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Optical Illusions, “Oil Shocks,” and China’s HeadacheGary Dorsch March 9th, marked the one-year anniversary of the elusive bottom of the most brutal bear market since the 1930’s. At the time, job losses were running in excess of 700,000 /month, and fear was rife that the US-banking system was on the verge of being nationalized. American factories and miners were using 68% of industrial capacity, the lowest level since records began in 1948. Corporate profits fell sharply for the seventh consecutive quarter, the longest losing streak since the 1930’s. The second coming of the “Great Depression” looked imminent. In a final act of desperation to stop the carnage, the infamous “Plunge Protection Team,” (PPT) unleashed the most powerful weapons in its arsenal, resorting to accounting gimmickry, and nuclear-QE, - injecting $1.75-trillion into the coffers of the Wall Street Oligarchs, in order to turn the bearish tide. Bankers were set free of mark-to-market accounting, and instead, were allowed to value their toxic assets at “mark-to-make-believe” prices, leading to a strong recovery in the financial sector. Over the course of the next four-weeks, the Dow Jones Industrials climbed 1,500-points to close at 8,083 on April 9th, 2009. Still, there was great skepticism about the sustainability of the so-called “green-shoots” rally, - the third such rally since the horrific crash of Sept-October 2008 that followed the default of Lehman Brothers and the bailout of American International Group (AIG). Before hitting the ultimate bottom at 6,500, previous Dow rallies ended-up as “bear traps,” that fizzled out, before the market turned sharply lower again. There was a 1,500-point run-up during the week that culminated in the election of Barack Obama as US president, after which the Dow lost 2,000-points over the next-three weeks. The Dow Industrials staged another 1,500-point gain in December, triggered by Obama’s selection of Wall Street favorite Timothy Geithner as Treasury chief, before plunging 2,500-points during the first two-months of 2009.
However, since the Dow Industrials hit rock-bottom, US-stocks have staged a $5.3-trillion recovery, amid the biggest percentage gain since the Great Depression. Yet when viewed through the prism of Gold, measured in “hard money” terms, one can see that the performance of the Dow Jones Industrials was less than stellar. The blue-chip indicator has been locked within a narrow trading band for the past 11-months, fluctuating on both sides of 9.5-ounces of gold since April 2009. The “green shoots” rally is therefore, an Optical Illusion, simply reflecting the side-effects of the Fed’s hallucinogenic “quantitative easing” QE-drug. Utilizing the chart above, one could argue that the value of the Dow Industrials is artificially inflated by about 2,500-points, engineered by the Fed’s monetization scheme, and ultra-low interest rates. An ocean of liquidity is buoying the Dow Industrials above the 10,000-level, designed by the PPT to bolster household confidence, since the valuations of 401-k’s and investor portfolios can influence the propensity to spend. Still, there are huge worries about unrelenting job losses, multi-trillion dollar budget deficits for years to come, and the “Volcker rule,” which could put the shackles on the Wall Street’s Oligarchs, and force the liquidation of widely held stocks and commodities. But for now, the market’s climb above the 10,000-level, means the possibility of a “double-dip” recession is more remote, and instead, trying to short-sell stock indexes, is like trying to push a helium balloon under water. Stock market rallies often climb along a “wall of worry.” Yet despite persistent fears of a relapse into a “double-dip” recession, the most amazing aspect of the “Green Shoots” rally is the upward parabolic trajectory, was punctuated by only two brief corrections that barely caused a dent in the year-long bull market. The first correction in June 2009 was triggered by a sharp rise in 10-year Treasury yields to as high as the psychological 4-percent level. Yields have subsequently tumbled to 3.70%, far out of danger’s way, as far as market bulls are concerned.
The second correction, in January 2010 was triggered by China’s surprising hike in bank reserve ratios, Obama’s backing for the “Volcker rule,” – banning risky trading by Wall Street Oligarchs, - and a surge in crude oil prices above $80 /barrel. However, PPT officials quickly put a safety net under the stock market, by promising to leave the Fed’s $2.2-trillion balance sheet untouched, and to maintain zero-percent borrowing costs for the biggest banks, for the rest of the year. Thus, the Wall Street Oligarchs were able to return to the gambling table and re-engage in the most hazardous and riskiest forms of speculation. However, one of the consequences of the Fed’s ultra-easy money policies is a surge in crude oil prices above $80 /barrel, - further reducing the purchasing power of Americans’ shrinking wages. Now that oil prices have latched onto the stock market’s joy ride, any attempt by the PPT to catapult the S&P-500 Index rally above the January highs, runs the risk of jettisoning crude oil into the $85-to-$90 /barrel region. On March 10th, Saudi Arabia’s deputy oil minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told reporters that a oil price of around $70-to-$80 /barrel was a satisfactory price for energy companies to invest in oil production capacity, and low enough for consumers that burn the fuel. Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s largest producer, has shouldered most of the 4.2-million bpd of supply cuts adopted by the cartel in late-2008. However, compliance to OPEC’s output quotas, outside of the Saudis, Kuwait and the UAE, has fallen to 53%, which means the cartel is cheating by 2-million bpd.
“Energy demand is likely to continue to grow, led by rising consumption in Asia and the Middle East,” bin Salman said, and the US Energy Information Agency predicts it could grow by 1.5-million bpd this year. China, the world’s second largest oil guzzler imported 4.8-million bpd in February, the second highest tally on record.If oil prices surge to $90 /barrel, with “carry trade” speculators bidding-up prices, Riyadh could quietly increase its oil output without much fanfare to cool the market, or China’s central bank might be forced into tightening its monetary policy again. Surging oil prices could ignite an “Oil Shock” for the global economy, and the “Plunge Protection Team,” (PPT) would be forced into action, to intervene in the stock index futures markets, in order to limit the fallout. The PPT could also instruct the Fed to buy more T-bonds, to prevent yields from rising higher, due to inflationary pressures emerging in the commodities markets. At that point, “hot-money’ flows could once again, flow into the precious metals markets, sending gold to record heights. To read the entire article, click on the hyperlink below: http://sirchartsalot.com/article.php?id=127 ### Mar 11, 2010 321gold Ltd |
