Fear! Crypto Crash Erases More Than $1 Trillion in Market Value (As Dow Tanks 430 Points)

For Bitcoin, there’s only been one constant recently: decline after decline after decline. And the superlatives have piled up really quickly.

With the Federal Reserve intending to withdraw stimulus from the market, riskier assets the world over have suffered. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset, lost as much as 8.7% Friday and dropped below $38,000 to its lowest level in six months. Since its peak in November, it has lost 40% of its value. Other digital currencies have suffered just as much, if not more, with Ether and meme coins mired in similar drawdowns.

Bitcoin’s decline since that November high has wiped out more than $570 billion in market value, and roughly $1.17 trillion has been lost from the aggregate crypto market. While there have been much larger percentage drawdowns for both Bitcoin and the aggregate market, this marks the second-largest ever decline in dollar terms for both, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

“It gives an idea of the scale of value destruction that percentage declines can mask,” wrote Bespoke analysts in a note. “Crypto is, of course, vulnerable to these sorts of selloffs given its naturally higher volatility historically, but given how large market caps have gotten, the volatility is worth thinking about both in raw dollar terms as well as in percentage terms.”

Bitcoin plunge wipes out billions in a jiffy — Bloomberg

With the Fed’s intentions rocking both cryptocurrencies and stocks, a dominant theme has emerged in the digital-asset space: cryptos have twisted and turned in nearly exactly the same way as equities have.

Inflation Nation! Commercial Real Estate Returns UP 22% YoY For Q4 2021 (Versus 19.66% YoY For Case-Shiller National Home Price Index)

Inflation is burning out of control. While home price growth has been off the cherts (as Jean-Ralphio would say), commercial real estate has jumped incredibly at 22% YoY. The Bloomberg charting function hasn’t updated for the Q4 NCREIF report yet so I had to manually write-in 22% on the following chart.

To quote Dean Martin, “Ain’t that a kick in the head.” Commercial real estate returns are now higher than house price growth.

So, what will happen IF The Fed follows through with its monetary stimulus reduction? JPMC’s Jaime Dimon warns that The Fed could hike 7 times in 2022 and not be ‘sweet and gentle’.

But The Fed seems to be stuck in underworld and doing a terrible job at signalling their intentions if Dimon thinks that The Fed could raise rates 7 times in 2022.

UMich Housing Sentiment “Rises” To 83 As Inflation Hurting Retail Sales (Industrial Production Declines -0.3%)

That Bidenflation is really hurting Americans.

Start with the UMich Buying Conditions for Houses. It “rose” to 83. Unfortunately, 100 is the baseline and any number below 100 is bad. The reason? The massive increase in US home prices since 2020.

But retail sales are hurting thanks to higher prices. Retail sales less food services and auto are DOWN 3.1% MoM.

Meanwhile, US industrial production fell to -0.3%.

10Y Treasury Yield Climbs To Almost 1.8% As Mortgage Rates Rise, Cryptos Bitcoin & Ethereum Having A Bad 2022

2022 should be an interesting year as the wheels come off The Fed’s constant stimulation of markets.

Today, we saw the 10-year Treasury Note yield almost hit 1.8% as mortgage rates rose to 3.22%.

Unfortunately for crypto investors, bitcoin is having a bad 2022. And ethereum is feeling some pain as well.

While Goldman Snakes predicted 4 rates increases in 2022, Fed Funds Futures are predicting almost 4 rates increases (3 in 2022 and 1 in Jan 2023 … almost).

So whatever is giving markets the jitters, I would follow the advice of Samuel L. Jackson from Jurassic Park: “Hold on to your butts.”

UPDATE: Did The Fed/Treasury seriously overreact due to COVID? Lool at Treasury issuance related to COVID recession versus the financial crisis (Great Recession) and the 2001 recession.

Tiny Or BIG Bubbles? Buffett Indicator, Shiller CAPE At Dangerous Levels Thanks To Fed And Their Champagne Policies

The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting should have a Lawrence Welk bubble machine operating, particularly for their announcements.

When we look at the Buffett Indicator, we can see how The Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policies (or follycies) are driving up stocks to unsustainable levels that may not survive without The Fed’s “Do Ho Big Bubble Policies.”

How about the Shiller CAPE (Cyclically-adjusted Price/Earnings) ratio? While not up to dot.com levels yet, the Shiller CAPE ratio is climbing with the assistance of The Fed and their insane money printing.

How about house prices? The Case-Shiller National home price index is far above the level last scene during the housing bubble of 2005-2007. Again, with a little help from The Federal Reserve.

I can’t wait to see how the equity market and housing market reacts IF The Fed actually follows through with reducing monetary stimulus. Probably not just adding more stimulus, just reinvesting the Treasury and MBS proceeds (aka, not shrinking the balance sheet).

Speaking of Lawrence Welk and his Champagne Music Makers, watch the blazing-hot electric guitar work worthy of Steve Morse or Jimmy Page in this video.

Here is the new logo for The Federal Reserve.

Just Hedge Funds And The Blues: Why Can’t Hedge Funds Beat The S&P 500 (Or The Federal Reserve)?

Just hedge funds and the blues. Or hedge funds got the blues in 2021.

