US-Kon­junk­tur­pro­gramm, Han­dels­krieg, Noten­banken — Der Stress im Finanz­system nimmt zu

Unstrittig nehmen die Tur­bu­lenzen an den Finanz­märkten zu. Das liegt an ver­schie­denen Fak­toren. Zum einen haben wir den ein­ma­ligen Mix aus guter Kon­junktur, einem zusätz­lichen Kon­junk­tur­pro­gramm der US-Regierung, einem neuen Noten­bankchef in den USA und zuneh­menden poli­ti­schen Unsi­cher­heiten – Stichwort: „Han­dels­krieg“. Zum anderen haben wir es mit hohen Bewer­tungen und dem Versuch der Noten­banken zu tun, die Geld­po­litik etwas weniger aggressiv zu machen. 
In der Folge wächst der Stress im System. Ich zitiere hier Ambroise Evans-Prit­chard, der es gut zusam­men­fasst. Dabei spare ich mir – wie üblich – eine Über­setzung. Ich finde bei einem kosten- und wer­be­freien Angebot wie bto es ist, sollten die Leser das akzeptieren. 

  • The stress signals of the global credit system are flashing amber. (…) The three-month rate for dollar Libor (London Interbank Offered Rate) used to price a vast nexus of financial con­tracts around the world has spiked to a 10-year high of 2pc this week. A third of all US business loans are linked to Libor, as are most student loans, and 90pc of the leverage loan market.”
    Fazit: das ist so etwas wie der Spareckzins des Weltfinanzsystems.


Quelle: The Telegraph

  • “The US can doubtless handle the sixfold rise in Libor costs over the last two years since it is a reflection of eco­nomic recovery itself. (…) Whether the rest of the world can handle it is less clear. The Libor spike is trans­mitted almost instantly through global finance. The Bank for Inter­na­tional Sett­le­ments says any rise in short-term bor­rowing costs on dollar markets resets rates on $5 trillion of dollar banks loans. It tightens the whole credit structure in Asia and emerging markets regardless of what cur­rency it is in.”
    – Fazit: was ange­sichts der hohen Ver­schuldung rasch zu einem Thema werden kann. 
  • “…US com­panies are starting to repa­triate their vast cash hol­dings abroad to comply with pre­sident Trump’s tax changes. This (…) is reducing off­shore liquidity. US entities have little incentive to lend that money back out inter­na­tio­nally because of risk weightings and capital charges (…) The problem is that it vanishes from the dollar-based funding markets in the City or hubs such as Sin­gapore. It rations credit for Asia, Latin America, Russia, and the Middle East. Bor­rowers can sud­denly find it harder to roll over three-month dollar loans. This is what hap­pened in 2007 and 2008 when off­shore markets seized up and threa­tened to bring down the European banking system.”
    – Fazit: was inter­essant ist. Wir haben also keinen Wech­sel­kurs­effekt, weil es viel­leicht schon in Dollar war aber einen Liqui­di­täts­effekt. Denn Banken können schlecht eine Währung schaffen, die nicht von ihrer eigenen Notenbank geschaffen werden kann.
  • The scale is epic. BIS data show that off­shore dollar credit has bal­looned from $2 trillion to $11.6 trillion in fifteen years, turbo-charged by leakage from the Fed’s QE. The BIS has iden­tified a further $13 to $14 trillion in dis­guised lending through deri­va­tives con­tracts that are “func­tionally equi­valent”. Dollar lia­bi­lities on this scale are unpre­ce­dented and leave the world financial system more vul­nerable than ever before to rising US rates.This is the sharp edge of a bigger problem: the $70 trillion edifice of global bonds is built on the assumption of a defla­tionary global liquidity trap lasting deep into the 21st century. Almost $10 trillion is still trading at negative yields. The structure cannot with­stand a sudden shift to a reflation psychology.”
    – Fazit: ich bin zwar immer noch skep­tisch, dass wir wirklich ein Ende des Eiszeit-Sze­narios haben. Dennoch ist es eine Mög­lichkeit und letztlich ist relevant, was die Märkte denken, nicht was wirklich kommt. 
  • This should give rise to pause since the US Treasury’s own watchdog (OFR) warns that broker margin debt is dan­ge­rously high and that Wall Street pricing is at  its “97th per­centile relative to the last 130 years„. Bank of America says the profits cycle for US equities has peaked. Its „Bull & Bear“ indi­cator is at extreme levels of investor optimism, still issuing a sell alert despite the mini-crash in early February..”
    – Fazit: was in der Tat bedenklich stimmt. Wir haben ein hoch gele­veragtes System in dem zudem auf Kredit spe­ku­liert wird.
  • Veteran value investor Warren Buffet is rare in standing coolly on the side­lines, keeping his powder dry, accu­mu­lating $116bn in short-term Tre­asury notes and cash assets in order to better survive what he calls ‘eco­nomic dis­con­ti­nuities’. He has dis­placed China and Japan as the chief buyer at Tre­asury sales.”
    – Fazit: wenn das kein Warn­signal ist!
  • The buyer of last resort for this debt is curr­ently adding to supply instead. The Fed will be selling down its $4.4 trillion stockpile of bonds at a pace of $50bn a month by the end of the year. In par­allel, the European Central Bank will have tapered its asset purchases to zero by Sep­tember. A vast shift in the balance of the global bond supply and demand is underway. It is this that lies behind the wild ruc­tions across global bourses this year. My own view is that rising US rates will hit just as the China and Europe come off the boil later this year, creating an unpre­dic­table „scissor“ action through cur­rency and credit markets.”
    – Fazit: und das könnte ein glo­baler Liquidity-Squeeze sein, der dann den US-Dollar nach oben drückt. 
  • „…a key measure of money growth – six-month real M1 – has dropped to the lowest level since the Great Recession in the biggest G7 and E7 eco­nomies com­bined. This is chiefly driven by China and the Eurozone, including France and Spain. The data leads the real economy by six to nine months. Asia and Europe are likely to look very dif­ferent in late 2018. Far from seeing syn­chro­nized global growth in all regions – as the markets expect – we could instead see major tec­tonic plates moving against each other. In that context, surging dollar Libor rates and a hawkish Fed could prove inflammatory.”
    – Fazit: eben der globale Margin Call. Wie der abläuft habe ich hier erklärt: → „Margin Call für die Weltwirtschaft“

The Tele­graph: „Libor surge is nearing danger level for debt-drenched world“, 28. Februar 2018
 


Dr. Daniel Stelter auf www.think-beyondtheobvious.com