Euro Having Harder Time Against Both Dollar and Sterling

The University of Michigan consumer confidence for the month of May unexpectedly set the tone for last week’s trading session WS. The overall indicator fell more than expected, from 63.5 to 57.7, the lowest level since last July. However, markets focused on the prospective inflation expectations component of the report. 1-year inflation expectations fell less than hoped from 4.6% to 4.5%, while long-term (5-10 year) expectations rose from 3% to 3.2% (versus 2.9% consensus), the highest level since March 2011! Similar signs were provided by the NY Fed’s latest survey of consumer expectations (inflation expectations for 3 and 5 years rose by 0.1 percentage points) and in Europe by the ECB survey of consumer expectations.

Median expectations for 1-year and 3-year inflation EMU rose from 4.6% to 5% and from 2.4% to 2.9%, respectively. U.S. Treasuries slipped after the Michigan survey and underperformed German bunds. U.S. yields rose more than 9 basis points in the 2- to 7-year range of the curve, while longer maturities gained 5 to 8 basis points. The 2-year US yield closed just below the psychological 4% mark.

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US Debt Theater: Final Act?

Risk sentiment remains poor as the US couldn’t reached an agreement on its debt ceiling.

But House Speaker McCarthy hinted that an agreement is possible within days. Despite both sides being far apart, everyone knows the catastrophic consequences of an eventual US default, and no one is ready to push the US into that black hole.
Yesterday, both equities and bonds were sold off on US debt ceiling impasse, while the US dollar index remained capped at two-week highs.

On the data front, U.S. retail sales released yesterday were weaker than expected. Although the monthly numbers showed a rebound after two months of negative results, it was less than expected, and the annual numbers showed that sales growth unexpectedly slowed, falling to a disappointing 1.6% from 2.4% the previous month and well below the 4.20% forecast by analysts. Core retail sales excluding gas and autos rose more than expected, while industrial production posted a larger increase in April. However, the latest data is unlikely to persuade Fed officials to change their view that the Fed’s next move should be a pause in tightening rather than another hike.

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EUR/USD Trying to Extend Bottoming Out

U.S. Treasuries and German bunds parted ways Friday after a combined 10 basis point rise the day before. U.S. yields still rose between 1.3and 4.8 basis points, with the belly underperforming. They easily overcame a setback in the early hours of U.S. trading when Fed Chairman Powell said credit stress could limit the need for new rate hikes. That threw a spotlight on a growing split in the FOMC. Several other Fed governors last week were far less convinced by the idea of such a pause. This also contrasts with the ECB chairman, who on Sunday called for more rate hikes: “We are not done, we are not taking a pause, based on the information I have today.” German interest rates entered the weekend down 0.5to 2.9 basis points. The chart data presented too much of a challenge for the 10-year bond (resistance 2.5%). This was also true for equities.

The S&P500 tested the February high – before the SVB collapse – but could not overcome it. European stocks closed in the green nonetheless, with the EuroStoxx50 making an attempt to reach the important resistance at 4415. This is the post-pandemic recovery and multi-year high from November 2021. The dollar took a breather after its earlier rise. EUR/USD recovered from a low of 1.076 to 1.0805. The DXY (trade-weighted dollar) eased from the highest level since mid-March (103.58) to 103.2. Sterling consolidated near the highest level since December last year. EUR/GBP settled in the upper range of 0.86.

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RBNZ Monetary Policy Statement May 2023

The RBNZ tightened by 25 points to 5.5 percent and expressed confidence that this will be sufficient to bring inflation back to target. We continue to see risks that the large migration surge will ultimately require more action after July.

RBNZ Monetary Policy Statement, May 2023

The RBNZ increased the OCR as expected to 5.5 percent.

However, the big surprise was in the forward profile, in which the RBNZ strongly suggests that it is on hold from here until at least mid-2024. We see some upside risks to the RBNZ’s view, but for now see the RBNZ on hold in July, with some potential of a 25 point rise in the OCR in August.

Migration pressures are acknowledged, but the RBNZ takes a sanguine view on their impact on capacity pressures. The RBNZ’s net migration estimates are higher and imply a net 75,000 net inflow in the year to December. This is only slightly lower than Westpac’s equivalent forecast of a net 83,000 inflow (on a working-age population basis). Despite the upgrade, the RBNZ’s view is that this adds significantly to supply as well as demand. Migration is seen as having some supportive impact on house prices but by not as much as we have taken in our recent Economic Overview.

