Tag Archives: stock crash

The Financial System Was FUBAR Before The Virus Crisis

Financial Markets, , , ,

“If you infuse Keynes’ economic and monetary theories with LSD you end up with MMT (Mondern Monetary Theory)”

While the coronavirus to be sure is the “black swan” that pricked the stock bubble, market forces eventually would have accomplished the same result. The Fed started bailing out the banking system in September, printing half a trillion dollars to save the banks well before anyone had ever heard of coronavirus or Covid-19. It knew back in September that a massive credit problem was starting to bubble up.

The Prepared Mind invited myself and TFMetals’ Craig Hemke to discuss the Catch-22 global debt problem facilitated by the Central Banks, the eventual monetary system reset and, of course, gold and silver:

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a minimum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

 

Stocks, Bonds, Paper Gold – What The Hell Is Happening?

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

Make no mistake, the financial system is collapsing under one giant margin call being issued to banks and hedge funds. How big?  No one knows. The Fed obviously was preparing for something when it commenced its money printing in September. But it had no idea of the scale of the underlying systemic problems.  Coronavirus is not the cause of what’s unfolding in the markets – it merely served as the pin that pricked the biggest financial asset bubble in history.

The $1.5 trillion “repo” QE announced by the Fed today did a complete belly flop, as the Dow closed 400 points lower than where it was trading when the QE was announced.  This will take the Fed’s balance sheet well above its peak level during QE1-3.

Craig “Turd Ferguson” Hemke and I had a short discussion about the devastation in the stock and credit markets, including trying to make sense of the action in the precious metals sector – Use this link to access the podcast and TF Metals or click on the image below:

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a minimum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

Stocks And Gold: What Happened Last Week

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , ,

The coronavirus crisis is perhaps the real “Black Swan” that no one saw coming.  While the virus pulled the trigger on the loaded weapon aimed at the stock market, it’s not the cause of the 2nd fastest 10% decline in the history of stock market.  Using “as adjusted” GAAP accounting applied to the current trailing 12-month SPX earnings to make them comparable to the GAAP standards applied to 1999 earnings, this was the most overvalued stock market in U.S. history.  While Fed officials and Wall Street story-tellers rejected the notion that the stock market was in a bubble, this table from Crescat Capital demonstrates the stock market’s extreme degree of overvaluation:

The SPX is at an all-time high in five of eight valuation metrics.  However,  I would argue it’s really 6 of 8. The “adjusted” P/E (CAPE) used by Robert Shiller is in the 96th percentile of high valuation.  But if the historical earnings of the SPX were adjusted using 1999 GAAP, the current “Shiller P/E” ratio would at an all-time high. This is because GAAP standards for recognizing income have become considerably more lenient over the last 21 years.

A metric more suited to comparable analysis across time is the median enterprise value (market cap + debt) to sales ratio. The revenue line is the least affected by GAAP.  For the most part (there are exceptions), sales are what they are.  Currently the median EV/sales ratio is 3.6x. This is double what it was at the peak of the dot.com/tech bubble.

It was just a matter of time before the stock market fell off its valuation cliff.  Meanwhile, the precious metals and mining stocks ripped lower last week. Several subscribers asked what was going on given the expectation that at least gold and silver should have benefited from cash seeking a safe haven.  But, as with the general stock market, the precious metals sector was set up technically for a correction.

When hedge funds face margin calls they start to dump anything in their fund that has a reasonable bid. The sheer force of the stock market sell-off took everything with hit.  Most NYSE stocks, including mining stocks, have a bid.  Most CME futures contracts, especially paper gold and silver, have liquid bids. Hedge funds have large leveraged positions in illiquid subprime high yielding garbage which have no bid in a highly turbulent market.  The Fed’s repo/QE operation since September has enabled hedge funds to maintain these morally hazardous illiquid investments rather than forcing the funds to pare back.

