Macro and Credit - Stalemate

"In life, as in chess, forethought wins." - Charles Buxton, English public servant

Watching with interest the outcome of the US midterm elections in conjunction with a divided congress leading somewhat to a gridlock, as well as the tentative rebound in Emerging Market equities, when it came to selecting our title analogy, we decided to go again for a chess analogy on this very post (see previous chess analogies: "Zugzwang", "The Game of The Century"). "Stalemate" is a situation in the game of chess where a player whose turn it is to move is not in check but has no legal move. The rules of chess provide that when stalemate occurs, the game ends as a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position to draw the game rather than lose. In more complex positions, stalemate is much rarer, usually taking the form of a swindle, a ruse by which a player in a losing position tricks his opponent, and thereby achieves a win or draw instead of the expected loss. A swindle in chess only succeeds if the superior side is inattentive. Stalemate is also a common theme in endgame studies and other chess problems. The outcome of the US midterm elections gridlock could create short term what we would call "Goldigridlock", namely a potential end to the bear steepening experienced during the jittery month of October and some restrain on the US dollar. In conjunction with the return of buybacks following the blackout period of earnings, then, this obviously could be bullish equities wise we think, with high beta pulling ahead until the end of the year. For credit, we are not too sure, given a fall in oil prices with definitely put pressure on the high beta CCC bracket of US High Yield and its well documented exposure to the energy sector but, we ramble again...

In this week's conversation, we would like to look at what the US midterm election stalemate entails of asset prices in general following a very much "red October".

Synopsis:

• Macro and Credit - Goldigridlock for asset prices? 
• Final charts -  The invisible hand is fading...

• Macro and Credit - Goldigridlock for asset prices? 

The month of October was clearly a bloodbath for many asset classes and diversification didn't offer protection. While the velocity in real rates as we pointed out in our previous conversation forced a serious repricing of the Fed "put" at a much lower strike, the fact that it was a blackout period thanks to earnings reporting season and lack of buybacks, being another strong pillar in US equities rally seen in recent years was enough to wreak havoc on global markets on the back of weaker US equities. Looking at the below performance chart from Bank of America Merrill Lynch for the month of October can clearly see that, indeed, “misery loves company”:

- source Bank of America Merrill Lynch

As we pointed out in our final chart in our mid-October conversation "Under the Volcano", 2018 has marked the return of large standard deviations move, typical of late cycle behavior in conjunction with rising dispersion. 

What we also find interesting (H/T Driehaus on Twitter) is that 89% of asset classes tracked by Deutsche Bank have a negative total return YTD in USD terms. This is the highest percentage on record since 1901. Last year just 1% finished without negative total return:

- source Deutsche Bank - Driehaus Twitter feed

2018 is indeed a year where volatility and large standard deviations move have staged a comeback as the US Federal Reserve is trying to exit the stage with its Quantitative Tightening policy (QT) and its continuing hiking process. US Employment and wage growth likely to trigger another hike in December from the Fed. That’s a given. Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 250,000 in October vs. 190,000 expected. Over the year, average hourly earnings have increased by 83 cents, or 3.1 %. Fed will remain hawkish.

With the "Stalemate" with the latest US midterm elections, what are the implications for asset prices, one might rightly ask?

First thing we would like to look at given the recent bounce from Emerging Market equities with Brazil leading ahead the bounce thanks to the hope brought by the presidential elections is the trajectory for the US dollar and what it means for "high beta". On that subject we read with interest Bank of America Merrill Lynch's take from their Liquid Insight note from the 7th of November entitled "Midterm outcome":

"FX: a split Congress is bearish USD, but downside could prove limited

As we have argued, tonight’s split Congress outcome should result in dollar weakening. We think this could continue for a while yet as the first order effects of US growth deceleration and increasingly-limited monetary policy support cause a reevaluation of long USD exposure. Ultimately, second order effects could limit USD downside; however, we think that markets are likely to focus on first order effects for now.

Initially, we expect a weaker USD predicated on a further softening in US growth leading to reduced monetary policy support. US growth deceleration from the 2Q high water mark should continue as intense political gridlock precludes new stimulus measures, putting the prospect of a Fed move beyond neutral in doubt for now absent convincing evidence of inflationary pressure. Indeed, our US economics team is forecasting a gradual US growth deceleration toward 2% (around potential) by the end of next year, alongside a largely-benign inflation profile. While a Fed move beyond neutral was never in the market (the Fed is still priced to end the cycle at around the long-term median dot of 3%), a move above neutral looks increasingly less likely given the new information set. Thus, interest rate support for USD looks asymmetrically skewed to the downside, and the market’s expectation for Fed hikes next year (currently about +50bp) is at risk of compression, in our view. Positioning is net long USD – particularly in the riskier parts of the FX spectrum (Exhibit 1).

Diminished rationale for USD longs and a potential relief rally in markets post-midterm resolution suggests liquidation flow driving USD lower. Finally, we would expect modestly higher USD risk premium – reflecting a state of political acrimony in DC – to provide an additional headwind to the dollar. That said, because the Senate has remained Republican-controlled, we do not expect a material spike higher in USD risk premium arising from the expectation that House leadership could successfully remove the President through impeachment.

Looking beyond the initial reaction, however, we think that potential second round effects could serve to limit USD downside. Successful resolution of the present state of global trade policy uncertainty has become more challenging, particularly if President Trump’s negotiating position has been weakened as we suspect may well be the case. To be sure, the evolution of global trade policy uncertainty is critical to the global economic cycle. Reduced prospects for a speedy end to this uncertainty, and indeed increased risks of further deterioration, add to downside global growth risk in our view. Although hardly a recession story, US deceleration represents a potential negative impulse to the already-sagging global economy. An increase in risk aversion as markets anticipate a global downturn could thus broadly support the dollar. Finally, on a brighter note, compromise on US economic stimulus later next year is possible due to potentially overlapping interests. Democrats seem to be advocating an increase in infrastructure spending, and the President may well seek to prime the economy in advance of his 2020 reelection bid. If ultimately successful, this should support USD as it could lead to a renewed bout of US cyclical and monetary policy divergence.

Historical parallels suggest gridlock is not always so benign

The consensus among investors is that a gridlock is a benign outcome for markets. We think this may be overly optimistic. In our view, the most relevant historical precedent for the next half year may be the months following the mid-term elections of 2010 that resulted in the same configuration in Washington as the latest elections (with the President’s party controlling the Senate but the other party controlling the House). In 2011, the Republicans, upon regaining control of the House, used the debt ceiling as a lever to demand budget reduction by the Obama administration. The brinksmanship that ensued raised concerns in the market of a possible default by the US government which led to a sharp sell-off in risky assets as well as a major rally in rates (10y Trsy yields falling from 3.7% in March 2011 to 1.8% by September). The USD came under considerable selling pressure during the same period as foreign investors avoided US assets (EUR/USD rose from 1.30 in January to 1.48 by July that year). The market turmoil around the US debt ceiling crisis probably exacerbated the Eurozone sovereign crisis that occurred later that year (which saw the euro surrendering all of its earlier gains).

