Despite some volatility in individual names associated with the Archegos Capital fallout, chiefly the big banks that had acted as prime brokers to the hedge fund, there was no broad selloff in blue chips. The Dow Jones industrial average wiped out a 160pt loss at one point to finish 98 points higher for a fresh record close, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were flat. The DAX notched a record high, whilst the Euro Stoxx 50 hit its highest since the pandemic. European stock markets are broadly higher this morning, with the FTSE 100 eyeing 6,800 again with all sectors but healthcare in the ascendancy. The DAX made a fresh all-time high again. Banking shares in Europe are higher – shrugging off the Archegos episode as yields are on the move higher. Even CS is 1% higher this morning.
Market participants will be glad to see this has so far been contained – though there may be some more trades related to Archegos that need unwinding. Banks left holding the bag – which look to be Nomura and Credit Suisse more than others – will suffer significant losses. Goldman Sachs, surprise, surprise, seems to have escaped cleanly by acting swiftly and decisively to get out first. So far though there has not been a big unwind across assets.
Attention quickly turned to the bonds as the US 10-year yield jumped to 1.76% this morning, towards the top of the recent range. This helped lift the dollar to its highest since November, with the dollar index hitting 93. Gold fell to the bottom of the recent range to test $1,700 again – key trend and Fib support coalesces around $1,690 should the round number go. Bitcoin climbed to $58,000 as Visa offered more ‘corporate support’ by saying it would allow the use of the stablecoin USD Coin to settle transactions on its payment network. WTI (May) eased back from $62, the highest in a week, ahead of the OPEC+ meeting this week at which producers seem all but certain to maintain supply curbs through May.
Deliveroo is pricing its IPO at the bottom of the range, with shares off at £3.90 and valuing the company at £7.6bn. Still it’s the biggest London listing in a decade so it should get plenty of interest once the stock opens for unconditional trading next week. The IPO has not has been as warmly received in the City as found Will Shu might have expected. Numerous funds including giants Aviva, Aberdeen Standard and Legal & General are not taking part amid various concerns about governance (dual class shares), working practices (riders getting £2 an hour) and regulatory concerns. It’s also true to say that the path to profitability remains questionable.
Cathie Wood’s Space ETF – ARKX – is due to start trading today. The first new ETF in two years from the Wood stable is eighth in total. There are several eye-catching elements to the ETF’s holdings.
First, the holdings, which are not aligned very closely to existing space-focussed funds like the Procure Space UFO ETF. Somewhat amazingly, the second biggest holding in the ETF, at more than 6% weighting, is – get this – another ARK ETF, the 3D Printing ETF (PRNT). Loading up ETFs with other ETFs – which you are promoting - seems kind of wrong. You could rightly ask: is it a pyramid? It smacks of the 1920s American experience of the Goldman Sachs Trading Corporation, which in turn set up the Shenandoah Corporation, also an investment trust, which in turn set up Blue Ridge Corporation. Yes, another investment trust. What you had was a lot of trusts with the same people and same investments – cross-investing in one grand pyramid scheme. We all know how that ended up.
Second, it contains a number of names that are not associated with ‘space’. For instance, JD.com is a 5% holding, whilst Virgin Galactic is less 2%. Netflix is a 1.27% holding. True, the prospectus makes it clear that ‘space’ investments would only ever be no less than 80% of holdings, but it is nonetheless noteworthy to package up a load of investments in this way.
And, ARK has changed the language in its ETF prospectuses to remove the limits on single-company exposure. It also added a reference to blank-check companies (SPACs) to the risk section. This will only add to concerns about the concentration in large cap momentum stocks and exposure to high risk SPACs comes with its own set of worries for investors.
A light calendar for data today – just the US CB consumer confidence report on tap as well as preliminary German inflation numbers. Fed speakers Williams and Quarles are up, too.
Fed governor Christopher Waller offered a robust defence of the central bank’s policy making, refuting suggestions it is keeping rates low to finance government debt. That is one in the eye for MMT supporters. US total government has risen $4.5 trillion, about 20%, since March 2020. In many ways the pandemic brought MMT from the theoretical shadows to the de facto limelight without any debate. However, the Fed is seeking to assert its independence and rejected the idea that the central bank is working in concert with the government to directly finance debt.
“My goal today is to definitively put that narrative to rest. It is simply wrong,” Waller said in prepared remarks to the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “Monetary policy has not and will not be conducted for these purposes.” We shall see.
Neil Wilson is chief markets analyst at Markets.com
