Tag Archives: FX Trends

EM had another rocky week, but managed to end on a slightly firmer note Friday.  Market repricing of Fed tightening risk was the big driver last week, and that could carry over into this week.  There are several Fed speakers in the days ahead, capped off with Fed chief Yellen on Friday.  Several EM central banks meet this week, including Israel, Turkey, Hungary, and Colombia.  There is some risk of a dovish surprise from Turkey, while Hungary is expected to continue easing.  Colombia is...

The US dollar’s weakness in recent months, despite negative interest rates in Europe and Japan likely had many contributing factors.  These factors include shifting views of Fed policy, weaker US growth, the recovery in commodity prices, including oil, gold and iron ore, and market positioning.  A new phase began in late-April/early May.  The dramatic rally in iron prices reversed, and the Australian dollar, bottomed against the US dollar in mid-January, seemingly to anticipate the...

Speculative positioning in the currency futures began to adjust before the latest signals from the Federal Reserve about the prospects for a summer hike and the widening of interest rate differentials.  In the CFTC reporting week ending May 17, the day before the FOMC minutes were released speculators mostly reduced gross long currency positions and added to gross short positions.   There were a few exceptions.  Speculators added less than 500 contracts to the gross long euro position...

The combination of stronger US economic data and signals from the Federal Reserve that it is looking to continue the normalization process helped the dollar extended its recovery.  The dollar posted a significant technical reversal against many of the major currencies on May 3.  The Dollar Index rose for its third week, as the greenback climbed against all the major currencies but sterling (+0.9%).   Sterling was aided by some polls indicating a shift toward the Remain camp.  The...

The Philippine central bank moved to an interest rate corridor Saudi Arabia is preparing to sell its first global bond ever Transport Minister Yildirim, a close ally of President Erdogan, will become Turkey’s new Prime Minister The new Brazil cabinet continues to take shape with a market-friendly bias In the EM equity space, South Africa (+2.2%), Singapore (+1.1%), and Taiwan (+1.0%) have outperformed this week, while UAE (-3.4%), Brazil (-2.2%), and Colombia (-2.0%) have underperformed....

We felt strongly that the FOMC minutes would be more hawkish than the statement that followed the meeting, and we were not disappointed.  However, our caveat remains:  the minutes dilute the signal that emanates from the Fed’s leadership, Yellen, Fischer, and Dudley.  The latter two speak in the NY morning.  Fischer and Dudley’s comment will be scrutinized for confirmation of the hawkish read of the FOMC minutes.  Yellen speaks at Harvard at the end of next week.  Her comments at the...

My two week trip to Asia is winding down.  I had the privilege of being on CNBC in Asia earlier today and discussed the markets with Martin Soong from Singapore.   There were two segments.  The first segment (here) is about two minutes long and focuses on about Japan.  The second segment (there) is 3.5 minutes long and discusses the Federal Reserve. Previous post

The US dollar is rising against all the major currencies today.  The Australian dollar is retracing a sufficient part of its recent gains to suggest that the current phase of the US dollar’s recovery is not over. Given that the Aussie topped out a week before the other major currencies, it is reasonable that it begins recovering first.  Its recent resilience was noted, but that has evaporated today, but a 0.8% drop by early European activity.   We had noted the divergence between what...

As the second week of this Asian business trip gets underway, I am in Hong Kong.  I was on Bloomberg TV in the Asian morning to discuss market developments with Angie Lau. The 4.5 minute discussion covers a number of topics, including the outlook for Fed policy, the BOJ, dollar outlook and game theory.   Click here for the link. Previous post

The US dollar is mostly weaker today.  It appears to be consolidating the gains scored since the reversal on May 3. Sterling and the Australian dollar are leading the way early in Europe.   The Australian dollar’s gains appear more intuitively clear.  The minutes from the recent RBA meeting indicated that it was a closer decision.  This means that a follow-up rate cut next month is unlikely, which is what we have argued.  While short-term participants may be surprised today, the...