Tag Archives: #gold

Quite Insane

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There once was a concept, inflation
That frightened the heads of each nation
As prices would rise
They could not disguise
The fact it was just like taxation

But now, though it seems quite insane
Most governments try to explain
No need for dismay
Inflation’s okay
There’s no reason you should complain

The latest example is from
The UK, where people’s income
Continues to lag
Each higher price tag
And prospects for growth are humdrum

It certainly is becoming more difficult to accept the idea that the current inflationary surge being felt around the world is going to end anytime soon.  I keep trying to imagine why any company would cut prices in the current macroeconomic environment given the amount of available funds to spend held by consumers everywhere.  So called ‘excess’ savings, the amount of savings that are available to consumers above their long-term trend, exceed $3 trillion worldwide, with more than $2 trillion of that in the US alone.  If you run a company and are being faced with higher input costs (energy, wages, raw materials, etc.) and there has been no reduction in demand for your product, the most natural response is to continue to raise prices until you find the clearing price where demand softens.  It is a pipe dream for any central bank to expect that the current situation is going to resolve itself in the near future.

And yet…the major central banks (Fed, ECB, BOE and BOJ) continue to be committed to maintaining ultra-easy monetary policy.  For instance, today’s inflation data from the UK is a perfect case in point.  CPI rose a more than expected 4.2% Y/Y, more than double the BOE’s price target.  Core CPI rose 3.4%, also more than expected and RPI (Retail Price Index, the price series that UK inflation linked bonds track), rose 6.0%, the highest level since 1991.  And yet, the BOE is seemingly no closer to raising rates.  You may recall that despite what appeared to be clear signaling by the BOE they would be raising interest rates at their meeting earlier this month, they decided against doing so, surprising the market and leading to significant volatility in UK interest rate markets.  In fact, BOE Governor Bailey fairly whined afterwards that it was not the BOE’s job to manage the economy.  (If not, what exactly is their job?)  At any rate, the growing concern in the UK is that growth is slowing more rapidly while prices continue to rise.  This has put the BOE in a tough spot and will likely force a decision as to which issue to address.  The problem is the policy prescriptions for each issue are opposite, thus the conundrum.

The bigger problem is that this conundrum exists in every major economy.  The growth statistics we have seen have clearly been supported by the massive fiscal and monetary policy expansion everywhere.  In the US, that number is greater than $10 trillion or 40% of the economy.  The fear is that organic growth, outside the stimulus led measures, is much weaker and if policy support is removed too early, economies will quickly fall back into recession.  In fact, that is the most common refrain we hear from policymakers around the world, premature tightening will be a bigger problem.  Ultimately, a decision is going to need to be made by every central bank as to which policy problem is more important to address immediately.  For the past four decades, the only policy issue considered was growth and how to support it.  But now that inflation has made a comeback, it is a much tougher choice.  We shall see which side the major central banks choose over the coming months, but in the meantime, the one thing which is abundantly clear is that prices are going to continue to rise.

A reasonable question would be, how have markets responded to the latest data and comments?  And the answer is…no change in attitude.  Risk appetite remains relatively robust as the money continues to flow from central banks, although certain risk havens, notably gold, are finding new supporters as fears of significantly faster inflation grow.

So, let’s survey today’s markets.  Equities have had a mixed session with Asia (Nikkei -0.4%, Hang Seng -0.25%, Shanghai +0.45%) and Europe (DAX +0.1%, CAC +0.1%, FTSE 100 -0.3%) all, save China, remaining near all-time highs (in the case of the Nikkei they are merely 31 year highs from after the bubble there), but certainly showing no signs of backing off.  US futures are showing similar price action with very modest movement either side of flat.

Bonds, as well, are little changed and mixed on the day with Treasuries (-0.5bps) catching a modest bid after having sold off sharply over the past week.  In Europe, the price action is similar with Bunds (-0.3bps), OATs (+0.2bps) and Gilts (-0.5bps) all within a few tics of yesterday’s closing levels.  I would have expected Gilts to suffer somewhat more given the UK inflation data, but these days, it appears that inflation doesn’t have any impact on interest rates.

Commodity prices are softer this morning led by oil (-1.3%) and NatGas (-1.75%), although European NatGas is higher by more than 7.3% this morning as Russia continues to restrict flows to the continent.  (I have a feeling that the politicians who made the decision to rely on Russia for a critical source of power are going to come under increasing pressure.)  In the metals markets, industrials are mostly under pressure (Cu -1.0%, Sn -0.1%, Zn -0.8%) but we are seeing a slight rebound in aluminum (+0.6%) and precious metals are doing fine (Au +0.6%, Ag +1.1%).  It seems that inflation remains a concern there.

As to the dollar, it has outperformed a few more currencies than not, with TRY (-1.25%) the biggest loser as the central bank there has clearly made the decision that growth outweighs inflation and is expected to cut interest rates further despite inflation running at nearly 20%.  Elsewhere in the EMG bloc, the losers are less dramatic with MYR (-0.3%) and CLP (-0.3%) the next worst performers.  On the plus side, RUB (+0.8%) is the clear leader, shaking off the decline in oil prices as inflows to purchase Russian bonds have been enough to support the ruble.  Otherwise, there are a handful of currencies that have edged higher, but nothing of note.

In the G10, the picture is also of a few more losers than gainers but no very large moves at all.  surprisingly, GBP (+0.1%) has done very little in the wake of the CPI data and actually SEK (+0.35%) is the best performer on the day.  However, given the krona’s recent performance, where it has fallen more than 4% in the past week, a modest rebound should not be much of a surprise.  Overall, the dollar has retained its bid as evidenced by the euro (-2.8%) and the yen (-2.0%) declining during the past week with virtually no rebound.  It appears that the market continues to believe the Fed is going to be the major central bank that tightens policy fastest and the dollar is benefitting accordingly.

This morning’s data brings Housing Starts (exp 1579K) and Building Permits (1630K), neither of which seem likely to move markets.  Yesterday’s Retail Sales and IP data were much stronger than expected, which clearly weighed on bond markets a bit, and supported the dollar, but had little impact elsewhere.  We hear from seven! Fed speakers today, as they continue to mostly double down on the message that they expect inflation to subside on its own and so it would be a mistake to act prematurely.  There is a growing divide between what the market believes the Fed is going to do and what the Fed says they are going to do.  When that resolves, it will have a large market impact, we just don’t know when that will be.

For now, you cannot fight the dollar rally, but I will say it is getting a bit long in the tooth and a modest correction seems in order during the next several sessions.  Payables hedgers should be picking spots and layering into hedges because the longer-term situation for the dollar remains far more tenuous.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

Resolute

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The narrative is resolute
That though prices did overshoot
They’re certain to fall
And that, above all,
The Fed’s in control, absolute

However, concern is now growing
That growth round the world’s started slowing
Though Friday’s report
On jobs was the sort
To help the bull market keep going

Clearly, my concerns over a weak payroll report were misplaced as Friday’s data was strong on every front, although perhaps too strong on some.  Nonfarm payrolls grew a robust 943K with net revisions higher of 119K for the past two months.  The Unemployment Rate crashed to 5.4%, down one-half percent, and Average Hourly Earnings rose 4.0% Y/Y.  It is the last of these that may generate some concern, at least from the perspective of the transitory inflation story.

While it is unambiguously good news for the working population that their wages are rising, something that has been absent for the past two decades, as with Newton’s first law (every action has an equal and opposite reaction) the direct result of rising wages tends to be rising prices.  So, while getting paid more is good, if the things one buys cost more, the net impact may not be as positive.  And in fact, consider that while the 4.0% annual rise is the highest (excluding the distortions immediately following the  Covid-19 lockdowns) in the series since at least the turn of the century, when compared to the most recent CPI data (you remember, 5.4%) we find that the average employee continues to fall behind on a real basis.

