Tag Archives: #Bolsonaro

New Standard-Bearers

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The largest of all Latin nations
This weekend confirmed its frustrations
Electing a man
Whose stated game plan
Is changing the country’s foundations

Meanwhile in a key German state
Frau Merkel and friends felt the weight
Of policy errors
So new standard-bearers
Like AfD now resonate

This weekend brought two key elections internationally, with Brazil voting in Jair Bolsonaro, the right-wing firebrand and nationalist who has promised to clean up the corruption rampant in the country. Not unlike New Jersey and Illinois, Brazil has several former politicians imprisoned for corruption. Bolsonaro represented a change from the status quo of the past fifteen years, and in similar fashion to people throughout the Western world, Brazilians were willing to take a chance to see a change. Markets have been cheering Bolsonaro on, as he has a free-market oriented FinMin in mind, and both Brazilian equities and the real have rallied more than 10% during the past month. The early price action this morning has BRL rising by another 1.65%, continuing its recent rally, and that seems likely to continue until Bolsonaro changes tack to a more populist stance, something I imagine we will see within the first year of his presidency.

Just prior to those results, the German elections in the state of Hesse, one of the wealthiest states in Germany and the home of Frankfurt and the financial industry, showed disdain for the ruling coalition of Chancellor Merkel’s CDU and the Social Democrats, with their combined share of the vote falling to just 39%, from well above 50% at the last election. The big winners were the far left Green Party and the far right AfD, both of whom saw significant gains in the state house there, and both of whom will make it difficult to find a ruling coalition. But more importantly, it is yet another sign that Frau Merkel may be on her last legs. This was confirmed this morning when Merkel announced she was stepping down as leader of her party, the CDU, but claimed she will serve out her term as Chancellor, which runs until 2021.

One other Eurozone story came out Friday afternoon as Standard & Poors released their updated ratings on Italy’s sovereign debt, leaving the rating intact but cutting the outlook to negative. This was slightly better than expected as there were many who worried that S&P would follow Moody’s and cut the rating as well. Italian debt markets rallied on the opening with 10-year yields falling 10bps and the spread with German Bunds narrowing accordingly. So net, there was a euro negative, with Merkel stepping down, and a euro positive, from S&P, and not surprisingly, the euro wound up little changed so far, although that reflects a rebound from the early price action. My concern is that the positive story was really the absence of a more negative story, and one that could well be simply a timing delay, rather than an endorsement of the current situation in Italy. The budget situation remains uncertain there, and if the government chooses to ignore the EU and implement their proposed budget, I expect there will be more pressure on the euro. After all, what good are rules if they are ignored by those required to follow them? None of this bodes well for the euro going forward.

Two other key stories have impacted markets, first from Mexico, the government canceled the construction of a new airport for Mexico City. This was part of the departing administration’s infrastructure program, but, not surprisingly, it has seen its cost explode over time and the incoming president has determined the money is better spent elsewhere. The upshot is that the peso has fallen a bit more than 1% on the news, and I would be wary going forward as we approach AMLO’s inauguration. By cutting the investment spending, not only will the country’s infrastructure remain substandard, but its growth potential will suffer as well. I think this is a very negative sign for the peso.

The other story comes from China, where early Q4 data continues to show the economy slowing further. The government there, ever willing to do anything necessary to achieve their growth target, has proposed a 50% cut in auto sales taxes in order to spur the market. Auto sales are on track for their first annual decline ever this year, as growth slows throughout the country. Interestingly, the market impact was seen by rallies in auto shares throughout Europe and the US, but Chinese equity markets continued to slide, with the Shanghai Index falling another 2.2% overnight. This also has put further pressure on the renminbi with CNY falling another 0.2% early in the session before recently paring some of those losses. USDCNY continues to hover just below 7.00, the level deemed critical by the PBOC as they struggle to prevent an increase in capital outflows. The last time the currency traded at this level, it cost China more than $1 trillion to staunch the outflow, so they are really working to prevent that from happening again.

And those are the big stories from the weekend. Overall, the dollar is actually little changed as you can see that there have been individual issues across specific currencies rather than a broad dollar theme today. Looking ahead to the US session, we get the first of a number of important data points this morning with the full list here:

Today Personal Income 0.4%
  Personal Spending 0.4%
  PCE 0.1% (2.2% Y/Y)
  Core PCE 0.1% (2.0% Y/Y)
Tuesday Case-Shlller Home Prices 5.8%
Wednesday ADP Employment 189K
  Chicago PMI 60.0
Thursday Initial Claims 213K
  Nonfarm Productivity 2.2%
  Unit Labor Costs 1.1%
  ISM Manufacturing 59.0
  ISM Prices Paid 65.0
  Construction Spending 0.1%
Friday Nonfarm Payrolls 190K
  Private Payrolls 184K
  Manufacturing Payrolls 15K
  Unemployment Rate 3.7%
  Average Hourly Earnings 0.2% (3.1% Y/Y)
  Average Weekly Hours 34.5
  Trade Balance -$53.6B
  Factory Orders 0.4%

So there is a ton of data upcoming, with this morning’s PCE and Friday’s Payrolls the key numbers. Last week’s GDP data had a better than expected headline print but the entire weekend press was a discussion as to why the harbingers of weaker future growth were evident. And one other thing we have seen is the equity market dismiss better than expected Q3 earnings data from many companies, selling those stocks after the release, as the benefits from the tax cut at the beginning of the year are starting to get priced out of the future.