You’ll note, however, that most of the decline all week in the price of gold and silver occurred during Comex trading hours, when most of the rest of the world is done for the day. While the Fed/BIS/banks no doubt helped push on the metals in the paper market, hedge funds were extraordinarily long gold and silver futures going into this past week and gold and silver futures had a liquid short-cover bid conveniently provided by the banks who are clearing agents for the Comex.

Furthermore, the HGNSI (Hulbert Gold Newsletter Sentiment Index) had jumped over 70. The mining stocks and gold/silver ALWAYS correct when the HGNSI is over 60. The week before last the entire precious metals sector went straight up in a “flight to safety” move. With sentiment off the charts, the pullback is healthy because it sets up the next big move, especially as it becomes obvious that the Fed will attempt to fight a bear market in the stock market by taking the Fed Funds rate to zero and upsizing its current QE money printing agenda.

The Dow could drop to 17,000, which is where it was trading when Trump labeled the stock market “a big, fat ugly bubble” in late 2016, and still be egregiously overvalued based on fundamentals. India’s massive gold appetite was muted this past week after the big move gold had made the previous week thereby making it easier to push gold and silver lower. This is characteristic of India’s buying pattern. With the smash in gold, India will back in play next week which should at the very least insert a floor under the precious metals sector.

The Fed seems to time its reinsertion of the Fed put strategically at a time when the stock market is technically highly oversold. December 26, 2018 is a perfect example. Of course it’s no coincidence that the Fed caved in on Friday and posted a notice on its website BEFORE the stock market closed that it would use its tools and “act as appropriate to support the economy.” Translation: “we’re telling you we’ll print money to support the stock market and we wanted to get the ball rolling on Friday before the market closes with the Dow down 900 points.”  Of course, the Dow proceed to  rally over 500 points going into the close.

I expect a dead-cat bounce in the stock market that may or may not last all week. If the Fed increases the amount of money spewing from its printing press it might extend the DCB longer than a week. The precious metals sector should benefit from this and it might even continue higher when the stock market inevitably takes another turn for the worse and heads toward “bear market” territory.  For precedence on this pattern, see the fall of 2008.

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a minimum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

Repo Rates And Gold: Something Big Is Happening

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , ,

“We can ignore reality, but we cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.” – Ayn Rand

Something big is happening beneath the surface of a Dow and S&P 500 trading near all-time highs. The soaring repo rate, more demand for overnight Fed funding loans than is being supplied and a big move in the price of gold since the end of May are clear indicators.

The global financial system is unsustainably over-leveraged. This problem is compounded by the massive increase in OTC derivatives. The U.S. financial system, in exceptional fashion, leads the way. Trump calls it “the greatest economy ever.” Yet the Fed was unable to “normalize” the Fed Funds Rate back up to just the historically average level without crashing the financial system. In fact, the Fed couldn’t even get halfway there before it had to reverse course and take rates lower plus hint a more money printing.

Phil Kennedy of Kennedy Financial hosted me plus Larry Lepard (mining stock fund manager) and Jerry Robinson (economist and trend trader)  to discuss what appears to be a giant margin call on the global financial system and where we think the price  of gold is headed:

NOTE:  I will be analyzing the signal being sent by the soaring repo rate this week and why it may be evidence that the fractional reserve banking fiat currency system is collapsing in my Short Seller’s Journal this week. You can learn more about my newsletters here  Short Seller’s Journal  and here  Mining Stock Journal. Two weeks ago I presented ROKU as a short at $169 and last week Tiffany’s (TIF) at $98. So far my put play on ROKU has been a home run.

A Global Race To Zero In Fiat Currencies…

Financial Markets, Gold, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , , ,

…ushers in the restoration of price discovery in the precious metals market. The price of gold is at or near an all-time in most currencies except the dollar. This summer, however, it would appear that the dollar-based valuation of gold is starting to break the “shackles” of official intervention and is beginning reflect the underlying fundamentals. Gold priced in dollars is up over 14% since mid-November 2018 and over 44% since it bottomed at $1050 in December 2015. But those RORs for gold are inconvenient truths you won’t hear in the mainstream financial media.