When discussing inflation, notice that the Fed harps on things like used car prices or hotel prices as the key drivers of the recent rise in the data.  They also tend to explain that commodity prices play a role, and that is something they cannot control.  But when was the last time Chairman Powell talked about rapidly rising wages or housing prices as an underlying cause of inflation?  In fact, when asked about whether the Fed should begin tapering mortgage-backed securities purchases sooner because of rapidly rising house prices, he claimed the Fed’s purchases have no impact on house prices, but rather it was things like the temporary jump in lumber prices that were the problem.  Oh yeah, and see, lumber prices have fallen back down so there is nothing to worry about.

Of course, wages are not part of CPI directly.  Rising wages are reflected in the rising prices of everything as companies both large and small find it necessary to raise prices to maintain their profitability.  Certainly, there are some companies that have more pricing power than others and so are quicker to raise prices, but in the end, rising wages result in one of two things, higher prices or lower margins, and oftentimes both.  In the broad scheme of things, neither of these outcomes is particularly positive for generating real economic growth, which is arguably the goal of all monetary policies.

Consider, to the extent rising wages force companies to raise the price of their product or service, the result is an upward bias in inflation that is independent of the price of oil or lumber or copper.  In fact, one of the key features of the past 40 years of disinflation has been the fact that labor’s share of the economic pie has fallen substantially compared to that of capital.  This has been the result of the globalization of the workforce as the addition of more than 1 billion new workers from developing nations was sufficient to keep downward pressure on wages.

Arguably, this has also been one of the key reasons corporate profit margins have risen and stock prices along with them.  Now consider what would happen if that very long-term trend was in the process of reversing.  There is a likelihood of rising prices of goods and services, otherwise known as inflation.  There is also a likelihood of a revaluation of equity prices if margins start to decline. And nothing helps margins decline like rising labor costs.

Consider, also, this is the sticky type of inflation, exactly the opposite of all the transitory claims.  This is the widely (and rightly) feared wage-price spiral.  I am not saying this is the current situation, at least not yet, but that things are falling into place that could easily result in this outcome.

Now put yourself in Chairman Powell’s shoes.  Prices have begun rising more rapidly as companies respond to rising wage pressures.  The employment situation has been improving more rapidly so there is less concern over the attainment of that part of your mandate.  But…the amount of leverage in the system is astronomical with government debt running at record high levels (Federal government at 127%) and all debt, including household and corporate at 400% of GDP.  Do you believe that the economy can withstand higher interest rates of any substance?  After all, in order to tackle inflation, real rates need to be positive.  What do you think would happen if the Fed raised rates to 6%?  And this is my point as to why the Fed has painted themselves into the proverbial corner.  They cannot possibly respond to inflation with their “tools” because the negative ramifications would be far too large to withstand.  It is also why I don’t’ believe the Fed will make any substantive policy changes despite all the tapering talk.  They simply can’t afford to.

Ok, on to the markets.  One of the notable things overnight was the flash crash in the price of gold, which tumbled $73 as the session began on a huge sell order in the futures market, although has since regained $54 and is currently down 1.1% from Friday’s close.  The other things was the release of Chinese CPI (1.0%) and PPI (9.0%), both of which printed a few ticks higher than expected.  Obviously, there is not nearly as much pass-through domestically from producer to consumer prices in China, but that tends to be a result of the fact that consumption is a much smaller share of the Chinese economy.  However, higher prices on the production side, despite the government’s efforts to stop commodity speculation and hoarding, does not bode well for the transitory story.  And while discussing EMG inflation readings, early this morning we saw Brazil (1.45% M/M) and Mexico (5.86% Y/Y) both print higher than forecast results.  Certainly, it is no surprise that both central banks are in tightening mode.

A quick peak at equity markets showed Asia performed reasonably well (Nikkei +0.3%, Hang Seng +0.4%, Shanghai +1.0%) although Europe has been struggling a bit (DAX -0.2%, CAC -0.1%, FTSE 100 -0.4%).  US futures, meanwhile, are either side of unchanged with very modest moves.

Treasury yields have given back 2 basis points from Friday’s post-NFP surge of 7.5bps, although there are many who continue to believe the short-term down trend has been ended.  European sovereigns are also rallying a bit, with Bunds (-1.3bps), OATs (-1.3bps) and Gilts (-3.5bps) leading a screen that has seen every European bond rally today.

Commodity prices are perhaps the most interesting as oil prices have fallen quite sharply (-4.0%) with WTI back to $65.50/bbl, its lowest level since late May.  This appears to be a recognition of the growth of the Delta variant and how more and more nations are responding with another wave of lockdowns and restrictions on movement, thus less travel and overall economic activity.  As such, it should be no surprise that copper (-1.5%) is lower or that the metals space as a whole is under pressure.

Interestingly, the dollar is not showing a clear trend at all today, with gainers and losers about evenly mixed and no particularly large moves.  In the G10, NOK (-0.3%) is the laggard, clearly impacted by oil’s decline, but away from that, the mix is basically +/- 0.1%, in other words, no real change.  In the emerging markets, ZAR (+0.3%) is the leader, although this appears more to be a response to its sharp weakness last week than to any specific news.  And that is the only EMG currency that moved more than 0.2%, again, demonstrating very little in the way of new information.

Data this week brings CPI amongst a bunch of lesser numbers:

Today JOLTS Jobs Openings 9.27M
Tuesday NFIB Small Biz Optimism 102.0
Nonfarm Productivity 3.2%
Unit Labor Costs 0.9%
Wednesday CPI 0.5% (5.3% Y/Y)
-ex food & energy 0.4% (4.3% Y/Y)
Thursday Initial Claims 375K
Continuing Claims 2.88M
PPI 0.6% (7.1% Y/Y)
-ex food & energy 0.5% (5.6% Y/Y)
Friday Michigan Sentiment 81.2

Source: Bloomberg

At this point, the response to the CPI data will be either of the following; a high number will be ignored (transitory remember), and a low number will be proof they are correct.  So, while we may all be suffering, the narrative will have no such problems!

There are a handful of Fed speakers this week as well, with the two most hawkish voices (Mester and George) on the calendar.  Right now, the narrative has evolved to tapering is part of the conversation and Jackson Hole will give us more clarity.  The market is pricing the first rate hike by December 2022 based on the recent commentary.  We shall see.  Until then, I don’t anticipate a great deal as many desks will be thinly staffed due to summer vacations.  Just be careful if you have a large amount to execute.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

Quite Unforeseen

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When OPEC, a group of fifteen

Producers, all gathered in Wien

Nobody assumed

The meeting was doomed

To failure, t’was quite unforeseen

Alas, for the group overall

The UAE prince had the gall

To strongly demand

Their quota expand

The Saudis, though, wouldn’t play ball

The big story this morning revolves around the failure to agree, by OPEC+, on new production quotas going forward.  While expansion of output was on the agenda as each member was keen to take advantage of the rising price of crude and its products, it seems the UAE demanded a much larger share of the increase than the Saudis wanted to give.  Ordinarily, this type of horse trading takes place in the background as OPEC likes to show its unity, but for some reason, this particular situation burst into plain sight.  Undoubtedly there are many underlying issues between Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but right now, this is the one that matters.  The result has been that oil continues to rise sharply, up another 1.75% this morning taking the gains this year to nearly 60%.  As is frequently the case in a bullish commodity market, the price curve is in steep backwardation, with the front month contracts being significantly more expensive than the outer months.  This is an indication of a lack of short-term supply, something borne out by the continued drawdown of reserves in storage.