The market structure is changing, that much is clear. The combination of central bank actions to reduce accommodation, and an expansion that is exceedingly long in the tooth, as well as increased political uncertainty throughout the world has made investors nervous. It is these investors who will continue to support US Treasuries, the dollar, the yen and perhaps, gold,; the traditional safe havens. At this point, there is nothing evident that will change that theme.

Good luck
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Still Under Stress

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As traders are forced to assess
A bond market still under stress
Today’s jobs report
Might be of the sort
That causes some further regress

Global bond markets are still reeling after the past several sessions have seen yields explode higher. The proximate cause seems to have been the much stronger data released Wednesday in the US, where the ADP Employment and ISM Non-Manufacturing reports were stellar. Adding to the mix were comments by Fed Chairman Powell that continue to sing the praises of the US economy, and giving every indication that the Fed was going to continue to raise rates steadily for the next year. In fact, the Fed funds futures market finally got the message and has now priced in about 60bps of rate hikes for next year, on top of the 25bps more for this year. So in the past few sessions, that market has added essentially one full hike into their calculations. It can be no surprise that bond markets sold off, or that what started in the US led to a global impact. After all, despite efforts by some pundits to declare that the ECB was the critical global central bank as they continue their QE process, the reality is that the Fed remains top of the heap, and what they do will impact everybody else around the world.

Which of course brings us to this morning’s jobs data. Despite the strong data on Wednesday, there has been no meaningful change in the current analyst expectations, which are as follows:

Nonfarm Payrolls 185K
Private Payrolls 180K
Manufacturing Payrolls 12K
Unemployment Rate 3.8%
Participation Rate 62.7%
Average Hourly Earnings (AHE) 0.3% (2.8% Y/Y)
Average Weekly Hours 34.5
Trade Balance -$53.5B

The market risk appears to be that the release will show better than expected numbers today, which would encourage further selling in Treasuries and continuation of the cycle that has driven markets this week. What is becoming abundantly clear is that the Treasury market has become the pre-eminent driver of global markets for now. Based on the data we have seen lately, there is no reason to suspect that today’s releases will be weak. In fact, I suspect that we are going to see much better than expected numbers, with a chance for AHE to touch 3.0%. Any outcome like that should be met with another sharp decline in Treasuries as well as equities, while the dollar finds further support.

Away from the payroll data, there have been other noteworthy things ongoing around the world, so lets touch on a few here. First, there is growing optimism that with the Tory Party conference now past, and PM May still in control, that now a Brexit deal will be hashed out. One thing that speaks to this possibility is the recent recognition by Brussels that the $125 trillion worth of derivatives contracts that are cleared in London might become a problem if there is no Brexit deal, with payment issues needing to be sorted, and have a quite deleterious impact on all EU economies. As I have maintained, a fudge deal was always the most likely outcome, but it is by no means certain. However, today the market is feeling better about things and the pound has responded by rallying more than a penny. The idea is that with a deal in place, the BOE will have the leeway to continue raising rates thus supporting the pound.

Meanwhile, stronger than expected German Factory orders have helped the euro recoup some of its recent losses with a 0.25% gain since yesterday’s close. But the G10 has not been all rosy as the commodity bloc (AUD, NZD and CAD) are all weaker this morning by roughly 0.4%. Other currencies under stress include INR (-0.6%) after the RBI failed to raise interest rates as expected, although they explained there would be “calibrated tightening” going forward. I assume that means slow and steady, but sounds better. We have also seen further pressure on RUB (-1.3%) as revelations about Russian hacking efforts draw increased scrutiny and the idea of yet more sanctions on the Russian economy make the rounds. ZAR (-0.75%) and TRY (-2.0%) remain under pressure, as do IDR (-0.7%) and TWD (-0.5%), all of which are suffering from a combination of broad dollar strength and domestic issues, notably weak financial situations and current account deficits. However, there is one currency that has been on a roll lately, other than the dollar, and that is BRL, which is higher by 3.4% in the past week and 8.0% since the middle of September. This story is all about the presidential election there, where vast uncertainty has slowly morphed into a compelling lead for Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing firebrand who is attacking the pervasive corruption in the country, and also has University of Chicago trained economists as his financial advisors. The market sees his election as the best hope for market-friendly policies going forward.

But for today, it is all about payrolls. Based on what we have heard from Chairman Powell lately, there is no reason to believe that the Fed is going to adjust its policy trajectory any time soon, and if they do, it is likely only because they need to move tighter, faster. Today’s data could be a step in that direction. All of this points to continued strength in the dollar.

Good luck and good weekend
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