So, the Biden Administration made a horrible error by guaranteeing deposits at Silicon Valley Bank for deposits over $250,000. Essentially, Biden bailed out big tech that kept their deposits at SVB.
But what triggered the run on SVB and other banks? Simple. Biden and Congress spent like drunken sailors with Covid and The Federal Reserve went nuts printing money. Viola! We got inflation. But with inflation came The Fed’s attempt to get inflation back to its 2% target (difficult since Biden/Congress refuse to return spending to pre-Covid levels). But as interest rates rise, duration (weighted average life of MBS) rose dramatically meaning that risk increased. But banks like SVP ignored the risk, or didn’t hedge, or were spending time worrying about non-bank related issues.
So, what happened? Banks are holding Treasuries and MBS (orange line) that are getting clobbered with rate hikes (yellow line).
Talk about volatility. Today, the 2-year Treasury yield is up over 20 basis points as bond volatility hits levels last seen in 2008, just prior to the subprime credit crisis.
So, Biden’s bailout of SVP depositors stopped the deposit run for the moment. But if The Fed keeps hiking rates, banks are going to be hurting worse and worse. They could rebalance their portfolios and/or hedge. But with Uncle Spam (Biden) at the helm, bailouts are always on the table.
Argetina’s inflation rate just hit 102.5% as their M2 Money printing hit 80%
Argentina’s central bank is considering raising its benchmark rate on Thursday for the first time since September after inflation data showed prices increased by more than 100% annually last month, according to two people with direct knowledge.
The monetary authority’s board will consider an increase after leaving the key Leliq rate unchanged at 75% for several months, the people said, asking not to be named discussing internal decisions. The board has not yet decided on the size of the hike in case they opt for such move, they said.
A cautionary tale for Washington DC spendacrats and Fed officials.
Brought to the same country that gave us Statist Juan Peron and his wife Eva.
All together now. The Fed has been printing too much money for too long and Biden restricts fossil fuel production. Ad in rampant Federal spending and we have INFLATION. Inflation led to The Fed to raise rates. And with rate increases and down go the banks.
Of course, The Fed and Biden Administration will overeact (e.g. offering deposit insurance on ALL deposits above $250,000 creating moral hazard risk). As such, we are seeing gold prices soar by 2% this AM.
In adddition to gold rising 2%, natural gas futures are up 6%
The Silicon Valley Bank failure (along with NY’s Signature Bank) are sending shock waves through the global economy. Not because of the incompetence of bank regulators, but because of the reaction function from the FDIC and Fed.
The 10-year Treasury yield is down -26 basis points in the AM. And the Fed Funds Target Rate is expected to drop to 4.7%.
Its not just the US Treasury yield that declined -26 basis points. European sovereign yields are down too (Germany 10-year is down -32.9 basis points).
Look at the 2-year Treasury yield. Its down -54.6 basis points.
On a sad note, Resident Biden is calling for stricter regulations for the banking industry, already one of the most regulated sectors of the economy. How about less politics and just make them do their ^*T^R jobs!
What a mess in Washington DC. While House Republicans are at lagerheads with Senate Democrats and Resident Biden over Federal spending cuts, the price of insuring against a debt default just rose to 76.75.
How bad it that? Put it this way. Millions are fleeing Mexico and Guatemala and coming to the US. But Mexico has a lower cost of insuring against a debt default than the USA. And Guatemala is almost as expensive as the USA.
It will all be over soon, according to CDS prices.
The Federal Reserve is retreating from its Covid-era monetary expansion. And with the retreat, US durable goods NEW ORDERS fell -4.5%% in January. The worst reading since … Covid in 2020.
A breakdown of new orders shows that while NONDEFENSE capital goods orders dropped -5.4% YoY in January, DEFENSE capital goods orders increased by 25.4% YoY.
Mortgage rates increased across all loan types last week, with the 30-year fixed rate jumping 23 basis points to 6.62 percent – the highest rate since November 2022. The jump led to the purchase applications index decreasing 18 percent to its lowest level since 1995.
Mortgage applications decreased 13.3 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 17, 2023.
The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, decreased 13.3 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 4 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 2 percent from the previous week and was 72 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 18 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 4 percent compared with the previous week and was 41 percent lower than the same week one year ago.