What makes this situation so interesting is the fact that the dollar has not fallen sharply while the price of oil has risen.  Historically, rising commodity prices go hand in hand with a weaker dollar, at least versus its counterpart currencies, but that is not really the case this time.  Thus, for those nations that import oil, their local costs have increased more than proportionally as the lack of dollar weakness means it costs much more local currency to procure each barrel.  For instance, since the start of 2021, the Japanese yen has weakened 6.8% and the Swiss franc has fallen 4.1% while oil’s price has soared.  Neither of these nations produces a drop of oil, so their energy costs have climbed substantially.  In the emerging markets, TRY (-14.1%), ARS (-12.2%), PEN (-8.0%) and THB (-7.0%) are the worst performers this year, none of whom have a significant oil industry and all of whom rely on imports for the bulk of their usage.  A weaker currency and higher oil prices are very damaging to those economies.

The question at hand is whether or not this internecine spat will end soon, with some sort of compromise, or if the UAE will stand its ground under increasing pressure.  One thing to consider is that the US shale producers are not likely to come to the market’s rescue in the near term, if ever, as it appears that even at these prices, the capital flowing into the sector to increase production has not expanded, and if anything, given the green initiatives and demands to stop funding fossil fuel production, is likely to decrease.  We may be approaching a scenario where the US, which continues to pump about 11 million barrels/day, will find itself in very good stead relative to many other developed nations that import a higher percentage of their energy needs.  Arguably, this will help the dollar, which means that for some countries, things are only going to get tougher.

As an aside, there is another commodity that has been performing pretty well despite the dollar’s strength, gold.  Here, too, history has shown that a rising dollar price of gold is highly correlated with a weaker dollar on the foreign exchange markets.  But that is not the current situation, as after a very short-term drop in the wake of the FOMC meeting’s alleged hawkishness, gold has rebounded while the dollar has retained virtually all of its gains from the same meeting.  My sense is that there are larger underlying changes in market perception, one of which is that inflation expectations are becoming embedded.

Of course, that is not evident in the bond market, where Treasury yields remain in their downtrend that began in early May in the wake of the massively disappointing NFP report that month.  Since then, yields have fallen more than 20 basis points and show no sign of slowing down.  Oddly, if the market was pricing in a tapering by the Fed, I would have anticipated bond yields to rise somewhat, so this is simply another conundrum in the market right now.  

Turning to the overnight session, one might argue we are looking at a very modest risk-off session.  Equity markets have been desultory with Asia (Nikkei +0.15%, Hang Seng -0.25%, Shanghai -0.1%) not showing much activity while European bourses (DAX -0.4%, CAC -0.3%, FTSE 100 -0.15%) are a bit softer.  Arguably, the European markets have responded to much weaker than expected German data with Factory Orders falling -3.7% ad the ZEW Expectations Survey falling to 63.3, well below the expected 75.2 reading.  Questions about whether or not the global economy has peaked are starting to be asked as stimulus measures fade away.  By the way, US futures are essentially unchanged at this hour.

While today’s Treasury movement has been nil, we are seeing yields decline across Europe with Bunds (-1.5bps), OATs (1.9bps) and Gilts (-1.1bps) all seeing a bit of demand on the back of waning risk appetite.  Remember, too, that the inflation impulse in Europe remains far less substantial than that in the US.

Aside from oil (+1.75%) and gold (+0.8%), the rest of the commodity bloc is also pretty firm this morning with Copper (+1.5%) and Iron ore (+1.6%) leading the base metals higher.

Finally, in the FX market, the best way to describe things would be mixed.  The RBA met last night and was more hawkish than anticipated.  They not only indicated they were going to reduce the amount of QE purchases when the current program comes up for renewal, but they appear to be ending YCC as well, explaining that they would not be supporting the November 2024 bonds when they become the 3-year maturity.  Not surprisingly, we saw AUD (+0.6%) rally, which dragged NZD (+0.8%) up even more as traders speculate the RBNZ is going to raise rates as well.  Away from that, though, the bulk of the G10 bloc was softer led by NOK (-0.55%), which given oil’s continued rise makes little sense.  At this point, I will chalk it up to trading technicals as I see no strong rationale.  As to the rest of the bloc, modest declines are the name of the game.

Emerging markets have also seen similar mixed price action with ZAR (+0.25%) the leading gainer on the back of gold’s strength while HUF (-0.65%) is the laggard as the market awaits comments from the central bank regarding its green policy ideas.  The next weakest currency in this bloc is PHP (-0.5%) as the central bank confirmed it would not be reducing stimulus until it had further confidence the economy there would be picking up.

On the data front, there are only a few releases due although we do see the FOMC Minutes tomorrow.

TodayISM Services63.5
WednesdayJOLTs Job Applications9313K
 FOMC Minutes 
ThursdayInitial Claims350K
 Continuing Claims3325K

Source: Bloomberg

Aside from this limited information, we hear from just one Fed speaker tomorrow.  Perhaps the market will have the opportunity to make up its own mind about where things are going to go.

At this point, the Fed narrative remains that inflation is transitory and that they will continue to support the economy going forward.  However, there is a group of FOMC members who clearly believe that it is time to cut back on QE.  That will be the major discussion for the next several months, to taper or not, and if so, how quickly it will occur.  My view continues to be that the core of the Fed is not nearly prepared to taper QE purchases as they know that the ongoing expansion of Federal debt will require the Fed to remain an active part of the market lest things get more concerning for bond traders.

As to the dollar, it remains in its trading range having reached the top of that range last week.  I would not be surprised to see a bit of dollar weakness overall, if for no other reason than the dollar is likely to slip back toward the middle of its range.

Good luck and stay safe

Adf

Was It Ever?

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The BOJ asked
Is QE still effective?
Or…was it ever?

One of the constants in financial markets since 2012 has been the BOJ’s massive intervention in Japanese markets.  They were the first major central bank to utilize QE, although they call it QQE (Quantitative and Qualitative Easing – not sure what quality it brings) and have now reached a point where the BOJ owns more than 51% of the JGB market.  In fact, given their buy and hold strategy removes those bonds from trading, the liquidity in the JGB market has suffered greatly.  Remember, too, that JGB issuance is greater than 230% of the Japanese GDP, which means the BOJ’s balance sheet is larger than the Japanese economy, currently sitting at ~$6.74 Trillion or 133.2%.

But they don’t only purchase JGB’s, they are also actively buying equity ETF’s in Japan, and by using their infinite printing press have now become the largest single shareholder in the country with holdings of ~$435 Billion, or roughly 7.5% of all the equities outstanding in the country.  And you thought the Fed was pursuing an activist monetary policy!

The thing is, it is not hard to describe all these efforts as utter failures in achieving their aims.  Those aims were to support growth and push inflation up to 2.0%.  (As an aside, it is remarkable how 2.0% has become the ‘magic’ number for the right amount of inflation in central banking circles.  Thank you Donald Brash.)  However, a quick look at the history of inflation in Japan since Kuroda-san’s appointment to Governor of the BOJ in March 2013, and the latest surge in activist monetary policy, shows that the average inflation rate during his tenure as been 0.73%.  Inflation peaked in May 2014, in the wake of the GST hike (a tax rise on consumption) at 3.7%, and spent 12 months above the 2.0% level as that impact was felt, but then the baseline was permanently higher and inflation quickly fell back below 1.0%, never to consider another rise to that level.

Looking at growth, the picture is similar, with the average Q/Q GDP growth during Kuroda-san’s tenure just 0.1%.  It is abundantly clear that central bankers are no Einsteins, as they seem constantly surprised that the same strategies they have been using for years do not produce new results.  Perhaps you must be insane to become a central banker.

