Tag Archives: #Fed

Diminished

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There is a small nation called Greece
Which eight years ago had to cease
Expending their cash
Which led to a crash
And caused GDP to decrease

Today is important due to
The fact that austerity’s through
The bailout is finished
Though Greece is diminished
While people there barely make do

Even though all eyes are on emerging markets these days, and rightly so in many cases, I thought it was worthwhile to note that the Greek sovereign debt crisis is ‘officially’ over as of today. While the situation in Greece doesn’t seem to have improved that much overall, today is the day that the bailouts officially end and Greece returns to the group of nations that are fully independent-ish. In fact, the Troika still controls much of what Greece is allowed to do with respect to spending priorities and budget discipline, and the nation remains a basket case in most ways. But reality on the ground could never dissuade the Troika from touting that their programs were a huge success and that everybody will live happily ever after. At any rate, it is probably a good thing that this chapter in Europe’s history has finally closed, but I would wager that if you surveyed the Greek people, not many would find good things to say about the future, let alone the past. In the end, though, Greece remains a tiny nation within the Eurozone, and what happens there impacts markets through sentiment changes, not through financial ones.

At the same time, there is a much bigger problem brewing in Italy, with many of the same issues surfacing there as occurred in Greece, and fears that the recently elected, anti-establishment government may make decisions inconsistent with the EU’s wishes. But Italy is not a small country. It is the third largest in the Eurozone and carries the largest amount of debt, €2.3 trillion worth. The one thing of which I am confident is that we have not seen the last problems to emanate from the Eurozone, and correspondingly, with the euro itself.

Reverting to emerging markets, while everyone recognizes the wreck that is Venezuela, on Friday night they made some major adjustments to their currency regime, devaluing the official bolivar by 95% (now approaching the black market rate) and redenominating the currency by removing 5 zeroes from its value. But in the end, the currency is just a symptom of their problems, not the cause, and it will remain the basket case that it has become over the past twenty years until there is a new government in place.

Moving on to more frequently discussed EMG currencies, like TRY (-2.2%), INR (+0.3%) and RUB (-0.2%), things are far less interesting. Remarkably, a 2% decline in the Turkish lira seems like a good day after recent gyrations, and the rest of the FX world seems to be on vacation, with very little substantive movement overnight. As we are coming to the end of August, it should be no real surprise that markets are getting quiet as there are more and more traders on holiday, and unless there is a specific story on which to trade, those that are manning the desks seem likely to play things close to the vest.

Meanwhile, there was virtually no data of note released overnight, and no commentary from any officials. The US-China trade situation seems like it might be moving toward a better place, with ongoing negotiations designed to arrive at an outcome in November, but there is still a long time to go before anything truly positive arrives. And in the meantime, Thursday we are due to see new tariffs imposed on $16 billion more of Chinese goods. Otherwise, there’s just not that much happening.

And the calendar this week is underwhelming as well, although the KC Fed’s Jackson Hole Symposium does kick off on Friday with Chairman Powell starting the festivities Friday morning.

Wednesday Existing Home Sales 5.4M
  FOMC Minutes  
Thursday Initial Claims 215K
  New Home Sales 645K
Friday Durable Goods -0.5%
  -ex Transport 0.5%

So the reality is that Wednesday’s FOMC Minutes will be carefully scrutinized for any sign that there is growing concern over the trade issue, and then Friday’s Powell speech is the next thing that will really matter. My sense is that we are looking forward to a very quiet week, with modest gyrations in the dollar, but no trend extension likely.

Good luck
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Decidedly Bleak

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The view turned decidedly bleak
For EMG nations this week
Though Turkey was worst
Some others were cursed
As well, since more funding they seek

The Argies are feeling put out
The rand had an actual rout
In LATAM they all
Enjoyed (?) quite a fall
But China, more weakness, did flout!

In truth, this morning things are rather dull in the FX markets, although I’m pretty sure that most traders are relieved. It has been an extremely difficult week for emerging market currencies and volatility remains pretty high. As an example, this week saw the South African rand fall nearly 6%, with 1% coming overnight. In LATAM, while the Argentine peso fell nearly 6% that was not the only casualty. Brazil felt the sting with the real falling 2.75%; Chile saw its peso down 3.5% while the Colombian version fell 2.7%. In fact, the best performing peso was Mexico’s, falling only 1% this week.

Of course, given that the Turkish lira was where all this started; we cannot ignore its movement. If you recall, last week it collapsed, falling nearly 40% at its weakest. Then, in response to several moves by the central bank restricting liquidity and stealthily hiking interest rates, it recouped nearly half that loss. However, this morning, the lira is once again falling, down about 5% as I type. The only thing we know for sure is that this volatility is unlikely to end soon as the market will continue to test the central bank, as well as President Erdogan’s ability to continue his policies of folly.

Finally, a quick look at APAC currencies shows INR as the only one with significant movement, falling 2% and breeching the 70.00 level for the first time ever. But the rest of this space, though it definitely saw volatility, wound up little changed on the week. And despite a great deal of anxiety about the renminbi, it is essentially exactly where it started on Monday.

