January

Happily digesting By Ipek Ozkardeskaya, Senior Analyst | Swissquote Bank   Yesterday was about digesting Tuesday's softer-than-expected US CPI data, feeling relieved that the US Senate passed a stopgap spending bill to avert a government shutdown and welcoming a softer-than-expected producer price inflation, and a softer-than-expected decline in US retail sales – which came to support the idea that, yes, the US economy is probably slowing but it is slowing slowly, while inflation is easing at a satisfactory pace.   The sweet mix of the recent economic data backs the idea that the Federal Reserve (Fed) could achieve what they call a 'soft landing' following an aggressive monetary policy tightening – and more importantly stop hiking the interest rates.   At this point, investors are 100% sure that the Fed won't hike rates in December. They are 100% sure that the Fed won't hike rates in January. There is more than a quarter of a chance for a rate cut to be announced by March. And the pricing suggests that there is a higher chance for a rate cut in the Fed's May meeting, than not.   Conclusion: investors threw the Fed's 'higher for longer' mantra out of the window this week.   BUT this is certainly as good as it gets in terms of Fed optimism. If the markets go faster than the music, the Fed must calm down the game by a tough talk, and if needed, by more action. The Fed's Mary Daly expressed her concerns about the Fed's credibility if it declared victory over inflation prematurely. And credibility is the most important tool that a central bank has. When the credibility is broken, there is nothing to break.    

European stocks on course for their best month since January. By Michael Hewson (Chief Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK)   European markets look to be on course for their best month since January after the gains of the last few weeks, on the growing anticipation that central banks are not only done on the rate hike front, but that we could start to rate cuts as soon as the early part of 2024.   The shift to bullish from bearish sentiment has also been reflected in the performance of US markets with the S&P500 also on course to post its best monthly performance since July 2022, with US 10-year yields on course for their biggest monthly decline since March.   The Nasdaq 100 has led the way with that index pushing above its July peak and above 16,000, as well as hitting its highest level since January 2022, driven mostly by the so co-called "Magnificent 7" stocks.     While central bankers will do reluctant to countenance the idea of rate cuts in the next 6 to 12 months given it cuts against the "higher for longer" narrative they are so keen to push, the hawkish messaging jars slightly against a backdrop of a deteriorating economic outlook, particularly in Europe.   This messaging is expected to get a further airing this week when we have a host of central bankers set to jawbone the latest narrative about future policy pronouncement. Starting today ECB President Lagarde is due to speak in Brussels, to EU lawmakers as well as tomorrow, although she won't be alone in that with Uber hawk, German Bundesbank President Nagel set to speak in Cyprus earlier in the day.   It is no secret that a number of ECB policymakers continue to push the narrative that rates could go higher, only last week Belgian ECB member Pierre Wunsch argued that rates may have to rise again given that markets were starting to price in cuts next year. His Spanish counterpart Hernandez de Cos was also keen to rule out the likelihood of rate cuts, however the market simply isn't buying into the narrative, given how quickly inflationary pressure is slowing across Europe, alongside the continued deterioration in the latest economic numbers. Tomorrow, we have a host of Fed speakers due to speak on the slate with Fed governors Waller and Bowman, along with the Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee, ahead of this week's latest revision to US Q3 GDP, with the resilience of these numbers speaking to the idea that any loosening of monetary policy remaining much further off than for the likes of the ECB and Bank of England.   It's also shaping up to be the worst month for the US dollar since November last year in a sign that more declines could be on the way, as markets bet that the Fed is done on the rate hike front. If this trend continues and there's little reason to suppose it won't we could see a similar trend to last year play out when it comes to the greenback. With US markets finishing higher for the 4th week in a row, in a shortened Thanksgiving session on Friday, markets in Europe look set for a lower open on the back of a softer Asia session, with attention expected to be on the upcoming OPEC+ meeting and the possibility of further output cuts which could be announced at the end of the week with oil prices anchored close to their lows of last week, and on course for their second successive monthly decline.     EUR/USD – currently finding resistance at the 1.0960 area, with the August peaks at 1.1060/70. We need to hold above the 1.0840 area to signal the prospect of further gains. We also have support at the 200-day SMA at 1.0810.   GBP/USD – having broken above the 1.2450 area and 200-day SMA we could well see an extension towards the 1.2720 area, which is 61.8% retracement of the 1.3140/1.2035 down move. Upside momentum remains intact while above 1.2450.   EUR/GBP – appears to be breaking down have slipped below 0.8720 last week we could see further weakness towards the 0.8620 area.   USD/JPY – seen a significant rebound from the lows last week at 147.15, with the current strength capped by the 150.00 area, with a break of 150.20 potentially retargeting the main resistance at the 151.95 area.   FTSE100 is expected to open 19 points lower at 7,469   DAX is expected to open 36 points lower at 15,993   CAC40 is expected to open 20 points lower at 7,272  