What makes this relevant today is that last night, it was learned that BOJ policymakers are considering some changes to their policies.   It’s current policy of YCC has short-term rates at -0.1% and a target for 10-year yields of 0.00% +/- 0.20% leeway.  They also currently purchase ¥12 Trillion ($115 Billion) of equity ETF’s per year.  However, their new plans indicate that they are going to change the mix of JGB purchases, extending the tenor and cutting back purchases of short-term bonds, while also allowing more flexibility in the movement of 10-year yields, with hints it could widen that band from the current 40bps to as much as 60bps.  While that may not seem like a lot, given the minimal adjustments that have been made to these policies over the past 8 years, any movement at all is a lot.

And the market took heed quickly, with JPY (-0.5%) falling to its weakest point vs. the dollar since mid-November.  Technically, USDJPY has broken through some key resistance levels and the prospects are for further USD appreciation, at least in the short run.

In China, the PBOC
Is worried that bubbles will key
More problems ahead
And to punters’ dread
Have drained out more liquidity

China is the other noteworthy story this morning, where the central bank has aggressively drained liquidity from the market as they remain extremely wary of inflating bubbles.  Overnight funding costs rose 29bps last night, to their highest level since March 2015.  Not surprisingly, Chinese equity markets suffered with Shanghai (-0.6%) and the Hang Seng (-0.95%) both unable to follow yesterday’s US rally.  (The Nikkei (-1.9%) also suffered as concerns were raised that the BOJ, in their revamp of policy, may choose to buy less equities.)  What is so interesting about this action is that if you ask any Western central banker about bubbles you get two general responses; first, they cannot tell when a bubble exists; and second, anyway, even if they could, it is not their job to deflate them.  Yet, the PBOC is very clear that not only can they spot a bubble, but they will address it.

I think it is fair to say that given the recent activity in certain stocks like GameStop and AMC, the US market is really exhibiting bubble-like tendencies.  Rampant speculation by individual investors is always a sign of a bubble.  We saw that in 1999-2000 during the Tech bubble, when people quit their day jobs to become stock traders and we saw that in the housing bubble of 2007-8, when people quit their day jobs to speculate in real estate and flip houses.   It also seems pretty clear that the combination of current monetary and fiscal policies has resulted in equity markets being the final repository of that cash.  Having lived, and traded, through the previous two bubbles, I can affirm the current situation exhibits all the same hallmarks, with one exception, the fact that central banks are explicitly targeting asset purchases.  However, this situation cannot extend forever, and at least one part of the financial framework will falter. When that starts, price action will become extremely volatile, similar to what we saw last March, but for a longer period of time, and market liquidity, which has already suffered, will get even worse.  All this points to the idea that hedging financial risk remains critical.  Do not be dissuaded by some volatility, because I assure you, it can get worse.

Anyway, a quick tour of markets shows some real confusion today.  Equities, which we saw fell sharply in Asia, are falling across Europe as well (DAX -0.8%), CAC (-0.9%), FTSE 100 (-1.0%) despite the fact that preliminary GDP data from the continent indicated growth in Q4 was merely flat, not negative. US futures are all pointing lower as well, between 0.5% and 0.9%.

Bonds, however, are all being sold as well, with Treasury yields rising 2.6bps, and European market seeing even greater rate rises (Bunds +3.3bps, OATs +3.3bps, Gilts +3.9bps).  So, investors are selling both stocks and bonds.  What are they buying?

Commodities are in favor this morning, with oil (+0.5%) and the ags rising, but precious metals are in even greater favor (Gold +1.1%, Silver +3.25%).  And finally, the dollar, is under broad pressure, with only the yen really underperforming today.  NOK (+0.9%) is leading the way in the G10, while the rest of the bloc, though higher, is less enthusiastic with gains ranging from 0.1%-0.3%.  Emerging market currencies are having a much better day, led by ZAR (+1.3%) on the back of the commodity rally, followed by TRY (+0.85%) and MXN (+0.45%).  CNY (+0.25%) has rallied on the back of the Chinese monetary actions and BRL (-0.1%) is the only laggard in the bloc as bets on rate hikes, that had been implemented earlier in the week, seem to be getting unwound.

There is important data this morning as well, led by Personal Income (exp 0.1%) and Personal Spending (-0.4%), but also Core PCE (1.3%), Chicago PMI (58.5) and Michigan Sentiment (79.3).  The PCE data has the best chance of being the most interesting, as a higher than expected print will get tongues wagging once more regarding the reflation trade and higher bond yields.

But, when looking at the markets in their totality, there is no specific theme.  Risk is neither on, nor off, but looks more confused.  If I had to describe things, I would say that fiat linked items are under pressure while real items are in demand.  Alas, given current monetary policy globally, I fear that is the future in a nutshell.  As to the dollar, relative to other currencies, clearly, today it is under the gun, but arguably, it is really just consolidating its recent modest gains.

Good luck, good weekend and stay safe
Adf

The Dollar’s Fate (In the Coming Year)

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With apologies to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the dollar’s fate in the coming year
In the wake of a time that’s ne’er been seen
Since the Spanish Flu of Nineteen Eighteen
Perhaps Twenty-One will bring joy, not fear

Recapping Twenty shows that despite
A plague of biblical magnitude
The printing press revealed its might
As governments everywhere, debt, accrued
And flooded the markets with cash untold
(The better their citizens be controlled)
But all of that money was used, not for,
Increased production of goods onshore
Instead, for the purchase of stocks galore

Thus, equity markets at home rose higher
With Asia, too, on proverbial fire
Though Europe lagged, as the ECB
Was late to the party with more QE
Risk was embraced with a multiplier
Government bonds, though falling of late
Had seen yields tumble, year-to date
And lastly, the dollar, is now descending
As traders await this trend extending

Looking ahead, what can we expect?
Has Covid passed? Will ‘normal’ return?
Or are there surprises we’ve yet to learn?
Will stocks continue their flights of fancy?
Will bonds, inflation, at last detect?
Will dollars, everyone, start to spurn?
Will gold and bitcoin still seem chancy?

Regarding the virus, it’s not dead yet
Though hope springs eternal, and at last
The vaccines imply the worst has passed
But life, as we knew it, has been reset
Working from home (or living at work)
Is mainstream now, and not just a quirk
Office demand will certainly slide
And travel for business will lessen worldwide
Normal has changed, for boss and for clerk

Let us now speak of growth and inflation
Will growth improve on last year’s “success”?
Or will it instead fall flat and regress
Lockdown renewals bode ill for salvation
Policymakers constantly flail
As policy efforts constantly fail
Stimulus, fiscal, continues to flow
Interest rates are now forevermore low
Central banks tell us that this combination
Is perfect to counter a fearful stagnation
But in their efforts, good times to hail
The rising of prices will bypass their gaze
Leading to many more difficult days
GDP this year will struggle to One
Inflation, however, at Four, will not stun

How, then, will markets respond to this fate?
Equity prices at first will inflate
By spring, though, ‘twill be clear something’s amiss
Traders, their holdings, will start to truncate
While we shall not tumble into the abyss
Do not be shocked if the market does fall
Some twenty percent, at the least, is my call
What about bonds? How will they react?
Powell will ne’er let their prices contract
Yield Curve Control is the future we’ll see
Alongside the horror of pure MMT
Hence, ten-year bonds when December arrives
Will keep up their value, a cat with nine lives
One percent will be the height they attain
Implying the real yield most certainly dives
And so, the dollar will suffer great pain

Starting in Europe where Madame Lagarde
Is trying to keep up with Fed Chairman Jay
Sadly, what’s clear, at the end of the day
The ECB’s structure will make it too hard
While Fed and the Treasury work hand in hand
Pushing more money throughout all the land
Treaties in Europe have outcomes, unplanned
PEPP’s not enough for a rebound unscarred