With the House Democrats having stated their intention to open new investigations against President Trump and with the 2020 presidential election campaign kicking off very soon, we see greater chances of brinksmanship than cooperation. History suggests that brinksmanship could mean lower rates and lower USD." - source Bank of America Merrill Lynch

With growing downside risk for growth with a notable deceleration in Europe and in global trade, there is indeed potential scope for the US yield curve to start flattening again. A conjunction of a flatter yield curve would be positive for the long end of the US yield curve and a falling US dollar would enable Emerging Market equities to continue to rally in the near term we think.

Second point, the recent fall in oil prices is as well putting some pressure on US breakevens as of late, meaning that for now a scary inflation spike has been avoided but, nonetheless, healthcare inflation, namely acyclical inflation is something to monitor closely as indicated by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in their US Economic Viewpoint note from the 5th of November entitled "Inflation in pictures":

"No scary inflation monsters

• Procyclical inflation has moved sideways over the past year, despite the unemployment rate improving by half a percent to 3.7%. The muted inflation response highlights the flattening in the Phillips curve.
• In No fear of an inflation curveball, we evaluated whether there was a kink in the Phillips curve at full employment. We find some, but not strong evidence, and therefore believe a strong cyclically-driven breakout in inflation is unlikely.
• While procyclical inflation has been flat, acyclical inflation has picked up, healthcare in particular. We expect healthcare inflation to continue to accelerate, driven by hospital services.

• In No inflation monsters under the bed, we looked at the disaggregated PCE components and found that there was an increasing share of PCE that has moved into a “low inflation” (0-2%) bucket, and a dwindling share in the “high inflation” (5-10% bucket).
• This shift in inflation dispersion is illustrative of a structural move lower in inflation. A lower trend decreases the probability of an inflation breakout.
• Digging into the components, we found that healthcare services accounts for much of the shift. As healthcare inflation picks up going forward, we may see some reversal of the shift, albeit into the more moderate 2-5% inflation range.

• Another reason to expect only a gradual pickup in inflation is because of inflation expectations, which have drifted lower over the cycle and serve as an anchoring point.
• In particular, University of Michigan 5-10yr inflation expectations have descended to a trend of 2.5%. The central tendency has also consolidated closer to the median, mostly from the 75th percentile. This indicates a greater decline in those expecting high inflation.
• Given core inflation is likely to run above target by next year, inflation expectations could improve, presenting upside to the outlook. But even with some improvement in expectations, inflation upside would likely remain contained." - source Bank of America Merrill Lynch

In our recent conversation we hinted that housing was in earnest starting to turn "South" in the US and that housing affordability was becoming a headwind on top of US consumers using their savings and increasing their use of the credit card to maintain their consumption level. Both auto and housing, which are very cyclical in nature are clearly showing the late stage of the credit cycle in our book.  

One segment where spending rises with age is healthcare (out-of-pocket and government). Healthcare will account for a greater share of spending among Boomers than previous generations. Rising insurance premiums have more than offset out-of-pocket savings on prescription drugs due to Medicare Part D. Housing is also taking up a higher share of senior spending as more households reach age 65 without having paid off their home or are renting, leaving them exposed to future price increases.  This upside risk to healthcare prices and expected further labor market tightening, one could expect core PCE inflation to rise further:

- graph source Macrobond

Sure falling oil prices bring some relief to the US consumers but rising healthcare costs as well as housing costs will not be sufficient to offset the risk of "stagflation". We could see lower growth ahead and even looming recession risk.

As we pointed out in our recent conversation "Ballyhoo", Main Street has had a much better record when it comes to calling a housing market top in the US than Wall Street. If you want a good indicator of the deterioration of the credit cycle, we encourage you to track the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index given the proportion of consumers stating that now is a good time to sell a house has been steadily rising:

- graph source Macrobond

Maybe after all, they are spot on and now is a good time to sell houses in the US? Just a thought. Main Street was 2 years ahead of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis (GFC) as a reminder.

As pointed out by Lisa Abramowicz on her Twitter feed, you need going forward to monitor closely in the months ahead the rise in inventory of new unsold homes:

"The inventory of new unsold homes in the U.S. has reached the highest level since 2011, as measured in months of supply. https://blogs.wsj.com/dailyshot/2018/11/07/the-daily-shot-the-inventory-of-unsold" - source Lisa Abramowicz, Twitter

In a response to Lisa's Tweet, M&G Bond Vigilantes made the following important point on Twitter:

"If you saw the Lisa Abramowicz tweet about inventory of new unsold homes reaching 7 months, you should worry. Historically that level is consistent with GDP growth of zero. This chart is from our 2007 blog."

- graph source M&G Bond Vigilantes - Twitter

Housing has always been a leading indicator in the United States when it comes to forecasting GDP growth.

To illustrate further the rift between Main Street's much more sanguine view of housing than Wall Street we would like to point towards Wells Fargo's take on the weakness in home sales from their Economics Group note from the 7th of November entitled "Home Sales Remain Soft":

"The Softening For-Sale Market Has Been Good for Apartment Owners

The magnitude and speed at which home sales have weakened is surprising, following just a three-quarter of a percentage point rise in mortgage rates. We suspect the problem is a lack of affordable product in the markets where potential home buyers would like to live. This helps explain why sales turned down well ahead of this fall’s rise in mortgage rates. The lack of inventory in desirable markets is a function of how highly concentrated economic growth has been in this cycle. Two industries, technology and energy, have accounted for a disproportionate share of job growth. While job gains have broadened more recently, a larger proportion of the high-paying, creative industry jobs are being added in submarkets closer to the central business district. By contrast, job growth in suburban markets has been slower to recover and wage gains have lagged for many occupations that are at greater risk of automation and outsourcing.

The rapid growth in higher value-added positions closer in to many major cities has fueled a housing crunch that has sent home values and rents soaring in many rapidly growing markets. The lack of developable lots closer in to the city has fueled growth of in-fill developments and teardowns, which have often removed more affordable homes from the market. The resulting battles over gentrification have also led to some political blowback, which has stymied development in some areas. Growth is also creeping back out toward the suburbs, particularly those that are developing their own urban cores. What has largely been missing, however, has been the push to develop exurban areas, where land has historically been less expensive. Such development has remained elusive, as higher development costs have largely offset any savings in raw land costs.

