por Fenix » Mié Ene 27, 2016 7:26 pm
Wall Street Economists React To The Fed's Statement
Submitted by Tyler D.
01/27/2016 15:34 -0500
After the Fed's statement, one thing was clear: the career economists at the Marriner Eccles building are very confused, admitting to hiking rates for the first time in nine years "even as economic growth slowed late last year". But more confused are the Wall Street economists who follow the Fed and are expected to interpret what the Fed says, means and hints, especially when said Fed has no clue what is going on, like right now - the same people who a month ago said, for example, predicted that a rate hike was bullish; the same people who blamed the economic slowdown in the winter of 2014/2015 due to China on... snow in the winter.
So while their opinions are utterly worthless, for the record, here is what the economisseds see in today's 558 words of sheer Fed confusion:
"The statement following today’s FOMC meeting acknowledged the recent tightening of financial conditions and risks from international developments, and noted that these factors could affect the risks around the outlook. Assuming a modest improvement in financial market conditions, we expect the committee to follow through with a rate hike in March."
- Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs
"When it comes to the statement, what's most obvious is the absence of content, not the presence. Nowhere did Yellen & Co. reference 'market volatility,' a euphemism for the global equity declines experienced in 2016....There's only one thing to learn from this barrel-of-oil-sized hole in the rather terse [Federal Open Market Committee] statement: March depends on job markets (still running strong) and inflation theory (no data, but the Fed believes)."
- Guy LeBas, Janney Montgomery Scott
"The first line of the statement leads with 'labor market conditions improved further even as economic growth slowed late last year,' a clear reminder of what drives the Fed at this stage in the cycle. Yes, they have to watch market and global developments, but when wages are beginning to accelerate and the Fed expects 'some additional decline in underutilization of labor resources,' following 'strong job gains,' it is clear that the bar for market turmoil to deflect them from 'gradual' tightening has been raised."
- Ian Shepherdson, Pantheon Macroeconomics
"Policy makers are indicating that it is too soon to gauge the impact from the sharp fall in global equity and oil prices and because of that they are not prepared to offer an assessment on the risks to the economic outlook, labor markets and inflation. Clearly by not offering a risk assessment on the outlook the FOMC is indicating that at this time there is a low probability of them raising official rates at the March meeting. " -
- Joseph Carson, AllianceBernstein
"The FOMC statement was reworded to signal increased concern about 'global economic and financial developments,' but, overall, the tweaks to the statement were limited enough to be consistent with no major change yet to the policy outlook. In the end, decisions will depend on the data and market developments."
- Jim O'Sullivan, High Frequency Economics
" The statement highlighted the potential downside risks from what is transpiring in global financial markets and in many economies around the world....This replaced previously used phrasing stating a belief that the risks to the outlook for economic activity and the labor market were balanced even taking into account domestic and international developments. All in all, the relevant changes to the policy statement tilt in the dovish direction, consistent with our forecast of just two additional tightening moves this year."
- Joshua Shapiro, MFR Inc.
"It seems clear to me that the Fed is shading the economic risk to the downside. I’m reading this a touch more dovishly than the market appears to be. “Big takeaway” is FOMC’s description of slower economic growth in late 2015, near-term inflation remaining low. Statement was “negative” on economic growth, yet “not so much as to signal greater accommodation ahead”
- B. Hunter Hill , SunTrust Robinson Humphrey
"We find ourselves in the odd position that the Fed is almost certain to hike if markets stabilize in the next month and half, but might not hike if markets continue to slide"
- Chris Low, FTN
Two important changes in statement were acknowledgment that FOMC is “closely monitoring” global economic, financial developments and disappearance of sentence that said FOMC “reasonably confident” inflation will rise to objective.Omission of “reasonably confident” sentence doesn’t mean FOMC thinks it won’t hit inflation target but it not longer wants to “pound the table." FOMC has backed off a little on how confident it is with regard to inflation and the ability of economy to weather global headwinds
- Ethan Harris, Bank of America
* * *
However, without doubt the best comment of the day was this one:
The Fed has signaled they have started the year even more clueless as to what is happening than last year...YOU SHOULD BE SCARED...
Source: Dow Jones, Bloomberg
With 1.6 Billion Monthly Active Users, Here Is Facebook's Quarter And Year In Charts
Submitted by Tyler D.
01/27/2016 - 16:42
In an otherwise dreary manufacturing recession landscape, one in which even the services sector is getting increasingly more troubled by the day, and where nothing the Fed says or does can keep animal spirits inflated, there was one ray of light: the one company that benefits from over a billion people posting pictures of their dogs or stalking their significant other's best friend: Facebook.
Is China About To Drop A Devaluation Bomb?
Submitted by Tyler D.
01/27/2016 - 17:15
In concert with denial and obfuscation, pride and hubris may be clouding the image the Chinese have of themselves and their economy. What they are trying very hard NOT to communicate is how much pain their Ponzi debt burden has put them in. It’s not even fully clear to what extent Xi himself is aware of this, but he knows at least enough to keep his mouth shut on the topic. It’s quite possible that some of his top aides dare not reveal the real tally to their boss for fear of their jobs and heads. Beijing might solve some of these problems by devaluing the yuan by 30%, or even 50%, but it would invite a large amount of other problems in the door if it did. Like a full-blown currency war. Still, it’s just a matter of time till Xi and Li either do it voluntarily or are forced to by ‘the market’.