Even though growth throughout Europe will sag
Even though prices will still be a drag
Nothing Lagarde can create will impact
The outcome, a euro that’s sure to move higher
Thus, if it’s something you need to acquire
At year-end, One-Thirty, you’ll need, that’s a fact

Tumultuous best describes last year’s UK
Twixt Covid and Brexit, the nation felt pain
Unhappily, this year, to Johnson’s dismay
Could worsen for every old bloke on the street
With growth in the toilet while prices show heat
It doesn’t seem much like Pound Sterling could gain

But real rates keep diving throughout the US
Offsetting those troubles, so if you need quid
Come Christmas, One-Fifty, if I had to guess
Is what they will cost as the dollar’s declined
Looking elsewhere, perhaps north of the border
Canada still seems a bit out of order
Oil’s rebounded but still seems confined
Meanwhile, housing there is quite well bid

However, again, it is Fed Chairman Jay
Who’s promised support for considerable time
Thus, when we get to our next Boxing Day
One-Fifteen for Loonies you’ll see on your screen
Eastward now, let’s turn our gaze as we glean
Whether the yen can continue its climb
Long-term, the dollar, its trend has been clear
Even before the debasement of late
Several percent, like a clock every year
Why would this year, something new, demonstrate?

Frankly, it won’t, as the Fed’s in control
Rather, the yen, will continue to roll
So, Winter Solstice this year will reveal
Dollar-Yen, Ninety-Six, where you can deal
Let us turn now to both future and past
Bitcoin and gold, which have both been amassed
Can both their prices continue to rise?
Certainly, as they’ve restricted supplies

For centuries, gold has defined what’s secure
Its glitter unblemished while paper’s debased
So, don’t be surprised if the relic’s embraced
As buyers pay Three Grand their wealth to insure
But youth has ideas which to many seem odd
And bitcoin is one such that’s been called a fraud
So, is it? Or is Bitcoin digital gold?
An updated version important to hold
As fiat debasement continues apace
This digital token gains further allure
And this year it seems Bitcoin’s making its case
As something that everyone needs to procure

It’s starting this year right around thirty grand
And hodlers believe that ‘tween here and the sky
Unless countries call for Bitcoin to be banned
A doubling or tripling’s the gain they’ll apply
One last thing I’ll highlight in digital space

The DCEP is now leading the race
This digital yuan, the first CBDC
Is coming soon courtesy of Mr Xi
It’s impact initially is quite unclear
But I guarantee that inside of a year
Nations worldwide will each roll out their own
And each will define a DC trading zone

While last year was filled with surprises galore
This year we’re likely to see many more
And finally, thank you, my readers and friends
For listening to all the twists and the bends
Now looking ahead to Twenty Twenty-One
Let’s all keep perspective and try to have fun.

Good luck, stay safe and have a wonderful new year
Adf

DCEP = Digital Currency / Electronic Payment
CBDC = Central Bank Digital Coin

Waiting for Jay

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Investors are waiting for Jay
Their fears, about rates, to allay
They want it made clear
That rates will be here
From now ‘til we reach judgement day

From the market’s perspective, the world has essentially stopped spinning, at least until we finally hear the words of wisdom due from Chairman Powell beginning at 9:10 this morning.  Trading volumes across products are currently running at 50%-70% of recent average activity, highlighting just how little is ongoing.  And remember, too, as it is the last week of August, summer holidays are in full swing with most trading desks, on both the buy and sell sides, more lightly staffed than usual.  In other words, liquidity is clearly impaired right now, although by 10:00 this morning I expect that things will be back closer to normal.

As discussed yesterday, the working assumption of most analysts and investors is that Jay is going to explain the benefits of targeting average inflation over time.  The implication being that the Fed’s new policy framework, when officially announced later this year, is going to include that as a KPI.  Of course, the big question about this policy is the average over exactly which period.

Consider, it has been 102 months since then-Chairman Bernanke established the target for core PCE at 2.0%.  During that time, core PCE has been between 1.9% and 2.1% just 12 times with 89 of the other 90 readings below 1.9% and a single print above 2.1%, which happens to have been the first print after the announcement.  Meanwhile, this past April’s reading of 0.931% is the lowest reading.  The average of the two extremes is 1.53%.  Is the Fed going to be happy if core PCE jumps to 2.47% and stays there for a while?  The average of all periods since January 2012 is 1.633%, does that mean we can expect the Fed to target 2.367% core PCE readings for the next eight plus years? The point is, without some specificity on what average inflation means, it is very difficult to understand how to incorporate the idea into investment and trading decisions.

But what if Chairman Powell does not bring clarity to the discussion, merely saying that average inflation over time seems like a good future benchmark.  How might different markets react to such a lack of specificity?

Starting with equity markets, certainly those in the US will rally because…well that’s all they do these days.  Good news, bad news, no news, none of that matters.  The rationale will be stocks are a good inflation hedge if inflation goes higher (they’re not) or stocks will benefit from ongoing low interest rates if inflation remains below target.  Parabolic markets are frightening, but there is no indication that Powell’s comments are going to change that situation.  We need a different catalyst here.

Now let’s look at the bond market and what might happen there.  Specificity on how much higher the Fed is going to target inflation is going to be a pretty distinct negative.  If you own 10-year Treasuries that are yielding 0.68% (today -1bp), and the Fed explains that they are going to push inflation above 2.0%, there is going to be a pretty spectacular decline in the price of your bond should they achieve their goal.  Will investors be willing to hold paper through that type of decline?  It would not be a surprise to see a pretty sharp sell-off in Treasuries on that type of news.  Remember, too, that Treasury yields have backed up nearly 20 basis points in the past three weeks, perhaps in anticipation of today’s comments.  If Powell delivers, there is likely far more room to run.  If he doesn’t, and there is no clarity, bond investors will be back to reading the economic tea leaves, which continues to be remarkably difficult at this time.

How about the gold market?  Well, here I think the case is quite straight forward.  Clarity as to the Fed’s efforts to drive inflation higher will result in anticipation of lower real yields, and that will be an unalloyed benefit (pun intended).  A lack of clarity and gold will likely continue to consolidate its recent gains.

And finally, what about the dollar?  How will it respond to the Chairman’s speech?  Consider that despite the dollar’s recent rebound, short dollar positions remain at near record levels against both the euro and the DXY futures.  The market scuttlebutt is that the hedge fund community, which was instrumental in the dollar’s recent modest strength as they pared short dollar positions, is ready and raring to buy euros on the idea that higher US inflation will lead to a weaker dollar à la economic theory.  Certainly, if Treasuries sell off, the dollar will see some downward pressure, but one of the things that does not get as much press in the FX market is the equity market impact.  Namely, as long as US equity indices continue to set records, international investors are going to continue to buy them, which will underpin the dollar.

But what if the speech is a dud?  If there is no clarity forthcoming, then the dollar story will revert to its recent past. The bear case continues to be that the Fed’s largesse will dwarf all other nations’ policy easing and so the dollar should resume its decline.  The bull case is that the US economy, at least by recent data, appears to continue to be outperforming its major counterparts, and thus inward investment flows will continue.  That current account deficit is only a problem if international investors don’t want to fund it, and with US equity markets amongst the best performing asset classes globally, that funding is easy to find.  I know I’m not a technician, but recent price action certainly appears to have created a top at the highs from last week, and a further pullback toward 1.1650 seems quite viable.

It is difficult to draw many conclusions from today’s market activity, which is why I have largely ignored it.  Equity markets are leaning a bit lower, although the movement is not large, less than 1%, and the dollar is mixed against both the G10 and EMG blocs.

Arguably, the biggest market risk is that Powell doesn’t tip his hand at all, and that we are no wiser at 10:10 than we are now.  If that is the case, I think the dollar’s consolidation will continue, and by the end of the day, I imagine stock prices will have recouped their early losses.