The same trends impacting home sales are evident in the rental market. Demand remains strong for amenity-rich apartments located near the city center or in the metro area’s second or third largest employment centers. Demand for apartments further out in the suburbs has taken longer to recover but has been doing better more recently, reflecting stronger job growth and an acceleration in wage gains. The suburbs have generally seen less development, so the improvement in demand has pulled vacancy rates lower and pushed rents higher. New suburban development remains elusive, however, and most new projects continue to cluster around pricier submarkets closer to the central business district.

We have further reduced our forecasts for home sales and new home construction following the recent string of weaker housing reports and downward revisions to previous data. We still see new home sales increasing over the forecast period but now look for just 5.6% growth in 2019 and 5.3% growth in 2020.

Much of that increase will come from more affordable homes in the South and West, which will restrain new home price appreciation. With little inventory, new home construction will continue to gradually edge higher. Apartment development is now expected to remain stronger for a little longer. There are a great deal of projects in the pipeline and a large number of proposed projects that have not yet moved forward. Demand for well located projects should remain strong, but vacancy rates will likely rise as job growth moderates in 2019 and 2020."  - source Wells Fargo

We do not share the optimism above relating to new home construction due to affordability issues coming from rising mortgage rates due to the Fed continuing its hiking path, their views being supported by the most recent employment report. Housing affordability has become a headwind, no wonder in some parts of the US prices are starting to cool down as indicated by Bloomberg on the 30th of October in their article entitled "Mortgage Rates Are Pushing U.S. Homes Out of Reach":

"While U.S. home prices have gained almost 60 percent since March 31, 2012, according to the S&P Corelogic Case-Shiller 20-City Composite Index, household income is up a little less than 30 percent in the same period, Bureau of Economic Analysis data shows. The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage rose from about 3.85 percent at the start of 2018 to about 4.74 percent now, Bankrate.com reports. Next year, it’s expected to rise further.

A buyer with a $2,500 monthly housing budget has lost almost $30,000 in purchasing power this year, according to Redfin Inc., a national brokerage.

In Orange County, California, more than 30 percent of homes for sale in the metro area would become unaffordable to buyers with a $3,500 monthly budget, Redfin estimates. In San Jose, that number would be almost 40 percent." - source Bloomberg

Housing markets turn slowly then suddenly...Just a thought.

While the US elections stalemate and the return of buybacks should be supportive, US markets for many years have been levitating and defying gravitation provided by the central bank support. This support has been obviously fading during the course of 2018 with QT as per our final charts below.

• Final charts -  The invisible hand is fading...

If October has been murderous for various asset classes thanks to the conjunction of several factors such as the velocity in the rise of real rates, blackout period leading to smaller buybacks, escalating tensions in the trade war narrative between the United States and China as well as Italian worries, our final charts from Bank of America Merrill Lynch coming from their European Credit Strategist note entitled "The hunt for red October" from the 2nd of November clearly shows that the "invisible hand" coming from the central bank is fading:

"The end of the “invisible hand”…

Last month wasn’t unique, though. We think it reflects a bigger picture theme…namely that assets are now struggling to produce meaningfully positive returns in an era of less central bank liquidity. The “invisible hand” that once propped-up market prices is now significantly smaller.

Chart 1 shows that there are precious few assets that remain above water this year. In fixed-income land, US leveraged loans have produced total returns of around 4%.

In Europe, many government debt markets – with the exception of Italy – are up for the year, albeit only by a modicum. But note that the biggest loser of all during the QE era, namely cash, has turned into one of the best performing assets of 2018 (1.5% total returns).

…the start of abnormal markets?

This spectrum of returns, however, is also far from normal. Chart 2 shows the historical percentage of assets with positive vs. negative returns on a yearly basis (our sample contains over 300 equity, fixed-income, commodity and FX indices). 

This year, we find that only 23% of assets have produced positive total returns. As can be seen, historically this is a very low number. In fact, such a number is usually only observed in periods of financial crises (2008), debt crises (2011), or just plain old recessions. And yet despite the shocks and bumps lately, the global economy is still humming along fairly nicely in 2018.

In our view, after such a big drawdown last month, markets are likely prepped for a rebound in November. Yet, we caution that bounces in risk sentiment could still be shallow ones. After all, with so many assets trending lower this year, long-only investors are finding that there are much fewer ways to help them diversify and protect their portfolios." - source Bank of America Merrill Lynch

One could argue that, no matter what "stalemate" we have reached in the United States midterm elections, the "fall" in the fall is surely indicative that at some point winter is coming. Could housing woes be seen as leaves already falling? We wonder...

“How did you go bankrupt?" 

Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” - Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises

Stay tuned!

Macro and Credit - Ballyhoo

"Chaos is inherent in all compounded things. Strive on with diligence." - Buddha

Watching with interest recent market gyrations, with the intervention of China in the mix to calm down the turmoil in its equities market, when it came to selecting this week's title analogy, we decided to go for the word "Ballyhoo":

1. : a noisy attention-getting demonstration or talk
2. : flamboyant, exaggerated, or sensational promotion or publicity
3. : excited commotion

A "Ballyhoo" is as well a "publicity, hype" from circus slang, "a short sample of a sideshow" used to lure customers (1901), which is of unknown origin. The word seems to have been in use in various colloquial senses in the 1890s.  In nautical lingo, ballahou or ballahoo (1867, perhaps 1836) was a sailor's contemptuous word for any vessel they disliked. There is as well a 2009 book entitled "Heroes and Ballyhoo" by Michael K. Bohn about sports stars during the period 1919-30s an "era of wonderful nonsense", when sport-crazed public demanded spectacles instead of just matches. Given this golden crazy age lasted 12 years long and many pundits are indicating that a recession in the United States could happen in the next two years, we are indeed wondering when this period of "irrational exuberance" to paraphrase former Fed supremo Alan Greenspan will end. On a side note, for sports fanatics out there, baseball legend Babe Ruth personified the Golden Age of the roaring "Ballyhoo" twenties, a close second was the boxer Jack Dempsey. 

In this week's conversation, we would like to look at housing as yet another sign that we think we have reached "peak" US economic activity.

Synopsis:

• Macro and Credit -  The real state of Real Estate in the US and the consequences
• Final chart - Beware of the velocity in tightening conditions

• Macro and Credit -  The real state of Real Estate in the US and consequences

Back in April 2012 we indicated the following relationship with the housing bubble: 

"The surge in the Baltic Dry Index before the start of the financial crisis was a clear indicator of cheap credit fueling a bubble, which, like housing, eventually burst. In the chart below, you can notice the parabolic surge of the index in 2006 leading to the index peaking in May 2008 at 11,440; with the index touching a low point of 680 in January 2012"  - source Macronomics, April 2012

- source Macrobond

The Baltic Dry Index, a gauge of rates to transport dry-bulk commodities including grains and coal by sea. Dry bulk cargo represents the largest part of the $380 billion shipping industry. Container shipping traffic is driven by consumer spending as it is dominated by consumer products. Container volumes to the United States are dependent on the housing market. Furniture and appliances are some of the top freight categories imported in both the United States but, in Europe as well from Asia. 

