Jim Bianco Profile picture
Apr 9 7 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Something has broken tonight in the bond market. We are seeing a disorderly liquidation.

If I had to GUESS, the basis trade is in full unwind.

Since Friday's close to now ... the 30-year yield is up 56 bps, in three trading days.

The last time this yield rose this much in 3 days (close to close) was January 7, 1982, when the yield was 14%.

This kind of historic move is caused by a forced liquidation, not human managers make decisions about the outlook for rates at midnight ET.Image
It keeps going, the 30-year yield is now 5.00%!

As chart shows, since Sunday Night, 54 hours ago, the 30-year is up 67 basis points. Cannot find a move like this in my database.

The only overlay is the 30-year Gily blowing up during the Liz Truss moment" in September 2022. That was 130 bos in 5 days. We are now 67 bps 2 1/2 days.Image
S&P futures are down another 100 points or 2% tonight as I write. This sell-off might not be about tariffs but on the realization that the bond market is broken/breaking.

Markets are fragile. Tariffs broke the bond market and now this decline is about this realization.
---

A liquation is underway and must be completed, losing positions have to be exited, not supported or ignored.

Cutting rates and making financing rates cheaper in the middle of this kind of liquidation, encourages speculation ... exactly what is not needed in the middle of such a move.

I think the market knows this which is why the chart below shows only a 63% probability of a cut in rates in a month. Not intra-meeting! Rates cuts are not the answer.

The Fed restarting QE to artificially raise bond prices will only cement the belief that a massive spike in inflation is coming.

This is not a problem that can be fixed with "printing." It was years of "printing" that encouraged the massive build-up in speculation that is now being forced to liquidate.

You cannot drink yourself sober. You can encourage speculation by cutting rates/WE to stop a speculative unwind.Image
I don't think this is China selling bonds to "punish" the US over rates.

There are no good daily statistics to measure this. But I still contend that if this were happening, the dollar would be declining. The Dollar Index (DXY) is up since Thursday's low, suggesting net foreign buying is coming into the US market.
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Above said, technically, China could be selling and keeping their money in overnight repo accounts. If they did this, it says two things ...

1. They are not afraid to dump Treasuries and drive up yields and punish, but they are afraid to take the cash from these Treasury sales and convert it to another currency (dump dollars). Why is it ok to crush the bond market but not the currency market? (Answer, it does not make sense)

2. If they are selling Treasuries and continue to park them in US repo accounts, they are not really serious about punishing the US.

Again, the most logical answer is that they are not the primary seller of Treasury, if they are a seller at all.Image
By the way the US Treasury has an auction of $39 billion of 10-year notes on Wednesday and $22 billion of 30-year bonds on Thursday.

Should be "interesting" to see who wants these Treasuries in the middle of this chaos.
Another sign of how broken things are ...

Since Liberation Day, Crude oil has collapsed 21%. At $57, it is at its lowest level since April 2021 ... or the lowest point since the Ukraine War started in March 2022.

As noted above, over the last three days, bond yields are soaring the most in 40 years.

Restated, bond prices and crude are both crashing together at the same time.

UnprecedentedImage
When the world's largest and most important bond market breaks/is dysfunctional ... knock on effects happen.

*JAPAN’S 40-YR YIELD RISES 32BPS TO HIGHEST SINCE DEBUT IN 2007

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More from @biancoresearch

Nov 27
1/7

This analysis concludes by saying "something is seriously wrong with the housing market."

Not based on this chart.

tl:dr - New home sizes are falling to account for this spread falling below zero. Adjust for that, and there is nothing to see here.

Short 🧵
2/7

Same chart with prices in the top panel.

It is correct that the new home premium (green) above existing home prices (blue) has collapsed from 38% in 2013 to below zero today (the lowest in 54 years).

Why?

See new home prices (orange), they stalled. Image
3/7

Here is the average home price (orange) and the home's size (blue). The reason prices are falling is that builders are constructing smaller homes.

But as the bottom panel shows (green), the price per square foot is as high as ever.

No bear market, just smaller homes. Image
Read 8 tweets
Nov 25
1/8

Following @deanbaker and @ezraklein ...

Homeowners will not tolerate a "fix" that will lower prices. So, nothing will get done about affordability.
=
What is housing?

* Affordable shelter?
* Piggy bank that funds retirement?