The movement in gold from 2008-2011 reflected the fundamental problems that caused the great financial crisis. The gold price also anticipated the inherent devaluation of the U.S. dollar from the enormous amount of money and credit that was to be created in order to keep the U.S. financial/economic system from collapsing. But those “remedies” only  treated the symptoms – not the underlying problems.

Once the economic/financial system was stabilized, the price of gold – which had become
technically extremely over-extended – entered a 5-year period of correction/consolidation.
This of course was helped along with official intervention. Gold bottomed out vs. the dollar in late 2015. As you can see, the gold price is significantly undervalued relative to the rising level of Treasury debt:

This is just one measuring stick by which to assess a “fundamental” dollar price for gold. But clearly just using this variable, gold is significantly under-priced in U.S. dollars.

As mentioned above, the underlying problems that led to the systemic de facto collapse in 2008 were allowed to persist. In fact, these problems have become worse despite the  efforts of the policy-makers and insider elitists to cover them up. But gold is starting to sniff the truth.  I’ve been expecting an aggressive effort by the banks to push the price of gold below $1400 – at least temporarily. But every attempt at this endeavor has failed quickly.  This is the ”invisible hand” of the market that ”sees” the ensuing currency devaluation race, which has shifted from a marathon to a track meet.

Though the politicians and Wall Street snake-oil salesmen will blame the fomenting economic contraction on the “trade war,”  the system was heading into a tail-spin anyway – the trade war is simply hastening the process. As such, the only conclusion I can draw is that there’s big big money globally – over and above the well publicized Central Bank buying – that is moving into gold and silver for wealth preservation. In short, bona fide price discovery in U.S. dollar terms is being reintroduced to the precious metals market.

The Mining Stock Journal  covers several mining stocks that I believe are extraordinarily undervalued relative to their upside potential. I also present opportunistic recommendations on select mid-tier and large-cap miners that should outperform their peers.  You can learn more about this newsletter here:   Mining Stock Journal information.

Every Bounce In Tesla Stock Can Be Fearlessly Shorted

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , ,

Elon Musk sent out an internal email to employees on Thursday in which he makes the highly dubious claims that the Company has 50,000 new orders for the Model  3,  the Company has a “good chance” of exceeding Q4’s record deliveries and the production of the Model 3 is close to 1,000 per week.

Regardless of the veracity of the production numbers, the new orders and Q2 deliveries assertions are likely Musk’s standard fraudulent misrepresentations.  From all of the data that can be gathered from official sources which track deliveries and VIN registrations globally, sales of all three Tesla models are falling off a cliff.  The recent price-cuts announced confirm the sales reports (eventually the Law of supply/demand/price prevails).

More likely, Musk scripted the email and its “leak” for the purpose of juicing the stock price in pre-market trading trading on Thursday morning in an attempt to stimulate hedge fund and retail daytrader momentum chasers and trigger a short-squeeze.

The leaked email had the intended effect – for about an hour – as the stock shot up to as high as $199.60 from $181.  The stock closed at $195.46.  This morning, the bubble-promoting financial media transformed lies embedded in the email into reports that Tesla was on track for record deliveries in Q2.  The stock ran up in pre-market from $196 to as high as $203.71.  As I write this the stock is trading below $191.

Elon Musk is obsessed with fighting the shorts rather than running a business and proving the shorts wrong. The funding secured debacle was more than a mistake – 1) it reflected desperation 2) it was highly illegal but our Government no longer prosecutes the crimes committed by billionaires.

The “leaked” email is another example of Musk using social media in an attempt to manipulate the stock price and punish short-sellers.  He’s emboldened by the fact that SEC has made it clear that it has no interest enforcing securities laws on Musk.  The public is on its own –  those for whom the laws are meant to protect (unsophisticated daytraders and the investors in  recklessly managed public mutual funds like ARK) are the ones who get hurt the most.