Any changes in consumer spending trends are depending on the health of the housing market:

- source Macrobond

With the Fed on its hiking mission, house affordability is being impacted through rising mortgage rates. Housing is getting more expensive in conjunction with labor shortages and rising costs linked to some extent to tariffs such as those on imported steel.

Basically it seems that the housing market in the United States seems to be stalling as affordability is becoming an issue:

- source Macrobond

Making a quick detour to shipping, there are as well signs that global trade is indeed cooling off. 

Another indicator other than the BDY is the Harpex Shipping Index. It is considered a good indicator of global economic fleet shipping activity since it tracks changes in freight rates for container ships over broad categories. It is slightly different than the BDY. Harpex weights average daily charter rates across eight size classes of vessels to formulate its index. A vessel containing dry bulk generally transports a single load type. Containers ship, by comparison, usually transport a wider variety of finished goods, which makers therefore the Harpex Shipping index a more accurate indicator for measuring global trade:

- source Macrobond

We can clearly see a deceleration in global trade happening at the moment thanks to this index.

But, let's return to US Housing. 

The housing market has clearly been the weak spot in the “strong economy” narrative. The Fed’s hiking path is leading to rising 30 year fixed mortgage rate towards 4.90%, the highest level touched since April 2011:

- graph source Macrobond

Single-family homebuilding is the largest share of the US housing market and fell by 0.9%. Housing affordability is becoming a challenge. 

At the same time, US housing prices are now 6.3% higher than their peak in July 2006 and 46% above their trough in February 2012:

- graph source Macrobond

On the subject of housing being a cause for concern, we read with interest Bank of America Merrill Lynch's US Economic Weekly note from the 19th of October entitled "Will housing hurt?":

"Will housing hurt?

• We have made a number of changes to our housing forecasts to reveal a weaker trajectory of sales, starts and home prices amid rising rates.
• We think home price appreciation is set to slow but not fall negative absent a recession in the overall economy.
• Housing is no longer a tailwind for the economy, but the headwinds are blowing very gently.

Home prices: from boom to bust

Home prices nationally, as measured by the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index are running at 6.0% yoy as of the latest data in July. Assuming some modest slowing into the end of the year, we believe we are on track for home prices to end up 5.0% this year, as measured by 4Q/4Q change. As we look ahead into next year, we expect the slowing in home prices to persist, leaving home price appreciation (HPA) of 3% at the end of 2019 (Chart 1).

Thereafter we expect home price appreciation to hold at that 3.0% pace in 2020.

Back to econ 101, home prices should be a function of housing supply and demand. As we argued in Home sales: the peak has been reached, we think existing home sales peaked at the very end of last year and have since been moving sideways in a choppy fashion. This is a function of affordability which has been challenged from rising mortgage rates and elevated home prices. Inventory levels have remained extremely low, but since we look for some continued growth in single family housing starts but little change in home sales, we could start to see the supply of homes increase. The modest shift in the demand curve and out of the supply curve naturally implies slower  home price appreciation. As Chart 2 shows home price appreciation typically peaks along with the peak in home sales.

With mortgage rates heading higher, the challenges with affordability will continue. As a simple rule of thumb based on the NAR’s affordability index, we find that a 50bp increase in mortgage rates would need about a 5.5% offsetting drop in home prices in order to keep affordability unchanged. Of course, this does not account for the rise in income which provides an additional modest offset. Plugging in forecasts for mortgage rates based on our rates strategy call for the 10 year to end this year at 3.25% and 3Q 2019 at 3.35% – which implies close to 5.15% and 5.25%, respectively, for the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage – we would see affordability continue to slip lower (Chart 3). 

While affordability would still be above the historical average, it would still be more challenging than the past several years.

Another important aspect when thinking about the trajectory of home prices is an idea called “mean reversion”. Home prices are ultimately anchored to a fair value which is a function of income growth. Based on the OECD’s methodology, we compare nominal Case-Shiller home prices with disposable income per capita, indexed to 100 in 1Q 2000 (Chart 4) which shows the overvaluation during the housing bubble given the irrational exuberance in the market and easy credit conditions.

The housing bust left prices to tumble back below fair value. Based on our calculation, prices are once again overvalued on a national level, albeit not nearly as much as during the bubble period. Over time the overvaluation can be solved in two ways: 1) home prices grow at a rate below income for a period of time to close the gap; 2) home prices decline to correct the valuation difference. The pull to fair value can be quite strong.

Regional realities

We have been discussing the national outlook for the housing market but the dynamics will vary on a regional basis. Focusing on the top 20 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), we find that all 20 are still witnessing positive YOY home price appreciation, ranging from a low of 2.8% in Washington DC to a high of 13.7% in Las Vegas.

Generally speaking the West Coast has seen stronger home price appreciation relative to other regions. This reflects the fact that the West has enjoyed robust economic growth, supported by the thriving tech sector, which has led to greater income and wealth creation. This subsequently feeds into housing demand and a bid on prices (Chart 5).

At the same time, the West has also suffered from greater building constraints and a more severe housing shortage, owing to restrictive land-use regulations and zoning laws. This has contributed to home prices well outpacing income growth. Unsurprisingly, a regional analysis of price/income ratios finds the greatest levels of overvaluation in  Western MSAs (Chart 6).

Conversely, the Midwest cities were generally undervalued.

The higher prices rise in overvalued regions, the harder they may fall. So outright price declines could be seen as demand pulls back, though as discussed earlier we think this is less likely for aggregate national prices. Meanwhile, more affordable areas should continue to see price gains assuming healthy regional economic growth.

Sales and starts are a bit weaker

While existing home sales have peaked and will continue to hold around 5.5 million through next year, we see further upside for new home sales, albeit only modest. We forecast new home sales to edge up to 665K next year from our forecast of 640K this year, which is up from 612K last year. Why would new home sales increase while existing home sales move sideways? The recovery in new home sales was much slower since builders were hesitant to add supply to a challenged market, particularly in the early stages of the recovery.

We have revised down our forecast for starts this year and next. We expect 1.260 million starts this year and 1.30 million next year. The gain will be entirely in single family construction as multifamily has little upside.

- source Bank of America Merrill Lynch 

While we expect single family starts to edge higher – consistent with continued elevated levels of NAHB homebuilder sentiment and low levels of inventory – we think builders will be cautious in the face of rising mortgage rates." - source Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Unfortunately we do not share Bank of America Merrill Lynch's optimistic view. That would not make us "perma-bears" but we do not fall easily prey to "Ballyhoo" games namely sensational promotion.

