatility indices, have certainly got cheaper during the first quarter. But volatility (where Wall St’s Vix index has hit its lowest since before the credit crisis blew up in 2007!) looks to many to be the most attractive option. Triple-A bond yields, on the other hand, are also higher but have already backed off recent highs and bond prices remain in the stratosphere historically. And so if Bernanke was slightly “overinterpreted” on Monday — and even optimistic houses such as Barclays reckon the U.S. economy, inflation and risk appetite would have to weaken markedly from here to trigger “QE3″ while further monetary stimuli in the run-up to November’s U.S. election will be politically controversial at least — then there are plenty of investors who may seek some market protection.
Societe Generale’s asset allocation team, for one, highlights the equity volatility hedge instead of bonds for those fearful of a correction to the 20% Wall St equity gains since November.
A remarkable string of positive economic surprises has boosted risky assets and driven macro expectations higher but has also created material scope for disappointment from now on. We recommend hedging risky asset exposure (Equity, Credit and Commodities) by adding Equity Volatility to portfolios.
Market exhaustion?
It’s curious to see so many asset managers reaffirm their faith in a bullish 2012 for world markets just as a buzzing first quarter comes to a close on Friday with hefty gains in equities and risk assets. Whether or not there is a mechanical review of portfolios at quarter end, it’s certainly a reasonable time for review. The euro zone crisis has of course eased, the ECB has pumped the banks full of cash and the U.S. recovery continues. So, no impending disaster then (unless you subscribe to the increasingly-prevalent hard-landing fears in China). But after 11+ percent gains in world equities in just three months on the back of all this information, you have to wonder where the “new news” is going to come from here. The surprise factor looks over and we’re highly unlikely to get 10%+ gains in global stocks every quarter this year. So, is it time for tired markets to sober up for a while or maybe even reconsider the risk of reversal again? Strategists at JPMorgan Asset Management, at least, reckon the economic news has just lost its oomph.
There are broad signs of exhaustion in markets, which is coinciding with a softening in the data, suggesting that in the short term the moderation in the “risk on” environment may continue.
JPMAM cite the rollover in the Citigroup economic surprises indices, shown below, and also say their own propietary Risk Measurement index — a 39-factor model built on data from money markets, equities, economic data, commodities etc — is flagging more caution.
Time for a pause and bit of a think then, at least until the first-quarter corporate earnings season kicks in next month. And it’s here the next leg of any equities story may have to play out, rather than in the corridors of central banks and finance ministries. Gavyn Davies, Fulcrum Asset Management chairman and formerly BBC chairman and Goldman Sachs economist, reckons the valuation case for equities is pretty strong after a lousy decade — even if government bond yields continue rising. What’s less certain, he says, is whether the historically high share of nominal GDP commanded by after-tax corporate profits can persist. This requires a paradigm shift, one he reckons is bridged by globalisaton trends. One quarter won’t solve that puzzle, but attention may shift in that direction over the coming weeks.
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?
Retreat of Tail-Risk Trinity
Until this week at least, one of the big puzzles of the year for many investors was squaring a 10-15% surge in equity indices with little or no movement in rock-bottom U.S., German and UK government bond yields. To the extent that both markets reflect expectations for future economic activity, then one of them looks wrong. The pessimists, emboldened by the superior predictive powers of the bond market over recent decades, claim the persistence of super low U.S. Treasury, German bund and British gilt yields reveals a deep and pervasive pessimism about global growth for many years to come. Those preferring the sunny side up reckon super-low yields are merely a function of central bank bond buying and money printing — and if those policies are indeed successful in reflating economies, then equity bulls will be proved correct in time. A market rethink on the chances for another bout of U.S. Federal Reserve bond-buying after upbeat Fed statements and buoyant U.S. economic numbers over the past week also nods to the latter argument.
But as we approach the final fortnight of the first quarter, more seems to be going on. Much of the whoosh of Q1 so far has merely been a reversal of the renewed systemic fears that emerged in the second half of last year. In fact, gains in world equity indices of circa 13% are an exact reversal of the net losses suffered between last June and the end of 2011. And if those gains are justified, then much of the extreme “tail risks” that scared the horses back then must have been put to rest too, no? Well, the two mains tail risks — a euro zone breakup or collapse and a lapse of the U.S. economy into another recesssion or depression — do look to have been been put to bed for now at least. The ECB’s mega 3-year cash floods in December and February and the “orderly” Greek debt default and restructuring last week have certainly eased the euro strain. The remarkable stabilisation of U.S. labour markets, factory activity, household credit and even retail sales has also silenced the double-dippers there for now too.
