Quarterly Outlook
Macro Outlook: The US rate cut cycle has begun
Peter Garnry
Chief Investment Strategist
Senior Relationship Manager
Good Morning,
Yesterday once again the SNB entered the spotlight by achieving where the Fed failed – sending global stock markets into a panic. The Swiss National Bank stated it was more worried about inflation than a strong currency. Jens Weidmann is probably looking for an apartment in Zürich.
The Nasdaq lost 4%, the S&P 500 3.2 and the Dow 2.4%, on the week the US500 is down 5.4% , the GER40 7.6% at 13170.
In the FX Market, the USD Lost value as traders seemed to focus on the fact that the Fed was lookik to lower rates while the BOE sounded fairly hawkish even though they only hiked 25BPS.
The USD Index fell from a high of 105.75 on Wednesday to a low of 103.40 only to rise back to 104.25. GBPUSD rose to 1.2280 and EURUSD to 1.0515. The Yen traded wildly from 134.60 to 131.40 and back to 134.10.
If you have a large international Stock portfolio it might be a good time to think about currency risks- either by hedging or by employing CFD whrere only the P&L is converted.
Gold and Silver gained and are trading at 1845 and 21.88 but remain stuck in the range and need to break out for a clearer picture.
According to a Reuters Report, Bridgewater Associates has placed at least $6.7 billion in bets against European stocks and several global banks raise worried aboutn an economic downturn including Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.
Todays economic agenda is fairly thin with only the EU HICP at 11 and the US Industrial Production noteworthy, is also Quadruple witching Friday and the main risk is the overall fear and comments from Central banks and economists on inflation , wroth and any possible fallouts of the sharp moved the last few days.
Trade carefully and bear in mind that swings are larger than usual, thus position sizes should be adjusted or options should be utilized as protection.