Both cannot be true at the same time.
2/8

For the 50 years following WWII (box), home price gains kept pace with inflation ("real" prices), making housing affordable.

Starting in the late 90s, housing went into wild boom-bust cycles.

This is when housing started to be viewed as a piggy bank to fund retirement. Image
3/8

400 years of real (inflation-adjusted) home prices in Amsterdam show that housing has remained affordable for centuries.

This view began to break down in the late 1990s, as housing became the piggy bank for retirement. Image
Read 8 tweets
Nov 16
1/4

I assume Marks is referring to the 1-year forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500, the standard Wall Street valuation metric (which is closer to 25 now, but was 23 a few weeks ago).

Here is a long-term proxy for that ... the Shiller Cyclically Adjusted Price/Earnings (CAPE) ratio back to 1881. It is a 10-year average of P/E/ ratios.

At 40, it is one of the highest readings ever, even higher than 1929.Image
2/4

What does it mean that valuations are this high?

The scatter graph below goes back to 1881.

It shows the NEXT (future) 1-year REAL (after inflation) return of the stock market on the y-axis.

The CAPE on the x-axis.

The red box is the returns when the CAPE is above 34. It's a mixed bag of positive and negative returns.
Restated, valuation is NOT a good timing tool.Image
3/4

But if the y-axis is extended to the NEXT (future) 5-year REAL (after inflation) return, then THERE IS NO EXAMPLE, OVER THE LAST 150 YEARS, OF THE STOCK MARKET BEATING INFLATION OVER THE NEXT 5-YEARS WHEN THE CAPE IS ABOVE 34.

Restated, valuation is an expectation tool. Unless one makes the case that corporate earnings are going to have their most significant surge in history, the stock market is destined to disappoint over the next several years.Image
Read 4 tweets
Nov 7
1/6

The preliminary November University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey was released this morning (blue). The "current conditions" measure of this survey set a new ALL-TIME LOW.

Before 2020 (COVID), the stock market (red) was the primary driver of the public's economic outlook. These two series moved up and down together. Since COVID, this relationship has completely disconnected.

This leads to some uncomfortable explanations.

Half of the country owns no assets and lives paycheck to paycheck. Have they now moved to being angry at a booming stock market that worsens inequality? Is this why socialists are getting elected? Do they want their agenda to knock the market down? Is a bear market now the goal, not the concern?Image
2/6

Why the anger?

Since the COVID recession ended in April 2020, cumulative price increases (orange) have outpaced cumulative wage increases (blue).

This devastates the bottom 50% of wage earners (and especially the bottom 30%) who own no assets and live paycheck-to-paycheck. They are having to do with less.Image
3/6

For comparison, the opposite happened in the 2010s. The cumulative gain in wages (blue) beat the cumulative rise in prices (orange).

In this scenario, the bottom 50% of wage earners were able to make ends meet and maybe get a little ahead, as their paychecks bought a bit more each year.Image
Read 6 tweets
Nov 2
1/13

🧵on the stresses in the funding markets, why they are happening, and what it means. Be sure to see the last two posts (12 and 13).

Funding rates are rising relative to the Federal Reserve's administered rates (bottom panel arrow).

This signals stress in funding markets. Image
2/13

Another signal of stress is that the Fed's Standing Repo Facility (SRF) is getting used regularly, a new record on Friday.

If money is too expensive, banks can borrow from the Fed at 4.00%.

Note that only 40 banks are counterparties, no broker/dealers, no hedge funds. LimitedImage
3/13

The Fed sees the stress and is ending Quantitative Tightening (QT) on Dec 1.

This will end Fed balance sheet shrinkage and slow the decline in bank reserves, now at a 5-year low.

Lower bank reserves mean banks have less ability to supply funding to the markets. Image
Read 13 tweets
Oct 28
1/5

JP Morgan has identified 41 AI-related stocks, 8% of the S&P 500. These stocks now account for 47% of the Index's market capitalization, a new record.

The other 459 stocks, 92% of the S&P 500, are 53% of the Index's market capitalization. Image
2/5

The list of the AI-related stocks Image
3/5

ChatGPT was released on November 29, 2022.

Since this date, these 41 stocks have accounted for 74% of the S&P 500's total increase (blue). The other 25% came from the remaining 459 stocks (orange). Image
Read 5 tweets

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