Macro: Sandcastle economics
Invest wisely in Q3 2024: Discover SaxoStrats' insights on navigating a stable yet fragile global economy.
Chief Macro Strategist
Summary: Market expectations for a more hawkish Fed are easing ahead of the FOMC meeting tomorrow. Is that due to virus concerns or some other ominous reason, like concerns that the Fed cannot achieve any major lift-off without popping asset bubbles or are there other factors that are keeping US yields suppressed? Either way, we have a conundrum on our hands and have to consider a range of scenarios.
FX Trading focus: The Fed expectations conundrum
The market pricing of Fed rate expectations next year, relative to actual developments over the last couple of weeks has been far from straightforward. The cause and effect was initially logical as Fed rate expectations were jolted higher by the 6.2% October CPI print on November 9th and then by the more hawkish turn from Powell and Brainard in their acceptance speeches just under two weeks later. But subsequent developments have failed to take us to new highs for the cycle on where the Fed Funds rate will end next year. Sure, the omicron variant news that broke on November 26 was a key contributor to derailing the trend higher in expectations, but since then we have had relatively encouraging news on the omicron front, we have had Powell out in testimony before Congress making it even more clear that a hawkish shift is coming, we have a US economy that is so hot the output gap is probably verging on negative, and we had an even higher 6.8% November CPI print just last Friday. And here we sit with expectations at lower levels then where we were at the end of the day on November 22nd, the day of the surprisingly hawkish Powell and Brainard acceptance speeches, and some 11 basis points from the cycle high. What gives?
I have strong doubts that the issue is the omicron uncertainty touted in headlines and market commentaries, but could be wrong at the margin there. There has thankfully been nothing yet in the news flow on omicron that leads me to believe that we will see sustained impact from this new variant. The current ugly covid reality on the ground in Europe has mostly to do with the delta outbreak’s aggravation from cold weather.
As I am not at all sure what the Fed will deliver tomorrow and how the market will react, I will take a couple of stabs at first, what the Fed will likely deliver and then how the market, given what is implicit in forward expectations and other factors, will react to these scenarios (further below).
Now for the more difficult bit: the market positioning and reaction function to what the Fed delivers. The conundrum going into this FOMC meeting is first, how low the market expects the Fed rate hike cycle to peak (well below 2.0%) and to how it would react, both in rate, USD and risk sentiment terms to the above scenarios. There is actually precedence for quite low Fed expectations on initiation of a rate hike cycle. Back in December 2015, when the Fed delivered its first post-GFC rate hike, the three-year forward Fed expectations were also around 2.0% for the Fed’s terminal rate. These quickly collapsed to 1% in early 2016 when Yellen was forced to bow to the risks of a very strong US dollar, and only recovered in a bigger way in the wake of the 2016 election, when the market anticipated Trump’s powerful supply-side stimulus. If the Fed delivers hawkish, we will likely have to see actual rate expectations shift to new highs for the cycle to get a strong response from the US dollar after the meeting.
The bearish interpretation for the US dollar and the economic outlook is that US 10-year yields are still stuck well below cycle highs at 1.43% and Fed “terminal rate” expectations are stuck below 2.0% because the market believes that the Fed will simply be unable to get very high with its policy rate before crushing either financial markets or the economy or both, barring new developments perhaps on the fiscal front. On the latter, a significant “fiscal cliff” is much feared next year, even if the full Build-Back-Better stimulus is passed before year-end. For any solid further demand-side pickup to develop from here, we would need to see solid consumer dis-savings and a new credit cycle engaging, theoretically possible given healthy private debt levels and a hefty savings built up during the pandemic.