No offense to Bank of America Merrill Lynch but, Main Street has had a much better record when it comes to calling a housing market top in the US than Wall Street. 

If you want a good indicator of the deterioration of the credit cycle, we encourage you to track the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index given the proportion of consumers stating that now is a good time to sell a house has been steadily rising:

- graph source Macrobond

Maybe after all, they are spot on and now is a good time to sell houses in the US? Just a thought. Main Street was 2 years ahead of the 2008 Great Financial Crisis (GFC) as a reminder. Many pundits are predicting a recession in the US economy in the next two years.

As we have stated before, the Fed will continue its hiking path, until something breaks, and we have already seen some small leveraged fish coming belly up when the house of straw build up by the short-vol pigs blew up and when during the summer the house of sticks of the macro tourist carry pigs blew up (Turkey, Argentina, etc.). We keep pounding this but, Fed's quarterly Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOs) will be paramount to track going forward as the credit noose tightens.

Furthermore, it’s isn’t only residential housing which is a concern, in recent years Commercial Real Estate prices have gone through the proverbial “roof”:

- graph source Macrobond 

We think that "housing is no longer a tailwind for the economy" and that "headwinds are blowing very gently" is in this case a "Ballyhoo".

If one looks at US Homebuilders index versus the S&P500 that cyclicals matter when it comes to assessing the rising probabilities of a US recession:

- graph source Macrobond

This is telling you that housing activity is leading overall economic activity, housing being a sensitive cyclical sector. We have reached "peak" everything when it comes to US economic activity. It might be very well all downhill from there. We are already seeing signs in Europe with the latest PMIs of global trade deceleration, and not only from shipping mentioned above.

Also, if one looks at the S&P500 versus US Regional banks, one could conclude that "misery loves company":

- graph source Macrobond

The Regional Banks index has fallen 16.58% from its high back in early June and has fallen 7.05% since the start of October. Bank OZK’s stock dropped nearly 24% on the 19th of October after Commercial Real Estate (CRE) write-offs. The Arkansas-based bank is one of the largest condo construction lenders in Miami, NYC and LA. You would be wise thinking about selling your condo in Miami according to Main Street's predictive history.

As indicated by Bank of America Merrill Lynch in their weekly Securitized Products Strategy weekly note from the 22nd of October, bank stocks and MBS basis have a strong relationship since 2015:

"How Q3 bank earnings inform us

Domestic bank demand is key to agency MBS valuations; one simple relationship we have ascribed to is the strong relationship between bank equity valuations and the current coupon mortgage basis. Even recently, lower bank stock valuations have coincided with the basis widening. The underlying logic tying these two together is the outlook for bank balance sheets, reflected in stock prices, suggesting a technical backdrop for bank demand for agency MBS.

Many individual moving parts, however, come into play on the various pieces of bank balance sheets. For example, theory suggests deposits are impacted by the Fed’s balance sheet runoff. Appetite for securities relies on tolerance for capital volatility related to AOCI (all other comprehensive income), which changes with rate views and duration appetite. Finally, loans funded vary based on credit risk appetite and industry competitiveness, such as non-bank participation and accessibility to the high grade, high yield markets. These moving parts change, dampening or expanding bank demand for securities. We leverage the 3Q18 earnings call transcripts of the largest banks to extract takeaways on driving factors influencing these trends.

Lower tolerance for incurring AOCI risks – Tax reform, lower tax rates specifically, has reduced bank tolerance for incurring AOCI risks. AOCI losses have led to a larger tax deductible historically than what the current lower tax regime offers. The outlook for higher rates this year, and the potential for even higher rates ahead, has dampened enthusiasm for banks to take duration risk.

Cash is king, a compelling alternative, only getting better– Cash yielding 2+% compared to a post-crisis era of offering nothing raises the bar for investing in securities and taking on duration risk. Projecting returns on cash, along the forward path, only further stands to enhance the appeal of this strategy. Indeed, this is how the Fed’s tightening of policy works its way through banking channels, essentially raising the risk-free rate!

Yes, higher base case NIMs, but a few IF’s echoed – The selloff in rates highlights better NIM opportunities presented today, as deposit rates undershoot model forecasts. However, it is far from being just this simple. Convexity concerns and volatility ahead pose risks, along various forward paths. The outlook for loan growth, hinging on whether the economy keeps expanding, dictates securities demand, be it for HQLA/LCR reasons or for NIM/earnings.

The big question is can the US economy continue to expand as such a pace when housing is already struggling and even if FICO scores get lowered to facilitate credit card use by a pressurized US consumer?

There are indeed some implications down the line as highlighted by Bryce Coward from Knowledge Leaders Capital in his blog post from the 19th of October entitled "More evidence of a slowing housing market, and its implications":

"The slowdown housing activity leads overall economic activity by eighteen months. Housing, being one the most cyclically sensitive sectors of the economy, often feels the impact of higher rates well before other areas. This alone implies a peaking of economic activity right about now, leading to persistently slower growth rates through Q1 2020. 

Not coincidentally, a peaking of economic activity about now is also consistent with the 1.2% fiscal stimulus boost we’re getting in 2018. Incremental stimulus for 2019 drops to .4%, with the potential of that entire stimulus being negated by dead weight losses from tariffs, but that is a topic for another day." - source Knowledge Leaders Capital

This ties up nicely we think with Main Street sanguine view of the housing market, namely that it's less and less the time to buy a house and more and more the case of selling a house as per the previous credit cycle call Main Street made. The credit cycle is no doubt turning regardless of the "Ballyhoo" put forward by some pundits.

Sure overall, the latest quarterly Fed Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey (SLOOs) points towards gradual tightening of financial conditions overall, yet the recent move based on the sensitivities of major market variables points towards an accelerating trend as per our final chart.

• Final chart - Beware of the velocity in tightening conditions

Our final chart comes from Morgan Stanley US Economics note from the 11th of October and indicates how using a more real-time look at financial conditions points towards a higher velocity in the tightening trend of financial conditions:

"An updated view on financial conditions indices shows a mixed picture, with the
Chicago Fed’s FCI actually easing further in the week ending October 5, while other alternative financial conditions metrics show a more considerable tightening in recent days.

The Chicago Fed updated its weekly FCI this morning. The latest update covers through last Friday, October 5, so it’s quite lagged. Somewhat surprisingly, the index eased 0.026 points – the largest one-week easing since the week ending August 10 and the 13th consecutive week of easing for the index.

The index now stands at a level of -0.76, a low since July 2015, driven by lower readings on the risk, credit, and leverage subcomponents. 49 underlying indicators tightened in the last week and 56 loosened – some of the biggest contributions to easier conditions were the Markit IG 5-yr senior CDS index, HY 5-year senior CDS index, and the 3-month TED spread.