The problem faced by Tesla is that, in order to generate sales, Musk is unable to charge a high enough price to cover the all-in cost of designing, producing and delivering his cars to the end user. That’s why TSLA bleeds so much cash – it’s that simple.  Furthermore, he should have never issued debt to bridge the funding gap until it was guaranteed that the business model was truly profitable. It’s the same problem all these unicorn businesses face (NFLX, W, CVNA, LYFT, UBER, etc ad nauseum).

Tesla is now headed toward “zombie” status as both its business and its stock price limps toward and off the cliff.  As evidence, all of the stock analysts at firms involved with helping the Company raise $2.7 billion ($2.4 billion net) just two weeks ago  have suddenly become bearish on the story. Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Jonas – snake oil salesman extraordinaire – has publicly set a “downside” price of $10.  However, in a non-public conference call with clients, Morgan Stanley’s cross-asset trading group has made the case that the stock is worthless.

That the stock is worthless has never been an issue for me.  The more interesting question regards the ultimate value of the junk bonds, which are currently “priced” in the low $80’s. But this is based on small trades –  $1mm-2mm face value crosses and investment advisors at boiler room operations like Wedbush dumping 10 bond lots into client accounts. We used to play this game with ill-fated junk bonds that were artificially priced to high until a big seller capitulated when I traded junk bonds in the 1990’s.  More likely the  ultimate chapter 7 liquidation value of the unsecured debt on Telsa’s balance sheet is  well below 20 cents on the dollar.  In other words, short away every time the stock price spikes up on rumors or on desperate attempts by Musk to squeeze the shorts.

Put A Fork In Tesla – It’s Done

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , ,

Tesla has been “done” for awhile but many of the Wall Street and investor “uber” bulls are finally starting to see this reality.  Amusingly, Wedbush’s Dan Ives issued a report in which he lowered his price target on Tesla stock from $270 to $235.   He refers to Tesla’s situation as a “code red situation.”  Quite frankly, a “code red situation” with regard to a company and its stock price should be regarded as, “sell your shares if you’re long and get out of the way.”

How someone with the credentials to occupy a stock analyst’s seat at a stock brokerage – even if it is just Wedbush, a retail pump and dump mill – can truly believe that Tesla stock is worth the $40 billion market cap at $230/share is truly mind-blowing.  As an example, consider just a basic valuation metric.  The average automotive car OEM trades at an enterprise to revenue ratio of 0.2x revenues.  At the high-end Toyota trades at 0.6x revenues. That’s because Toyota sports a 7.5% operating margin.  Tesla’s market cap plus debt is 2.6x revenues, or 13x greater than the industry mean.

It would be useful to use other valuation metrics but Tesla does not generate any profits beyond its highly suspicious gross profit as shown in its SEC filings. It would also be useful to know if Dan Ives owns any Tesla shares. Does he really put his money where is mouth is?

That aside, Tesla shares are going to zero. Tesla stock broke down last week, closing at its lowest price since December 21, 2016. The stock is down $44 (17.5%) since May 6th, when it closed at $255 after completing the stock/convertible deal. It’s down 43% from its $370 close after the “funding secured” incident (August 8, 2018). Today the shares traded as low as $195 before a dead-cat short-cover bounce that has lifted the shares back over $200.

Tesla has likely entered into an irreversible death spiral. The only question at this point is how long it will take for the stock to head below $10 and how long the Company can stay solvent. There are scattered reports that the latest price cuts have stimulated a brief increase in sales of the Model S and X, but nothing has been verified. To be sure, sales of the Model 3 have fallen off a cliff in Europe and China, as an increasing number of potential buyers are made aware of the poor quality and follow-up service of this vehicle.

