WEEKEND WRAP: Trump Charged, Johnson Elected, Fed Throws Money to the Wind

What a week!

Not only was President Trump brought up on impeachment charges of abuse of power and obstruction of congress (whatever that is) by Jerry Nadler's gutless judiciary committee, it came on the heels of a crushing conservative victory for Boris Johnson in England. And that came just after the Federal Reserve's FOMC decided to keep the federal funds interest rate right where it was, at 1.50-1.75%.

All of this happened on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. There was little time, in between, for the United States and China to announce, denounce, defer, define, defend, and eventually demystify the outlines of some vague phase one trade deal, which still hasn't happened, but is supposed to, any time, any day now.

So there it was, except for a few details that may have slipped over the transom or under the proverbial rug, like the Federal Reserve supplying $500 billion in liquidity to REPO markets to handle "the turn" from December 31, 2019 to January 1, 2020.

That little nugget came and went. Everybody was too much involved over impeachment and Boris and the trade deal to notice. Such an amount of money just to get from 2019 to 2020? It sounded absurd, spending half a trillion dollars to change the calendar. Remember, there was $700 billion in TARP, back in 2009, and that supposedly rescued the entire global financial system. This amount is more than two thirds of that.

In a related story, Lee Adler of The Wall Street Examiner purports that the Federal Reserve has bought up 90% of the government's issuance of treasury bills, notes, and bonds since September 16, effectively monetizing the debt.

So, this $500 billion of liquidity from the benevolent Fed, is it a precursor of more debt monetization, or simply a safeguard against some hedge fund or larger institution crashing as one year turns to the next? Its hard to say. Like recessions, the world will likely have to wait until after the fact to find out.

On a weekly basis, the Dow has gained in seven of the last 10 weeks. The S&P was up nine of the last 10, the NASDAQ moved higher nine of the last 11, and the Composite Index finished higher nine out of the last 10 and this week closed at an all-time high, proving, once again, that it's folly to fight the Fed.

As a footnote to the coming week, the full house is expected to vote on articles of impeachment on Wednesday.

At the Close, Friday, December 13, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 28,135.38, +3.28 (+0.01%)
NASDAQ: 8,734.88, +17.56 (+0.20%)
S&P 500: 3,168.80, +0.23 (+0.01%)
NYSE Composite: 13,697.34, -0.06 (-0.00%)

For the Week:
Dow: +120.32 (+0.43%)
NASDAQ: +78.35 (+0.91%)
S&P 500: +22.89 (+0.73%)
NYSE Composite: +109.05 (+0.80%)

Britons Vote In Conservatives As Boris Johnson Rides Populist Landslide To Majority

"We broke the deadlock, we've ended the gridlock, we've smashed the roadblock - we did it!"

Those were the words Britain's Boris Johnson used to describe his his Tory party victory in Thursday's UK general election, as the conservative party was swept into power with a commanding majority in the House of Commons, crushing the liberal Labor party and others.

Johnson's resounding message during the campaign was to "get Brexit done," and it appears the path is now clear, nearly four years after the general population voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. With not all of the districts reporting, the conservatives hold 364 seats to Labor's 202. 325 votes are needed for an outright, one-party majority and the Tories have it.

The size of the majority was of a magnitude not seen since the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher ruled over decade of conservatism. Some of the Labor seats that were lost had been voting for liberals since the 1930s. The sweep and scope of the landslide is historic.

Johnson, party leader and Prime Minister, has been pushing for a resolution to the Brexit problem over the past six months and finally was pushed into a general election, a move that eventually backfired on his opponents and has now paved the way for Britain to regain its independence and restrain or reverse the liberal spending and immigration policies that the country so desperately needs.

This election, viewed on a global basis, is an extraordinary victory for conservatives and working-class populism, mush as Donal Trump's election in 2016 was in the United States. The wave of populism just got another boost, sending the worn-out, fear-ridden policies of the left screaming for cover.