But for today, it is all about Jay.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

Prices Bespeak

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It seems that the rate of inflation
Is rising across our great nation
Demand remains weak
But prices bespeak
The need for some new Fed mentation

Does inflation still matter to markets? That is the question at hand given yesterday’s much higher than expected, although still quite low, US CPI readings and various market responses to the data. To recap, CPI rose 0.6% in July taking the annual change to 1.0%. The core rate, ex food & energy, also rose 0.6% in July, which led to an annual gain of 1.6%. For good order’s sake, it is important to understand that those monthly gains were the largest in quite a while. For the headline number, the last 0.6% print was in June 2009. For the core number, the last 0.6% print was in January 1991!

The rationale for inflation’s importance is twofold. First, and foremost, the Fed (and in fact, every central bank) is charged with maintaining stable prices as a key part of their mandate. As such, monetary policy is directly responsive to inflation readings and designed to achieve those targets. Second, economic theory tells us that the value of all assets over time is directly impacted by the change in the price level. This concept is based on the idea that investors and asset holders want to maintain the real value of their savings (and wealth) over time so that when they need to draw on those savings, they can maintain their desired level of consumption in the future.

Of course, the Fed has made a big deal about the fact that inflation remains far too low and one of the stated reasons for ZIRP and QE is to help push the inflation rate back up to their 2.0% target. Remember, too, that target is symmetric, which means that they expect inflation to print higher than their target as well as lower, and word is, come the September meeting, they are going to formalize the idea of achieving an average of 2.0% inflation over time. The implication here is that they are going to be willing to let the inflation rate run above 2.0% in order to make up for the last decade when their preferred measure, core PCE, only touched 2.0% in 11 of the 103 months since they established the target.

Looking at the theory, what we all learned in Economics 101 was that higher inflation led to higher nominal interest rates, higher gold prices and a weaker currency. The equity question was far less clear as there are studies showing equities are a good place to be and others showing just the opposite. A quick look at the market response to yesterday’s CPI data shows that yields behaved as expected, with 10-year Treasuries seeing yields climb 3.5 basis points. Gold, on the other hand, had a more mixed performance, rallying 1.0% in the first hours after the release, but ultimately falling 1.0% on the day. And finally, the dollar also behaved as theory would dictate, falling modestly in the wake of the release, probably about 0.25% on average.

So yesterday, the theory held up quite well, with markets moving in the “proper” direction after the news came out. But a quick look at the longer-term relationship between inflation and markets tells a bit of a different story. The correlation between US CPI and EURUSD has been 0.01% over the past ten years. In the same timeframe, gold’s correlation to CPI has actually been slightly negative, -0.05%, while Treasury yields have shown the only consistent relationship with the proper sign, but still just +0.2%.

What this data highlights are not so much that inflation impacts market prices, but that we should only care about inflation, from a market perspective at least, because the Fed (and other central banks) have made it part of their mantra. Thus, the answer to the question, does inflation still matter is that only insofar as the Fed continues to care about it. And what we have gleaned from the Fed over the past five months, since the onset of the covid pandemic, is that inflation is way down their list of priorities right now. In other words, look for higher inflation readings going forward with virtually no signal from the Fed that they will respond. At least, not until it gets much higher. If you were wondering how we could get back to the 1970’s situation of stagflation, we are clearly setting the table for just such an outcome.

But on to markets today. Risk is under a bit of pressure this morning as equity markets in Asia and Europe were broadly lower, the only exception being the Nikkei (+1.8%) which saw a large tech sector rally drive the entire index higher. Europe, on the other hand, is a sea of red although only the FTSE 100 in London is down appreciably, -1.1%. And at this hour, US futures are essentially flat.

Bond markets are less conclusive today. Treasury yields are lower by 1 basis point at this hour, although that is well off the earlier session price highs, but European government bond markets are actually falling today, with yields edging higher, despite the soft equity market performance. As to gold, it is currently higher by 1.0%, which simply takes it back to the level seen at the time of yesterday’s CPI release.

Turning to the dollar, it is definitely softer as in the G10, only NZD (-0.3%), which seems to be responding to the sudden recurrence of Covid-19 cases in the country, is weaker than the greenback. But NOK (+0.6%) with oil continuing to edge higher, leads the pack, followed closely by the euro and pound, both of which are firmer by 0.5% this morning. Perhaps French Unemployment data, which showed an unemployment rate of just 7.1% instead of the 8.3% forecast, is driving the bullishness. But arguably, we are simply watching the continuation of the dollar’s recent trend lower.

In the emerging markets, the CE4 are all solidly higher as they track the euro’s movement with a bit more beta. But the rest of the space has seen almost no movement with those currency markets that are open showing movement on the order of +/- 10 basis points. In other words, there is no real story here to tell.

On the data front, we get the weekly Initial Claims (exp 1.1M) and Continuing Claims (15.8M) data at 8:30, but that is really all there is. We continue to hear from some Fed speakers, with today bringing Bostic and Brainard, but based on what we have heard from other FOMC members recently, there is nothing new we will learn. Essentially, the Fed continues to proselytize for more fiscal support and blame all the economy’s problems on Covid-19, holding themselves not merely harmless for the current situation, but patting themselves on the back for all they have done.

With this in mind, it is hard to get excited about too much activity today, and perhaps the best bet is the dollar will continue to drift lower for now. While the dollar weakening trend remains intact, it certainly has lost a lot of its momentum.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

 

Deep-Sixed

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This morning the UK released
Fresh data that showed growth decreased
By quite an extent
(Some twenty percent)
Last quarter. Boy, Covid’s a beast!

But really the market’s transfixed
By gold, where opinions are mixed
It fell yesterday
An awfully long way
With shorts praying it’s been deep-sixed

Two stories are vying for financial market headline supremacy this morning; the remarkable collapse in gold (and silver) prices, and the remarkable collapse in the UK economy in Q2. And arguably, they are sending out opposite messages.

Starting with the gold price, yesterday saw the yellow metal fall nearly 6%, which translated into $114/oz decline. On a percentage basis, silver actually fell far further, -14.7%, although for now let’s simply focus on gold. The question is, what prompted such a dramatic decline? Arguably, gold’s rally has been based on two key supports, the increasingly larger negative real yield in US interest rate markets and an underlying concern over the impact of massive monetary stimulus by the Fed and other central banks undermining all fiat currencies. These issues drove a speculative frenzy where gold ETF’s were trading above NAV and demand for physical metal was increasing faster than production.

Looking at the real yield story, last Thursday saw the nadir, at least so far, in that metric, with real10-year Treasury yields falling to -1.08%. However, as risk appetite recovered a bit, nominal yields rebounded by 10bps, and real yields did the same, now showing at ‘just’ -0.99%. At this point, it is important to remember that markets move at the margin, so even though real yields remain highly negative, the modest rebound changed the tone of the trade and encouraged a bout of profit-taking in gold. Simultaneously, we saw a much more positive risk environment, especially after Germany’s ZEW survey showed much better than forecast Expectations, pumping up European equity markets and US ones as well. This simply added to the rationale to take profits on what had been a very sharp, short-term increase in the precious metals markets. As these things are wont to do, the selling begat more selling and bingo, a major correction resulted.

Is this the end of the gold story? I sincerely doubt it, as the underlying drivers are likely to continue their original trend. If anything, what we continue to see from central banks around the world is additional stimulus driving ever lower nominal and real yields. We saw this last night in New Zealand, where the RBNZ increased their QE program and openly discussed NIRP, pushing kiwi (-0.5%) lower. But in this context, the important issue is that, yet another G10 central bank is leaning closer to negative nominal yields, which will simply drive real yields even lower. Simultaneously, additional QE is exactly the issue driving concern over the ultimate value of fiat currencies, so both key factors in gold’s rise are clearly still relevant and growing today. Not surprisingly, gold’s price has rebounded about 1.0% this morning, although it did fall an additional 2.5% early in the Asian session.

