Bank (Un)earnings: Why FICC Is Shrinking And Will Continue To
Submitted by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,
Submitted by Jeffrey Snider via Alhambra Investment Partners,
One week ago, in the aftermath of the dramatic downgrade to junk of Asian commodity giant Noble Group, we showed readers the list of potential "fallen angel" companies, those "investment "grade companies (such as Freeport McMoRan whose CDS trades at near-default levels) who are about to be badly junked, focusing on the 18 or so US energy companies that are about to lose their investment grade rating.
In November of 2014, we announced the quiet death of the petrodollar.
The system which underwrote decades of dollar dominance and kept a perpetual bid under USD assets met an untimely demise when the Saudis moved to bankrupt the US shale complex by deliberately suppressing oil prices.
The implications, we said, would be far-reaching.
Venezuela's crude oil basket price collapsed to as low as $20.20 yesterday, according to the socialist utopia's President Maduro. Having already "passed the point of no return," Maduro rages that OPEC producers appear to be "finally waking up" to what they have unleashed noting that, according to him, Russia's Putin has agreed to "work on oil price issues."
More jawboning and hope...
With crude soaring despite DOE showing inventories surging, production up fgor the 7th week in a row, and demand plummeting, Baker Hughes oil rig count dropped 5 more to 510 this week - the lowest since April 2010 (after a de minimus 1 rig drop last week). Crude had ripped higher into this print but was thoroughly unimpressed in its unchangedness.