Even as the results were being tabulated Thursday night in Great Britain, voices of the losing liberals were heard using words and phrases such as "devastating," "disastrous," and "dangerous for our country," to describe the stunning victory for the right, with the general public sending a loud mandate to fix what's broken and move on.

No doubt, the liberal politicians will moan and wail, just as they have in the United States, but, in the end, the handwriting is on the wall. People want less government intervention into their lives, less meddling, and more positive, clear-headed solutions.

While many in America will have little understanding of the importance of the British elections, they send a clear message and make the case for Trump in a very distinct way.

Here is Johnson's victory speech:



At the Close, Thursday, December 12, 2019

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 28,132.05, +220.75 (+0.79%)
NASDAQ: 8,717.32, +63.27 (+0.73%)
S&P 500: 3,168.57, +26.94 (+0.86%)
NYSE Composite: 13,697.41, +117.48 (+0.87%)

Fed Holds Rates Steady; Repo Madness Debunked

There was little reaction to the final FOMC policy decision of 2019, as the Fed chose to stand pat on the federal funds rate, adding that they expected to be no rate movement at all in 2020.

Keeping rates fixed for the next 12 months may be wishful thinking, but it also may be a level-headed approach, since, after all, 2020 will be an election year, the country has been through all manner of pain and suffering for the past three years, and a bit of stability would surely be welcome to many.

Coming from the Fed and the sobering mellow intonations of Chairman Jay Powell, the calming effect on not just markets, but society as a whole may provide a soothing tonic. With steady interest rates, businesses can plan with more confidence, individuals can maintain their standards of living and maybe balance their budgets for a change. It's a welcome relief.

At the press conference, Chairman Powell fielded one question on the intriguing REPO malaise, but didn't express any kind of apprehension or surprise. Perhaps the whole thing has been a little overblown by various pundits and press people. One article in which the Repo scare is debunked by Jeff Snider at Alhambra Partners suggests that there never was a reason to be worried about a market crash or any other unforeseen, nasty event in the first place.

So, as the holiday season continues apace, the Fed has apparently managed to calm the markets, albeit temporarily, but with an eye toward the future. If there are no interest rate changes in the coming year, that would be a feat worthy of high praise toward an institution - the Federal Reserve - that is normally the butt of jokes and the object of roundhouse criticism.

If, come late December 2020, the federal funds rate remains at 1.50-1.75%, we can call it a "Christmas miracle." For now, we can temper our optimism, relying on the scattered and unpredictable nature of world events and markets to prove the Fed wrong.

At the Close, Wednesday, December 11, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 27,911.30, +29.58 (+0.11%)
NASDAQ: 8,654.05, +37.87 (+0.44%)
S&P 500: 3,141.63, +9.11 (+0.29%)
NYSE Composite: 13,579.92, +34.62 (+0.26%)

Waiting On The Fed Futility Amid Repo Crisis

Back in mid-September, as many will no doubt recall, the Fed had to step into the REPO market and provide liquidity via collateral auctions, mainly in the form of treasury bills and notes, and mortgage-backed securities (yes, the deadly MBS), which are still out there, floating around, handled like hot potatoes.

Since that time, the Fed has kept up appearances by continuing to provide POMO and TOMO (Permanent (P) and Temporary (T) Open Market Operations) to the tune of anywhere from $30 billion to $60 billion per day. That's right, PER DAY, and it's often been more. That's how big the overnight lending business is. Huge. The REPO market is also what triggered the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, when first, Bear Stearns, then, Lehman Brothers, were forced into bankruptcy by being unable to borrow from the overnight REPO market.

The problem with both Bear and Lehman was that their collateral consisted of highly toxic, dodgy MBS, or as is commonly referenced, sub-prime packaged loans. Lenders on the other side of the ledger were hesitant to lend to either, fearing that not only was the collateral of a suspect nature, the firms - Bear and Lehman - were buying more of them as an integral part of their business structure.

In 2008, this all blew up, the Fed stepped in, flooded the world with liquidity (buying up all the toxic MBS it could) and the collapse of the global financial system was averted.