As to the other story, wow is all you can say. Q2 GDP fell 20.4% in the UK, more than double the US decline and the worst G10 result by far. Social distancing is a particularly damaging policy for the UK economy because of the huge proportion of services activity that relies on personal contact. But the UK government’s relatively slow response to the outbreak clearly did not help the economy there, and the situation on the ground indicates that there are still several pockets of rampant infection. One thing working in the UK’s favor, and thus the pound’s as well, is that despite the depths of the Q2 data, recent activity reports on things like IP and capital formation have actually been better than expected. The point is, this data, while shocking, is old news, as is evidenced by the fact that the pound is unchanged on the day while the FTSE 100 is higher by more than 1% as I type.

So, what are the mixed messages? Well, the collapse in gold prices on the back of rising yields would ordinarily be an indication of a stronger than expected economic result, as increased activity led to more credit demand and higher yields. But the UK GDP result is just the opposite, a dramatic decline that has put even more pressure on both PM Johnson’s government as well as the BOE to increase fiscal and monetary stimulus, thus driving yields lower and debasing the currency even further. So which story will ultimately dominate? That, of course, is the $64 trillion question, but for now, my money is on weaker growth, lower yields and a gold rebound.

Not dissimilar to the mixed messages of those two stories, today’s session has seen a series of mixed outcomes. For instance, equity markets are showing no consistency with both gainers (Nikkei +0.4%, Hang Seng +1.4%) and losers (Shanghai -0.6%) in Asia with similar mixed action in Europe (CAC +0.4%, DAX 0.0%, Stockholm -0.5%). Not to worry, US futures are pointing higher across the board by roughly 0.75%.

Bond markets, however, are pretty consistent, with 10-year yields higher in virtually every market (New Zealand excepted), as Treasuries rise 2.5bps, UK gilts a similar amount and German bunds a bit more than 3bps. In fact, Treasury yields, now at 0.67%, are 17bps higher in the past 6 sessions, the largest move we have seen since May. But again, I see no evidence that the big picture stories have changed nor any reason for US yields, at least in the front end, to rebound any further. One can never get overly excited by a single day’s movement, especially in as volatile an environment as we currently sit.

Finally, the dollar, too, is having a mixed session, with kiwi the leading decliner, but weakness also seen in JPY (-0.45%) and AUD (-0.25%). Meanwhile, the ongoing rally in oil prices continues to support NOK (+0.55%), with SEK (+0.45%) rising on the back of firmer than expected CPI data this morning. (As an aside, the idea that we are in a massively deflationary environment is becoming harder and harder to accept given that virtually every nation’s inflation data has been printing at much higher than expected levels.)

EMG currencies, keeping with the theme of the day, are also mixed, with TRY (-1.3%) the worst in the world as investors and locals continue to flee the currency and the country amid disastrous monetary policy activity. IDR (-0.55%) is offered as Covid cases continue to rise and despite the central bank’s efforts to contain its weakness, and surprisingly, RUB (-0.25%) is softer despite oil’s rally. On the plus side, the gains are quite modest, but CZK (+0.3%) and ZAR (+0.3%) lead the way with the former simply adding to yesterday’s gains while the rand seemed to benefit from a positive economic survey result.

This morning brings US CPI (exp 0.7%, 1.1% ex food & energy) on an annual basis, but as Chairman Powell and his minions have made clear, inflation is not even a top ten concern these days. However, if we see a higher than expected print, it is entirely realistic to see Treasury yields back up further.

Overall, the dollar remains under modest pressure, but one has to wonder if yesterday’s gold price action is a precursor to a correction here as well. Remember, positioning is extremely short the dollar, so any indication that the Fed will be forced to address inflation could well be a signal for position reductions, and hence a dollar rebound.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

 

Faded Away

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It started when Trump hinted that
The capital gains tax was at
A rate much too high
And cuts were close by
His words, thus, a rally begat

Then Germany joined in the fray
As data from their ZEW survey
Exploded much higher
Now stocks are on fire
While havens have faded away

It used to be that you could determine the nature of a nation’s government by their response time to major events. So, autocratic nations were able to respond extremely quickly to negative events because a single man (and it was always a man) made the decisions and those who didn’t follow orders found themselves removed from the situation. Conscientious objection was not a viable alternative. Meanwhile, democratically elected governments always took more time to react because the inherent nature of democratic debate was slow and messy, with everyone needing to make their case, and then a majority formed to move forward.

This broad view of government decision-making was generally true for as long as economies were based on the production of real goods and services. However, that economic model has been essentially retired and replaced by the new concept of financialization. This is the process by which private actors recognize there is more value to be obtained (and with less risk!) if they spend their time and effort re-engineering their balance sheet rather than investing in their underlying business.

The upshot of the financialization of economies is that government response times to crises have been shortened remarkably. (It is important to understand that in this context, central banks, despite their “independence”, are part of the government). So, now even democratically elected governments can respond with alacrity to ongoing crises. This begs the question of whether democratically elected governments have become more autocratic (lockdowns anyone?), or whether this is simply the natural evolution of the democratic process when combined with media tools like Facebook and Twitter, where responses can be formulated and disseminated in minutes.

At any rate, the key observation is that government officials everywhere have taken the combination of financialization and high-speed response quite seriously, and we now get policies floated and implemented in a fraction of the time it used to take. The main reason this can be done is because policies that address financial questions are much easier to implement than policies that address production bottlenecks. After all, it is a lot easier for the Fed to decide to buy Fallen Angels than it is for 535 people, many of whom hate each other, to agree on a package of policies that might help support small businesses and shop owners.

This has been a build-up to help understand the key theme today: risk is back!! Or perhaps, the proper statement is risk-on is back. Last evening, President Trump floated the idea that a capital gains tax cut was just the remedy to help the US economy get back on its feet. But the reality is that the only thing a capital gains tax cut will accomplish is to help boost the stock market further. After all, the S&P 500, after yesterday’s modest 0.3% rally, is still 1.0% below its all-time high. Such lagging performance cannot be tolerated apparently, hence the genesis of this idea. But it was enough to achieve its goal, a further boost in equity markets worldwide.

A quick look at markets overnight shows the Nikkei (+1.9%) and Hang Seng (+2.1%) followed the bullish sentiment, although surprisingly, Shanghai (-1.1%) could not hold onto early gains. Even with that decline, the Shanghai Composite is up more than 5% in the past two weeks, hardly a true laggard. Meanwhile, Europe has really taken the bit in its teeth and is flying this morning, getting a good start from the Asian movement and then responding extremely positively to the German ZEW survey results where the Expectations component printed at 71.5, its highest level since December 2003. So, despite the growth in Covid cases in Germany, the business community is looking forward to robust times in the near future. This was all equity traders and investors needed to see to get going and virtually every European bourse is higher by more than 2.2% this morning. Of course, it would not be a successful outcome if US markets didn’t rise as well, and futures this morning are all green, pointing to between 0.5% (NASDAQ) and 1.0% (DJIA) gains on the opening.

Naturally, the risk on environment has resulted in Treasury bond sales. After all, there is no need to own something as pedantic as a bond when not only are stocks available, but the tax rate on your gains is going to be reduced! And so, 10-year Treasury yields have risen 3bps this morning, and are back at 0.60%, 10bps higher than the new lows seen just one week ago today. And that price behavior is common amongst all European government bond markets, with German bund yields higher by 3.3bps and UK gilts nearly 4bps higher.