The message that can be gleaned from this movement is that there are a great many countries which have fiscal imbalances, and whose prospects for future growth are being impacted by a combination of two US policies. First, as the Fed continues to raise rates and withdraw liquidity from markets via shrinking its balance sheet, those nations that relied on cheap dollar funding for their recent growth are finding themselves under pressure. And, of course, the second US policy impacting these nations is the reintroduction of tariffs on trade. Most emerging markets are heavily reliant on exports, with the US as a major destination. Slowing trade growth is also going to negatively impact these economies, and force a re-evaluation of the level of their currencies. As long as these two policies continue, and there is absolutely no sign they are going to change any time soon, every emerging market currency will be living under its own Sword of Damocles.

Meanwhile, in the G10 space, things are decidedly less interesting. While the euro did manage to trade to new lows for the move earlier this week, it has been able to reverse those losses and is now essentially flat since last Friday. The same can be said for most of the space, with the early week panic having dissipated, and very little information to drive currency movement otherwise. The weekly data was very much as expected, showing that the Eurozone and the UK are both rebounding from a very weak Q1, but hardly exploding higher. Rather, both continue to lag US growth numbers, and while the BOE did hike rates two weeks ago, and the ECB continues to slowly wind down QE, neither seems likely to increase the pace of their policy tightening, and so change the near term outlook for their respective currencies. And remember that Brexit continues to hang over the pound (its very own Sword of Damocles), with a distinct lack of movement on that front, other than the calendar which now shows just over seven months to come to a deal.

As to the US, data this week was somewhat mixed with some quite positive results (Retail Sales and Productivity) and some weaker data (Housing Starts and Philly Fed). All told, the weakness was not nearly enough to change the Fed’s trajectory, of that I am certain. And so, in the end, there is no reason to change any views with regard to the dollar; as the Fed continues to tighten policy, the dollar will continue to rise, albeit slowly.

Good luck
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Myriad Flaws

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The Turkish are starting to act
As dollars they try to attract
Restrictions imposed
Effectively closed
The method short-sellers had backed

But problems in Turkey remain
And although we’ve seen lira gain
The myriad flaws
In Turkey still cause
A major league capital drain

Much to my chagrin, I am forced to continue the discussion on the Turkish lira as it remains the driving force in FX conversations. Despite the fact that Turkey is a bit player on the world stage economically, the fear engendered by its recent policy actions and subsequent market gyrations continues to have spillover effects elsewhere around the world. The latest example is that the Indonesian central bank surprised most analysts last night and raised their policy rate by 25bps to 5.50% specifically to help fight further IDR weakness. The rupiah finds itself weaker by 1.2% this week, despite the rate hike, and nearly 5% since late June, which has included two rate hikes. Clearly, the market has evaluated the macroeconomic situation in Indonesia and sees too many similarities to Turkey, notably the significant amount of USD debt outstanding there. As long as the Fed continues to tighten policy, and there is no hint that they will be slowing down anytime soon, every emerging market with significant USD debt outstanding (besides Turkey and Indonesia, Malaysia, South Africa and Argentina come to mind) will continue to see their currency under pressure.

The question of whether the Turkey situation is a harbinger of others remains the hottest topic in FX markets. Last night, the Bank of Turkey took a page from China’s activity book and attacked the forward FX market by reducing the limit on banks’ swap transactions to 25% of shareholder equity, down from the previous level of 50%. This had the effect of driving up short-term lira rates substantially, with the overnight rate touching 34.5%. It should be no surprise that the lira has continued yesterday’s rebound, rising a further 3% this morning, but that is well off the highs for the session, when it traded back below 6.00 briefly. The point is that despite not raising the base rate, the central bank there does have some tools to help address the situation, at least in the short term. However, there is very limited confidence that President Erdogan will allow the central bank the leeway deemed necessary to address the lira’s problems in the long run. This story is nowhere near over, although several days into it, the story is starting to get a little tired.

Turning away from Turkey, the dollar is having quite a good session. Versus its G10 counterparts, we have seen consistent strength to the tune of 0.2%-0.3%. Data has not been the driver as the only notable release has been UK inflation, where the headline came out at 2.5%, 0.1% higher than last month, but right on analysts forecasts. There has been a modest amount of Brexit conversation, but none of it has been positive, and at this point, every day without positive news is likely to weigh further on the pound. Meanwhile the euro is making a run at 1.1300, a level not traded since late June 2017, and unless we see some policy adjustments, it is hard to believe that the data is going to turn things in the near future.

Regarding the rest of the emerging markets, there has been some substantial weakness in ZAR (-3.3%), MXN (-1.2%), KRW (-1.3%) and RUB (-1.4%), none of which have released any economic data of note. This feels much more like contagion as traders seek proxies to short while the Turkish authorities use up their ammunition. But of more interest to me is CNY, which has fallen 0.4% this morning to 6.9250 or so. Many analysts have been confident that the PBOC would not allow the renminbi to weaken past the 6.90 level, as they are concerned over potential capital outflows. However, I have maintained that the renminbi has much further to fall. I believe the PBOC will continue to see the renminbi as the most effective release valve for the pressures that continue to build in the economy there. Remember, too, that the government imposed much stricter capital controls earlier this year and so they are feeling more and more confident that they will not have a repeat of the 2015-6 situation. In fact, the most recent data showed that FX reserves in China actually rose last month, surprising every analyst. The upshot is that there is further room for CNY to decline, and a move past 7.00 is merely a matter of time. In fact, it would not surprise me if it occurred before the end of August.