An alternative metric that we look at for a more real-time look at financial conditions has shown a greater tightening in financial conditions so far this week. This metric tracks financial conditions based on the sensitivities of major market variables in the Fed’s FRB/US macro model, and we express it in a fed funds rate equivalent.

By this approach, financial conditions have tightened about 10bp from last Friday and about 50bp from the end of September. That compares with the experience from early February this year when financial conditions tightened about 80bp over a two week period." - source Morgan Stanley

Is this velocity seen in greater tightening of financial conditions a case of "Reflexivity", being the theory that a two-way feedback loop exists in which investors' perceptions affect that environment, which in turn changes investor perceptions, or is it simply a case of "Ballyhoo" at play? We wonder...

"Civilization begins with order, grows with liberty and dies with chaos." - Will Durant, American historian

Stay tuned!

Chart of the Day - Mortgage Debt and Housing Wealth

"He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature." - Socrates 

Looking at Pending home sales,  moving up 6.7% in May from a month earlier and 12.1% higher than a year ago with May’s index reading of 112.3 marks, the first time contract activity has grown at this rate since December 2006, when it hit 112.8, we thought the below Chart of the Day from Bank of America Merrill Lynch note entitled "Taper? Not so fast" from the 27th of June was fairly illustrative of both the deleveraging of the private sector and the wealth effect induced QE recovery courtesy of the Fed:

"Housing wealth increasing while mortgage debt declines: The rebound in housing construction is only one outcome of the recovery. We are also seeing a notable gain in home prices – running at 10% yoy – and a recovery in household balance sheets. The gain in home prices has translated to a $1.8tr increase in housing wealth, recovering nearly a third of the cumulative loss from the peak. Along with the gain in housing wealth, households have reduced mortgage debt burdens. Indeed, the decline in debt has been even more notable than the gain in housing wealth." - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

No doubt the link between consumer spending, housing, credit growth and shipping, a subject we discussed in January this year, has seen some improvement since the beginning of the year.

While US Family Housing Starts looks to be on the mend in conjunction with US Furniture sales, we have seen lately a small pick-up in the Baltic Dry Index - graph source Bloomberg:

 Since 2006:
- in yellow the Baltic Dry Index,
- in orange US Family Housing Starts
- in white US Furnitures Sales.

As we indicated in our January conversation:

"If there is a genuine recovery in housing driven by consumer confidence leading to consumer spending, one would expect a significant rebound in the Baltic Dry Index given that containerized traffic is dominated by the shipping of consumer products."

A resurgence in international container volumes is dependent on the housing market and any change in consumer spending trends is depending on a more pronounced housing market revival and will directly impact container traffic.

But, the latest dip in US Family Housing Starts and white US Furnitures Sales, warrants caution. As per the Fed's tapering comments, now it is all about economic data in the coming weeks and months.

Also Mortgage Rates for 30 years jumping to highest since 2011 from 3.93% to 4.46%, the biggest one week increase since 1987 according to Bloomberg and with the average 15 year rate climbing to 3.5% from 3.04% could also slow down the deleveraging process and dent somewhat the housing recovery process. The average rate for a 30-year mortgage in the 10 years through last week was about 5.3 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. 

Unsurprisingly, the Mortgage Bankers Association shows credit availability has eased since last year, which again validates the points made back in our January 2013 about the link between consumer spending, housing, credit growth and shipping.

"Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant." - Epictetus 

Stay tuned!

Credit - Chadburn, on full ahead?

"If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever." 

- Thomas Aquinas, Italian Theologian. 

Looking at the epic capitulation in the credit space and the significant rally of credit indices recently, which could lead the performance of credit in 2012 to match the performance of 2009 in terms of total return (around 12.5% for Investment Grade credit), we thought we would refer once again to one of favorite theme of shipping in our title, namely a chadburn which is the communication device for the pilot on the bridge to order engineers in the engine room to power the vessel at a certain desired speed. As far as credit is concerned it has been on full ahead.

An indicator we have been monitoring has been the 120 days correlation between the German Bund and its American equivalent, namely the US 10 year Treasury notes. While touching again on the subject of asset correlation (see our post "Risk-Off Correlations - When Opposites attract"), in "Risk Off" periods we have noticed that the 120 days correlation had been close to 1 in 2010, 2011 and 2012, whereas in "Risk On" periods, the correlation was falling to significantly lower level. Currently the correlation is still falling towards 78%, albeit at smaller pace than when the first LTRO was initiated at the end of 2011, validating further this "Risk-On" phase we have been following  - source Bloomberg:

The correlation between both the German Bund and US 10 year note is still falling (77%).

The below graph from the 2nd of June highlighted our reasoning behind our 30th of March "Risk-Off" call, displaying the various "Risk-On" and Risk-Off" phases which we have been witnessing with the on-going European sovereign debt crisis which increased significantly in May 2010 - source Bloomberg:

In similar fashion to the liquidity LTRO induced rally of late 2011, the "whatever it takes" stance from Central Banks (Fed, ECB, BOE, BOJ) means the markets are provided with some tremendous firepower. Fighting one central bank is one thing, but fighting all central banks is another as indicated by the below Bloomberg graph highlighting 3.7 trillion of asset growths.

"The combined assets of the ECB and the Fed rose 220% from the start of 2008, as they injected more than $3.7 trillion of liquidity into the global economy. The IMF claims that U.S. bank recapitalization and restructuring has outstripped similar operations in the euro zone, implying that fiscal consolidation and central bank asset shrinkage may occur faster in the U.S." - source Bloomberg.

We will not discuss the problem arising from QE in the long term as we have already approached this subject in our conversation "QE - To infinity...and beyond".

Arguably, some have called the latest programme OMT (Outright Monetary Transactions) by the ECB as a game changer. It is not. This much awaited bond-buying programme has had the desired effect on peripheral yields as indicated by the significant rally in peripheral bonds and the significant drop in bond yields source Bloomberg:

Spanish yields have receded from their summer heights of more than 7% to around 5.50%, whereas Italian bonds have fallen from 6% to 4.75%.

For us it seems that so far our "Generous Gambler" aka Mario Draghi has been very apt in applying some of General Sun-Tzu's greatest concepts:
“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Peripheral yields have been subdued even without the OMT being triggered and Spain requesting help, given the looming regional elections, which in effect, we think are delaying Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy official request.

So, in this week conversation, following our credit overview, we would like to focus on our credit chadburn given you can always have a disconnect between the order given (full ahead) and the real situation or the urgency of the situation that is. Urgent orders requiring rapid acceleration means the handle on a chadburn had to be moved three times so that the engine room bell was rung three times. So we will look at different indicators which could clearly indicate if effectively a proper rebound is on the way and if the credit bell has arguably rung three times which would mean an acceleration in global economic growth.