But the biggest victim of this move has clearly been gold, which has tumbled 2% this morning and is back below $2000/oz for the first time in a week. There is no question that precious metals markets have been getting a bit frothy, so this pullback is likely simple profit taking and not a change in any trend.

Finally, as we turn to the dollar, the risk-on attitude is playing out in its traditional fashion this morning, with the buck falling against 9 of its G10 counterparts with only the yen weaker versus the dollar. NOK (+0.8%) is the big gainer, rallying on the back of the ongoing rally in oil prices (WTI +2.5%), but we are seeing solid gains of roughly 0.4% across most of the rest of the bloc. The one laggard, aside form JPY (-0.14%), is the pound where the UK released employment data today that simply demonstrated how difficult things are there. This seems to have held the pound back as it is only higher by 0.2% this morning.

In the EMG space, RUB and ZAR (both +0.8%) are the leaders with the former clearly an oil beneficiary, while the latter, despite gold’s decline, has been the beneficiary of the hunt for yield as South Africa continues to have amongst the highest real yields in the world. But pretty much the whole bloc is in the green today as the simple concept of risk-on is the driver.

On the data front, the NFIB Small Business Index disappointed at 98.8, a clear indication that a capital gains tax cut does not seem to be the best solution for the economy. At 8:30 we get PPI (exp -0.7% Y/Y, +0.1% Y/Y core) but not only is this data backwards looking, the Fed has basically told us they don’t care about inflation at all anymore. We also hear from two Fed speakers, Barkin and Daly, but again, there is very little new that is likely to come from their comments.

Today is a risk-on day and after a brief consolidation, the dollar feels like it has further room to decline. Versus the euro, I imagine a test of 1.20 is coming soon, but it is not clear to me how much further we can go from there. As such, for receivables hedgers, adding a little to the mix at current levels is likely to be a good strategy.

Good luck and stay safe
Adf

Hardly a Sign

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The thing that I don’t understand
Is why people think it’s not planned
The dollar’s decline
Is hardly a sign
The FOMC’s lost command

Based on the breathless commentary over the weekend and this morning, one would have thought that the dollar is in freefall.  It’s not!  Yes, the dollar has been sliding for the past two months, but that is a blink of an eye compared to the fact that it has been trending higher since its nadir a bit more than twelve years ago.  In fact, if one uses the euro as a proxy, which many people do, at its current level, 1.1725 as I type, the single currency remains below the average rate over its entire life since January 1999.  The point is, the current situation is hardly unprecedented nor even significant historically, it is simply a time when the dollar is weakening.

It is, however, instructive to consider what is happening that has the punditry in such a tizzy.  Arguably, the key reason the dollar has been declining lately is because real US interest rates have been falling more rapidly than real rates elsewhere.  After all, the Eurozone has had negative nominal rates since 2014.  10-year German bunds went negative in May 2019 and have remained there ever since.  Given that inflation has been positive, albeit weak, there real rates have been negative for years so the world is quite familiar with negative rates in Europe.  The US story, however, is quite different.  While nominal rates have not yet crossed the rubicon, real rates have moved from positive to negative quite recently and done so rapidly.  So, what we are really witnessing is the FX market responding to this relative change in rates, at least for the most part.  Undoubtedly, there are dollar sellers who are bearish because of their concerns over the macro growth story in the US, the second wave of Covid infections in the South and West and because of the growth in US debt issuance.  But history has shown that the most enduring impacts on a currency’s value are driven by relative interest rates and their movement.  And that is what we are seeing, US rates are falling relative to others and so the dollar is falling alongside them.

In other words, the current price action is quite normal in the broad scheme of things, and not worthy of the delirium it seems to be inspiring.  As I mentioned Friday, this is also what is driving the precious metals complex, which has seen further strength this morning (XAU +$40 or 2.1%, XAG +$1.50 or 6.7%).  And it must be noted that gold is now at a new, all-time nominal high of $1943/oz.  But since we are focusing on the concept of real valuation, while the price is higher than we saw in 2011 on a nominal basis, when adjusted for inflation it still lags pretty substantially, by about 18%, and both current and 2011 levels are significantly below gold’s inflation adjusted price seen in 1980 right after the second oil crisis.

However, the fact that the current reporting of the situation appears somewhat overhyped does not mean that the dollar cannot fall further.  And in fact, I expect that to be the case for as long as the Fed continues to add liquidity, in any form, to the economy.  Markets move at the margin, and the current marginal change is the decline in US real interest rates, hence the dollar is likely to continue to fall if US rates do as well.

The current dollar weakness begs the question about overall risk attitude.  So, a quick look around equity markets globally today shows a mixed picture at best, certainly not a strong view in either direction.  For instance, last night saw the Nikkei edge lower by 0.2% (after having been closed since Wednesday) and the Hang Seng (-0.4%) also slide.  But Shanghai (+0.25%) managed to eke out small gains.  In Europe, the DAX (+0.3%) is pushing ahead after the IFO figures bounced back much further than expected, although the CAC and FTSE 100 (-0.2% each) have both suffered slightly.  A special mention needs to be made for Spain’s IBEX (-1.3%) as the sharp increase in Covid infections seen in Catalonia has resulted in several European nations, notably the UK and Sweden, reimposing a 14-day quarantine period on people returning from Spain on holiday.  Naturally, the result is holidays that had been booked are being quickly canceled.  As to US futures, they are currently in the green, with the NASDAQ up 1.0%, although the others are far less enthusiastic.

Bond markets continue to show declining yields, with Treasuries down another basis point plus and now yielding 0.57%.  Bunds, too, are seeing demand, with yields there down 3 bps, although both Spanish and Italian debt are being sold off with yields edging higher.  In other words, the bond market is not pointing to a risk-on session.

Finally, the dollar is weak across the board, against both G10 and EMG currencies.  In the latter bloc, ZAR is the leader, up 1.3% on the back of the huge rally in precious metals, but we are also seeing the CE4 currencies all keeping pace with the euro, which is higher by 0.6% this morning.  As a group, those four currencies are higher by about 0.65%.  Asian currencies also performed well, but not quite to the standards of the European set, but it is hard to find a currency that declined overnight.  In G10 space, the SEK is the leader, rising 1.0%, cementing its role as the highest beta G10 currency.  But we cannot forget about the yen, which has rallied 0.75% so far this morning, and is now back to its lowest level since the Covid spike, and before that, prices not seen since last August.  A longer-term look at the yen shows that 105 has generally been very strong support with only the extraordinary events of this past March driving it below that level for the first time in four years.  Keep on the lookout for a move toward those Covid inspired lows of 102, although much further seems hard to believe at this point.

On the data front, this week’s highlight is undoubtedly the FOMC meeting on Wednesday, but there is plenty to see.

Today Durable Goods 7.0%
  -ex Transport 3.6%
Tuesday Case Shiller Home Prices 4.10%
  Consumer Confidence 94.4
Wednesday FOMC Rate Decision 0.0% – 0.25%
Thursday GDP Q2 -35.0%
  Personal Consumption -34.5%
  Initial Claims 1.445M
  Continuing Claims 16.3M
Friday Personal Income -0.5%
  Personal Spending 5.4%
  Core PCE 0.2% (1.0% Y/Y)
  Chicago PMI 43.9
  Michigan Sentiment 72.8

Source: Bloomberg

Of course, the GDP data on Thursday will be eye opening, as a print anywhere near forecasts will be the largest quarterly decline in history.  However, that is backward looking.  Of more importance, after the Fed of course, will be the Initial Claims data, which last week stopped trending lower.  Another tick higher there and the V-shaped recovery narrative is likely to be mortally wounded.  As to the Fed, while we will discuss it at length later this week, it seems unlikely they will do or say anything that is going to change the current market sentiment.  And that sentiment continues to be to sell dollars.

Good luck and stay safe

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