Category: US & Canada

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Weaker Dollar Outlook

Recovery of the Dollar has been overrated. With restrictions on fiscal deficits, it will be difficult to contain deflationary pressures from the Great Credit Contraction which is likely to endure for at least a decade — following the Great Credit Bubble over the last 40 years. Fed quantitative easing is likely to endure for longer than many observers, myself included, initially expected. And inflation will remain low despite QE, which is offset by deflationary pressures from the Great Credit Contraction.

The lower inflation outlook is reflected by falling gold and rising bond prices.

The Great Credit Bubble

There were two distinct credit bubbles in the last 50 years: the first in the 1980s, the second in the early 2000s. The chart comparing growth in Domestic Nonfinancial Credit (both Private and Government) to nominal GDP shows two clear episodes where credit growth outstripped GDP. Both resulted in significant falls in GDP from which the economy struggled to recover. The latter episode fed into the housing market, leading to the global financial crisis.

Dollar Index

The Great Credit Contraction

If we look at total Domestic Nonfinancial Credit, the rate of growth remained positive. So why call this a contraction? But the aggregate conceals a hidden danger: private household credit contracted, threatening a deflationary spiral similar to the 1930s — when GDP fell almost 50 percent.
Domestic Nonfinancial Credit - Households
Which is why the Federal Government frantically borrowed money for stimulus spending — to offset the effect of private credit contraction.
Domestic Nonfinancial Credit - Federal Govt
Government deficits have not solved the problem — they are merely kicking the can down the road. Household credit growth continues to lag GDP.
Dollar Index

Outlook for the Dollar

The Dollar has not benefited from the lower inflation outlook as interest rates are also likely to remain low. Primary advance of the Dollar Index ($DXY) seems to be losing steam, with a lower peak than mid-2012. Expect a test of primary support at 79. Penetration of the rising trendline would indicate trend weakness, while failure of support at 79 would signal a reversal. Twiggs Momentum is approaching the apex of a long-term triangle; reversal below zero and the rising trendline would also warn of a reversal.

Dollar Index

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Xi’s War Drums – By John Garnaut | Foreign Policy

John Garnaut writes:

[Capt. James Fanell], in comments that went largely unnoticed outside the small circle of China military specialists, spelled out in rare detail the reasons the United States is shifting 60 percent of its naval assets — including its most advanced capabilities — to the Pacific. He was blunt: The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is focused on war, and it is expanding into the “blue waters” explicitly to counter the U.S. Pacific Fleet. “I can tell you, as the fleet intelligence officer, the PLA Navy is going to sea to learn how to do naval warfare,” he said. “My assessment is the PLA Navy has become a very capable fighting force.”

Read more at Xi's War Drums – By John Garnaut | Foreign Policy.

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How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank | The Nation

Gary Rivlin gives us an insight into the machinations of Wall street lobbyists on Capitol Hill:

As he prepared to sign the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act—the sweeping legislative package designed to prevent another spectacular financial collapse—into law, the president [Obama] first acknowledged the miracle of having a bill to sign at all. “Passing this…was no easy task,” he told the crowd of hundreds. “We had to overcome the furious lobbying of an array of powerful interest groups and a partisan minority determined to block change.”

Indeed, some 3,000 lobbyists had swarmed the Capitol in hopes of killing off pieces of the proposed bill……

That sense of victory barely lasted barely the morning. …..After Dodd-Frank’s passage, lobbyists for the big banks and industry trade groups divided themselves into eighteen working groups, each organized around a different element of the new law. “That’s when the real work began,” Talbott tells me……

Read more at How Wall Street Defanged Dodd-Frank | The Nation.

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Canada: TSX Composite bearish

The TSX Composite correction found support at 12000. Expect a rally to test resistance at 12500, but penetration of the rising trendline indicates weakness and breach of support at 12000 would be a strong bear signal. Bearish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow warned of a correction; a fall below zero would suggest a (primary trend) reversal.
TSX Composite Index

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S&P 500 at key resistance while Treasury yields fall

10-Year Treasury yields broke through support at 1.70%. Prior to 2012, the 1945 low of 1.70% was the lowest level in the 200 year history of the US Treasury. Expect a test of primary support at 1.40%.
10-Year Treasury Yields

Falling Treasury yields generally indicate a flight from stocks to the safety of bonds. The S&P 500, however, is consolidating below resistance at 1600. Breakout would suggest an advance to 1650, while reversal below 1540 would indicate a correction to the rising trendline at 1475. Recent weakness on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow favors a correction, but oscillation above zero indicates a healthy primary up-trend. A June quarter-end below 1500 would present a strong long-term bear signal.

S&P 500 Index

* Target calculation: 1475 + ( 1475 – 1350 ) = 1600

The Nasdaq 100 index is testing resistance at 2900. Breakout would offer a target of 3400*, but bearish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow favors a break of 2800 and test of the rising trendline at 2700.
Nasdaq 100

* Target calculation: 2900 + ( 2900 – 2500 ) = 3400

Gold rallied to test resistance at $1500/ounce. Breakout would suggest a bear trap and a rally to $1600, but respect of resistance is likely and would signal another test of support at $1330/1350. A gold bear market indicates falling inflation expectations, but that could also translate into lower growth in earnings and higher Price Earnings ratios.
Gold

Structural flaws in the US economy have not been addressed and uncertainty remains high, despite low values reflected on the VIX.