But first our usual credit overview!

We recently argued that the severing of the link between Sovereign risk / Financial risk would not happen ("Pareto Efficiency"). The main concern of European authorities as indicated by the difference in spreads between the Itraxx SOVx 5 year CDS index and the Itraxx Financial Senior 5 year index has been trying to break that close relationship, expecting that the European Banking Union will finally break this relationship - source Bloomberg:

My God! Lord, my God! Please make the devil keep his word!" - Charles Baudelaire, French poet, "Le Joueur généreux," pub

We mused around the latest round of "easiness" and voiced our concern in our conversation "The Uneasiness in Easiness":

"But what in effect our "Generous Gambler" did previously with the two LTRO operations have been reinforcing in effect the link between weaker peripheral financial institutions with their sovereign country, causing some to pile up on their domestic sovereign bonds and in effect precipitating their demise for some."

This sovereign-bank "Feedback Loop" cannot be broken to restore growth in the Eurozone as indicated by the below table from Bloomberg indicating the exposure of the ECB's exposure to peripheral Europe:

"With the ECB's estimated exposure to peripheral Europe exceeding 1 trillion euros or 30% of its total assets (purchased sovereign bonds, plus lending to banks) the fate of Europe's central banks, banks and sovereigns has become more closely aligned. Breaking this "feedback loop," which is distorting the effectiveness of monetary policy, is essential for economies to expand." - source Bloomberg

As displayed by the latest Spanish misery index making new highs, the deflationary spiral is still playing out - source Bloomberg:

As far as Spanish banks third quarter provisioning are concerned, the recent surge in non-performing loans (NPLs) is seriously raising question on the adequacy of the level of provisioning.

Back in February in our conversation "Money for Nothing", in relation to Spain we argued the following:
"What analysts should be concerned about is that BBVA’s bad loans as a proportion of total lending has remained little changed at 4.07 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011. They also should be concerned as well that its Chief Operating Officer Angel Cano said in April 2010 that asset quality was probably going to be “stable from now on.”Really?". Evolution of NPLs in Spain, source Bloomberg:

"Spanish banks' non-performing loans (NPLs) grew more than 30 billion euros in the five months to August 2012, raising the question of how their 3Q provisioning will evolve in light of an impending bailout. Median coverage ratios fell to 56% in 2011 from 240% in 2006, and the trade-off between profit and falling coverage will be key to results." - source Bloomberg

Sorry Mister Angelo Cano, but, we cannot really see the stability in asset quality...and we tried. Spanish Non Performing Loans rate - source Bloomberg:

"Mortgages get paid in good times and in bad". - Santander CEO Alfredo Saenz April 2012

We "agree" to "disagree" on that point. Assessing the impact of Spanish real estate prices on bank loans is not that difficult given that a large portion are real-estate related as indicated by Bloomberg data:

"Assessing the Impact of Spanish Real Estate Prices on Bank Loans: Bad loans at Spanish banks increased to a record 10.5 percent of total lending, according to the Bank of Spain. A large portion are real-estate related, and Bloomberg data show house prices may be lower than those captured by official figures and projected in consultant Oliver Wyman's stress tests. 
 The Spanish house price index collated by Tinsa, Spain's largest home appraiser, is sometimes thought to better reflect reality than official figures. 
 The chart shows an annualized price drop of 10.1 percent on the official index and 14.2 percent on the Tinsa index. Both show price declines accelerating relative to 2011. 
To put these numbers in context, the recently released Oliver Wyman stress test exercise uses a base case move of minus 5.6 percent in the house price index for 2012, followed by minus 2.8 percent in 2013 and minus 1.5 percent in 2014. The adverse case scenario uses minus 19.9 percent in 2012, minus 4.5 percent in 2013, and minus 2.0 percent in 2014. 
 With a visible acceleration of the drop in house prices as banks attempt to sell properties and fiscal consolidation takes hold, the adverse case might start to look optimistic." - source Bloomberg

"Anyone raising this problem as one of the issues for the Spanish financial system is saying something stupid." - Santander CEO Alfredo Saenz April 2012

As far as Spanish woes are concerned, we think the latest European summit has not dealt with the growing Spanish issues, courtesy of the "Banker's algorithm" concept:
"The Banker's algorithm is run by the operating system whenever a process requests resources. The algorithm avoids deadlock by denying or postponing the request if it determines that accepting the request could put the system in an unsafe state."

So of course, our Banker's algorithm has avoided the deadlock in Europe because of Spain. Clearly by denying or postponing the request, it has determined the Spanish request could put the European system in a clear unsafe state! Indeed the worst-case scenario is playing out for Spain as indicated as well by Bloomberg article by Charles Penty from the 18th of October entitled - Spain Banks Face Pain as Worst-Case Scenario Turns Real:
"Spain’s request for 100 billion euros of European Union financial aid to shore up its banks is increasing concern about the nation’s growing liabilities. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s debt rating by two levels to BBB-, one step above junk, from BBB+ on Oct. 10, saying it wasn’t clear who will bear the cost of recapitalizing banks."

Under Oliver Wyman’s worst-case projection, an economic contraction of 4.1 percent in 2012, 2.1 percent in 2013 and 0.3 percent in 2014 would contribute to 270 billion euros of credit losses and a 59.3 billion-euro capital shortfall for banks...
But maybe we are saying something stupid...

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.” ― Sun Tzu

Request denied courtesy of the Bankers' algorithm:
"It is necessary that before we buy bonds, countries will apply to ESM" - European Central Bank Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen - 22nd of October 2012.
He also added:
"Let me say clearly, there is no automatism between an ESM application and our purchases".

Moving on to the relationship between the Eurostoxx volatility and the Itraxx Crossover 5 year index (European High Yield gauge), the divergence is back - source Bloomberg:

The HY risk gauge indicated by the Itraxx Crossover is still is moving towards expensive territory, but the recent widening has pushed back towards the 500 bps level. The gap between the Itraxx Crossover and Eurostoxx volatility has re-opened with volatility remaining relatively muted with the fall in systemic risk courtesy of central banks intervention.

In fact the "Risk-On" environment has clearly been supportive for our "flight to quality" picture given the significant fall we have seen in the German 5 year sovereign CDS versus the German 10 year government bond yield - source Bloomberg:

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Back in July, in our conversation "The Game of The Century", we argued that Angela Merkel had been the big winner so far in this European game of chess, given that:
"By managing to keep Germany’s liabilities unchanged Angela Merkel appears to us as the winner of the latest European summit (number 19...). Question being for us now, can Europe survive in the current form (number of countries) without making material sacrifices in true Bobby Fischer fashion? One has to wonder."