Note that the collapse was averted, not solved, not cured, not by a long shot. The Fed's been busy keeping markets in some degree of stability ever since.

On Wednesday (today), the Fed's FOMC will likely announce no change n the federal funds rate, but that, besides being a foregone conclusion, isn't the real story. For that, in the interest of time and space, Money Daily bids adieu to this commentary, and offers a couple of links that may or may not render the REPO markets as something understandable to the reader.

First, this excellent video with Paddy Hirsh explaining just how the REPO market operates (about 8 minutes of time well spent):


Then, just to make matters a little more interesting, this ZeroHedge story featuring Zoltan Pozsar claiming that the REPO market is about to explode again, and that a stock market crash is imminent.

Take that ZeroHedge article with as many grains of salt or sugar your risk appetite will absorb, but bear in mind that Mr. Pozsar was, as ZeroHedge purports,...

instrumental during his tenure at both the US Treasury and the New York Fed in laying the foundations of the modern repo market, orchestrating the response to the global financial crisis and the ensuing policy debate (as virtually nobody at the Fed knew more about repo at the time than Pozsar), serving as point person on market developments for Fed, Treasury and White House officials throughout the crisis (yes, Kashkari was just the figurehead); playing the key role in building the TALF to backstop the ABS market, and advising the former head of the Fed's Markets Desk, Brian Sack, on just how the NY Fed should implement its various market interventions without disrupting and breaking the most important market of all: the multi-trillion repo market.

The Fed's FOMC policy meeting concludes at 2:00 pm ET on Wednesday, with the release of their statement followed by a press conference headed by Fed Chairman, Jay Powell, who will try his best to avoid answering direct questions dealing with the REPO market, for obvious reasons.

Party on!

At the Close, Tuesday, October 10, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 27,881.72, -27.88 (-0.10%)
NASDAQ: 8,616.18, -5.64 (-0.07%)
S&P 500: 3,132.52, -3.44 (-0.11%)
NYSE Composite: 13,545.31, -9.77 (-0.07%)

Stocks Struggle Second Straight Monday; Paul Volker Passes

In what is beginning to look like a recurrent theme, stocks struggled to open the week, with all the major US indices down on the day.

This is the same condition that prevailed last week. Stocks were down hard to start the week, only to be rescued on Friday by a surprisingly good jobs report.

That may not be the case this time around. There will be no salvation by numbers later on the week. Market participants will have to deal with the troika of incessant impeachment hearings, troubling trade talks, and fruitless Federal Reserve operations.

It's no secret that the Fed has opened the spigots again, starting in September with what they're currently calling "not QE," a series of open market operations conducted on a daily basis that was originally intended to ease the malaise in overnight lending markets, and, while still performing that function, has morphed into another monstrosity, already having increased the size of the Fed balance sheet by some $300 billion.

And this will go on at least through the first quarter of next year, and probably further, because once the Fed shuts down the free money booth, there will be carnage, which is not to say there won't be carnage beforehand or that they will ever be able to completely close down their operations of largesse to the yield-starved banks.

Beyond the ordinary absurdities that has become the financial world, a moment of pause was given to mourn the passing of former Fed Chairman Paul Volker, who served in that post from August 1979 to August 1987, under presidents Carter and Reagan. Widely credited as the man to defeat the high inflation of the 70s and 80s through the use of tight money controls and ridiculously high interest rates, Volker was first seen as ridiculous, then hated, and finally emerged an American hero, rescuing the US economy from a terrific bout of inflation, unemployment, and a deep recession - caused, in part, by his raising of the federal funds rate from 11% to a record 20% - in 1981-82, that lasted 16 months.

Volker died Sunday. He was 92.

At the Close, Monday, December 9, 2019:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 27,909.60, -105.46 (-0.38%)
NASDAQ: 8,621.83, -34.70 (-0.40%)
S&P 500: 3,135.96, -9.95 (-0.32%)
NYSE Composite: 13,555.07, -33.22 (-0.24%)