Ahead of the payroll release
The market is mostly at peace
But there is no sign
The recent decline
In values is set to decrease

While I apologize for the double negative, this morning’s price action is a story of consolidation of recent losses across emerging market currencies and their respective equity markets. In fact, the biggest gainers in the FX markets today are some of the currencies that have been suffering the most recently. For example, the South African rand is higher by 1.4% on the day, but still down nearly 3.0% this week. Meanwhile in Brazil, in the wake of the assassination attempt on Brazilian presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro, the real has rebounded 1.75%, essentially recouping the week’s losses, although is still down almost 8.0% this month. The story here is that Bolsonaro, who was leading in the polls and is favored by markets due to his free-market leanings, is expected to receive a sympathy vote along with more press coverage, and has increased his odds of winning the election next month. And of course, everyone’s favorite pair of losers, TRY and ARS, are both firmer this morning as well, by 3.5% and 2.75% respectively, but both remain down substantially in the past month. And there is no sign that policy is going to change sufficiently to have any positive impact in the short term. In other words, while many EMG currencies have performed well overnight, there is little reason to believe that the unfolding crisis in the space has ended.

Turning to the biggest news of the day, the payroll report is due with the following expectations:

If forecasts are on the mark, it will simply represent a continuation of the current US expansion and cement the case for two more rate hikes by the Fed this year. In fact, we would need to see substantially weaker numbers to derail that process on a domestic basis. And given yesterday’s Initial Claims data of 203K, the lowest print since 1969, it seems highly unlikely that this data will be weak.

A second factor reinforcing the view that the Fed will remain on their current rate-raising path was a comment by NY Fed President John Williams. Yesterday, after a speech in Buffalo, he said that he would not be deterred from raising rates simply because it might drive the yield curve into an inversion. This is quite a turn of events for Williams who had historically leaned more dovish when he was at the San Francisco Fed. In addition, it is exactly the opposite from what we have recently heard from two separate Fed presidents, Atlanta’s Bostic and St Louis’ Bullard, both of who were explicit in saying they would not vote for a rate hike if that would cause an inversion. Of course, neither of them is a voter right now while Williams is, so his voice is even more important.

While it is not clear whether Chairman Powell is of a like mind on this subject, there is certainly no evidence that Powell is going to be deterred from his current belief set that further gradual rate hikes are necessary and appropriate. The one thing that is very clear is that the current Fed is focused almost entirely on the US economy, to the exclusion of much of the rest of the world. And this focus reduces the chance that Powell will respond to further emerging market instability unless it reaches a point where the US economy is likely to be impacted. As far as I can tell, the Fed’s focus remains on the impact of the recent increase in fiscal stimulus and how that might impact the inflation situation.

There is one other thing to keep in mind today, and going forward, and that is that yesterday was the last day of comment period on President Trump’s mooted tariff increase on a further $200 Billion of Chinese imports. If he does follow through by implementing these tariffs, look for significant market impact with the dollar resuming its climb and a much bigger negative impact on equity markets as investors try to determine the impact on company results. Also look for commodity prices to decline on the news.

But that is really it for the day. Ahead of the data there is little reason for much of a move. However, even after the data, assuming the forecasts are reasonably accurate, I would expect the dollar’s consolidation to continue. In the end, though, all signs still point to a stronger dollar over time.

Good luck
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