Said Chairman Jerome yesterday
The message I’d like to convey
Is things are just grand
And we’re in command
While keeping recession at bay

As New York walks in this morning, markets look quite similar to where traders left them yesterday. After more record highs in the US equity markets, futures are essentially flat. European equity markets are +/- 0.1% and even Asian markets only moved +/-0.3% overnight. Bond markets are also little changed, with 10-year Treasury yields less than 1bp lower than yesterday’s close, while Germany’s bund is a full 1bp lower. In other words, we’ve seen very little movement there either. Finally, FX markets are entirely within a 0.3% range of yesterday’s closing levels, in both the G10 and EMG blocs, with a pretty even mix of gainers and losers.

The three headlines that have garnered the most commentary are regarding our three favorite topics of late; the Fed, trade and Brexit. In order this is what we learned. Chairman Powell spoke yesterday evening and told us the economy’s glass was not merely half full, but much more than that due to the Fed’s policy decisions. He reiterated that policy rates are appropriate for now and as a group, the FOMC sees no reason to change them unless something untoward appears suddenly on the horizon. And, in fairness, the horizon looks pretty clear. We continue to see mixed, but decent, data overall in the US, which has shown that ongoing weakness in the manufacturing sector has not spilled over into the consumer sector…yet. And perhaps it never will. Without a shock event of some sort (collapse of the trade talks, Chinese intervention in Hong Kong, or something equally serious) it is hard to argue with Jay’s conclusion that US interest rates are on hold for the foreseeable future. With that news, I wouldn’t have changed my position views either.

Moving on to the trade situation, things appear to be moving in the right direction as some comments from the Chinese side pointed to modest further progress on tariffs and what levels are appropriate at this point in time. I find it interesting that the US has been far less forthcoming on the issue of late, which is certainly out of character for the President. While I may be reading too much into this subtle shift in communication strategy, it appears that the Chinese are truly keen to get this deal done which implies that they are feeling a lot of pain. Arguably, the ongoing crisis in Chinese pork production is one area where the US has a significantly stronger hand to play, and one where China is relatively vulnerable. At any rate, despite more positive comments, it has not yet been enough to move markets.

Finally, the only market which has responded to news has been the British pound, which has ‘tumbled’ 0.25% after two polls released in the US showed that the Tory lead over Labour has fallen to 42%-33% from what had appeared to be a double digit lead last week. With both major parties having issued their election manifestos, at this point the outcome seems to be completely reliant on electioneering, something at which Boris seems to have the edge. In the end, I continue to expect that the Tories win a comfortable majority and that Brexit goes ahead on January 31. However, two things to remember are that polls, especially lately, have been notoriously poor predictors of electoral outcomes, and Boris clearly has the capability of saying something incredibly stupid to submarine his chances.

Looking at a range of potential outcomes here, I think the pound benefits most from a strong Tory victory, as it would remove uncertainty. In the event of a hung Parliament, where the Tories maintain the largest contingent but not a majority, that seems like a recipe for a much weaker pound as concerns over a hard Brexit would reignite. Finally, any situation where Jeremy Corbyn is set to lead the UK is likely to see the pound sell off sharply on the back of swiftly exiting capital. Corbyn’s platform of renationalization of private assets will not sit well with investors and the move lower in the pound will be swift and sharp. However, I think this is an extremely low probability event, less than 5% probability, so would not be focusing too much on that outcome.

And that’s really all that has moved markets today and not that much quite frankly. On the data front, we see the Advanced Goods Trade balance (exp -$71.0B), Case Shiller Home Prices (3.25%), New Home Sales (705K) and Consumer Confidence (127.0). Quite frankly, none of these are likely to be market movers.

Today’s story is far more likely to be about liquidity evaporating as the day progresses ahead of Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday in the US. Trading desks will be at skeleton staff tomorrow and Friday, so given it is effectively month-end today, make sure to take advantage of the liquidity available. The benefit is the quiet market price action should allow excellent execution.

Good luck
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