At TSLA’s current cash-burn rate, it won’t make it until the end of the year without a sales turnaround miracle on par with Moses seeing God in a burning bush. I doubt the Company will ever be able to raise money again. The stock does not have value as an acquisition because I highly doubt any potential acquirer would pay an amount that would cover Tesla’s debt load plus other fixed obligations.

In my 34+ years of experience in the financial markets, I’ve witnessed several Pied Piper types who have led their faithful  off the cliff.  Elon Musk for my money is the greatest purveyor of cult of personality that I’ve observed in my lifetime.  I don’t know how else to explain, at least for myself, how so many seemingly intelligent people continue to support Musk’s glaringly indisputable fraud.

April Retail Sales Soiled The Bed Sheets

Financial Markets, Housing Market, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , ,

Perhaps the perma-bullish Wall Street analysts should contribute to retail sales by stocking up on Depends – like the Merrill Lynch analyst who forecast retail sales to climb 0.7% ex-autos. Retail sales, preliminarily, were said to have declined 0.2% from March.   The “core” retail sales group – retail sales not including autos and gasoline – were flat. Wall Street’s finest expected a consensus 0.4% gain.

I say “preliminarily” above because, if you scan the Census Bureau’s report you’ll note “asterisks” in several major line items.

This means that “advance” numbers were not available for those retail sales categories.  Thus, the CB guesstimates the number based on past numbers for that category.  It also means the Census Bureau can overestimate that category for headline purposes with the intent to revise lower in future reports.

Retail sales numbers are reported on a nominal basis.  If they were to be adjusted by a real rate of inflation, the month to month decline from April likely would have approached at least one half of one percent.

Funny thing about the guesstimate for new car dealer sales.  The OEM’s report actual deliveries to new dealers every month.  I would have to believe that new car dealers have highly automated sales tracking software. It would seem that the Census Bureau should be able to have a fairly accurate data sample and estimate for April new car dealer sales well before the middle of the following month. But using the (*) enables the Government to manipulate the number into a favorable outcome for the “advance” report.

We know that the average household – i.e the 80-90% of all households – are struggling under the weight of record monthly debt service requirements on a record amount of consumer debt. This plight is made worse by the fact that real wages are declining.  Not to judge Wall Street analysts harshly (said sarcastically), but it should be obvious that retail sales were going to show a decline in April.  Imagine how bad the actual number must be if the Government has to release a guesstimated report showing a nominal decline.

In my weekly Short Seller’s Journal, I present detailed analysis of weekly economic reports. In addition, I provide specific short ideas along with suggestions for using options to short stocks synthetically. You can learn more about this newsletter here:  Short Seller’s Journal information

Global Synchronized Depression: Buy Gold And Silver Not Copper

Financial Markets, Gold, Housing Market, Market Manipulation, Precious Metals, U.S. Economy, , ,

It’s not “different this time.” The steep, prolonged yield curve inversion reflects the onset of a deep global economic contraction which is now being confirmed by leading indicators such as semiconductor and auto sales.  At some point the Fed is going to be forced by the market to cut the Fed Funds rate, as the 1yr Treasury is now yielding less than the Fed  Funds target rate. In addition, the yield curve is inverted from 1yr out to 7yrs, with a steep inversion between the 1yr and 3yr Treasurys.  It won’t take much flinching from the Fed to ignite a rally in the metals.  In addition, the investor sentiment as measured by MarketVane is about as low as I’ve seen it in a long time (34% bullish for both gold and silver).

We are headed into a severe global recession with or w/out a trade agreement. To be sure, over the next 10-20 years, it’s likely the price of copper will move higher. But if my view plays out, a severe recession will cause a sharp drop in the demand for copper and other base metals relative to the demand over the last 10-15 years. This in turn will push out the current supply/demand forecasts for copper by several years and drive the price of copper lower.