A more benign interpretation is that low rates are obscuring what the Fed might do because the US market is still swimming in liquidity, even with the QE tapering already in the bag. Let’s recall that the Fed’s reverse repo facility is a kind of “stored QE” and has grown again this week, standing at $1.6 trillion as of yesterday, suggesting an ongoing significant hunger for US treasuries that may be far more about safely parking liquidity rather than anything to do with the Fed or the growth outlook. The scramble for treasuries could continue even on a hawkish Fed into year end if some of the bid for treasuries is due to the large US financial institutions (G-SIFI’s) doing all they can to shrink their balance sheets into year-end to avoid size-linked penalties. This may have been the case last year and note that long US yields exploded higher in the first week of this year.
Chart: EURUSD
EURUSD creeping back higher as Fed expectations have crept lower over the past couple of sessions The upside scenario would require the FOMC meeting to fail further jolt Fed expectations to new highs for the cycle, with or without a hawkish shift, and then the ECB is forced on Thursday to capitulate after a fashion to the risk of rising inflation and even the vaguest rhetoric points to an eventual end to NIRP. Anyone with upside bias might consider EURUSD options trades for expiry well into January if a EURUSD squeeze develops, as the calendar may be playing a role in keeping the USD elevated into year end. On the other hand, if the market is mispricing how serious the Fed is about to get and Powell and company bulldozes over market expectations with a signal that tapering can’t end soon enough and we should price perhaps four rate hikes for next year, we could see another USD surge – two-way risks abound.
Table: FX Board of G10 and CNH trend evolution and strength
a bit of a surprise to see the renminbi/yuan maintaining this altitude, given the clear official push in China against further strengthening. NOK has stumbled this week on concern that the Norges Bank is set to withdraw its long-flagged rate hike this Thursday as it wouldn’t play well as covid restrictions mount aggressively in Norway.
Table: FX Board Trend Scoreboard for individual pairs.
Have to imagine that CNH pairs could be in for a slip back to the downside, with gold/CNH an interesting one to watch as well as USDCNH. Interesting to note that the Euro is now in a positive trend versus all of the G10 smalls now that EURCAD has also flipped positive. NOK status critical this week in a number of pairs depending on whether Norges Bank hikes and on the nature of its guidance.
Upcoming Economic Calendar Highlights (all times GMT)
Disclaimer
The Saxo Bank Group entities each provide execution-only service and access to Analysis permitting a person to view and/or use content available on or via the website. This content is not intended to and does not change or expand on the execution-only service. Such access and use are at all times subject to (i) The Terms of Use; (ii) Full Disclaimer; (iii) The Risk Warning; (iv) the Rules of Engagement and (v) Notices applying to Saxo News & Research and/or its content in addition (where relevant) to the terms governing the use of hyperlinks on the website of a member of the Saxo Bank Group by which access to Saxo News & Research is gained. Such content is therefore provided as no more than information. In particular no advice is intended to be provided or to be relied on as provided nor endorsed by any Saxo Bank Group entity; nor is it to be construed as solicitation or an incentive provided to subscribe for or sell or purchase any financial instrument. All trading or investments you make must be pursuant to your own unprompted and informed self-directed decision. As such no Saxo Bank Group entity will have or be liable for any losses that you may sustain as a result of any investment decision made in reliance on information which is available on Saxo News & Research or as a result of the use of the Saxo News & Research. Orders given and trades effected are deemed intended to be given or effected for the account of the customer with the Saxo Bank Group entity operating in the jurisdiction in which the customer resides and/or with whom the customer opened and maintains his/her trading account. Saxo News & Research does not contain (and should not be construed as containing) financial, investment, tax or trading advice or advice of any sort offered, recommended or endorsed by Saxo Bank Group and should not be construed as a record of our trading prices, or as an offer, incentive or solicitation for the subscription, sale or purchase in any financial instrument. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, would be considered as a marketing communication under relevant laws.
Please read our disclaimers:
- Notification on Non-Independent Investment Research (https://www.home.saxo/legal/niird/notification)
- Full disclaimer (https://www.home.saxo/en-gb/legal/disclaimer/saxo-disclaimer)