Turning to today’s data releases, we actually receive a great deal of new information as follows: Empire State Manufacturing (exp 20); Retail Sales (0.1%, 0.3% ex autos); Nonfarm Productivity (2.3%); Unit Labor Costs (0.3%); IP (0.3%); Capacity Utilization (78.2%); and finally Business Inventories (0.1%). While Retail Sales will garner the most attention, I will be watching ULC carefully as wage growth remains the watchword at the Fed. If that number surprises on the high side, that will serve to reinforce the idea that Chairman Powell is going to ignore the screams of the emerging markets for quite a while yet. In the end, nothing has changed with regard to the broad macroeconomic picture and the dollar ought to continue to see support across the board. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Good luck
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Somewhat Restrictive

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Said Evans, if I were predictive
A setting that’s somewhat restrictive
Might be just the thing
To slightly hamstring
This growth that’s become quite addictive

Chicago Fed president Charles Evans, a reliable dovish voice on the FOMC, spoke yesterday and made news because of his more hawkish tone. “If inflation [PCE] continues to be on the order of 2, 2.2 (percent) — I’m not expecting it to get as high as 2.5 — that suggests only a modest amount of restrictiveness above our neutral rate might be called for in 2020,” he said and continued, “ It would not surprise me at all if we make a judgment to move to a somewhat restrictive setting.” For a dove, that is a remarkable admission of the strength of the economy and the growing belief that monetary policy is now sending the wrong signals.

Remember, despite the fact that the Fed has raised rates seven times for a total of 175bps since December 2015, Fed funds remain well below the inflation rate so real interest rates remain negative. In fact, this morning we will see just how far below as CPI is due to be released at 8:30 and expected to print at 3.0% with the core rate at 2.3%. Historically, real interest rates have been positive to the tune of 2.0% and while there have clearly been fundamental changes in the economy that may warrant a lower real interest rate (e.g. technological advances driving efficiencies, globalization), negative real rates are only called for during a recession or worse. If the doves are now on board the rate raising train, and these comments seem to suggest that they are, the Fed could become even more aggressive in 2019, with a press conference after every meeting, and therefore the opportunity to explain their actions. Don’t be surprised if they raise rates in January 2019 especially if the emerging markets don’t completely crater. And if you want a hint of how this will impact the dollar, last night’s price action, with the DXY rising 0.5% and the euro finally breaking out of its recent trading range, falling by a similar amount, are very good prognosticators.

But the caveat is, if the emerging markets don’t crater, and that is an important caveat. Last night, the Turkish lira saw a significant escalation in the recent market tension as it fell nearly 10% at one point and though it has recovered slightly, remains down by 7% as I type. The thing is, nothing new has been revealed. It appears that as the week is drawing to a close, traders and investors are simply coming to the conclusion that President Erdogan is not going to allow the central bank the leeway it needs to manage the economy in an orthodox manner, and that things could well spiral out of control. The fact that Turkey and the US remain at odds over the arrest of an American pastor by Istanbul, and that sanctions are being imposed, is just adding fuel to the fire. This is the proverbial falling knife. Don’t try to catch it. Until the politics changes, the currency is likely to continue in freefall.

The question is, will this infect other emerging markets, and by extension developed country markets? If last night is any indication, it may just be starting to do so. Equity markets throughout Europe are lower, some pretty sharply (Germany -1.5%, Italy -1.7%) as concerns have been raised over some of the large European banks’ exposures to Turkey. We saw weakness in Japanese equities (-1.3%) despite the fact that GDP growth there in Q2 was shown to be a better than expected 1.9% annualized. US equity futures are also softer, down about 0.5% at this point, and Treasury yields are falling (10yr -4bps) as investors are fleeing to safe havens. In other words, it is beginning to look like that infection is starting to spread.

As is often the case, these concerns make themselves known in almost random fashion. Certain currencies respond to the news in a negative way, while others that you may assume would see the same type of response don’t move. It is also important to watch the movement over a week or two, rather than on a given day, as those trends can be more revealing. For example, RUB is barely softer this morning, down just 0.3%, despite increased sanctions imposed by the US because of the poisoning of an ex Russian spy in London earlier this year. But this week it has fallen 5.6%, a pretty hefty move, and indicative of the fact that there is growing concern there. Another currency feeling the pressure this morning is ZAR, which has fallen 1.1% and 4% on the week. But as it had strengthened sharply through Q1, it is only down 2% in the past year. However, the recent trend is ominous and it certainly appears that ZAR has further to fall. MXN is another interesting case, where it has fallen 1.25% overnight and 2.6% this week, but remains far stronger than its levels earlier this summer in the run up to the presidential election there. However, regardless of the market’s relief that AMLO does not seem to be as radical as initially feared, emerging market disease can be quite contagious, and it would not surprise me at all to see the peso fall another 5% or even more if we see additional pressure elsewhere.

The key to remember here is that there is a great deal of herd behavior demonstrated by investors, especially emerging market investors, and if they start to leave one market because there is fear of a serious problem, it can easily spread to other markets, especially if liquidity in that first market dries up. We have been witnessing individual market problems all year, and each one seemed isolated due to specific local events. But I am getting the feeling that we may have reached a tipping point, where there have been enough individual events to cause a re-evaluation of the general trend. If this is indeed the case, then the Fed may well slow the pace of its rate hikes, but the dollar should benefit anyway as the safest haven of all.