The net result seems to have been this week’s synchronised retreat in three of the main “catastrophe hedges” — gold, AAA-government bonds and equity volatility indices — and this move could well mark a critical juncture. Gold is down 8% since its 2012 peak on Leap Day, 10-year U.S., UK and German government bond yields are up 25/30 basis points since Monday alone, and equity volatility gauges such as Wall St’s ViX have dropped to levels not seen since before the whole credit crisis exploded in the summer of 2007. If extreme systemic fears are genuinely abating and the prevalence of even marginal positioning like this in investment portfolios is being unwound, then there may well be some seismic flows ahead that could add another leg to the equity rally. The U.S. bias in all this is obvious with the rise of the dollar exchange rate index to its highest since January. That has its own investment ramifications — not least in emerging markets. But the questions for many will remain. Is the coast really clear? Are elections over the coming weeks in France and Greece and an Irish referendum on the euro fiscal pact just sideshows? Is the global economy sufficiently repaired to bet on renewed growth from here and will corporate earnings follow suit? Has bank and household deleveraging across the western world halted? Are the oil price surge and geopolitical risks in the Middle East no longer a concern? And if you’ve made 10-15% already this year, are you going to go double or quits? The chances are there will not be 10-15% equity gains in every quarter this year.
Emerging market local bond rally has more legs
Just a month and half into 2012, emerging local currency bonds have already returned 9 percent, one of best performing asset classes. But the rally has further to go, says J.P. Morgan which runs the most widely used emerging debt indices. The bank is now predicting its benchmark local currency debt index, the GBI-EM, to end the year with returns of 16 percent, upping its original expectation for 11.9 percent.
There are several reasons for this bullishnesss. JPM’s latest client survey reveals investors’ positioning is still neutral, meaning there is potential for more gains. Cash inflows to EM local debt have been dwarfed this year by investments into dollar bonds, considered a safer, albeit lower-yielding asset than locally issued bonds. So when (and if) euro zone uncertainties abate, some of this cash is likely to make the switch.
Many emerging countries are still cutting interest rates, which will push down yields on short-dated bonds. Other countries may tolerate some more currency appreciation to dampen inflation, benefiting the currency side of the EM local bond trade. Above all, with all developed central banks intent on quantitative easing (Japan announced a surprise $130 billion worth of extra QE this week), the yield premium offered by emerging markets — the carry — is irresistible. On average the GBI-EM index offers a 4.5 percent yield pick up on U.S. Treasuries, JPM notes:
From an EM perspective there is little reason to fight the rising tide of monetary policy support in the near term. Comparisons to the 2009 global carry trade are unavoidable given the scope of G-4 central bank balance sheet expansion.
So far, around 70 percent of the gains posted by the GBI-EM index have been down to currency appreciation (see here). That could change going forward as some central banks may act to slow FX appreciation. That’s already been happening in Brazil. Gains from the duration trade — derived from interest rate cuts — are also more or less done, analysts reckon, because emerging central banks are more likely from here to keep interest rates on hold than to cut. J.P. Morgan adds:
While we look for approximately 7 percent in additional returns in the GBI-EM for the remainder of the year, the majority of this is due to carry (5 percent) while spiot FX returns should be muted at 1.9 percent and duration returns flat.
Euro periphery: Lehman-type shock still on cards
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The passing of Greek austerity measures is fuelling a rally in peripheral debt today with Italian, Spanish and Portuguese yields falling across the curve.
However, one should not forget that peripheral economies are still under considerable risk of becoming the next Greece — rising debt and weak economic growth pushing the country to seek a bailout — as a result of tighter financial conditions.
Take this warning from JP Morgan:
Financial conditions have deteriorated far more in peripheral Europe than in the core. The drag from this on peripheral GDP is akin to that seen following the Lehman crisis.
JP Morgan uses analysis based on quantifying the impact of financial market developments and monetary policy actions on economic activity. The main variables the analysis uses is: the three-month LIBOR rate, the yield on investment grade corporate bonds, the spread of high yield corporates over that of high grade, real equity returns, the change in the real exchange rate and bank lending standards for businesses as reported in loan officer surveys.
According to JP Morgan’s calculations, the 838 basis-point rise in the peripheral HY spreads implies a drag of -2.2 percent of GDP relative to what it would otherwise have been, had the HY spread unchanged.
from MacroScope:
Are Treasuries the new JGBs?
Anemic economic growth in the United States has sparked fears the country was entering a Japan-style “lost decade.” The comparison also has implications for government bond markets. Some traders see the U.S. Treasury market’s new, lower-yielding structure as eerily reminiscent of trading patterns seen in JGBs (Japanese government bonds). Says George Goncalves at Nomura:
There has been much debate since the start of the '08 credit crisis over whether the US is turning into Japan and if so how to trade it. We have spent a fair deal of time over the last two years developing a framework for how US rates investors can leverage these insights to "Trading USTs like JGBs.” […] One thing is clear: momentum trading starts to wane and narrower ranges will become the norm in a low yielding world with the Fed on perma hold meanwhile a lack of alternative fixed income products is still forcing investors to buy USTs.
This does not mean that investors can remain permanently bullish on Treasuries, however, Goncalves warns.
Many accounts have now subscribed to the view that the UST markets are turning Japan-like, but we caution that as with all range-trading periods, buying at the lows in a range that is stretched is still a dangerous proposition. Look at the JGBs experience in 2003 for a warning to those calling for even lower USTs rates from here.