Did Biden appoint “Pothole Pete” Buttigieg to oversee the mortgage market??
The most recent tightening by the Federal Reserve has pushed the federal funds target rate above mortgage-backed securities yields for the first time in history. Though this poses clear challenges of carry for MBS holders, selective investments in specified pool and collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) could provide incremental returns.
Inflation started under Biden, but the massive expansion in money supply (M2) begin with Covid in 2020.
Once this latest spending splurge kicks in, we will see rising inflation again. After all, Biden and Congress have gotten the taste for massive spending bills (like vampires) and spending likely won’t slow down.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Bidenomics, giving the US 40 year highs in inflation leading The Federal Reserve to remove its enormous monetary stimulus (known as “The Punch Bowl.”
I previously pointed out that US Real GDP was actually less than 1% year-over-year (YoY) in 2022, hardly a fantastic number given the trillions in Biden/Pelosi/Schumer spending (Omnibus, Infrastructure, etc) and Powell/Fed’s whopping monetary stimulus in 2020. But real disposable income, the amount households have left to spend after adjusting for inflation, had been falling for 7 straight months.
In fact, REAL disposable personal income peaked in March 2021, shortly after Biden was sworn-in as President in Janaury 2021 at $19,213.9 billion (or $19.214 TRILLION). As of December 2022, real personal disposable income had fallen to $15,213.0 or $15.213 TRILLION. That is a loss of $4 TRILLION since March 2021. Or a -21% Loss in Real Disposable Income.
The 3-2-1 crack spread is a great indicator to gauge fuel product tightness. High spreads indicate gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other petroleum products are in short supply, while low spreads mean an abundance of supply. Spread direction is also important — if rising, it would mean fuel inventories are declining.
The simple calculation of refining margins is for every three barrels of crude oil the refinery processes — it makes two barrels of gasoline and one barrel of distillates like diesel and jet fuel.
On Tuesday, the crack spread hit a three-month high of $42 a barrel. For some context, the five-year January average is $15.56.
Reuters pointed out that refinery outages exacerbate fuel supply tightness.
A diesel producing unit at PBF Energy’s (PBF.N) Chalmette, Louisiana, refinery was shut following a fire on Saturday. It could be out for at least a month. Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) said Monday it will perform planned maintenance on several units at its Baytown, Texas, petrochemical complex.
The ongoing refinery maintenance season could be much lengthier than usual, with many U.S. Gulf Coast refineries still running below capacity after Winter Storm Elliott knocked out some 1.5 million barrels per day of refining capacity in December. A Suncor refinery in Commerce City, Colorado, has remained offline since the storm.
Also, the number of refinery overhauls is double the amount this spring. Many of these overhauls were postponed due to the pandemic. Some are due to record-high margins driving increased profitability for oil companies.
There are at least 15 oil refineries plan maintenance ranging from two to 11 weeks through May, tallies by Reuters and refining intelligence firm IIR Energy show. By mid-February, U.S. refiners will drop some 1.4 million barrels per day of processing capacity, double the five-year average.
“A lot of plants didn’t want to shut down last year when margins were strong, but they have to get this work done,” said John Auers, refining analyst with Refined Fuels Analytics.
Nine U.S. refineries operated by Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, Exxon Mobil, Phillips 66, and BP will shutter some of their fuel-producing units this spring, according to IIR and Reuters sources.
All of the outages and planned overhauls are going to make it difficult for refiners to catch up with demand as inventories are relative to historical levels.
“If we aren’t hearing the alarm bells, it’s because we’re deaf after refining margins reached eye-watering levels in 2022, when the 3-2-1 crack spread briefly surged above $60. But from a historical perspective, current margins are sky-high, as well,” Bloomberg Opinion’s Javier Blas said.
According to AAA data, gasoline and diesel prices at the pump are starting to move higher after months of declines following the rise in the 3:2:1 crack spread.
And the ‘raw materials’ for the refining process are rising rapidly…
Perhaps the victory lap was a little premature?
Mission Accomplished 2.0?
Not really. US gasoline prices are UP 45% under Biden, diesel prices (the lifeblood of the shipping industry) are UP 77 under Clueless Joe and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is DOWN -47% under China Joe.
Confounded Interest - Anthony B. Sanders 
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