Trevor Hall and I discuss the global economy, the intense western Central Bank gold price manipulation activity and the factors that will drive the price of real money – gold and silver – higher and commodities like copper lower in our latest Mining Stock Daily podcast – click here or on the graphic below:

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You can learn more about  Investment Research Dynamics newsletters by following these links (note: a miniumum subscription period beyond the 1st month is not required):  Short Seller’s Journal subscription information   –   Mining Stock Journal subscription information

When The Stock Market Reversal Happens, It Will Be A Whopper

Financial Markets, Market Manipulation, U.S. Economy, , , , ,

“They may try to run this poor thing straight up and over a cliff. Recall the 2000 top was in March but they briefly ran it back in Sep 00. Ditto in Oct 07. When warning signs are ignored, the endings are abrupt. Maintain safety nets, but don’t assume stupidity has limits.” – John Hussman

Before I saw that quote from Hussman on Twitter, I was contemplating how the trading patterns this year in bond and precious metals markets remind of the way they were trading in 2008 before the financial system de facto collapsed.  Similarly,  the tech stocks right now remind me of the blow-off top that occurred in tech stocks in January/February 2000 just before the Nasdaq collapsed. Whether intentional or not, the Fed has quickly re-inflated the tech bubble that was punctured in September 2018.

Semiconductor stock bubble – The tech bubble in the late 1990’s was led by the semiconductor sector and the dot.coms. 98% of the dot.coms taken public during that time are no longer around. The semiconductor industry is “hyper”-cyclical. It has a beta of 11 vs. the economy. Right now the global economy is in melt-down mode. Just ask the IMF, BIS and World Bank. The Fed and Trump have recklessly reflated the stock bubble that led to the all-time high in the stock market. The semiconductors closed at an all-time high on Friday. It’s sheer insanity given that industry fundamentals are melting down.

The semiconductors seem to be the most responsive to trade war headlines that promote optimism. But the stock prices of these companies have completely disconnected from reality. Every possible consumer-driven end-user product market that uses semiconductors is contracting. As an example, Samsung warned on Thursday that it’s Q1 profit would be down 60% from Q1 2018, citing declines in prices for memory chips and lower demand from OEMs for screens, like the OLED display that Samsung makes for Apple’s iPhone.

Samsung’s inventory is now twice the size of two of its primary competitors. One of those competitors is Micron (MU – $41.72), which admitted that its inventory had soared to 137 days and was on its way to 150+ days in the current quarter. The slashing of capex by chip manufacturers has barely begun.

Semiconductor sales fell 7.3% in February from January and 10.6% from February. Globally semiconductor sales fell across all major categories and across all regional markets (not just China) in February. In North America, chip sales were down 12.9% from January and 22.9% from February 2018 (vs. down 7.8% in February in China sequentially from January and down 8.5% from Feb 2017).

The trade war has nothing do with the sales crash in the chip industry. And the “green shoots” seen in the “blip” in China’s PMI which ignited the stock market last Monday is not confirmed by the PMI data coming from Japan and South Korea, two of China’s largest trading partners. In short, when semiconductor stocks reverse from this insane run higher, they will literally rip in reverse. DRAM average selling prices (ASP) plunged over 20% in Q1 2019. The ASP is projected to drop another 15-20% in Q2 and a further 10% drop in Q3. So much for the 2nd half “recovery” that several chip company CEO’s saw in their crystal ball during the latest quarters’ conference calls (Micron, Lam Research, etc).

Inventories of all categories of semiconductors are extremely high because the demand for the end-user products (smartphones, autos, electronics) is plummeting, which means the inventory of those products is soaring as end-user demand contracts. The best news is for shorts looking for contrarian signals is that Cramer has been on his CNBC show recently pounding the table on chip stocks. This can only mean that his Wall Street sources are trying to move big blocks of stock out of their best institutional clients.

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The commentary above is an excerpt from my latest Short Seller’s Journal.  In that issue I present a detail rationale with data to explain why the U.S. economy is tanking and I provide several stocks to short, along with put option suggestions and capital management advice.  You can learn more about this weekly newsletter here:  Short Seller’s Journal information.

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