By Martin, Macronomics

“If you don’t have a functioning financial system the world economy won’t be revived. All the major economies have their responsibility to assist at a pace which is required to clean up the balance sheet of the banking system and to ensure that credit flows are resumed.” - Manmohan Singh

Contagion we have in Emerging markets:

Source CMA:

The trend in Ukraine:

No more Viagra ((Pfizer (PFE) long-term rating cut to A+ from AA- by Fitch; Outlook Stable) for China, as one stimulus after another is getting pulled out – this time around, it is not like Haier Electronic Group as we discussed previously with subsidies for home appliances.  Instead, loan approvals are getting withdrawn:

China’s Squeeze on Property Market Nearing ‘Tipping Point’ – Bloomberg – 23rd of September:

“The squeeze on China’s property market may be reaching a “tipping point” that drives growth lower just when exports are under threat from a global slowdown and investor confidence is plunging, said Zhang Zhiwei, Hong Kong-based chief China economist at Nomura Holdings Inc.
Land transactions in 133 cities tracked by Soufun Holdings Ltd., the country’s biggest real-estate website, fell 14 percent by area in August from a month earlier. Prices of new homes declined in 16 of 70 cities last month compared with July, according to government data.”

Pop goes the real estate bubble in China, from the same article:

“Property construction is a mainstay of investment that last year drove more than a half of economic growth while land sales contributed 40 percent of revenues earned by local authorities that have amassed 10.7 trillion yuan ($1.67 trillion) of debt.

A funding squeeze on developers risks a “domino effect” as companies needing cash cut prices, forcing others to follow, Credit Suisse Group AG said yesterday.

“We’re reaching a tipping point where land sales are dropping much faster than before, developers are losing more access to bank financing, and housing prices are showing weakness,” Nomura’s Zhang said in an interview in Beijing yesterday.”

And Bloomberg to add:

“The price of land in Beijing slumped 76 percent in August from a month earlier, while in Guangzhou it plummeted 53 percent, according to Soufun. Land auction failures surged 242 percent in the first seven months of this year because of government curbs on the property market, the Beijing Times reported Aug. 3.”

A Chinese Subprime crisis in the making?

“Some developers have turned to trust firms for financing, usually in the form of loans that are repackaged into investment products and sold to retail investors. The debt is typically funded by banks or investors themselves, according to Samsung Securities Asia Ltd.”

Worst Asia Currency Drop Since ’97 Spoils Debt – Source Bloomberg:

So, no safe haven anymore even in Asia as its redemption/liquidation time for some global macro players.

Source Bloomberg – Kyoungwha Kim and Jiyeun Lee – 23rd of September:

“The Bloomberg-JPMorgan Asian Dollar Index slumped 4.3 percent this month, heading for its biggest loss since December, 1997, led by a 9.6 percent decline in South Korea’s won. Korea Exchange Inc. prices show the yield on 10-year government debt soared 27 basis points, or 0.27 percentage point, to 3.82 percent, from an all-time low on Sept. 14. The yield on similar Indonesian debt jumped 68 basis points this month to 7.47 percent, after touching a record low on Sept. 9.”

And EM for Global Macro players is a crowded trade according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch research, hence the liquidation we started to see and mentioned in the post “Markets update – Credit – Anterograde and Retrograde amnesia“:

Emerging Markets, which until recently had been preserved from the onslaught, have been affected as well by the revised growth picture published by the IMF, cutting its forecast to 4% from 4.3% in June 2011 – Source Bank of America Merrill Lynch Research:

So Australia and Australian banks please beware:

And given commodities based countries are in the frontline in relation to a Chinese slowdown, it is of no surprise that commodities based currencies are taking a beating in the process:

AUD/USD, 2008 until the 22nd of September picture – Bloomberg:

Canadian dollar is exposed as well:

And my good credit friend to comment:

“The equity market finally realized what the credit market was” flashing” for a while… and reacted accordingly. But the race to catch back with the credit market has still a long way to go…and the path may not be a straight line. Bottom line, equities will go lower as the new “norm” of slow economy worldwide will be accepted…

Which means lower prices for commodities (goodbye Canadian dollar and Australian dollar carry trade), higher US dollar (a higher US dollar and slower growth will be the poison pill for the international US corporations)…”

No more safe havens, even in Switzerland, as the country now flirts with deflation, Japanese style:

Source Bloomberg.

Like Japan, Switzerland is suffering from currency appreciation, tipping it towards deflation in the process, with 30 year Swiss Government bonds yielding less than Japanese 30 year bonds, with a yield at around 1.30%. The Swiss National Bank is warning that its Consumer Prices may decline 0.3% in 2012.

As a follow-up on our last post where we discussed the sell-off in Emerging Markets currencies, we now have 4 countries trying to prop up their currencies, namely, Russia, India, Argentina, and now Brazil.  According to Bloomberg in relation to Brazil:

“The central bank sold 55,075 currency swap contracts in auctions, which was equivalent to selling dollars in the futures market. The last time policy makers entered the derivatives market to weaken the dollar was in June 26, 2009, according to the central bank. Yesterday’s measure marked a reversal of a 28-month-old strategy of buying dollars to weaken the currency.”

Brazil Sovereign CDS climbed 23 bps on the 22nd of September to 219 bps according to CMA. No, inflation is not the immediate threat, deflation is. US treasuries returned so far 1.7% in September, 8.9% gain year to date.  And my good credit friend added on this:

” ‘No more risk free assets’ may result in a big re-pricing of all asset classes.

When there is too much debt in a system and when everybody is reluctant to erase the debt, the only solution is to deflate the value of the debt and the capital in order to bring them in line with the value of the assets or collateral… The trend will be “to deflate”, because we are in “deflation” … even if nobody wants to hear it.”

Ratio MSCI EMERGING MARKETS/ MSCI WORLD:

“Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.” - Publilius Syrus

Stay Tuned!

Martin T., Macronomics

Martin T. is a credit specialist with a London based bank. During his career he's had different roles within various banks, covering everything from FX to High Grade Bonds. He has always been passionate about markets and particularly on Macro trends.

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