Around the world, all central banks
Are to whom we need to give thanks
By dint of their easing
All shorts they are squeezing
Who knew they’d such strength in their ranks?

Every day that passes it becomes clearer and clearer that central banks truly are omnipotent. Not only do they possess the ability to support economies (or at least stock markets), but apparently, easing monetary policy cures the coronavirus infection. Who knew they had such wide-ranging powers? At least that is certainly the way things seem if you look through a market focused lens.

Let’s recap:

Sources: https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/news/coronavirus-a-timeline-of-how-the-deadly-outbreak-evolved/and Bloomberg

Now obviously, they are not actually creating a medical cure for this latest human affliction (I think), but once it became clear that the coronavirus was going to have a significant impact on the Chinese, and by extension, global economies, they jumped into action. While it was no surprise that the PBOC immediately eased policy to head off an even larger stock market rout upon the (delayed) return from the Lunar New Year holidays, I think there was a larger impact from Chairman Powell, who at the Fed press conference last week, made it clear that the Fed stood ready to react (read cut rates) if the coronavirus impact expanded. And then, just like that, the coronavirus was relegated to the agate type of newspapers.

What is really amazing is how the narrative has been altered from, ‘oh my gosh, we are on the cusp of a global pandemic so sell all risky assets’ to ‘the flu is actually a much bigger problem globally and this coronavirus is small potatoes and will be quickly forgotten, so buy those risky assets back’.

The point here is that market players lead very sheltered lives and really see the world as a binary function, is risk on or is risk off? And as long as the central banks continue to assure traders and investors that they will do whatever it takes to prevent stock markets from declining, at least for any length of time, those central banks will continue to control the narrative.

So, with that as preamble, what is new overnight? In a modest surprise, at least on the timing, the Bank of Thailand cut rates by 25bps to a record low 1.00%. The stated reason was as a prophylactic to prevent economic weakness as the coronavirus spreads. Too, the MAS explained that they have plenty of room to ease policy further (which for them means weakening the SGD) if they deem the potential coronavirus impacts to call for such action. It should be no surprise that SGD is today’s weakest link, having fallen 0.75% but we also saw immediate weakness in THB overnight, with the baht falling nearly 1.0% before a late day recovery on the back of flows into the Thai stock exchange. As to the rest of the EMG space, PHP is also modestly weaker after the central bank there indicated that they would cut rates as needed, but we have seen more strength across the space in general. RUB is leading the pack, up 0.8% on the back of a strong rebound in oil prices (WTI +2.3%), but we are also seeing strength throughout LATAM as CLP (+0.7%), BRL (+0.55%) and MXN (+0.4%) all rebound on renewed risk appetite. ZAR has also had a banner day, rising 0.7% on the positive commodity tone to markets.

In the G10 space, things are a bit less interesting. It should be no surprise that AUD is the top performer, rising 0.4%, as it has the strongest beta relationship to China and risk. NOK is also gaining, +0.25%, with oil’s recovery. On the other side of the blotter, CHF (-0.3%) and JPY -0.15%, but -1.0% since yesterday morning) are taking their lumps as haven assets no longer hold appeal to the investment community. This idea has been reinforced by the 10-year Treasury, which has seen its yield rise from 1.507% on Friday to 1.63% this morning.

And don’t worry, your 401K’s are all green again today with equity markets around the world back on the elevator to the penthouse.

Turning to today’s US session, we start to get some more serious data with ADP Employment (exp 157K), the Trade Balance (-$48.2B) and ISM Non-Manufacturing (55.1). Earlier this morning we saw Services PMI data from both Europe and the UK. Eurozone PMI data was mixed (France weak and Italy strong), while the UK saw a strong rebound. We also saw Eurozone Retail Sales, which were quite disappointing, falling 1.6% in December, and seemingly being the catalyst for the euro’s tepid performance today, -0.2%. Remember, Monday’s US ISM data was much better than expected, and there is no question that the market is willing to believe that today’s data will follow suit.

In sum, continued strong performance by the US economy, at least relative to its peers, as well as the working assumption that should the data start to falter, the Fed will be slashing rates immediately, will continue to support risk assets. At this point, that seems to be taking the form of buying high yield currencies (MXN, ZAR, INR) while buying the dollar to increase positions in the S&P500 (or maybe just in Tesla ). As such, I look for the dollar to hold its own vs. the bulk of the G10, but soften vs. much of the EMG bloc.

Good luck
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