Business

Facing a severe shortage of dollars and dwindling (if momentarily stable) FX reserves, Egypt moved to devalue the pound by around 13% on Monday in a move the central bank says will help attain “exchange-rate levels that reflect the strength and real value of the local currency in a short period of time.”

The central bank sold $198.1 million at auction at 8.85 versus 7.73 previously. Here's a look at the EGP versus Egypt CDS which had recently diverged quite markedly relative to recent history:

Just as we saw with the stock market following Draghi's December disappointment dead-cat-bounce, WTI Crude has collapsed back topost-Draghi lows, erasing all the WTF bounce from Friday. The driver - aside from the fact that there was no driver of the ramp - appears to be comments from Emirates Bank on the resilience of US shale (and the surprising lack of production drops for now).

Last week, when Bloomberg was celebrating the 7 year anniversary of the third longest, most central bank-supported, and thus "most hated" bull market in history, it said that  "investors are awash in angst, showing little faith the run can continue. They worry about contracting corporate earnings, slowing Chinese growth and uncertainty over interest rates. And they’re walking the talk by pulling cash from stocks at almost the fastest rate on record. It’s not unwarranted - the S&P 500 has gained just 0.5 percent in the last 18 months."

By EconMatters

On Sunday evening we brought you the latest from Goldman’s chief equity strategist David Kostin who explained that sharp swings in crude prices have created pronounced (and in fact historic) momentum swings, catching those who had piled into “popular investment themes” to be caught flat-footed. Here’s what Kostin said: