currency analysis

FX Daily: Dollar late to the party Treasuries are hitting key levels on big US data surprises, but the dollar is not finding real support. The dollar may be mirroring some lingering reluctance to align with the dot plot’s two hikes, but market conditions point to a stronger greenback in the near term, barring a substantial downside surprise in payrolls today. Watch jobs numbers in Canada too.   USD: Surprisingly soft The large and unexpected jump to almost 500k in ADP private payroll numbers yesterday left clear marks across asset classes. Despite some recovery later in the session, US equities took a hit, and European ones closed with a nearly 3.0% loss. Treasuries are now trading around the two key benchmarks: 5.0% for the 2Y and 4.0% for the 10Y after a disastrous session for bonds. This would appear to be the perfect recipe for a substantial dollar rally, which hasn’t materialised however, and we are observing instead some dollar selling this morning. Indeed, the dollar had already moved in advance of yesterday’s release as the minutes had offered clear hawkish hints on Wednesday. Incidentally, markets still appear unconvinced to fully price in two rate hikes by the Fed despite the strong ADP (which arguably aren’t hard data, and have been misleading at times) and ISM services figures. The Fed funds curve has not shifted particularly higher, with the peak rate still seen at 36bp from here, so 14bp short of dot plot projections. In a way, the dollar might still be mirroring that lingering market pricing-dot plot gap. At the same time, the market backdrop does seem to point at dollar strength at this juncture, as we doubt this morning’s mild USD correction will have legs unless US payrolls released later today move in the direction of ADP figures and surprise on the downside. The consensus for the headline jobs number is 230k, but may be higher after the strong ADP read. Unemployment is also expected to tick lower to 3.6% and some focus will, as usual, fall on wage growth. Barring major disappointments, it should not take much to keep the Fed’s hawkish narrative going, and markets should have room to keep inching closer to the pricing in two rate hikes. The path for a more supported dollar in the near term appears to be the most obvious one, in our view, and a return above 104.00 in DXY in the coming days looks likely.

FX Daily: Dollar late to the party Treasuries are hitting key levels on big US data surprises, but the dollar is not finding real support. The dollar may be mirroring some lingering reluctance to align with the dot plot’s two hikes, but market conditions point to a stronger greenback in the near term, barring a substantial downside surprise in payrolls today. Watch jobs numbers in Canada too.   USD: Surprisingly soft The large and unexpected jump to almost 500k in ADP private payroll numbers yesterday left clear marks across asset classes. Despite some recovery later in the session, US equities took a hit, and European ones closed with a nearly 3.0% loss. Treasuries are now trading around the two key benchmarks: 5.0% for the 2Y and 4.0% for the 10Y after a disastrous session for bonds. This would appear to be the perfect recipe for a substantial dollar rally, which hasn’t materialised however, and we are observing instead some dollar selling this morning. Indeed, the dollar had already moved in advance of yesterday’s release as the minutes had offered clear hawkish hints on Wednesday. Incidentally, markets still appear unconvinced to fully price in two rate hikes by the Fed despite the strong ADP (which arguably aren’t hard data, and have been misleading at times) and ISM services figures. The Fed funds curve has not shifted particularly higher, with the peak rate still seen at 36bp from here, so 14bp short of dot plot projections. In a way, the dollar might still be mirroring that lingering market pricing-dot plot gap. At the same time, the market backdrop does seem to point at dollar strength at this juncture, as we doubt this morning’s mild USD correction will have legs unless US payrolls released later today move in the direction of ADP figures and surprise on the downside. The consensus for the headline jobs number is 230k, but may be higher after the strong ADP read. Unemployment is also expected to tick lower to 3.6% and some focus will, as usual, fall on wage growth. Barring major disappointments, it should not take much to keep the Fed’s hawkish narrative going, and markets should have room to keep inching closer to the pricing in two rate hikes. The path for a more supported dollar in the near term appears to be the most obvious one, in our view, and a return above 104.00 in DXY in the coming days looks likely.

EUR: Not worth chasing it higher for now EUR/USD was meant to be primarily a dollar story in the latter part of this week and the pair is finding some support due to the soft-ish USD momentum, despite strong US data. As highlighted above, we see a dollar comeback as likely, so we would be reluctant to chase a EUR/USD much beyond 1.0900. The current set of market conditions would suggest 1.0750/1.0800 to be a more appropriate trading range. The eurozone calendar remains uninspiring from a data standpoint but there are some ECB speakers to monitor today. President Christine Lagarde will participate in a panel although it is unclear whether she will discuss monetary policy, and we’ll also hear from Guindos, Stournaras and Nagel. In the UK, the Bank of England published a survey of corporate pricing plans yesterday, which included some encouraging news for lower inflation. Our UK economist discusses in this article how Bank of England members  – and markets – are losing confidence in these forward-looking indicators and at least two more 25bp hikes are on the cards. Still, the inflation picture should improve later this year, which means some pricing out of BoE rate expectations can come hitting the pound down the road. For now, it remains hard to see a sustained GBP downtrend.

Will Taylor Swift and Barbie help to lift UK retail sales? By Michael Hewson (Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK)   This week hasn't been a good week for the FTSE100, with 4 days of declines on top of a poor finish to the end of last week, with the index down 4% over the last 5 days, and down at 5-week lows. The performance of the DAX has been slightly better, but it is still down by 2% over the same period as concerns about the health of the Chinese economy, along with a sell-off on global bonds causes investors to question how long rates are likely to stay at these sorts of levels.   For so long the debate has been about how high interest rates would be likely to go, and has been framed around the duration period before rates start to get cut again. In the last few days, the frames of reference have started to shift from how high rates are likely to go, towards how long they are likely to stay at current levels if inflation continues to be on the sticky side. US markets continued to slip lower after Europe had closed, as the momentum from the recent technical breaks on the S&P500 and Nasdaq 100 gained momentum, both closing at 5-week lows, as US 10-year yields posted their highest daily close since 2008, with UK gilt yields already back at 2008 levels. Yesterday's weak US close looks set to translate into another weak open for markets here in Europe, putting the FTSE100 on course to post its worst run of daily losses since October last year. While we've heard plenty of alarmist headlines over the effects of global warming in the past few months, at least the weather gave UK consumers a reason to go out and spend in June, beating expectations of a gain of 0.2% by some amount, with a rise of 0.7%.     Not only did sales in supermarkets and food outlets see a decent rebound, but we also saw a strong showing from department stores and furniture outlets. Retail sales have proved to be remarkably resilient in the past few months with gains over the course of April, May, and June. The resilience in wages growth over the past few months may also have played a part in this resilience, however heading into Q3 the big question is whether this can be sustained. Recent spending data from Barclaycard showed entertainment spending rose 15.8% in July on the back of an uptick in spending for live events including Taylor Swift, as well as bookings for holidays after a warm June. We also saw the release of 4 big movie releases during July, including Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning, Barbie, and Oppenheimer. On the flip side, spending on clothing saw a decline due to the wet weather. If we see another positive month for July retail sales, could we call it a Barbie bounce? For the most part expectations aren't especially positive with an expectation that we could see a decline in July retail sales including fuel of -0.6%, which would be the first negative month since March when sales fell by -1.2%. The final reading of EU CPI for July is expected to be confirmed at 5.3%, with core prices at 5.5%.       EUR/USD – currently languishing close to the bottom of its recent range but just above the main support area at the 1.0830 area. Still feels range bound with resistance at the 1.1030 area.     GBP/USD – continues to edge higher back towards the 1.2800 area. Remains well supported above the recent lows at the 1.2600 area. A break below 1.2600 targets 1.2400. A move above the 1.2800 area through 1.2830 could see a move to target 1.3000.           EUR/GBP – slipped back to the 0.8520/30 area, which is holding for now. A move below 0.8500 could see 0.8480. Above the 100-day SMA at 0.8580 targets the 0.8720 area.     USD/JPY – continues to edge higher, towards the 147.50 area. The previous peaks this year at 145.10 should act as support.  A move below the 144.80 area, targets a move back to the 143.10 area.     FTSE100 is expected to open 25 points lower at 7,285     DAX is expected to open 50 points lower at 15,626     CAC40 is expected to open 16 points lower at 7,176  

Expect the US dollar rally to extend    The US dollar broadly weakened across the board, helping majors to take some breather. The dollar index fell back towards its 200-DMA, the EURUSD settles above the 1.09 mark this morning, while Cable bulls eye a further rise toward the 50-DMA, which stands a touch below the 1.28 level. But looking at the US dollar and the real yields, the end of last year's dollar really coincides with a peak in 10-year real yield. Both started retreating in Q3 of last year. The dollar retreated relatively faster. And now that the real yields are on the rise again, there is little reason to keep the USD on a bearish trend for the months ahead.   The dollar rally which started by mid-July should further develop, and there is significant room for further correction before we could technically call the end of the dollar's bearish trend. In numbers, the dollar index will still be in a bearish trend below the 105.40 mark. Until that level is reached, investors don't have much to lose for jumping on the back of a bull.  

