European bourses advance and Asian share rose led by a surge in Hong Kong stocks which rose the most in three months as Japan hit 15 month highs. U.S. futures are little changed along while the dollar rebounded from session lows after Friday's selloff. Crude oil has continued its retreat, down 0.2% and sliding for a 6th straight day after breifly dropping below $48 in overnight trading.
Regular readers remember how, when we first reported around the time of our launch eight years ago that central banks buy stocks, intervene and prop up markets, and generally manipulate equities in order to maintain confidence in a collapsing system, and avoid a liquidation panic and bank runs, it was branded "fake news" by the established financial "kommentariat." What a difference eight years makes, because today none other than the WSJ writes that "by keeping interest rates low and in some cases negative, central banks have prompted some of the most conservative investors to joi
In recent days we have witnessed a massive outflow from virtually all holders of stocks. Just last week we reported that retail had just dumped the most stocks in the past 5 weeks since the August 2011 US downgrade...
... confirming a long-running trend observed with BofA smart money clients who, as we also reported last week, have sold stocks for 15 of the past 15 weeks, the longest selling stretch on record.
This has repeatedly prompted many to wonder who is buying.
Markets have stopped focusing on what central banks are doing and are "positioning for what they believe central banks may or may not do," according to BofA's Athanasios Vamvakidis as he tells FX traders to "prepare to fight the central banks," as the market reaction to central bank policies this year reflects transition to a new regime, in which investors start speculating which central bank will have to give up easing policies first.
The market has started testing the central banks
Having been at the forefront of the recent collapse in core European bank stock prices, Deutsche Bank has - as we first reported last weekend - been 'crying uncle' but not in a way most would expect: instead of begging for more central bank easing, DB told the ECB (and BOJ) to stop easing as negative rates and more excess liquidity, are crushing it. This is why central banks are trapped, because they are damned if they don't ease any more with the global economy on the edge of recession, and damned if they ease further, pushing bank default risk even higher.