Do not be surprised if we see wider spread weakness across emerging market currencies going forward, and by extension, the G10 as well. There are likely to be two exceptions to this rule, JPY and CHF, but otherwise, I fear thin summer markets may lead us to some larger moves across the board. So stay alert and maintain those hedge ratios.

Good luck and good weekend
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For How Long?

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The US economy’s strong
Denial of this would be wrong
It’s not too surprising
That rates will be rising
The question is just, for how long?

Despite the Trump administration’s recent discussion of imposing 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports, rather than the 10% initially mooted, the Fed looked at the economic landscape and concluded that things continue apace. While they didn’t adjust rates yesterday, as was universally expected, the policy statement was quite positive, highlighting the strength in both economic growth and the labor market, while pointing out that inflation is at their objective of 2.0%. Market expectations for a September rate hike increased slightly, with futures traders now pricing in a nearly 90% probability. More interestingly, despite the increased trade rhetoric, those same traders have increased their expectations for a December hike as well, with that number now hovering near 70%. At this point, despite President Trump’s swipe at higher rates last week, it appears that the Fed is continuing to blaze its rate-hiking path undeterred.

The consequences of the Fed’s stance are starting to play out more clearly now, with the dollar once again benefitting from expectations of higher short term rates, and equity markets around the world, but especially in APAC, feeling the heat. The chain of events continues in the following manner. Higher US rates have led to a stronger US dollar, especially vs. many emerging market currencies. The companies in those countries impacted are those that borrowed heavily in USD over the past ten years when US rates were near zero. They now find themselves struggling to repay and refinance that debt. Repayment is impacted because their local revenues buy fewer dollars while refinancing is impacted by the fact that US rates are that much higher. With this cycle in mind, it should not be surprising that equity markets elsewhere in the world are struggling. And those struggles don’t even include the potential knock-on effects of further US tariff increases. Quite frankly, it appears that this trend has further to run.

Meanwhile, the week’s central bank meetings are coming to a close with this morning’s BOE decision, where they are widely touted to raise the Base rate by 25bps, up to 0.75%. It is actually quite amusing to read some of the UK headlines talking about the BOE raising rates to the ‘highest in a decade’, which while strictly true, seems to imply so much more than the reality of still exceptionally low interest rates. However, given the ongoing uncertainty due to the Brexit situation, I continue to believe that Governor Carney is extremely unlikely to raise rates again this year, and if we are headed to a ‘no-deal’ Brexit, which I believe is increasingly likely, UK rates will head back lower again. Early this morning the UK Construction PMI data printed at a better than expected 55.8, its highest since late 2016, but despite the strong data and rate expectations, the pound has fallen 0.35% on the day.

Other currency movement has been similar, with the euro down 0.35%, Aussie and Kiwi both falling more than 0.5% and every other G10 currency, save the yen declining. The yen has rallied slightly, 0.2%, as interest rates in Japan continue to respond to Tuesday’s BOJ policy tweaks. JGB’s seem to have quickly found a new home above the old 0.10% ceiling, and there is now a growing expectation that as the 10-year yield there approaches the new 0.2% cap, the longer end of the JGB curve will rise with it taking the 30-year JGB to 1.00%. While that may not seem like much to the naked eye, when considering the nature of international flows, it is potentially quite important. The reason stems from the fact that Japanese institutional investors tend to hedge the FX exposure that comes from foreign fixed income purchases thus reducing their net yield from the higher rates received overseas to something on the order of 1.0%. And if the Japanese 30-year reaches that 1.0% threshold (it is currently yielding 0.83%), there is a growing expectation that those same investors will sell Treasuries and other bonds and bring the money home. That will have two impacts. First, I would be far less concerned over an inverting yield curve in the US as yields across the back end of the US curve would rise on those sales, and second, the dollar would likely rally overall on higher rates, but decline further against the yen. These are the type of background flows that impact the FX market, but may not be obvious to most hedgers.

Turning to the emerging markets, the dollar is firmer against virtually all of these currencies as well. One of the biggest movers has been CNY, falling 0.5% and now trading at its weakest level since May 2017. The renminbi’s decline has been impressive since mid-April, clocking in at nearly 9%, and clearly offsetting some of the impact of the recent tariffs. But remember, the renminbi’s decline began well before any tariffs were in place, and has as much to do with a slowing Chinese economy forcing monetary policy ease in China as with the recent trade spat. At this point, capital outflows have not yet become a problem there, but if history is any guide, as we get closer to 7.00, we are likely to see more pressure on the system as both individuals and companies seek to get their money out of China and into a stronger currency. I expect that there are more fireworks in store here.

Aside from China, the usual suspects continue to fall, with TRY having blasted through 5.00 overnight and now down 1.5% on the day. But we have also seen significant weakness in ZAR (-1.75%), KRW (-1.15%), and MXN (-0.75%). Even INR is down 0.5% despite the RBI having raised rates 0.25% overnight to try to rein in rising inflation pressures there. So today’ story is clear, the dollar remains in the ascendancy on the back of optimism in the US vs. increasing pessimism elsewhere in the world.

