From Mark Shenk:
Oil dropped from a seven-month high as the US dollar surged after the Federal Reserve published minutes of its latest monetary policy meeting suggesting a June hike is possible. Commodities fell as the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the US currency against 10 others, surged. The April minutes showed that policy makers saw an interest-rate hike appropriate in June if labour markets and economic growth continued to strengthen…..
The consumer price index (CPI) ticked up 1.14% (year-on-year) for April 2016, on the back of higher oil prices. Core CPI (excluding energy and food) eased slightly to 2.15%.
Inflation is muted, but a sharp rise in hourly manufacturing (production and nonsupervisory employees) earnings growth (2.98% for 12 months to April 2016) points to further increases.
Despite this, long-term interest rates remain weak, with 10-year Treasury yields testing support at 1.65 percent. Breach would signal another test of the record low at 1.50% in 2012. The dovish Fed is a contributing factor, but so could safe-haven demand from investors wary of stocks….
The US Dollar Index rallied off long-term support at 93 but this looks more a pause in the primary down-trend (signaled by decline of 13-week Momentum below zero) than a reversal.
Explanation for the Dollar rally is evident on the chart of China’s foreign reserves: a pause in the sharp decline of the last 2 years. China has embarked on another massive stimulus program in an attempt to shock their economy out of its present slump.
But this hair of the dog remedy is unlikely to solve their problems, merely postpone the inevitable reckoning. The Yuan is once again weakening against the Dollar. Decline in China’s reserves — and the US Dollar as a consequence — is likely to continue.
Goldman Sachs has cut its long-term crude oil forecasts:
The inflection phase of the oil market continues to deliver its share of surprises, with low prices driving disruptions in Nigeria, higher output in Iran and better demand. With each of these shifts significant in magnitude, the oil market has gone from nearing storage saturation to being in deficit much earlier than we expected and we are pulling forward our price forecast, with 2Q/2H16 WTI now $45/bbl and $50/bbl. However, we expect that the return of some of these outages as well as higher Iran and Iraq production will more than offset lingering issues in Nigeria and our higher demand forecast. As a result, we now forecast a more gradual decline in inventories in 2H than previously and a return into surplus in 1Q17, with low-cost production continuing to grow in the New Oil Order. This leads us to lower our 2017 forecast with prices in 1Q17 at $45/bbl and only reaching $60/bbl by 4Q2017.
But these forecasts are premised on a Chinese recovery:
Stronger vehicle sales, activity and a bigger harvest are leading us to raise our Indian and Russia demand forecasts for the year. And while we are reducing our US and EU forecasts on the combination of weaker activity and higher prices than previously assumed, we are raising our China demand forecasts to reflect the expected support from the recent transient stimulus. Net, our 2016 oil demand growth forecast is now 1.4 mb/d, up from 1.2 mb/d previously. Our bias for strong demand growth since October 2014 leaves us seeing risks to this forecast as skewed to the upside although lesser fuel and crude burn for power generation in Brazil, Japan and likely Saudi are large headwinds this year.
While production growth continues to surprise:
…..This expectation for a return into surplus in 1Q17 is not dependent on a sharp price recovery beyond the $45-$55/bbl trading range that we now expect in 2016. First, it reflects our view that low-cost producers will continue to drive production growth in the New Oil Order – with growth driven by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, the UAE and Russia. Second, non-OPEC producers had mostly budgeted such price levels and there remains a pipeline of already sanctioned non-OPEC projects. In fact, we see risks to our production forecasts as skewed to the upside as we remain conservative on Saudi’s ineluctable ramp up and Iran’s recovery.
We expect continued growth in low-cost producer output
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Iraq, Iran (crude) and Russia (oil) production (kb/d)
Tyler Durden has a more bearish view:
While there is much more in the full note, the bottom line is simple: near-term disruptions have led to a premature bounce in the price of oil, however as millions more in oil barrels come online (and as Chinese demand fades contrary to what Goldman believes), the next leg in oil will not be higher, but flat or lower, in what increasingly is shaping up to be a rerun of the summer of 2015.
Source: Goldman Cuts 2017 Oil Price Forecast Due To Slower Market Rebalancing | Zero Hedge
From Seana Smith:
Earnings season is sending a massive warning for the retail sector: Big players are getting crushed, and if companies fail to change their strategies, things may go from bad to worse. A slew of weak results sent traditional retailers into a tailspin this week. Gap (GPS) and Ralph Lauren (RL), along with department stores Macy’s (M), Kohl’s (KSS), Nordstrom (JWN) and J.C. Penney (JCP), all disappointed Wall Street with their latest numbers.
Gap and Ralph Lauren both reported a drop in comparable sales, falling 7% and 5% respectively. And the results weren’t any better for department stores. Macy’s recorded its worst quarterly results since the recession, Kohl’s posted an 87% decline in its profit, Nordstrom slashed its guidance and J.C. Penney reversed five straight quarters of sales growth.
But there’s one massive retailer that’s bucking the trend — Amazon.
