Dec 23. The airing of grievances
–Happy Festivus. And to others, a Merry Christmas! Monte dei Paschi nationalized; Deutsche and CS settle US mortgage grievances, which I suppose ends uncertainty and is thus a weight off the european banking system. So Italy shifts the burden to taxpayers, but if that ‘burden’ is in the form of newly issued debt and the ECB buys those bonds as part of ongoing QE is there really a problem? A tree has fallen without a sound. Perhaps this situation resolves with a lower currency, which has already occurred to some extent, but the euro is slightly higher this morning and gold is steady.
–Speaking of currencies – and BC, you can stop reading right here, as ironically your initials are exactly the same as your favorite virtual investment – Bit Coin has soared above 900 today, up another 5%. It’s now within shouting distance of the high set in November 2013 which looks to be 979. Does it say anything about the state of the world when the best investment is a digital currency? (Which can be used to buy a virtual girlfriend…)
–Maybe it’s mostly about China, as Carl Icahn spoke openly on a CNBC interview yesterday about a trade war… “maybe we should just get it over with…” It appears as if every day that advances towards the inauguration, tensions with China are going to creep higher. So far CNY remains below 7, but that cap looks tenuous as 2017 approaches.
–Interest rate futures were quiet yesterday. Jan treasury options expire today; TYF 123.25 settled at just 13 yesterday.