A quick peek at today’s data shows that aside from the weekly Initial Claims (exp 220K) we see only Factory Orders (0.7%). Yesterday’s ADP Employment data was quite strong, rising 219K, while the ISM Manufacturing report fell to a still robust 58.1, albeit a larger fall than expected. However, given the Fed’s upbeat outlook, the market was able to shake off the news. At this point, however, I expect that eyes are turning toward tomorrow’s NFP report, which will be seen as taking a much more accurate reading on the economy. All in all, I see no reason for the dollar to give back its recent gains, and in fact, expect that modest further strength is in the cards.

Good luck
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Percent Twenty-Five

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The story, once more’s about trade
As Trump, a new threat, has conveyed
Percent twenty-five
This fall may arrive
Lest progress in trade talks is made

President Trump shook things up yesterday by threatening 25% tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese imports unless a trade deal can be reached. This is up from the initial discussion of a 10% tariff on those goods, and would almost certainly have a larger negative impact on GDP growth while pushing inflation higher in both the US and China, and by extension the rest of the world. It appears that the combination of strong US growth and already weakening Chinese growth, has led the President to believe he is in a stronger position to obtain a better deal. Not surprisingly the Chinese weren’t amused, loudly claiming they would not be blackmailed. In the background, it appears that efforts to restart trade talks between the two nations have thus far been unsuccessful, although those efforts continue.

Clearly, this is not good news for the global economy, nor is it good news for financial markets, which have no way to determine just how big an impact trade ructions are going to have on equities, currencies, commodities and interest rates. In other words, things are likely more uncertain now than in more ‘normal’ times. And that means that market volatility across markets is likely to increase. After all, not only is there the potential for greater surprises, but the uncertainty prevailing has reduced liquidity overall as many investors and traders hew to the sidelines until they have a better idea of what to do. And, of course, it is August 1st, a period where summer vacations leave trading desks with reduced staffing levels and so liquidity is generally less robust in any event.

Moving past trade brings us straight to the central bank story, where the relative hawkishness or dovishnes of yesterday’s BOJ announcement continues to be debated. There are those who believe it was a stealth tightening, allowing higher 10-year yields (JGB yields rose 8bps last night to their highest level in more than 18 months) and cutting in half the amount of reserves subject to earning -0.10%. And there are those who believe the increased flexibility and addition of forward guidance are signals that the BOJ is keen to ease further. Yesterday’s price action in USDJPY clearly favored the doves, as the yen fell a solid 0.8% in the session. But there has been no follow-through this morning.

As to the other G10 currencies, the dollar is modestly firmer against most of them this morning in the wake of PMI data from around the world showing that the overall growth picture remains mixed, but more troubling, the trend appears to be continuing toward slower growth.

The emerging market picture is similar, with the dollar performing reasonably well this morning, although, here too, there are few outliers. The most notable is KRW, which has fallen 0.75% overnight despite strong trade data as inflation unexpectedly fell and views of an additional rate hike by the BOK dimmed. However, beyond that, modest dollar strength was the general rule.

At this point in the session, the focus will turn to some US data including; ADP Employment (exp 185K), ISM Manufacturing (59.5) and its Prices Paid indicator (75.8), before the 2:00pm release of the FOMC statement as the Fed concludes its two day meeting. As there is no press conference, and the Fed has not made any changes to policy without a press conference following the meeting in years, I think it is safe to say there is a vanishingly small probability that anything new will come from the meeting. The statement will be heavily parsed, but given that we heard from Chairman Powell just two weeks ago, and the biggest data point, Q2 GDP, was released right on expectations, it seems unlikely that they will make any substantive changes.

It feels far more likely that this meeting will have been focused on technical questions about how future Fed policies will be enacted. Consider that QE has completely warped the old framework, where the Fed would actually adjust reserves in order to drive interest rates. Now, however, given the trillions of dollars of excess reserves, they can no longer use that strategy. The question that has been raised is will they try to go back to the old way, or is the new, much larger balance sheet going to remain with us forever. For hard money advocates, I fear the answer will not be to their liking, as it appears increasingly likely that QE is with us to stay. Of course, since this is a global phenomenon, I expect the impact on the relative value of any one currency is likely to be muted. After all, if everybody has changed the way they manage their economy in the same manner, then relative values are unlikely to change.

Flash, ADP Employment prints at a better than expected 219K, but the initial dollar impact is limited. Friday’s NFP report is of far more interest, but for today, all eyes will wait for the Fed. I expect very limited movement in the dollar ahead of then, and afterwards to be truthful.

Good luck
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A Rate Hike’s in Store

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Said Mario Draghi once more
‘Through summer’ a rate hike’s in store
When pressed on the timing
That they’d end pump priming
He gave no more scoop than before

As we await this morning’s Q2 US GDP data (exp 4.1%), it’s a good time to review yesterday’s activity and why the euro has given up the ground it gained during the past week. The ECB left policy on hold, which was universally expected. However, many pundits were looking for a more insightful press conference regarding the timeline that the ECB has in mind regarding the eventual raising of interest rates. Alas, they were all disappointed. Draghi continues to use the term ‘through summer’ without defining exactly what that means. It appears that the uncertainty is whether it means a September 2019 hike or an October 2019 hike. To this I have to say, “are they nuts?” The idea that the ECB has such a precise decision process is laughable. The time in question is more than twelve months away, and there is so much that can happen between now and then it cannot be listed.

