Friday, June 9, 2017

""Nothing Else Matters": Central Banks Have Bought A Record $1.5 Trillion In Assets In 2017"

From ZeroHedge:
One month ago, when observing the record low vol coupled with record high stock prices, we reported a stunning statistic: central banks have bought $1 trillion of financial assets just in the first four months of 2017, which amounts to $3.6 trillion annualized, "the largest CB buying on record" according to Bank of America. Today BofA's Michael Hartnett provides an update on this number: he writes that central bank balance sheets have now grown to a record $15.1 trillion, up from $14.6 trillion in late April, and says that "central banks have bought a record $1.5 trillion in assets YTD." 
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2017/06/04/CBs%201.5tn.jpg
The latest data means that contrary to previous calculations, central banks are now injecting a record $300 billion in liquidity per month, above the $200 billion which Deutsche Bank recently warned is a "red-line" indicator for risk assets.
 http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user5/imageroot/2017/04/19/Central%20bank%20balance%20sheet%20DB_0.JPG
This, as we said last month, is why "nothing else matters" in a market addicted to what is now record central bank generosity.

What is ironic is that this unprecedented central bank buying spree comes as a time when the global economy is supposedly in a "coordinated recovery" and when the Fed, and more recently, the ECB and BOJ have been warning about tighter monetary conditions, raising rates and tapering QE....MORE