I quoted from this article by Lee Adler of the Wall Street Examiner in the "Week Ahead" section of Stock World Weekly, so part may sound somewhat familiar. Lee tracks the money flows in the financial system and focuses on the real reason stocks go up and down. Forget those quaint, high-minded concepts such as fundamentals and value. The real driver of the stock market is the printing of money by the central banks. Lee watches what they do and where the money goes. ~ Ilene
Liquidity is Bullish is All
Courtesy of Lee Adler of the Wall Street Examiner
Tomorrow is a big day, with the FOMC announcement and the Fed revealing what it wants you to think about what it thinks it's going to think it wants you to think. Or something like that. This Fed "transparency" thing has been covered to death in the mainstream media. I think it's another utter waste of time. I want to know what the Fed is doing, not what it wants you to think. That's what I report on every week in my reports to subscribers. It's hard enough to know what the Fed is actually doing, but if you can get a handle on that (and, not to mention, the ECB), then you'll have a leg up on the crowd, which mostly doesn't have a clue.
With that in mind, here's what I wrote on Saturday in the executive summary of the Fed update in the Wall Street Examiner Professional Edition.
I don't like this, but it is what it is. The world financial system is an over manipulated piece of excrement. But sometimes manipulation works; sometimes it has unintended consequences that benefit one party over another; and sometimes the US gets the roses while the rest of the world sinks into the sludge that most of the pundits and government manipulators are worried about. This is one of those times, and herein is its story.
Take this story and do with it as you wish. If you think that it's wrong, I'd love to hear from you as to why. The easiest way to do that is to leave a comment in the comment section of the Wall Street Examiner posting associated with this report.
Liquidity flows in the US branch of the system have been turning more bullish in recent weeks. Several indicators that had been neutral or bearish have turned bullish, joining deposit flows into the US banking system (apparently from EU) which have been the lead bullish sled dog for a while. In this liquidity based model of the market, there is no way the markets can decline as long as this continues. It forces us to assume that the bias will remain to the upside. Meanwhile, the Fed continues to quietly tap the brakes, without explanation or comment, while the money supply explodes. The Fed is transparent only when attempting to jawbone the market higher. Anything that might run counter to that, it shuts up tight as a clam.
The media has been rife with speculation that the Fed is on the brink of another massive quantitative easing. Given the rapid growth of the money supply, the recently strong stock market performance, and the surging Federal withholding taxes, and improvement in other economic indicators, it's hard to see justification for the Fed to make such a move. The Fed is well aware that additional QE would be likely to set commodities off on another tear that would be self defeating for the economy.
I'd have to guess that the pundits looking for another QE at this week's meetings are wrong, but it doesn't matter. The markets follow the money. My guess is that any initial market disappointment in the face of "no new QE" would quickly be shrugged off. If I'm wrong and the Fed announces or hints at additional QE, I'd watch the commodities and hitch a ride if I liked moon shot roller coasters.
In the meantime, the liquidity indicators are strengthening. Bank deposit net inflows continue. Fed pumping of cash to Primary Dealers remains in a bullish trend, and will continue to as long as the MBS replacement program remains in effect, which will be until mid summer unless the Fed makes a course change before that. Those flows will slow drastically if Treasury rates rise, but due to the delayed settlements of the Fed's MBS purchases, the impact of that reduction won't be felt until April or May at the earliest. Meanwhile Treasury supply looks likely to be lighter than expected (See Treasury update - http://wallstreetexaminer.com/money/treasury011912.pdf
Foreign central bank purchases of Treasuries and Agencies turned bullish last week. Their trend has improved from a bearish to a neutral influence. The trend of reserve and other deposit levels at the Fed have been stable, and are thus a neutral market influence. Banks bought Treasuries last week and the trend of that indicator has turned unequivocally bullish. Bank non Treasury trading accounts were little changed last week, but that trend is also bullish.
The composite liquidity indicator upticked last week, slightly breaking the November peak in the process. The indicator now has a slight uptrend since last summer. The performance of stocks and bonds has been consistent with that. Recent behavior of the components and typical cyclical patterns suggest that some degree of strengthening is likely to continue in the weeks ahead. That should be bullish for stocks, especially if Treasury market inflows begin to wane, as last week's signals suggest they may.
This is just a small sample of the dozens of illustrative charts and analysis that are in the Fed and Treasury updates every week including charts and analysis of each of the components of the macro-liquidity indicator. You can stay up to date with these liquidity flows along with the machinations of the Fed, Treasury, Primary Dealers and foreign central banks in the US market in the Fed Report. Get the research and cutting edge analysis you need to understand these critical forces. Be prepared. Stay ahead of the herd. Click this link to try WSE’s Professional Edition risk free for 30 days!