From Doug Nolan at creditbubblebulletin.blogspot.com:
Crude has rallied about 5% off of last month’s low. The Brazilian real closed Friday at 3.90, having posted a decent rally from the January closing low of 4.16 to the dollar. Brazilian equities have bounced about 10%. This week saw Brazil’s currency rally 2.4%. In general, EM currencies and equities have somewhat stabilized, notably outperforming this week. Stocks posted gains in Brazil, Turkey and China. From Bloomberg: “Yuan in Longest Weekly Rally Since 2014 as China Raises Rhetoric.” The dollar index this week dropped 2.6%, which most would have expected to lend some market support.
If crude, commodities, EM, the strong dollar and the weak yuan were weighing on global market confidence, why is it that global financial stocks have of late taken such a disconcerting turn for the worse?
Thursday headlines: “Credit Suisse posts first loss since 2008”; “Credit Suisse shares crash to 24-year low.” This week saw Credit Suisse sink 15.2%, pushing y-t-d losses to 30.4%. European financial stocks continue to get hammered, some now trading near 2009 lows. Notably, Societe Generale this week fell 8.7% (down 25% y-t-d), Credit Agricole 6.1% (down 21%) and Deutsche Bank 5.2% (down 30%). From Bloomberg’s Tom Beardsworth: “Credit-default swaps tied to subordinated debt issued by Deutsche Bank rose to the highest since July 2012…” The STOXX Europe 600 Bank Index dropped 6.2% this week, boosting y-t-d declines to 19.9%. FTSE Italia All-Shares Bank Index sank 10.1%, increasing 2016 losses to 30.6%.
February 4 – Bloomberg (Tom Beardsworth): “European banks and insurers’ financial credit risk rose to the highest in more than two years, following a $5.8 billion loss at Credit Suisse Group AG and signs of a slowdown in the global economy. The cost of insuring subordinated debt climbed by 19 bps to 254 bps, the highest since July 2013, based on the Markit iTraxx Europe Subordinated Financial Index. An index of credit-default swaps tracking senior financial debt jumped six bps to 110 bps. Both indexes have risen for six days in a row…”
Here at home, the banks (BKX) sank 3.9%, trading this week at an almost 30-month low (down 16% y-t-d). The broker/dealers (XBD) fell 4.0%, sinking to the lowest level since December 2013 (down 18.7% y-t-d). Citigroup and Bank of America both have y-t-d (five-week) declines of 23%.
To continue reading: The Adjustment Cycle
Like this:
Like Loading...
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 