FX Daily: A dollar rally to start the New Year The dollar jumped yesterday as investors started to return from the long Christmas break. Markets are unwinding some dovish bets, and questioning stretched equity valuations, ultimately favouring defensive bets in FX. The dollar also tends to seasonally outperform at the start of the year. Today, the focus moves back to data, as well as the FOMC minutes.   USD: Dollar seasonally strong in January and February Defensive bets dominated in global markets as investors returned from the long Christmas break. This was particularly evident in the FX market, as the dollar corrected sharply higher yesterday to the detriment of European currencies. The tendency of dollar selling and European FX buying that emerged in December was triggered by the dovish pivot at the December FOMC, but seasonal factors also played a role. The dollar tends to underperform at the end of the year, likely due to some tax-related flows from US corporations: DXY weakened in December in each of the past seven years. While the seasonality factor isn’t as strong, January tends to be a good month for the dollar, with DXY having risen on average 0.4% in the past 20 years. February has shown a stronger positive seasonality pattern, with DXY having appreciated in each of the past seven years. The dollar strength in the early part of the year is often associated with the December tax flows by US corporates being reverted, and while expectations of a firmer dollar at the start of the year (which we agree with) could have exacerbated yesterday’s USD buying, the key factor remains Federal Reserve dovish bets against the backdrop of stretched equity valuations after a strong year for US stocks, in particular in the tech sector. We have observed some tentative unwinding of dovish bets as trading resumed: interestingly, the Fed Funds futures curve no longer fully prices in a March cut (21bp at the moment). As trading volumes pick back up this week, US calendar events will also offer direction to investors. Today, the Fed releases the minutes of the December FOMC, which should shed some light on the reasoning behind the dovish revision of the Dot Plot. Given the strong dovish reception by the market after the December Fed announcement, there is a risk of the minutes preventing further dovish bets as some conditionality (in terms of economic data developments) for easing policy emerges in the minutes. Today also sees the release of JOLTS job openings for November and the December ISM manufacturing, and consensus is positioned for a good print in both releases. We are inclined to think that the dollar can hold on to most of yesterday’s gains in the next couple of days, as data may prove benign and investors favour defensive positions ahead of Friday’s US payrolls – which are expected to print a respectable 170k. DXY may hover around the 102 gauge into the payrolls. Beyond the very short term, we still expect a further dollar decline to materialise this year as the deterioration in the economic outlook forces large Fed cuts, but the pace of USD depreciation should be more moderate in 1H24 compared to November/December 2023.  

