After a couple of months of stability, we look for the dollar bear trend to resume into year-end. EUR/USD should be trading up at 1.20 by that stage after three Fed rate cuts. Even though valuations look stretched in equity and credit markets, we still prefer a benign decline in the dollar and a supported environment for risk assets and activity currencies
Wednesday saw no further progress in the administration's removal of the Fed's Lisa Cook. The FX environment remains choppy, but we note the continued low fixings in USD/CNY – seemingly a move by Beijing to preserve the purchasing power of households and boost consumption. Elsewhere, healthy car sales data in Germany can provide some support to the euro
Chair Powell could have been super balanced, or even hawkish. But he effectively chose to endorse the market discount for a rate-cutting phase ahead. It's had quite the reaction. Risk assets are up, the dollar down, so's the front-end yield. Watch longer tenor yields though - the deep thinkers of the bond market, and not quite convinced cuts are all good
Yesterday, US inflation data was mixed, but the market reaction was not. Core inflation in the US posted its strongest gains this year, and the yearly figure accelerated more than expected to 3.1% in July.
Latest round of tariffs will come into effect on 5 and 9 April. Donald Trump announced the imposition of a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the United States from 5 April. For countries with which the United States has the biggest trade deficits, higher, individualised reciprocal tariffs will take effect on 9 April.
The EM market has been in standby mode with high uncertainties ahead of the US tariff announcement at 16:00 ET on 2 April. The EM market seems to have partially priced in the US tariffs, but there could be more market reactions when the details are released.
Hopes and fears surrounding US tariffs continue to keep the market on its toes. Yesterday, the hope that the next wave of US tariffs would finally be more limited and targeted, combined with a very solid US services ISM report, fuelled a rebound by US risk assets (led by US techs) and the US dollar, and pushed US bond yields higher in a pro-growth configuration.
The other main development over the weekend was the formal arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu who has been jailed on corruption charges on Sunday. The case has the potential to keep Imamoglu, who denies the charges, behind bars for years and prevent hm running from running against President Erdogan in the next election.
CoreWeave, an artificial intelligence startup backed by Nvidia, has signed a five-year contract worth $11.9 billion with OpenAI to provide cloud computing services ahead of its hotly- anticipated stock market launch, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
• Fresh tariff concerns last week gave the USD renewed support. US data, however, are dimming the near-term economic growth outlook. This combination poses headwinds for pro-growth currencies, in our view.
• A potential ceasefire in Ukraine, greater fiscal spending in Europe, and country-specific factors should continue to shape European currencies, but clarity on these drivers still remain scarce.
In stock terms the sell-off has been concentrated in the more high beta domestic cyclical sectors, such as property, infrastructure and industrials which were the big outperformers last year. This is also why GREED & fear’s India portfolio, which is heavily positioned in these sectors, outperformed the Nifty by 18.7% in US dollar terms on a total-return basis in the year to 17 December but has since underperformed by 12.1% (see Exhibit 9).
Gold started 2025 on a strong footing, following a stellar performance in 2024. Barring possible setbacks, we believe that underlying factors will continue to support gold this year.
