Notes from the
Investment Underground

Is this the end of the sucker's rally? Reality hits bulls hard... Banks' losses to exceed those of the Great Depression... Will Alcoa's earnings report mark the top? Why the government should stick to tending the lawns at Arlington Cemetery... Richard Russell: the primary trend is still down... Obama builds his house of cards ever higher... Insider rumors at the PPIP... A mysterious distortion in gold... And more!

*** Here at Notes we've been warning investors of that the recent rally in stocks was nothing more than a sucker's rally. It's been clear to us that although technical indicators showed that U.S. stocks were oversold – heavily oversold – economic fundamentals, or the primary trend, just didn't support a sustained rally. At the time of writing, the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq are all down over 1.5%.

*** The reason for the sell-off today and yesterday: reality. Yesterday, traders took fright Mike Mayo's "sell" recommendation for banks. Mayo, who has a reputation for independence – a rare thing on Wall Street these days – reckons Geithner's PPIP shell game won't be able to prevent Wall Street's losses exceeding those of the Great Depression. Today, it's earnings, or lack thereof. How bad is the earnings picture? Bellwether aluminium producer Alcoa is expected to post a loss of 60 cents a share, against earnings of 44 cents a share at the same time a year ago. The first quarter is likely to show earnings at S&P 500 companies declined 37%, according to Thomson Reuters, the eighth straight decline in quarterly earnings. Go figure.

*** Will Alcoa's earnings mark the top of this rally? It's quite possible, says Investors Daily Edge financial analyst Rick Pendergraft. He even went so far as to provide us this handy chart to see the top in action.

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This is what Rick told Crisis Strategy Alert 's senior analyst, Charles Delvalle:

      Alcoa's results are due after the bell today. If Alcoa losses more than 60 cents a share (which is what analysts expect) or if Alcoa provides god awful guidance, expect this market to fall back on its face.

*** It has been a mark of this crisis that every rally in stocks sparked by a government announcement has eventually reversed. Traders clearly want to believe that government action can relieve their pain. It can't. As my dad said yesterday in the Daily Reckoning , "Maybe the government should make sure there are enough parking places. It should probably make sure the grass is cut at Arlington Cemetery. But there's no way it can do a better job of getting people what they want than they will do themselves. Even in a depression."

*** Dad's all flush after attending the big Richard Russell shindig last Saturday night. For those of you who don't know, Russell is a doyen of the financial newsletter business. He's been publishing his Dow Theory Letters for half a century now. And he's one of the world's leading experts on Dow Theory and U.S. stock markets in general. The People's Bank of China subscribes to Russell's letter. To say he's a big hitter is an understatement. This is what Russell had to say recently about the rally in U.S. stocks (courtesy of the Daily Reckoning ):

      People in this country don't realize how bad things can be. I lived through the Great Depression. I remember people standing in bread lines. It was hard to get a job, any job, back then. But now, you see the restaurants are still full. People are still spending money. They may be worried and they may be beginning to save, but there's no sense of urgency. And there's a rally on Wall Street. You know, every bear market produces a rally. You can expect the market to retrace its steps by one- to two-thirds.

      And every bear market has a surprise. I think the surprise is that this is going to be a lot worse than people expect.

Of course, you could bet against Russell's 50 years experience. But here at Notes we won't be joining you. "The primary trend is down," says Russell. The bear market will continue until it "has fully expressed itself." We couldn't agree with him more.

*** That stocks are selling off shouldn't surprise anyone. The financial sector led this rally, with spurious news of January and February profits at Citigroup. But the crux of the problem remains. As we said yesterday, banks are still marking the bulk of their toxic assets at 90-95%. This is deliriously optimistic nonsense. The assets are probably worth half that at best. There is roughly $8.1 trillion worth of loans at risk right now on the balance sheets of the U.S. banking and thrift system. So far, banks have taken $1.2 trillion in writedowns against these loans. The question is how many more trillions in writedowns are still in store.

*** Nouriel Roubini reckons total writedowns will reach $3.6 trillion. That's another $2.4 trillion to go. The IMF forecasts that total writedowns of banks and insurers could reach $4 trillion – another $2.8 trillion. But the government, through its various guarantee programs, is now supporting 72% of banks' total liabilities, which equates to a dollar amount far in excess of either Roubini's or the IMF's worst case scenarios for loan losses.

*** This is bad news for banks. It's also bad news for America. That's because U.S. deficits are increasing along with banks' needs for more government backstops for their bad loans. Here's how it works. The Treasury borrows money directly via its bond auctions. Or the Fed buys up U.S. government and agency debt and then uses the newly created money to plug banks' balance sheets and fund the myriad federal economic support programs (which so far top $9 trillion). As this process accelerates (only a fraction of these $9 trillion in obligations are currently funded) the assets backing the banking system – U.S. Treasuries and the dollar – themselves become devalued. At this stage, all bets are off.

*** In other words, all that's happening is the government is building the house of cards higher and higher. Government backing is responsible for any improvement in the credit markets. But take away that backing and there is no real improvement in risk. To put it another way, risk is being transferred from the corporate sphere (the banks) to the public sphere (the U.S. taxpayer). This is reflected in U.S. sovereign CDS widening, which reflects the market perception of the creditworthiness of the U.S. Today, the Financial Times reports that U.S. sovereign CDS widened 8% to 51.67bps.