"Let Them Eat CaQE": Yellen Abandons Markets; Stocks Plunge
Submitted by Tyler D.
on 01/27/2016 - 17:33
China Says Soros "Hasn't Done His Homework," May Be "Partially Blind"
Submitted by Tyler D.
01/27/2016 18:30 -0500
On Tuesday, the People’s Daily laughed at George Soros.
Literally.
On the heels of comments Soros made in Davos last week about China’s “hard landing,” the Party mouthpiece ran an "op-ed" that carried the title “Declaring War On China’s Currency? Ha, Ha.”
It’s not clear that George Soros intends to “declare war” on the RMB. However, he did say he was betting against Asian currencies and because his reputation precedes him when it comes to breaking central banks, the Chinese apparently wanted to get out ahead of what the PBoC assumes will be an attack on the yuan. “Given how people know Soros and what he did in 1992 and during the 1997-1998 Asian crisis, he’s too important to ignore, so China felt that they had to counter any negative comments,” Tommy Xie, a Singapore-based economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking told Bloomberg.“They have to reassure local savers and show them a willingness that the government is looking after them and their savings.”
“Soros’s war on the renminbi and the Hong Kong dollar cannot possibly succeed — about this there can be no doubt,” the People’s Daily continued, before calling the aging billionaire a “crocodile” and a “predator.”
As we noted yesterday, “China won't be able to arrest Soros and beat a confession out of him like Beijing is fond of doing to others suspected of launching ‘malicious’ short attacks, but the brash commentary does indicate that Chinese authorities are becoming increasingly sensitive to suggestions that a steeper RMB devaluation is a foregone conclusion.”
Of course a steeper RMB depreciation is a foregone conclusion because as we’ve outlined on several occasions, the days of China sitting idly by while the dollar peg saps the country’s export competitiveness are long gone and Beijing now seems determined not only to participate in the ongoing global currency wars, but in fact to win.
But China is keen on orchestrating a controlled depreciation (despite the fact that getting it over with at once might be the better option if Beijing wants to limit capital flight) which means keeping hold of the narrative and using the captive Chinese media to fight back against those who, like the “crocodile” Soros, would seek to employ “malicious” tactics to spark a panic.
Against this backdrop we get another hilarious “commentary” piece out of the Politburo on Wednesday, this time via Xinhua. The piece, presented in its entirety below, explains why Soros and the ubiquitous “short-sellers” “make claims that run counter to reality.”
* * *
From Xinhua
China has ample reasons to stay confident in face of speculators. Far from some speculators' claims, China is not a source of trouble but an important engine of global economic growth with its growing demand and investment.
Here are the numbers. China registered a growth rate of 6.9 percent last year amid a sluggish global economy, contributing more than 25 percent of global economic growth.
Chinese tourists spent 1.2 trillion yuan (182.4 billion U.S. dollars) overseas, while the country's investors pumped 735 billion yuan (111.7 billion dollars) into other economies.
Speculators claimed they see a hard landing for China. It is true that the growth of the world's second largest economy is experiencing a relative slowdown compared with the blistering growth of the past decade. But as we know, decision makers have now opted for a slower pace in order to make the country's growth more sustainable in the future.
Moreover, a growth rate of 6.9 percent is the envy of most other economies. China's added economic output last year was more than the GDP of Sweden or Argentina.
George Soros, who recently claimed he saw a hard landing for China at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has made the same prediction several times in the past.
It's an exaggeration to say that China increases global deflationary risks. Imagine the world without the demand and growth from China, global economic growth would have been much worse, possibly at higher risk of deflation.
The world economy is having trouble because of the sluggish growth and slow recovery of many economies. International investor Jim Rogers said recently that the monetary policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve and the expansion of government debt are the original sources of the problems.
Meanwhile, China's economic transformation is currently underway.
Figures show that foreign investment in China's service sector saw robust growth in 2016, and the country attracted 136 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment.
Thanks to government policies encouraging innovation and the streamlining of procedures, entrepreneurship is flourishing and bringing fundamental change to Chinese society. In the first half of 2015, the number of newly registered businesses exceeded 10,000 on a daily basis.
Employment creation is strong too, which, coupled with a sound growth rate and strong capital formation and innovation, means that the world's second largest economy is unlikely to experience a hard landing.
So why do speculators make claims that run counter to reality? Analysts said it is because either the short-sellers haven't done their homework or that they are intentionally trying to create panic to snap profits.
* * *
Yes, "analysts" say Soros hasn't done his "homework" and just wants to "create panic" on the way to "snapping profits." Xinhua also says Soros' views may indicate he's "partially" blind.
Unfortunately for the Chinese, Soros probably has "done his homework" and his claims do not "run counter to reality." The "reality" here is that China's economy is decelerating and in all likelihood, the yuan will continue to move lower as the currency shoulders the burden of the hard landing.
This won't be the first time Soros squares off against Asian officials over flagging currencies. As Bloomberg also points out, former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad (known as the founding father of modern Malaysia) once called the billionaire a "moron" for helping to trigger the ringgit's collapse.
So strap in, because the PBoC is in for a bumpy ride in 2016 as everyone from domestic depositors to nefarious, predatory, "speculators" bets on continued yuan weakness.
We close with a quote from Michael Every, head of financial markets research at Rabobank in Hong Kong:
“They can write as many op-eds as they want, but two plus two doesn’t make five."