Consider that just six months ago, Eurozone growth was widely expected to continue the pace it had demonstrated in 2017, which was why the dollar was weak and falling. But instead, despite a large majority of forecasts pointing to great things in Europe, growth there weakened sharply while growth in the US leapt forward. So here we are now, six months later, with the dollar significantly stronger and a new narrative asking why Eurozone growth has disappointed while US growth is exploding higher. Of course the US story is blamed based on the tax changes and increased fiscal stimulus from the budget bill. But in Europe, we have heard about bad weather, a flu epidemic and, more recently, rising oil prices, but certainly nothing that explains the underlying disappointment. And that was only a six-month window! Why would anyone expect the ECB, who are notoriously bad forecasters, to have any idea what will happen, with precision, in fourteen months’ time?

However, that seems to have been the driving force yesterday, lack of confirmation on the timing of the ECB’s initial rate hike next year. And based on the French GDP data this morning (0.2%, below expectations of 0.3% and far below last year’s 0.7% quarterly average), it seems that growth expectations for the Eurozone may well be missed again. Personally, I am not convinced that the ECB will raise rates at all in 2019. Given the recent trajectory of growth in the Eurozone, it appears we have already seen the top, and that before we get ‘through summer’ next year, the discussion may turn to how the ECB are going to help support the economy with further QE. Given this reality, it should be no surprise that the euro suffered yesterday, and in the wake of the weak French data, that it is still lower this morning, albeit only by an additional 0.15%.

Elsewhere the pound fell yesterday after the EU rejected, out of hand, PM May’s solution for the UK to collect tariffs on behalf of the EU. That basically destroyed her attempt to find a middle ground between the Brexiteers and the Bremainers, and now calls into question her ability to remain in office. In fact, she is running out of time to come up with a deal that has a chance of getting implemented. The current belief is that if they do not agree on something by the October EU meeting, there will not be sufficient time for all 29 members to approve any deal. It is with this in mind that I continue to question the BOE’s concerns over slowing inflation. My gut tells me that if they do raise rates next week, it will need to be reversed by the November meeting after the Brexit situation spirals out of control. The pound fell 0.65% yesterday and is down a further 0.1% this morning. That remains the trend.

Another noteworthy event from Tokyo occurred last night as the BOJ was forced to intervene in the JGB market for the second time this week, bidding for an unlimited amount of bonds at 0.10% in the 5-10 year sector. And this time, they bought ~$74 billion worth. Speculation remain rife that they are going to adjust their QQE program next week, but given the fact that it has been singularly unsuccessful in achieving its aim of raising inflation to 2.0% (currently CPI there is running at 0.2%), this appears to be a serious capitulation. If they change policy without any success behind them, the market is likely to aggressively buy the yen. USDJPY is down 1.7% in the past six sessions, and while it rallied slightly yesterday, it seems to me that USDJPY lower is the most likely future outcome.

Yesterday morning’s overall dollar malaise reversed during the US session and has carried over to this morning’s trade. And while most movement so far this morning is modest, averaging in the 0.1%-0.2% range, it is nearly universally in favor of the buck.

This morning brings the aforementioned GDP data as well as Michigan Sentiment (exp 97.1, down a full point from last month), although the former will be the key number to watch. Yesterday’s equity market session was broadly able to shake off the poor earnings forecast of a major tech firm, and this morning has a different FANG member knocking it out of the park. My point is that risk aversion is not high, so this dollar strength remains fundamental. At this point, I look for the dollar to continue to benefit from the current broad narrative of diverging monetary policy, and expect that we will need to see some particularly weak US data to change that story.

Good luck and good weekend
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No Tariffs For Now

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Herr Juncker and Trump had their meeting
And what they both claimed bears repeating
No tariffs for now
As both sides allow
The current regime with no cheating

Whew! That pretty much sums up the market reaction to yesterday afternoon’s hastily arranged press conference with President Trump and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. Both were all smiles as they announced that there would be no tariffs imposed at this time while the US and EU begin more serious trade negotiations with an eye toward reducing trade friction in manufactured goods. In addition, Europe would be seeking to purchase more US soybeans and LNG in a good faith effort to reduce the current trade imbalance. And finally, they would be addressing the current US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe. It can be no surprise that the market reacted quite positively to this news, with equities in the US finishing higher and European markets all performing well this morning. It should also not be that surprising that the euro jumped immediately upon the news, rising 0.25%, although this morning it has given back those gains after both French and German Consumer Confidence data extended their trend declines amid disappointing outcomes.

While it is still anybody’s guess how this will ultimately play out, the news is certainly an encouraging sign that there can be movement in a positive direction on the trade front. The same appears to be true regarding NAFTA negotiations with both Canada and Mexico reconfirming that a trilateral deal is the goal, and apparently making headway toward achieving those aims.

However, the same optimism is nowhere to be found regarding trade relations between China and the US, with no indication that the situation has shown any positive movement. In the meantime, China continues to respond to signs of weakening growth on the mainland, this time by further reducing capital requirements for banks’ lending to SME’s. While the PBOC has not specifically cut rates, generally seen as a broad monetary policy step, these targeted capital requirement and reserve ratio cuts can be very powerful tools for the targeted recipients, allowing them to expand their loan books and driving profits in the banking sector. But no matter how the easing of monetary policy is implemented, it is still easing of monetary policy and will have an impact on both Chinese equity markets and the renminbi’s exchange rate. While the currency weakened, as would be expected, falling 0.5% overnight, the Shanghai composite fell as well, which is somewhat surprising. Although, in fairness, the Shanghai exchange has rallied nearly 8% over the past two weeks, so this could simply be a case of “selling the news.” In the end, especially if the trade situation between the US and China remains fraught, I expect that USDCNY has further to run, and 7.00 remains on the radar.