*** Even George Soros – an initial supporter of the government's interventions in the markets – thinks the U.S. is in for a surprise. A bad one that is. Speaking to Reuters Financial Television, Soros said the U.S. economy is in for a "lasting slowdown" and could face a Japan-style period of relatively low growth coupled with high inflation. Soros also articulated what most thinking investors already know. "The banking system, as a whole, is basically insolvent," he said. Amen to that, brother.

*** Reuters reports that the U.S. Treasury Department is planning to delay the release of any completed bank stress test results until after the first-quarter earnings season, "in order to avoid complicating stock market reaction." Think the Treasury made this decision because its stress tests are full of good news? 

*** The Geithner-Summers "legacy loan" program (the PPIP) could end up costing taxpayers than even we expected here at Notes . According to Columbia University economics professor Jeffrey Sachs, inside bidding within the program could stitch up the taxpayer to the tune of trillions of dollars. This from the Sachs, writing in Huffington Post:

      Consider a toxic asset held by Citibank with a face value of $1 million, but with zero probability of any payout and therefore with a zero market value. An outside bidder would not pay anything for such an asset. All of the previous articles consider the case of true outside bidders.

      Suppose, however, that Citibank itself sets up a Citibank Public-Private Investment Fund (CPPIF) under the Geithner-Summers plan. The CPPIF will bid the full face value of $1 million for the worthless asset, because it can borrow $850K from the FDIC, and get $75K from the Treasury, to make the purchase! Citibank will only have to put in $75K of the total.

      Citibank thereby receives $1 million for the worthless asset, while the CPPIF ends up with an utterly worthless asset against $850K in debt to the FDIC. The CPPIF therefore quietly declares bankruptcy, while Citibank walks away with a cool $1 million. Citibank's net profit on the transaction is $925K (remember that the bank invested $75K in the CPPIF) and the taxpayers lose $925K. Since the total of toxic assets in the banking system exceeds $1 trillion, and perhaps reaches $2-3 trillion, the amount of potential rip-off in the Geithner-Summers plan is unconscionably large.

This may sound farfetched. (It certainly sounds like a huge scam.) But as Sachs points out, "Both BusinessWeek and the Financial Times report that the banks themselves might be invited to bid for the toxic assets, which would seem to set up just the scam outline above."

*** Gold prices rose today as stocks continued their slide. The yellow metal rose to just over $883 an ounce – another bad omen for stocks. But this isn't where the real story is at. The real story has to do with a strange distortion in the gold markets. The last time this distortion happened, investors made as much as 15,650% or more. 

Well, it's happening again. Investors around the world are snapping up gold bullion... mining stocks... gold ETFs, you name it. And for good reason: Our country's spending binge is likely to cause massive inflation over the next few years. And gold is a great way to protect your wealth. Understand how the distortion works, and how to capitalize on it immediately, and you could make more money over the next 18 months than you've ever made in your life. Read this report to learn more. 

*** Are we in a depression?Communities in Detroit, New York state, North Carolina and Massachusetts certainly think they are. They're printing up Great Depression-style scrips (local currencies) to keep cash circulating. According to this article in USA Today, about a dozen local communities are printing up their own scrips.

*** Members of Crisis Strategy Alert had plenty of warning of the dangers of the sucker's rally. On March 27, James Dale Davidson sent this alert to members:

    Remain cautious. An inherent feature of capital markets during depressions is their ability to mislead. Most investors do not appreciate the demonic efficiency of market crashes in eradicating wealth in the wake of credit bubbles.

    Consider the track record of the stock market after 1929. Many people recall that the Dow declined 89% from its peak in September 1929 to its trough in July 1932. This implies that it would have been easy to stay short and make a tremendous fortune while the market tanked. Wrong.

    What is less appreciated is that the market found a way of wiping out bears as well as bulls.

     The bears were busted by seven bear-killing rallies of 15% or more. The bulls were creamed by eight declines of 25% or more. Bulls, value investors, momentum traders - even the horoscope traders - if there were any, were wiped out. It did not matter what investment criteria impatient bulls applied, they were wiped out by premature calls of the bottom.

    Any conventional investment plan was a failure. That is why Crisis Strategy Alert is a necessary addition to your investment arsenal.

    It is your chance to take advantage of the years that I have spent studying past depressions.

Citação de: camafeu em Abril 08, 2009, 00:36
*** Even George Soros – an initial supporter of the government's interventions in the markets – thinks the U.S. is in for a surprise. A bad one that is. Speaking to Reuters Financial Television, Soros said the U.S. economy is in for a "lasting slowdown" and could face a Japan-style period of relatively low growth coupled with high inflation. Soros also articulated what most thinking investors already know. "The banking system, as a whole, is basically insolvent," he said. Amen to that, brother.

http://jimrogers1.blogspot.com/2009/04/george-soros-system-has-broken-down-apr.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3IfAZaTc7I&feature=response_watch