New inflation methodology offers hope for BoE 1.28 could be major resistance point for GBPUSD A break of 1.26 could be bearish signal   Recent UK economic data has been a mixed bag, with wages rising at a much-accelerated rate but inflation decelerating as expected. While the Bank of England will be relieved at the latter, the former will remain a concern as wage growth even near those levels is not consistent with inflation returning sustainably to target over the medium term. The ONS released new figures overnight that appeared to suggest core inflation is not rising as fast as the CPI data suggests. The reportedly more sophisticated methodology concluded that core prices rose 6.8% last month, down from 7% the previous month and 7.3% the month before. The official reading for July was slightly higher at 6.9% but down from only 7.1% in May. So not only is the new methodology showing core inflation lower last month but the pace of decline is much faster. That will give the BoE hope that price pressures are easing and they’re expected to do so much more over the rest of the year.     GBPUSD Daily     It’s not clear whether this will prove to be a resumption of the uptrend or merely a bearish consolidation. It is currently nearing 1.28, the area around which it has previously run into resistance this month and around the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level. Another rebound off here could be viewed as another bearish signal, which may suggest we’re currently seeing a bearish consolidation, while a move above could be more promising for the pound. If the pair does rebound lower then the area just above 1.26 will be key, given this is where it has recently seen strong support. It is also where the 55/89-day simple moving average band has continued to support the price in recent months.

FX Daily: Bond bears give new energy to the dollar A very soft 30-year Treasury auction and hawkish comments by Powell triggered a rebound in US yields and the dollar yesterday. Dynamics in the rates market will remain key while awaiting market-moving US data. In the UK, growth numbers in line with expectations, while in Norway, inflation surprised to the upside. USD: Auction and Powell trigger dollar rebound The dollar chased the spike in US yields yesterday following a big tailing in the 30-year Treasury auction and hawkish comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Speaking at the IMF conference, Powell warned against reading too much into the softer inflation figures and cautioned that the inflation battle remains long, with another hike still possible. If we look at the Fed Funds future curve, it is clear that markets remain highly doubtful another hike will be delivered at all, but Powell’s remarks probably represent the culmination of a pushback against the recent dovish repricing. Remember that in last week’s FOMC announcement, the admission that financial conditions had tightened came with the caveat that the impact on the economy and inflation would have depended on how long rates would have been kept elevated. The hawkish rhetoric pushed by Powell suggests that the Fed still prefers higher Treasury yields doing the tightening rather than hiking again, and that is exactly what markets are interpreting. The soft auction for long-dated Treasuries also signals the post-NFP correction in rates may well have been overdone and could set a new floor for yields unless data point to a worsening US outlook. Today’s highlights in the US calendar are the University of Michigan surveys. Particular focus will be on the 1-year inflation gauge, which is expected to fall from 4.2% to 4.0%. On the Fed side, we’ll hear from Lorie Logan, Raphael Bostic and Mary Daly. Dynamics across the US yield curve will have a big say in whether the dollar can hold on to its new gains. Anyway, we had called for a recovery in DXY to 106.00 as the Fed would have likely pushed back against the dovish repricing. The rebound in yields should put a floor under the dollar, but we suspect some reassurances from the data side will be needed for another big jump in the greenback.

GBP: ECB vs. BoE story dominates Dovish commentary from the ECB has now seen investors pricing ECB rate cuts several months ahead of the Bank of England (BoE) next year and expectations build of a deeper easing cycle in the Eurozone than in the UK. We disagree with that pricing and think the BoE will deliver more hikes than the ECB next year. This probably means that EUR/GBP does not need to spend too much time below 0.8600. Indeed, 0.8500 represents very strong support and we remain happy with our forecasts of EUR/GBP edging up to the 0.88/0.90 area into next year. The UK data calendar is very quiet this week, with just Friday's release on inflation expectations of note. The bigger driver of EUR/GBP this week will be any ECB pushback against dovish pricing of their 2024 policy cycle.

EUR: Not easy to pick a bottom Shorting the euro appears to be one of the most popular bets in FX at the moment. Comments by hawkish hardliners like Isabel Schnabel yesterday – who suggested that another hike is now off the table and essentially moved the discussion to rate cuts – have added further pressure on the euro. We continue to point to how the current downward correction in EUR/USD is not out of line with short-term rate differentials; when taking the two-year swap rate gap (-130bp) as a driver, a further leg lower to the 1.06 area would not be an aberration. That makes us reluctant to call for the bottom in EUR/USD just yet, and even more so in EUR-crosses, especially against the likes of AUD and NZD. A catalyst for an idiosyncratic euro rebound is not in sight, at least for today, when there are no scheduled European Central Bank speakers and the eurozone’s data calendar only includes the October retail sales – hardly ever a market mover in the region. The big slump (7.3% YoY) in Germany’s factory orders for October (data released this morning) is likely to keep the negative euro narrative alive at the start of the European session. EUR/USD is now trading very close to the 1.0770 100-day MA support, and a break lower can further fuel the bearish momentum. A test of 1.0700 before the weekend is entirely possible if the dollar remains bid.