Moving on to the subject of looking at different indicators which could clearly indicate if effectively a proper rebound is on the way and if the credit bell has arguably rung three times which would mean an acceleration in global economic growth led by the US economy, we noticed recently a significant rebound in the Baltic Dry Index - source Bloomberg:

Why the rebound? As we have argued in our conversation "The link between consumer spending, housing, credit and shipping":
"The relationship between container shipping and consumer spending, traffic is indeed driven by consumer spending".

We also indicated:
"The on-going "green shoots" in US housing, the impact on the Containership industry led by consumer spending and consumer confidence is very significant"

Given consumer confidence in the US climbed to 83.1 in October according to the preliminary University of Michigan report (a 5 year high), improved sentiment and personal finances, could lead to a sustained level of optimism which could help jumpstart spending which accounts for 70% of the US economy. If the improving housing market leads to a rise in consumer spending, the GDP could surprise to the upside we think.

As far as containerized traffic is concerned as represented by the Baltic Dry Index, a change in consumer spending would have a direct impact on global traffic volume and economic growth. Looking at the Asia-Originated Containerized freight, on the 21st of September, it was up by 25%, although below May levels according to Bloomberg:

While Asia to Europe lanes worsen with volumes continuing to decline, trans-Pacific and Intra-Asia volumes are improving.

Whereas the US consumer confidence seems to be rising, falling European Confidence is hurting Air Travel Demand as indicated by Bloomberg:

"Demand for air travel in Europe will fall as business and consumer confidence is shaken by the sovereign debt crisis. The summer improvement in confidence has given way to weakness as debt problems in Spain, Italy, Ireland and Greece return to the forefront. The Bear Case is that uncertainty will lead consumers and businesses to pull back discretionary spending on air travel." - source Bloomberg.

One of the most important indicator we think in relation to our Credit Chadburn and the growth divergence between the US and Europe is the evolution of the Loans-to-Deposit ratio progress as displayed by Morgan Stanley in their recent report entitled - Tracking Deleveraging - from the 19th of October:

Another important point for the US chadburn, we think, comes from Citi's US Credit Strategy note from the 10th of October indicating the following:
"Bond vs. dividend yields: Back in ’07 the average HG non-financial bond was yielding 6.2%, while stocks for the same issuers offered a dividend yield of 1.9% (difference of 4.3%). The difference is now a negative 0.2% (2.7% vs. 2.9%), even before adjusting for factors such as high dollar prices. At some point the marginal dollar should flow from credit into equities, and it’s hard to see why we are not fairly close now."

In relation to US credit in general and US HY in particular, Goldman Sachs in their recent note from the 17th of October entitled - Assessing the interplay of macro surprises and spread products made some very interesting points:
"Macro surprises matter for spread products but in different ways.
We investigate the impact of macro surprises on the corporate bond and Agency MBS markets. 
We find that for both investment grade corporate bonds and Agency MBS, it is total returns (or equivalently yields) that respond to macro surprises. 
For high yield bonds, it is the spreads that respond to macro surprises. 
This difference reflects a trade-off between the ‘rates effect’, where positive surprises cause a back-up in rates, and the ‘spread effect’, where positive surprises lower the default premium. 
For investment grade bonds and Agency MBS, the ‘rates effect’ largely dominates the ‘spread effect’, while for high yield bonds the two effects cancel out. 
The impact is broader and larger since the global financial crisis Focusing on the post-global financial crisis (GFC) sample period, we document that the impact of macro surprises on both the corporate bond and Agency MBS markets has become larger and broader. 
Recent spread rally driven by declining premia, not better data.
Looking at the recent spread rally, we find that both high yield bonds and Agency MBS have outperformed the macro data, confirming our view that the rally has been driven mostly by risk premia compression as opposed to a better macro picture. 
The relationship with macro surprises is reasonably robust for both corporate bond spreads and MBS yields: CCC and B spreads are negatively related to the surprises, while the inverse pattern prevails for CMM yields. 
The intuition conveyed is simple: positive surprises lift growth expectations and thus cause the default risk premium to compress and Treasury yields to back up. The result is tighter corporate bond spreads and wider MBS yields.

Three key findings: Not all macro indicators are created equal (unsurprisingly). 
-For both the credit and mortgage markets, labour market indicators (non-farm payrolls, initial claims, the ADP employment report and the unemployment rate) tend to have the strongest impact. Survey data (such as the ISM – both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing – and Philly Fed) and hard data (such as retail sales and durable goods) also appear to have a significant impact on daily moves in credit spreads and total returns, as well as on CMM yields. 
-In spread terms, only high yield is sensitive to macro surprises. Moreover, the response of high yield spreads to macro surprises is monotonic in ratings: the lower the rating, the stronger the response. By contrast, investment grade credit spreads are virtually unresponsive to macro surprises for both financials and non-financials. 
-Lastly, CMM yields respond to macro surprises in a way that is almost identical to 10-year Treasury yields. This is consistent with the notion that agency MBS and 10-year Treasury securities are close substitutes of each other."

On a final  note, falling bond yields and the Fed's purchases of MBS (mortgage-backed securities) will erode further US banks profitability in the next few quarters according to David A. George, a Robert W. Baird and Co. analyst as indicated by Bloomberg Chart of the Day:

"As the CHART OF THE DAY illustrates, banks’ net interest margins have generally contracted for more than two years. The chart, based on data compiled by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., shows the gaps in percentage points between the average interest earned on loans and investments and the average rate paid to depositors. JPMorgan Chase and Co.’s third-quarter results showed the average yield on its securities holdings fell 18 basis points from the second quarter, George wrote on the 15th of October in a report. At Wells Fargo and Co., the drop was steeper: 27 basis points. Each basis point equals 0.01 percentage point. “Unfortunately, this headwind should accelerate” in the fourth quarter, the St. Louis-based analyst wrote. Refinancing rates for home loans have dropped as the Fed begins purchasing $40 billion of mortgage-backed bonds a month. The decline has resulted in faster payoffs on the mortgages underlying the securities, he wrote. Profits may also suffer as banks shift toward loans from securities and compete more intensely to draw borrowers, George wrote. He added that lenders may retain more of their mortgages, which would reduce fee income from selling the loans. Net interest margins peaked in 2010’s first quarter and narrowed in eight of the next nine quarters. Margins at banks with more than $10 billion in assets have dwindled more than the average for all federally insured institutions, as the chart shows." - source Bloomberg

Provided the fiscal cliff is avoided, we think the growth divergence between the USA and Europe will continue to grow and the chadburn on USS USA might indeed move on "Full Ahead" whereas for USS Europe (NCC-1792), we think it is on "Dead Slow Ahead", it is indeed in the credit prices...

"A sailing ship is no democracy; you don't caucus a crew as to where you'll go anymore than you inquire when they'd like to shorten sail." -   Sterling Hayden, American actor.

Stay tuned!