Tag Archives: #KRW

Watching With Rigor

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Though Draghi said data of late
May not have appeared all that great
We’re watching with rigor
Inflation that’s vigor-
Ously rising at a high rate

After a multi week decline, the dollar is showing further signs of stabilizing this morning. And that includes its response to yesterday’s surprising comments by ECB President Mario Draghi, who indicated that despite the ECB lowering its forecasts for growth this year and next, and that despite the fact that recent data has been falling short of expectations, he still described the underlying inflation impulse as “relatively vigorous” and reconfirmed that QE would be ending in December with rates rising next year. In fact, several of his top lieutenants, including Peter Praet and Ewald Nowotny, indicated that rates ought to rise even sooner than that. Draghi, however, has remained consistent in his views that gradual removal of the current policy accommodation is the best way forward. But as soon as the words “relatively vigorous” hit the tape, the euro jumped more than 0.5% and touched an intraday high of 1.1815, its richest point since June. The thing is, that since that time yesterday morning, it has been a one-way trip lower, with the euro ultimately rising only slightly yesterday and actually drifting lower this morning.

But away from the excitement there, the dollar has continued to consolidate Friday’s gains, and is actually edging higher on a broad basis. It should be no surprise that the pound remains beholden to the Brexit story, and in truth I am surprised it is not lower this morning after news that the Labour party would definitively not support a Brexit deal based on the current discussions. This means that PM May will need to convince everyone in her tenuous majority coalition to vote her way, assuming they actually get a deal agreed. And while one should never underestimate the ability of politicians to paint nothing as something, it does seem as though the UK is going to be leaving the EU with no exit deal in place. While the pound is only down 0.15% this morning, I continue to see a very real probability of a much sharper decline over the next few months as it becomes increasingly clear that no deal will appear.

There was one big winner overnight, though, the Korean won, which rallied 4.2% on two bits of news. Arguably the biggest positive was the word that the US and Korea had agreed a new trade deal, the first of the Trump era, which was widely hailed by both sides. But let us not forget the news that there would be a second round of talks between President Trump and Kim Jong-Un to further the denuclearization discussion. This news is also a significant positive for the won.

The trade situation remains fascinating in that while Mr Trump continues to lambaste the Chinese regarding trade, he is aggressively pursuing deals elsewhere. In fact, it seems that one of the reasons yesterday’s imposition of the newest round of tariffs on Chinese goods had so little market impact is that there is no indication that the president is seeking isolationism, but rather simply new terms of trade. For all the bluster that is included in the process, he does have a very real success to hang his hat on now that South Korea is on board. Signing a new NAFTA deal might just cause a re-evaluation of his tactics in a more positive light. We shall see. But in the end, the China situation does not appear any closer to resolution, and that will almost certainly outweigh all the other deals, especially if the final threatened round of $267 billion of goods sees tariffs. The punditry has come around to the view that this is all election posturing and that there will be active negotiations after the mid-term elections are concluded in November. Personally, I am not so sanguine about the process and see a real chance that the trade war situation will extend much longer.

If the tariffs remain in place for an extended period of time, look for inflation prints to start to pick up much faster and for the Fed to start to lean more hawkishly than they have been to date. The one thing that is clear about tariffs is that they are inflationary. With the FOMC starting their meeting this morning, all eyes will be on the statement tomorrow afternoon, and then, of course, all will be tuned in to Chairman Powell’s press conference. At this point, there seems to be a large market contingent (although not a majority) that is looking for a more dovish slant in the statement. Powell must be happy that the dollar has given back some of its recent gains, and will want to see that continue. But in the end, there is not yet any evidence that the Fed is going to slow down the tightening process. In fact, the recent rebound in oil prices will only serve to put further upward pressure on inflation, and most likely keep the doves cooped up.

With that in mind, the two data points to be released today are unlikely to have much market impact with Case-Shiller Home Prices (exp 6.2%) at 9:00am and Consumer Confidence (132.0) due at 10:00. So barring any new comments from other central bankers, I expect the dollar to remain range bound ahead of tomorrow’s FOMC action.

Good luck
Adf

 

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
Adf