Bank of Canada preview: Too early for a radical pivot Core inflation came in hotter than expected in December which rules out the Bank of Canada shifting meaningfully in a dovish direction at the January meeting. However, higher interest rates are biting and we continue to look for rate cuts from the second quarter onwards. US-dependent BoC rate expectations and the Canadian dollar may not move much for now.   Hot inflation warrants caution before dovish turn The Bank of Canada is widely expected to leave the target for the overnight rate at 5% when it meets next week. Policymakers continue to talk of their willingness to “raise the policy rate further if needed”, and inflation does indeed continue to run hotter than the BoC would like, but we see little prospect of any additional policy tightening from here. Instead, the next move is expected to be an interest rate cut, most probably at the April meeting. The latest BoC Business Outlook Survey reported softening demand and “less favourable business conditions” in the fourth quarter with high interest rates having “negatively impacted a majority of firms”, leading to “most firms” not planning to “add new staff”. Job growth does appear to be cooling and the Canadian economy contracted in the third quarter and is expected to post sub 1% growth for the fourth quarter. Also remember that Canadian mortgage rates will continue to ratchet higher for an increasing number of borrowers as their mortgage rates reset after their fixed period ends. This will intensify the financial pressure on households, dampening both consumer spending and inflationary pressures. Unemployment is also expected to rise given the slowdown in job creation and high immigration and population growth rates. Given this backdrop, we expect Canadian headline inflation to slow to 2.7% in the first quarter and get down to 2% in the second versus the consensus forecast of 2.6%. As such, we see scope for the BoC to cut rates by 25bp at every meeting from April onwards – 150bp of interest rate cuts versus the consensus prediction and market pricing of 100bp of policy easing.   Rate expectations in US and Canada   Fighting market doves is still hard Markets currently price in 95/100bp of easing by the Bank of Canada this year. As shown in the chart above, the pricing for rate cuts in the US and Canada has followed a very similar path. The implied timing for the first rate cut is also comparable: May for the Fed (March is 50% priced in), June for the BoC (April is 45% priced in). That is despite the communication by the Federal Reserve which has already pivoted (via Dot Plots) to the easing discussion while the BoC officially still retains a tightening bias. In practice, even if the BoC chooses – as we suspect – to delay a radical dovish pivot and stay a bit more hawkish than the Fed, pricing for the BoC will not diverge too much from that of the Fed. So, the room for a rebound in CAD short-term rates appears more tied to USD rates than BoC communication.     FX: USD/CAD to stabilise In FX, the story isn’t much different. The Canadian dollar has been a de-facto proxy for US-related sentiment, acting less and less as a traditional commodity currency – that would normally be hit by strong US data – thus outperforming the rest of high-beta G10 FX since the start of the year. The rebound in USD/CAD to 1.35 is in line with a restrengthening of the USD primarily due to risk sentiment, positioning and seasonal factors, rather than a divergence in Fed-BoC policy patterns. In fact, the USD-CAD two-year swap rate gap has widened further in favour of CAD so far in January, from 20bp to 32bp.   We expect the impact on CAD from this BoC policy meeting to be modestly positive as expectations of a radical dovish shift are scaled back. However, Governor Tiff Macklem already introduced the idea of rate cuts in a speech this month and will need to acknowledge the downward path for the policy rate to a certain extent. While waiting for the Fed meeting a week later and the crucial US CPI numbers for January, US-dependent rate expectations in Canada may not move much. USD/CAD may trace back to 1.34, but we don’t see much further downside for the pair this quarter as USD shows the last bits of strength.    

Eurozone PMIs show very tentative signs of bottoming out The eurozone economy continues to trend around 0% growth and there are no signs of any imminent recovery. Price pressures are still increasing for the service sector, which provides another argument for the ECB not to hike before June. How you read today’s PMI release for the eurozone reveals whether you’re an optimist or a pessimist. The increase from 47.6 to 47.9 in the composite PMI for January cautiously shows signs of bottoming out but also still indicates contraction. We also note that France and Germany saw declining PMIs, making the increase dependent on the smaller markets. Manufacturing price pressures remain moderate despite the Red Sea disruptions, but the service sector indicates another acceleration in input costs. To us, this shows that the eurozone economy remains in broad stagnation and that risks to inflation are not small enough to expect an ECB rate cut before June. The eurozone continues to be plagued by falling demand for goods and services, although new orders did fall at a slower pace than in recent months. Current production and activity were weaker than in recent months, though, suggesting that January started with contracting output still. The slowing pace of contracting orders does suggest that there is a bottoming out happening though. Whether this is enough to show positive GDP growth in the first quareter depends on February and March. In any case, GDP growth is so close to zero that we still qualify the current environment as broad stagnation anyway. The PMI continues to show some concern around inflation. Even though demand remains lacklustre, services cost pressures are on the rise again due to higher wage costs which are being transferred to consumers. Cost pressures on the goods side remain low despite Red Sea disruptions as energy prices trend lower and demand overall remains weak. This also means that goods inflation continues to trend down according to the survey. So, despite Red Sea problems prominently featuring in the news, inflation concerns currently stem more from services than goods, interestingly. For the ECB, enough worries about inflation not trending down to 2% quickly still remain. We think that makes a first cut before June unlikely.