The e-commerce giant is gaining market share while wreaking havoc on its brick-and-mortar competitors.“Amazon is already the second largest U.S. apparel retailer (trailing only WMT), as the company has grown to ~7% of the overall U.S. apparel market. We estimate Amazon will reach 19% share of the U.S. apparel market by 2020,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a note to clients on Thursday.
Amazon (AMZN) broke through resistance at 700, offering a target of 900. Rising troughs on long-term (12-month) Money Flow reflect strong buying pressure. Retracement that respects the band of support at 680 to 700 would confirm the breakout.
Source: Old-school American retail is getting crushed by capitalism – Yahoo Finance
Retail sales (excluding motor vehicles and fuel) jumped to a 2.96% year-on-year increase for April 2016, climbing back above Core CPI to reflect a real increase.
We are still waiting on light vehicle sales for April. An upturn would indicate reviving consumer confidence in the economy.
An upturn in business sales is also needed, to spur new investment.
The US Dollar Index rallied off long-term support at 93 but this looks more a pause in the primary down-trend, signaled by decline of 13-week Momentum below zero, than a reversal.
Explanation for the Dollar rally is evident on the chart of China’s foreign reserves: a pause in the sharp decline of the last 2 years. China has embarked on another massive stimulus program in an attempt to shock their economy out of its present slump.
But this hair of the dog remedy is unlikely to solve their problems, merely postpone the inevitable reckoning. The Yuan is once again weakening against the Dollar and decline in China’s reserves, and the US Dollar as a consequence, is likely to continue.
Canada’s TSX 60 found resistance at 820. Reversal below 800 warns of a correction but short retracement would be a bullish sign. And breakout above 820 would signal another advance. Rising 13-week Twiggs Momentum suggests a primary up-trend.
Several weeks ago I wrote that the S&P 500 would struggle to break the band of resistance at 2100 to 2130. Tuesday’s strong blue candle made me hesitate but sellers showed up on Wednesday and restored my faith. Money Flow is declining and reversal below 2040 would confirm another correction. But breakout above the descending trendline on 21-day Twiggs Money Flow would still warn that all bets are off.
A CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) at 15 indicates that (short-term) market risk is low.
We have reduced cash levels in our S&P 500 momentum portfolio as long-term risk measures have improved but there are still only 4 stocks (out of 500) that meet our selection criteria!
Hedge fund legend Stan Druckenmiller, founder of Duquesne, addressing the Sohn Conference:
….The Fed has no end game. The Fed’s objective seems to be getting by another 6 months without a 20% decline in the S&P and avoiding a recession over the near term. In doing so, they are enabling the opposite of needed reform and increasing, not lowering, the odds of the economic tail risk they are trying to avoid. At the government level, the impeding of market signals has allowed politicians to continue to ignore badly needed entitlement and tax reform.
Look at the slide behind me. The doves keep asking where is the evidence of mal-investment? As you can see, the growth in operating cash flow peaked 5 years ago and turned negative year over year recently even as net debt continues to grow at an incredibly high pace. Never in the post-World War II period has this happened. Until the cycle preceding the great recession, the peaks had been pretty much coincident. Even during that cycle, they only diverged for 2 years, and by the time EBITDA turned negative year over year, as it has today, growth in net debt had been declining for over 2 years. Again, the current 5-year divergence is unprecedented in financial history!
And if this wasn’t disturbing enough, take a look at the use of that debt in this cycle. While the debt in the 1990’s financed the construction of the internet, most of the debt today has been used for financial engineering, not productive investments….
Source: For Stan Druckenmiller This Is “The Endgame” – His Full ‘Apocalyptic’ Presentation | Zero Hedge
Hat tip to Houses & Holes at Macrobusiness.
Also from Michael Pettis:
This is the great irony of the global financial crisis. China, Russia, and France want to lead the charge to strip the US of its exorbitant privilege, and the US resists. And yet if the US were to take steps to prevent foreigners from accumulating US assets, the result would be a sharp contraction in international trade. Surplus countries, like Europe and China, would be devastated, but the US current account deficit would fall with the reduction in net capital inflows. As it did, by definition the excess of US investment over US savings would have to contract. Because US investment wouldn’t fall, and in fact would most likely rise, US savings would automatically rise as lower US unemployment caused GDP to grow faster than the rise in consumption.
But what about the extremely low savings rates in the US. Don’t they prove, as Yale University’s Stephen Roach has often pointed out, that the US is savings-deficient and relies on Chinese and European savings to fund US investment, or at least the US fiscal deficit, because the US consumes beyond its means?
“What the candidates won’t tell the American people is that the trade deficit and the pressures it places on hard-pressed middle-class workers stem from problems made at home. In fact, the real reason the US has such a massive multilateral trade deficit is that Americans don’t save.”
This is one of the most fundamental errors that arise from a failure to understand the balance of payments mechanisms. As I explained four years ago in an article for Foreign Policy, “it may be correct to say that the role of the dollar allows Americans to consume beyond their means, but it is just as correct, and probably more so, to say that foreign accumulations of dollars force Americans to consume beyond their means.” As counter-intuitive as it may seem at first, the US does not need foreign capital because the US savings rate is low. The US savings rate is low because it must counterbalance foreign capital inflows, and this is true out of arithmetical necessity……