2021 saw the S&P 500 index generate a return of 28.7%. Much of it thanks to The Federal Reserve “stimulypto” or excessive monetary easing.

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But only three hedge funds beat the S&P 500 index: Senvest, Impala and SR. Thanks to fees (trading and management), the other hedge funds underperformed the S&P 500 index. And underperformed The Fed!

Melvin Capital was the worst performing hedge fund of the ones examined.

Yes, hedge funds had the blues in 2021 with only 3 hedge funds beating the S&P 500 index.

Welcome to 2022!!

GameStop: Rage Against The (Financial) Machine? Or Bidenflation? (Meme Stocks, Gold And Cryptos)

2021 has been a very weird year. Inflation has boomed (highest in 40 years) after the election of Joe Biden as President of the USA (call it Bidenflation). Then we have The Federal Reserve barely acting on the booming inflation (keeping rates at 25 basis points while withdrawing the COVID-related monetary stimulus).

Then we have the rise of cryptocurrency Ethereum and the surge meme stocks such game store GameStop, a favorite of the internet site Reddit.

Given the volatility of GameStop (Reddit-inspired), you can see the strange shape of GameStop’s volatility surface.

By contrast, gold is now where it was was at the beginning of 2021 and the surge of Bidenflation.

Here is volatility surface for gold.

So, there are a number of meme stocks (GameStop is just one example), gold, silver, cryptos such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. But gold seems to be placid with respect to inflation, but the meme stocks and cryptos seem to be motoring. Or is it rage against the financial machine? Or rage against Bidenflation??

The US stock and bond markets are closed today and tomorrow, Christmas day.

Have a Merry Christmas! And celebrate the “Santa Pause” as Powell refuses to raise rates to combat inflation until 2022.

Gold Rises, Dollar Declines, Cryptos Quiet On Third Day Before Christmas (10Y-2Y Treasury Curve Back To Pre-Biden Slope)

With just three days until Christmas, we are seeing gold (gold line) rise, the US Dollar (green line) fall and the major Crytos Bitcoin and Ethereum remain quiet.

And the US Treasury 10Y-2Y slope is back to where is started when Biden was elected.

The University of Michigan consumer survey numbers are out tomorrow. Let’s see how they look. Or will they simply be anticipating Michigan playing Georgia in the Orange Bowl??

What’s Wrong With This Picture? Fed Reverse Repo Usage Continues To Grow Along With Fed’s Balance Sheet (Reverse Repos At All-time High)

I love listening to Fed talking heads (or Fear The Talking Fed). They mostly seem to acknowledge that inflation is a problem and that the excessive monetary stimulus should be reduced.

But then I see the chart of The Fed’s balance sheet and The Fed’s reverse repo operations.

Then we have Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller saying that Th Fed could start raising interest rates as early as its March 15-16 meeting, after deciding to end asset purchases sooner than planned. My question is … why wait until the March meeting?

Is it fear of the Omincron Variant (which sounds like a Frederick Forsyth thriller)? Does The Fed not want to rock the boat prior to the Christmas season? The US is at or near full employment, so what is the real reason for delaying a rate increase until March or June? Or the fear that Congress won’t pass Biden’s Build Back Better Act?

Fed Funds Futures infer that one rate hike will occur at the June Fed Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting and one at the November meeting.

So will Powell get back in the saddle again and actually do his job?

Turkish Lira Freefall Accelerates Despite Central Bank Intervention (Turkey’s 10Y Yield At 21.50%, Very Venezuela-Like With Inflation At 21.31%)

Turkey (the nation, not the bird) is now the Venezuela of Europe/Middle East, where insane government policies are destroying both nations.

(Dow Jones) — Turkey’s central bank intervened to arrest the plunge in the country’s currency, which lost as much as 8% of its value against the dollar on Friday in an ongoing crisis that is straining the country’s financial system.

The crash followed another decision by the central bank on Thursday to cut interest rates under pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who favors lower rates as a part of a vision to grow the Turkish economy. Mainstream economists have urged the government to raise interest rates to control Turkey’s rising inflation, which reached more than 21% last month, according to official statistics.

The ongoing plunge is putting increasing pressure on ordinary Turks who have seen their savings evaporate, and adding to pressure on the banking system which has high levels of foreign-currency-denominated loans to repay within the next 12 months.

Wow. Turkey’s 10-year sovereign yield rose 42 BPS today to 21.590%. Turkey is looking like the Venezuela of Europe and the Middle East.

The Turkish sovereign curve in their home currency is humped.

But the Turkish yield curve (in US Dollars) looks more like the US Treasury actives curve.

The Turkish Lira is crashing against the US Dollar.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Turkey is cutting their repo rate as inflation soars. WTF???

I love this ZeroHedge headline: “Turkey Halts All Stock Trading As Currency Disintegrates, Central Bank Powerless To Halt Collapse.” Yes, it would help if Turkey’s Central Bank was RAISING rates rather than cutting them in order to stem the tide of inflation. It is like Turkey’s Central Bank is steering their ship of state INTO an F5 tornado.

Then again, US Fed chair Powell seems to be taking his time in cooling US inflation by … doing nothing.

Here is Turkish President Erdogan meeting with Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. “Together we can destroy both economies!”