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US PCE Deflators and Durable Goods Orders Scheduled

UK bonds crashed for a second day straight with yields adding 10.6-19.2 bps across the curve. UK money markets discount an additional 100 bps tightening by December following the big upside CPI surprise Wednesday morning. Sterling initially revisited YtD highs but unable to force a break higher, technical return action kicked in. EUR/GBP eventually closed narrowly above 0.87. Bonds in the US and Germany slid as well with huge underperformance of the former. US yields ripped between 0.9 (30-y) and 15.6 (2-y) bps higher. Second-tier but above-consensus data including weekly jobless claims spurred the move with recessionary along with financial stability concerns easing. Markets even fully priced in a July rate hike. Optimism about US negotiators reaching a debt ceiling deal also helped sentiment. A two-year suspension in return for spending cuts is on the table. German yields followed from a distance. Changes varied from +3.7 to 6.2 bps with the belly underperforming the wings and the 10-y yield testing the 2.53% resistance area. ECB’s Nagel, Knot and Villeroy hit the wires on a hawkish note. The US dollar performed strongly, even as Wall Street posted gains up to 1.7% (Nasdaq, Nvidia-sparked rally). EUR/USD closed around important support of 1.0727. The trade-weighted index took a look beyond 104.089 resistance to close at 104.25 – the highest since mid-March. USD/JPY ventured north of 140 for the first time since November last year.

The Asian session this morning is a quiet one. Aside from Tokyo CPI (see below) there’s little news. Speaker of the House McCarthy vowed to continue working until a debt ceiling deal is reached. We wouldn’t be surprised if they’d strike one during the weekend. In the run-up, we still have US PCE deflators and durable goods orders scheduled for release today. The former are the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge and seen accelerating from 4.2% to 4.3% on a 0.3% m/m pace for the headline. Core PCE should come in at an unchanged 4.6% (0.3% m/m). An outcome in line with expectations probably is enough to sustain the current bond yield trend, be it on a less blistering pace. The technical charts offer help as well with the US 2-y and 10-y yield surpassing 4.50% and 3.80% levels respectively. A weekly close above that level would be a major plus. This also goes for the DXY dollar closing above 104.089 level and EUR/USD sub 1.0727. Both levels are being tested as we write. UK April retail sales this morning surprised to the upside, with the core gauge double the 0.4% that was expected. It comes with a downward revision of the March figure though. EUR/GBP in a first reaction barely budges. The 0.87 big figure for the time being survives.

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One Step Closer to Debt Ceiling Deal – And a Fed Hike

The holiday shortened trading week starts tense but on an optimistic note as US President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy finally reached an agreement to raise the debt ceiling. The deal must get approval in a congressional vote on Wednesday.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the Treasury will be running out of money in about a week, by June 5th.

Presently, it feels like investors are confident that the US debt ceiling will be raised. The kneejerk reaction to a debt ceiling deal will be positive but gains could remain short-lived as most of the deal is already priced in, and the end of the det ceiling crisis means that the US treasury will issue $1 trillion debt to service its existing debt, pay its bills and start refilling the Treasury’s General Account, which fell to below $50billion last week, whereas the balance should be normally around $500bn. This means that the US Treasury will be sucking around half a trillion dollars from the market very shortly. We don’t know at what speed at which the market liquidity will drain, but we know that it will drain.

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US and Taiwan Set to Sign the First Deal Under a New Trade Talks Framework

Core bonds enjoyed another solid bid yesterday, further unwinding ‘hawkish sentiment’ that reigned since mid-May. Chinese inspired risk-off and softer than expected national CPI data from Germany (HICP 6.3% Y/Y from 7.6%) and France (6.0% from 6.9M%) supported the move. Italian inflation (8.1% from 8.7%, but 7.5% expected) didn’t suffice for bond investors to change tactics.

That said, German/European yields already reached intra-day lows early in the session, settling in a sideways pattern later. In the end, German yields lost between 3.8 bps (30-y) and 7.8 bps (5-y). US yields joined the broad bond market rebound, but the intraday pattern was a bit more choppy. Eco data were mixed with an awful Chicago PMI (40.4 from 48.6) and an unexpected rise in US April job openings (10 103k vs 9400k expected).

While seen as important input for the Fed, JOLTS didn’t stop the decline in yields. Fed speak was at least partially to blame. Fed’s Harker and Jefferson both supported the idea of a Fed pause/skip in the rate hike cycle to assess incoming data before deciding about the extent of further policy firming. Market expectations on a June Fed hike dropped below 50%. US yields declined between 5.2 bps (5-y) and 2.9 bps (30-y).

