When thinking of every great nation
Regarding its growth expectation
The US alone
Is like to have grown
While others seem set for stagnation

The upshot of these circumstances
Is regular dollar advances
Within the G10
It’s euros and yen
That suffer on policy stances

Another day, another dollar rally. This simple sentiment pretty well sums up what we have been seeing for the past several weeks. And while there may be a multitude of catalysts driving individual currency movements, the reality is they all point in the same direction, a stronger dollar. Broadly speaking, data from around the world, excluding the US, has been consistently weaker than expected while the US continues to hum along nicely. Now, if China’s economy remains in its current catatonic state for another month, one has to believe that US numbers are going to suffer, if only for supply chain reasons. But right now, it is difficult for anyone to make the case that another currency is better placed than the dollar.

For example, last night we saw Australian Unemployment unexpectedly rise to 5.3% as the first measured impacts of Covid-19 make themselves felt Down Under. Traders wasted no time in selling Aussie and here we are this morning with the currency lower by 0.75%, trading to new lows for the move and touching its lowest level since March 2009. Perhaps the Lucky Country has run out of luck.

The yen keeps falling
Like ash from Fujiyama
Is an end in sight?

At this point in the session, the yen has seen its largest two-day decline since November 2016, in the immediate wake of President Trump’s election, and has now fallen more than 2.0% since Tuesday morning. It has broken through a key technical level at 111.02, which represented a very long-term downtrend line. This has encouraged short-term traders to add to what is believed to be significant outflows from Japanese investors, notably insurance companies. One of the other interesting things is that Japanese exporters, who are typically sellers of USDJPY, seem to be sitting this move out, having filled orders at the 110 level, and are now apparently waiting for 115. While it is unlikely that we will see the yen continue to decline 1% each day, I have to admit that 115 seems quite realistic by the end of the Japanese fiscal year next month.

And those are just two of the many stories that seem to be coming together simultaneously to encourage dollar buying. Other candidates are ongoing weak Eurozone economic data (Eurozone Construction output falling and reduced forecasts for tomorrow’s flash PMI data), rate cuts by EMG central banks (Indonesia cut by 25bps last night), and more confusion from China regarding Covid-19 and its spread. Last night, they changed the way they count infections for the second time in a week, and shockingly the result was a lower number indicating the spread of the disease is slowing. However, at this point, the virus count seems to be having less of a market impact than little things like the announcement that Hubei province is keeping all factories shuttered until at least March 10. Now I don’t know about you, but that hardly seems like the type of thing that indicates things are getting better there.

There is a new tacit contest in the market as well, trying to determine just how big a hit the Chinese economy is going to take in Q1. If you recall two weeks ago, the initial estimates were that GDP would grow at a 4%-5% rate in Q1. At this point 0.0% seems a given with a number of analysts penciling in negative growth for the quarter. And folks, I don’t know why anyone would think there is going to be a V-shaped recovery there. It is going to take a long time to get things anywhere near normal, and there has already been a lot of permanent demand destruction. On top of that, one of the things I had discussed last week, the idea that even if companies aren’t generating revenue, they still need to pay interest on their debt, is starting to be seen more publicly. The news overnight that HNA Group, a massively indebted conglomerate that had acquired trophy assets all around the world (stakes in Hilton Hotels and Deutsche Bank amongst others) is unable to pay interest on its debt and seems to be moving under state control. While the PBOC cut rates slightly overnight, the one-year loan prime rate is down to 4.05% from 4.15% previously, it appears that the Chinese government is going to be fighting the Covid-19 fight with more fiscal measures than monetary ones. That said, the renminbi has been falling along with all other currencies and has traded back through 7.00 to the dollar after a further 0.35% decline overnight.

The point is that you can essentially look at any currency right now and it is weaker vs. the dollar. Each may have its own story to tell, but they all point in the same direction.

I would be remiss to ignore other markets, which show that other than Chinese equity markets (Shanghai +1.85%), which rallied last night after news of further stimulus measures, risk is mostly on its back foot today. European equity markets are generally lower (DAX -0.1%, CAC -0.1%) although not by much. US futures are pointing lower by 0.2% across the board, again, not significant, but directionally the same message. Treasury yields continue to fall, down another 2bps this morning to 1.54%, and gold continues to rally, up another 0.3% this morning.

Yesterday’s FOMC Minutes explained that the Fed was pretty happy with current policy settings, something we already knew, and that they are still unsure how to change their ways to try to be more effective with respect to achieving their inflation target as well as insuring that there are no more funding crises. On the data front, yesterday’s PPI data was much firmer than expected, although most people pretty much ignore those numbers. Today we see Philly Fed (exp 11.0), Initial Claims (210K) and Leading Indicators (0.4%). Monday’s Empire Mfg data was stronger than expected and the forecasts for Philly Fed are for a solid increase. Yet again, the data picture points to a better outcome in the US than elsewhere, which in the current environment will only encourage further USD buying. For now, don’t get in front of this train, but if you need to hedge receivables, sooner is better than later as I think we could see this run for a while.

Good luck
Adf