The other big story this morning is the anticipation of the ECB meeting results, not so much in terms of policy changes, as none are expected, but in terms of the follow-on press conference where Signor Draghi will be asked about the timing of interest rate increases and the meaning of the term “through the summer” which was inserted into the last statement. Analysts have been debating if that means rates could be raised in August or September of next year, or if it implies a longer wait before a rate move. The futures market doesn’t have a full 10bp rate hike priced in until January 2020, significantly past the summer. The other question of note is how the ECB will handle reinvestment of their current portfolio, and whether they will seek to smooth the reinvestment program or simply wait until debt matures before purchasing more. The reason this matters is that their portfolio has a very uneven distribution of maturities, which could lead to more volatility in European Government bond markets if they choose the latter path.

In the end, given that Eurozone data continues to disappoint on a regular basis, it seems that whatever path they choose for rate hikes and reinvestment, it will seek to maintain as much support as possible for now. Other than the Germans, there does not appear to be a strong constituency to aggressively tighten monetary policy, and there are nations, like Italy and Greece, which would much prefer to see policy remain ultra accommodative for the foreseeable future. While the euro has been range trading for the past two months between 1.15 and 1.18, I continue to look for a break lower eventually.

Away from those stories, things have been less interesting. Most of the G10 is trading in a fairly narrow range, with Aussie the laggard, -0.4%, on the back of weaker metals prices. EMG currencies have similarly been fairly quiet with limited movement overall.

Yesterday’s US data showed that the housing market is starting to suffer a bit more consistently as New Home Sales fell to 631K, well below expectations and the lowest level since last October. Adding this to the miss in Existing Home Sales on Monday shows that the combination of still rising house prices and rising mortgage rates is starting to have a more substantial impact on the sector. This morning we see Durable Goods data (exp 3.0%, 0.5% -ex Transport) and the weekly Initial Claims data (215K), which continues to show the strength of the job market. However, regarding US data, all eyes remain on tomorrow’s first look at Q2 GDP, where the range of expectations is broad, from 3.8% to 5.2%, and traders will be trying to parse how the data will impact the Fed’s activities.

In the meantime, US equity futures are mixed this morning with the NASDAQ pointing lower after some weaker than expected earnings guidance from a FANG member, while Dow futures are pointing higher on the back of relief over the trade situation. As to the dollar, I expect that it will see modest weakness overall as positions continue to be adjusted ahead of tomorrow’s key GDP release.

Good luck
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Trump’s Latest Tirade

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There once was a time when men thought
That trade wars should never be fought
But that was back then
And now those same men
Think trade wars can help votes be bought

However, attacking free trade
By building a tariff blockade
Can open the doors
To currency wars
Just like in Trump’s latest tirade

Jerome Powell’s job got a LOT tougher on Friday, when President Trump not only reiterated his concern over the Fed raising rates and the impact it would have on the economy, (i.e. tapping on the brakes), but on the impact Fed policy is having on the dollar as it continues to rise. The President then called out China, Europe and Japan for manipulating their currencies lower and calling it unfair and a serious problem.

Now put yourself in Powell’s seat. Maintaining Fed independence, and any perceptions thereof is crucial. But so is managing monetary policy as he see’s fit. However, now that Trump has complained about rising US interest rates and the ongoing policy divergence we have seen over the past fifteen months, if the US economy slows and the Fed believes that a change in policy is appropriate, it may look like he is bending to the President’s will. At the same time, if he continues to raise rates because he believes that is appropriate, he will seemingly come under further pressure from the President. As I said, his job got a lot harder. One doesn’t have to be too cynical to believe that Powell and the Fed will continue to raise rates until the economy falters, at which point it will be clearly appropriate for the Fed to ease policy, and there will be no question of the Fed’s independence. Of course, purposely engineering a slowdown or recession doesn’t seem like such a wonderful idea either.

At the same time, the President has just created his fall guy for any bad outcomes in the economy. If things go bad, he blames the Fed and says, ‘I told you this would happen if they raised rates.’ And if everything continues with positive growth, he claims it’s his policies in spite of the Fed that is doing the job.

With that as the lay of the land, it should be no surprise that on the back of Trump’s discussion of currency manipulation, that the dollar fell sharply in Friday’s session. The dollar Index fell 0.75% with almost every major currency rallying. As the Asian session opens this evening, we are seeing some follow through in that price action, with the dollar index down a further 0.2%. JPY is leading the way higher, up 0.45%, but the movement remains widespread.

Interestingly, it appears that most of the punditry have decided that the dollar’s rally is now over. With the President now keen to see the dollar fall, that is what will happen. I, however, disagree with that assessment. At this point, as long as the interest rate divergence continues, I see no reason to believe that traders are going to change their tune. The carry available remains too great a temptation to ignore. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the current level of dollar bullishness, as measured by open futures positions, rise over the next several weeks, as traders take advantage of the dollar’s short-term decline to add to positions at better levels. Until we start to see concrete changes in monetary policy (and there is no indication that any other country is going to tighten policy sooner than they otherwise would have), the dollar still holds all the cards. In fact, if the ongoing trade ructions lead to a more significant equity market correction, meaning risk is jettisoned, then the dollar will probably rise further. I will change my views when policy changes, but for now, I see this move as a temporary correction.

