Trader’s Narrative

Today’s Bank of Canada rate decision is being watched very carefully. Not because of any lingering doubts about what they will do; because according to the rate futures there is a 100% expectancy of a 50 basis point cut (and a 73% chance of a 75 basis point cut).

The question on everyone’s mind is what will the six big Canadian banks do?

The last rate cut decision by the Bank of Canada resulted in a huge public relations mess for the Canadian banks because they refused to pass on the full rate cut to their customers. While the central bank lowered Canadian rates on December 9th, 2008 by 75 basis points, the banks grudgingly lowered their prime rates by only half a percentage point.

They have also refused to lower mortgage rates, citing “extraordinary credit market conditions”. This in spite of the fact that all stress measures of the credit market as well as money “costs” have fallen tremendously.

For example, the Banker’s Acceptance rate is now hovering around 1%. The 5 year bond rates are around 1.58% and the 30 year at 3.6%. Compare that to 5 year mortgage rates of approximately 6.75%-6.50% and you notice that that is a huge gap. In fact, according to historical data, Canadians have never seen such a discrepancy in their financial markets.

If the banks refuse to lower their prime rate again, the Canadian banks will not only widen the gap between the central bank rate and the “real rate” available to people but they will also negate any influence which the central bank is trying to have on the Canadian economy. In the end, by their belligerence, they could be pushing Canada into a deeper and longer recession than it would otherwise have to endure.

In that case, it would be a good idea for the usually soft-spoken governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, to call a meeting with the head of all Canadian banks and throw some chairs around.

Here’s a chart showing historical central bank rates for 7 major countries (Canada, US, ECB, Japan, England, Australia and Sweden).

UPDATE:
The Bank of Canada lowered its overnight benchmark rate by half a percentage point as expected. All Canadian banks followed by lowering their prime rate by the same amount to 3%, which means they are still 25 basis points behind the central bank’s lowering agenda.

As the Fed Funds futures indicated, we got a 50 basis point cut. And since this was what the market expected and had come to rally for ahead of time, we got a muted response. I wrote early this morning:

“If we do get exactly 50 basis points, we could flail around and end the day unchanged for the most part.”

The text of the Fed announcement hints that there will be more rate cuts to come:

Today’s policy action, combined with those taken earlier, should help to promote moderate growth over time and to mitigate the risks to economic activity. However, downside risks to growth remain. The Committee will continue to assess the effects of financial and other developments on economic prospects and will act in a timely manner as needed to address those risks.

The Fed’s scramble to lower interest rates is much more than just a preoccupation with the housing market or the stock market slide or the liquidity crunch or the multi-billion dollar Societe Generale fraud or any other one variable. It is about the US economy’s inevitable slide into a recession.

With the interconnectedness of world economies, you can bet this will quickly seep into Europe and Asia. I’m already hearing from friends and family overseas that business is slow.

Here’s an updated graph from Google Trends:

Notice how the first blip coincides with the Asian “flu” correction in the spring of 2007. But now its off the charts!

okay, lets get started… here is this past week’s sentiment overview:

Retail Investors Soil Pants
That’s not the sort of headline you’ll find in any newspaper but it is true nonetheless. The most eye popping sentiment data this week comes from AAII where only 20% of the survey respondents are bullish and 59% are bearish.

The last time we had so small a group of optimists was January 1993 and May 1993. But even then, the number of undecideds was larger. Right now we have as severely a lopsided sentiment picture as ever. The “dumb money” is crowding to one side. The question is, where do you want to be? with them? or on the opposite side?

Before you answer, check out the chart of the S&P 500 Index (SPX) showing what happens when we have more tan 50% bearishness in the AAII survey:

I may have been a bit early when I wrote “Time to Buy” but I did add that a market rally was around the corner. I think we’re rounding that corner now.

ISEE Sentiment Index
At the start of the year I got concerned that the retail option traders were too excited, buying up calls and shunning puts. We now know that the market dipped right after. Yesterday the ISEE Index pulled back to 72 - meaning only 72 calls are being bought for every 100 puts.

That’s not as low as I’d like to see it but the market has turned around at these ratios before. Check out my intro post on the ISEE sentiment index.

Fed Rumours
Of course, it didn’t hurt that there were pervasive rumours of a surprise Fed rate cut this week. Who knows who starts these things? eh, Doug Kass? I wonder if you know?

And wouldn’t you know it? In a Washington speech, Bernanke practically came out and said that rates would be cut more aggressively - “Fed speak” for half and 75 basis point cuts. Which is what I’ve been droning on about for too long.

So the Fed came in with a 25 basis point cut, as expected by the markets, and everything went to hell in a hand basket. Hmm, I wonder if you can tell when, exactly, the news came out:

The bond market closes at 3pm, while the equity markets close an hour later. So stocks had one more excruciating hour of pain.

Within less than 2 hours, it had erased almost 4 days of uphill climbing. This is what I wrote a few days ago:

With the impending FOMC decision, traders are going to be twitchy and nervous. Although a 25 basis point cut is baked in, until we get confirmation, the market will probably not trend.

It is all about expectations in the market. Since a quarter point cut was already expected and priced in, the market had rallied accordingly in the days leading up to it. The only thing that would have kick started another rally would have been a half-point cut.

Recession Forestalled?
According to Morgan Stanley, recession may be inevitable now. In a new report written by the bank’s chief US economist Dick Berner (the resident bull) the prime culprit is the credit crunch which has lasted more than 17 weeks and brought the housing market to its knees.

…financial conditions have tightened significantly further as the price of credit has risen and lenders have made credit less available. Money-market rates have risen significantly, and yield spreads over those money-market rates on loans have stayed high or widened.

The bond market has already priced in the next rate cut in January - another 25 basis points. And into the summer of next year, the Fed Funds Futures market is now estimating a federal fund rate of 3.75%.