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XAU/USD bears approach $1,930 support on upbeat US Dollar

Gold Price (XAU/USD) stays on the bear’s radar for the second consecutive day as the precious metal renews intraday low near $1,945, extending the post-NFP losses amid to early Monday amid firmer US Dollar and the Treasury bond yields.
That said, the US Dollar Index (DXY) prints mild gains around 104.12 as it keeps the previous day’s recovery from a one-week low amid Monday’s sluggish Asian session. In doing so, the greenback’s gauge versus the six major currencies cheers the market’s fears of higher Federal Reserve (Fed) rates and the US-China tension, not to forget the fresh war headlines surrounding Russia and Ukraine.

Apart from that, an increase in the odds supporting June’s 0.25% Fed rate hike and a reduction in the market’s bets of a Fed rate cut in 2023 also seem to favor the US Dollar and yields, which in turn exerts downside pressure on the Gold price amid a sluggish start to the week. It’s worth noting that Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls (NFP) surprised markets with a strong outcome and renewed hawkish concerns about the US central bank. That said, the US-China tension about Taiwan joins the headlines suggesting a heavy battle between Russia and Ukraine also weighs on the sentiment and allows the DXY to remain firmer, which in turn favors the Gold sellers.

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Weak Chinese Trade Data Add to Growth Worries

German Bunds outperformed US Treasuries during European trading hours following an unexpectedly strong decrease of inflation expectations in the ECB’s April Consumer Expectations Survey. The divergence between the two became even larger as US Treasuries started underperforming (especially at the front end the curve) during the US session. The move started after the US Treasury announced plans to boost the size of its coming bills sales: $60bn for the 4-week tenor (+$25bn), $50bn for the 8-week tenor (+$35bn) and $46bn for the 17-week auction (+$2bn).

Since the debt ceiling has been raised, the US Treasury is rapidly trying to replenish its depleted general account with the Fed which shrank to its lowest level since 2017. In coming weeks/months, sizes at the longer tenors will be upped as well with the bigger question being whether this will drain more liquidity in times of Fed rate hikes and QT or whether it will just trigger a shift in investor allocation from one cash instrument to the other. Daily changes on the US curve ranged between +1.3 bps (2-yr) and -4.2 bps (30-yr). Minutes before the market close, US Treasuries managed to erase a large part of the intraday losses in a strange, inexplicable, short squeeze. German yields closed the session up to 4 bps lower at the front end and broadly stable at the very long end. Loss of interest rate support at the front end pulled EUR/USD back below 1.07 to close at 1.0693.
                           
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USD/CAD at Risk on Hawkish BoC but Fed May Be a Spoiler

The Canadian dollar has appreciated sharply against the U.S. dollar since late May. The chart below shows how USD/CAD has fallen more than 2.0% over the past two weeks, with the pair now trading near C$1.3350 and steadily approaching its 2023 lows.

Bank of Canada’s surprising decision to raise interest rates at its June meeting after pausing its hiking campaign in January has reinforced recent FX dynamics, acting as another positive driver for the Loonie.

BoC’s aggressive stance could continue to put downward pressure on USD/CAD in the near term, especially if traders boost bets on further tightening in response to the central bank’s view that “monetary policy is not sufficiently restrictive” to bring inflation down to the 2.0% target.
                                                                                                                                                               
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Dollar surges after Fed signals more rate hikes ahead

The U.S. dollar rallied in early European trade Thursday, boosted by the Federal Reserve’s hawkish projection of more tightening this year, while the euro weakened ahead of the latest European Central Bank policy meeting.

At 02:05 ET (06:05 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded 0.3% higher to 102.835, recovering from the previous session’s four-week low.

The U.S. currency bounced after recent losses following the conclusion of the latest policy-setting meeting of the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, with the central bank deciding to pause its year-long policy tightening cycle, as widely expected.

However, the Fed also signaled in new economic projections that rates will likely rise by another half of a percentage point, i.e. two more hikes of 25 basis points, by the end of this year.

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US Dollar holds steady to start week, eyes on central bank speak

The US Dollar (USD) holds steady early Monday after having suffered large losses against its major rivals last week. Stock and bond markets in the US will be closed in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. The European economic docket will not be featuring any high-impact data releases and market participants will pay close attention to comments from central bank officials.

The US Dollar Index (DXY) fell more than 1% and closed the third straight week in negative territory before going into a consolidation phase above 102.00 in the European session. The benchmark 10-year US Treasury bond yield fluctuated wildly following the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) monetary policy announcements but ended the week little changed below 3.8%.

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang reportedly had “candid and constructive talks” on their differences from Taiwan to trade. Sides are said to have agreed on little beyond keeping the conversation going with an eventual meeting in Washington, reported Reuters.

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