The company named like a fruit
Said Covid was going to shoot
Its forecasts to hell
So risk assets fell
And havens all rallied to boot

Essentially, since the beginning of the Lunar New Year, there have been two competing narratives. First was the idea that the spread of the Covid virus would have a significantly detrimental impact on the global economy, reducing both production, due to the interruption of supply chains, and consumption, as the world’s second largest economy went into lockdown. This would result in a risk-off theme with haven assets in significant demand. The second was that, just like the SARS virus from 2003, this would be a temporary phenomenon and the fact that central banks around the world have been ramping up policy support by cutting rates and buying assets means that risk assets would continue their relentless march higher. And quite frankly, while there were a handful of days where the first thesis held sway, generally speaking, equity markets at least, are all-in on the second thesis.

At least that was true until today, when THE bellwether stock in the global equity markets explained that Q1 sales would miss forecasts due not only to production delays caused by supply chain interruptions, but to reduced sales as well. This news certainly put a crimp in the bull theory that the virus impact will be temporary and we have seen equity markets around the world suffer, while Treasuries rally, as fears are reignited over the ultimate impact of the CoVid virus.

While this author is no virologist, and does not pretend to have any special insight into how things with Covid evolve from here, long experience informs me that government efforts have been far more focused on controlling the message than controlling the virus. Confidence plays such an important part in today’s economy, and if the first narrative above is the one that takes hold, then there is very little that governments will be able to do to prevent a more substantial downturn and likely recession. Remember, at least in the G10, most central banks are basically out of ammunition with respect to their abilities to pump up the economy, so if the populace hunkers down because of fear, things could get ugly pretty quickly. And with that cheerful thought, let’s take a tour of the markets this morning.

It turns out the tax
On goods and services was
A growth disaster

During the US holiday weekend, we received a stunningly bad Q4 GDP report from Japan, with a -1.6% Q/Q result which turned into a -6.3% annualized number. Not only was that significantly worse than expected, but it was the worst outturn since the last time the Japanese government raised the GST in 2014. So, in their effort to be fiscally prudent, they blew an even bigger hole in their budget! But the yen didn’t really mind, as it remains a key safe haven, and while it weakened ever so slightly yesterday, this morning’s fear based markets has allowed it to recoup those losses and then some. So as I type, the yen is stronger by 0.15% today. Certainly, selling yen is a fraught operation in a market with as big a potential fear catalyst as currently exists.

Meanwhile, that other erstwhile growth engine, Germany, once again demonstrated that the idea of a rebound this year is on extremely shaky ground. Early this morning the ZEW surveys were released with the Expectations reading falling sharply to 8.7, while Current Situations fell to -15.7. While the numbers themselves have no independent meaning, both results were far worse than expected and crushed the modest rebound that had been seen in December. The euro has been under pressure since the release of the data, falling to a new low for the move and continuing its streak of down days, now up to 10 of the past twelve sessions, with the other two sessions closing essentially flat. The euro story has shown no signs of turning around on its own, and for the euro to stop declining we will need to see the dollar story change. Right now, that seems unlikely.

And generally speaking, the dollar is simply outperforming all other currencies. Versus the EMG bloc, the dollar is higher across the board, with not a single one of these currencies able to rally against the greenback. Today’s biggest decliners are the RUB (-0.6%) as oil prices fall, KRW (-0.5%) as concerns grow over Covid, and ZAR (-0.45%) as both commodity prices decline and global growth fears increase. In the G10 space, it should be no surprise that both AUD (-0.5%) and NZD (-0.7%) are the worst performers (China related) as well as NOK (-0.7%) as oil suffers over concerns of slowing global growth. It seems like we’ve heard this story before.

The one currency doing well today, other than the yen, is the British pound (+0.2%) as UK Employment data, released early this morning, was generally better than expected, with the 3M/3M Employment Change slipping a much less than expected 28K to 180K, a still quite robust number. Interestingly, yesterday saw the pound under pressure as PM Johnson’s Europe Advisor, David Frost, laid out the UK’s goals as ditching all EU social constructs and simply focusing on trade. That is at odds with the hinted at EU view, which is they want the UK to follow all their edicts even though they are no longer in the club. Look for more fireworks as we go forward on this subject.

Looking ahead to this week, the US data is generally second-tier, although we will see FOMC Minutes tomorrow.

Source: Bloomberg

So lots of housing data, which given the interest rate structure should be pretty decent. Of course, the problem is the reason the interest rate structure is so attractive to home buyers is the plethora of problems elsewhere in the economy. In addition, we have seven Fed speakers during the rest of the week with a nice mix of hawks and doves. Although it seems unlikely that anybody will change their views, be alert to Dallas Fed President Kaplan’s comments tomorrow and Friday as he is the only FOMC member who has admitted that continuing to pump up the balance sheet could cause excesses in risk taking.

At this point, there is nothing on the horizon that indicates the dollar’s run is over. Regarding the euro, technically there is nothing between current levels and the early 2017 lows of 1.0341 although I would expect some congestion at 1.0500.

Good luck
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