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Capital Regulation after the Crisis: Business as Usual? | Martin Hellwig

This abstract from a 2010 paper by Martin Hellwig sums up the debate about overhauling the financial system:

Whereas the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision seems to go for marginal changes here and there, the paper calls for a thorough overhaul, moving away from risk calibration and raising capital requirements very substantially. The argument is based on the observation that the current system of risk-calibrated capital requirements, in particular under the model-based approach, played a key role in allowing banks to be undercapitalized prior to the crisis, with strong systemic effects for deleveraging multipliers and for the functioning of interbank markets. The argument is also based on the observation that the current system has no theoretical foundation, its objectives are ill-specified, and its effects have not been thought through, either for the individual bank or for the system as a whole. Objections to substantial increases in capital requirements rest on arguments that run counter to economic logic or are themselves evidence of moral hazard and a need for regulation.

The bipartisan bill, Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act, sponsored by senators Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, is a courageous attempt to address the undercapitalization that led to the global financial crisis. Abruptly raising bank capital requirements would lead to a credit contraction if introduced in isolation, but the Fed is quite capable of adjusting monetary policy to offset this and a suitable phase-in period would give banks time to adjust. What is important is that we get to the point where banks are properly capitalized to deal with any future instability.

Read the full paper at Capital Regulation after the Crisis: Business as Usual? | Martin Hellwig, July 2010.

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Two Senators Try to Slam the Door on Bank Bailouts – NYTimes.com

This is a show-down between Wall Street and the voting public. Gretchen Morgenson at NY Times writes:

THERE’S a lot to like, if you’re a taxpayer, in the new bipartisan bill from two concerned senators hoping to end the peril of big bank bailouts. But if you’re a large and powerful financial institution that’s too big to fail, you won’t like this bill one bit.

The legislation, called the Terminating Bailouts for Taxpayer Fairness Act, emerged last Wednesday; its co-sponsors are Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, and David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican. It is a smart, simple and tough piece of work that would protect taxpayers from costly rescues in the future.

This means that the bill will come under fierce attack from the big banks that almost wrecked our economy and stand to lose the most if it becomes law.

For starters, the bill would create an entirely new, transparent and ungameable set of capital rules for the nation’s banks — in other words, a meaningful rainy-day fund. Enormous institutions, like JPMorgan Chase and Citibank, would have to hold common stockholder equity of at least 15 percent of their consolidated assets to protect against large losses. That’s almost double the 8 percent of risk-weighted assets required under the capital rules established by Basel III, the latest version of the byzantine international system created by regulators and central bankers.

This change, by itself, would eliminate a raft of problems posed by the risk-weighted Basel approach……

The outcome is far from clear. The financial muscle of Wall Street can buy a lot of influence on the Hill. But my guess is that they are too smart to incense voters by meeting the bill head-on. Instead they will attempt to delay with amendments and eventually turn it into an unwieldy 1000-page unenforcable monstrosity that no one understands. Much as they did with Dodd-Frank.

If they win, the country as a whole will suffer. Maybe not today, but in the inevitable next financial crisis if this bill does not pass.

Read more at Two Senators Try to Slam the Door on Bank Bailouts – NYTimes.com.

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Forex: Aussie consolidates while Sterling surprises

The euro is consolidating between $1.30 and $1.32. Upward breakout is more likely and would test the high of $1.37. Reversal below $1.30 would warn of another decline, to around $1.24*. In the long-term, breakout above $1.37 would signal a primary advance to $1.50. A 13-week Twiggs Momentum trough at the zero line would reinforce this.

Euro/USD

* Target calculation: 1.28 – ( 1.32 – 1.28 ) = 1.24

Pound sterling surprised with a reversal above resistance at $1.53. Follow-through above $1.54 would suggest an advance to around $1.58, while retreat below $1.52 would signal a down-swing to $1.43*. Declining 13-week Twiggs Momentum, below its 2011 lows, strengthens the bear signal.

Sterling/USD

* Target calculation: 1.53 – ( 1.63 – 1.53 ) = 1.43

The Aussie Dollar rallied off primary support at $1.015. Narrow fluctuation of 63-day Twiggs Momentum around zero suggests a ranging market. Respect of support suggests another test of $1.06.

Aussie Dollar/USD

Canada’s Loonie found support above $0.97 against the greenback, suggesting another test of $0.99. Breach of the rising trendline, however, would indicate another down-swing.

Canadian Dollar/USD

The greenback is testing resistance at ¥100 against the Japanese Yen. The 30-year down-trend of the dollar is over. Breakout above ¥100 is likely, and would suggest an advance to the 2007 high at ¥125*.

USD/JPY

* Target calculation: 100 – ( 100 – 75 ) = 125

The Fed, ECB and BOJ are all printing money and debasing their currencies. The US dollar, although taking on water, is viewed as the safest — because it is sinking slower than the others. There are signs the Fed is likely to slow quantitative easing in the next 6 to 12 months.

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