Despite good ADP and ISM services data, the USD has corrected lower. With equities re-stabilising, the risks remain of further USD pullbacks after a rally that has exceeded what rate differentials can justify. Today, we see the BoE on hold despite mounting speculation of a pre-Budget cut. Norges Bank is likely to hold too, with low risks of guidance tweaks
Hopes for a swift resolution to the Russia-Ukraine conflict have proven vain. Discussions between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy yielded no breakthrough, with market expectations for a 2025 ceasefire dropping from around 40% to below 25%.
The release of the July FOMC minutes failed to move the needle on the dollar story. What is interesting is the continued strong performance of Chinese assets, with the benchmark CSI 300 equity index up 5.9% this month in dollar terms and the PBoC's USD/CNY fixing at its lowest since last November. Investor appetite for EM is typically a dollar negative
ile stocks continue to hit new highs, the worldwide sell-off in long-term government bonds is gathering pace. Rates actually rose more in nearly every G10 country than they did in the US last week, which certainly contributed to dollar weakness.
The markets do not really seem to share Donald Trump's indifference to the short-term impact of his policies on the US economy.
The major FX rates have remained relatively stable at the start of this week in contrast to the deepening sell-off in the equity markets. One of the biggest movers yesterday was the Nasdaq composite index which fell sharply by 4.0% and extended its decline since the high in December to almost 14%.