There is really no other story in the FX markets right now other than the evolution of the trade war into a currency war. While there will be some data this week, and the ECB meets Thursday, everything we hear will be in a response to Trump’s comments. The G20 arrived at no decisions, which can be no surprise, as they never do. However, all the talk is on the trade cum currency war that is brewing. At this point, given the ECB is not going to change anything, (perhaps they will refine their rate message more specifically, but I doubt it), it is headline roulette until the Fed meets next month. And even then, there is no expectation of a move until September, so really we are beholden to the headlines for now. I wish I could give more guidance than that, but let’s face it; nobody knows what will happen there.

Good luck
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I’m Not Thrilled

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Said President Trump, “I’m not thrilled”
With how Chairman Powell’s fulfilled
Both job and price mandates
By raising Fed Fund rates
‘Cause soon the Dow Jones could get killed

“I’m not thrilled. I don’t like all of this work that we’re putting into the economy and then I see rates going up. I am not happy about it. But at the same time I’m letting them do what they feel is best.” So said President Trump in an interview on CNBC yesterday afternoon. It should be no surprise that the FX market response was immediate, with the dollar reversing earlier gains.

While this is not the first time that a US president has tried to persuade the Federal Reserve to cut rates (they never want higher rates, I assure you!), it is the first time since George H.W. Bush pushed then Chairman Greenspan to reduce rates more quickly in 1992 (he didn’t). This is a situation fraught with serious consequences as the independence of a nation’s central bank is seen as one of the keys to a developed economy’s success. For instance, recall just several weeks ago when Turkey’s President Erdogan essentially took over making monetary policy there, and how the market has behaved since, with TRY already significantly weaker.

As long as the Fed remains on course to continue raising rates, and despite the Trump comments, Fed Funds futures showed no change in the probability for two more rate hikes this year, I see little reason to change my stance on the dollar’s future strength. However, the bigger problem is if the Fed, independently, decides that slowing the pace of rate hikes is justified by the data, it could still appear to be politically motivated, and so reduce whatever credibility the Fed still maintains. This will remain a background story, at the very least, for a while. So far, there is no indication that Chairman Powell is going to change his stance, which means that policy divergence remains the lay of the land.

In the meantime, the other big FX story comes from China. We discussed yuan weakness yesterday and in the overnight session, the PBOC fixed the onshore currency at its weakest point in more than a year, which in fairness is simply following the dollar’s overall strength, but then when USDCNY made new highs for the year above 6.83, a large Chinese state-owned bank was seen aggressively selling dollars. This tacit intervention helped to steady the market and worked to support the Shanghai Stock Exchange as well, which ultimately rose 2.0% on the day. It is, however, difficult to follow all the twists and turns in the US-China relationship these days, as literally minutes ago, President Trump raised the ante yet again, by saying that he is “ready to go” with regard to imposing tariffs on $500 billion of Chinese goods. That represents all Chinese exports to the US and is considerably larger than ever mentioned before.

Tariffs and protectionism have a very poor history when it comes to enhancing any country’s economic situation, but it is very possible that this continuous ratcheting of pressure may actually be effective at achieving policy changes in this situation as China has plenty of domestically created economic problems already. Recall, President Xi has been on the warpath about excess leverage and the PBOC had been tightening policy in order to squeeze that out of the system. However, growth in China has suffered accordingly, and the recent data indicates that it may be slowing even more. With that in mind, a full-scale trade war with the US would likely be disastrous for China. The last thing they can afford is to see reduced production numbers, as well as loss of access to critical component and technology imports. It is not impossible that Xi blinks first, or that the two presidents recognize that a face-saving deal is in both their interests. It may take a little while, but I have a sense that could well be the outcome. However, until then, look for USDCNY to continue to rally sharply, with a move to 7.00 and beyond very viable. This morning, despite the intervention overnight, it has subsequently weakened 0.4% and shows no signs of stopping.

Finally, one last story has returned from the past to haunt markets, Italy. There appeared to be a push by Five-Star leader, Luigi di Maio, to have the Finmin, Giovanni Tria, removed from office. You may recall that back in May, things got very dicey in Italy before the current government was finally formed as President Mattarella rejected the first proposed cabinet because of the Euroskeptic proposed for the FinMin post. Tria was the compromise selection designed to calm markets down, and it worked. So, if he were forced out, and it has been denied by the Finance Ministry that is the situation, it could lead us right back into a euro area crisis. This is especially true since the populist coalition of the League and Five-Start has gained further strength in the interim. While Italian bond markets suffered on the news, it was not sufficient to impact the euro much. However, we need to keep an eye on this story as it could well resurface in a more malevolent manner.

And that is really today’s situation. Overall the dollar is mildly weaker, but given its performance all week, that has more to do with profit taking on a Friday than other news. Clearly the Trump comments undermined the dollar to some extent, but until policies are seen changing, I think that will only be a temporary situation. With no data due this morning, and no speakers on the agenda, it has all the feelings of a quiet day upcoming. It is, after all, a Friday in July, so the summer doldrums seem appropriate.

Good luck and good weekend
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