Currencies
A surprisingly dovish outcome from this week's FOMC meeting has led to broad-based weakness in the U.S. dollar. The monetary policy divergence supporting the dollar may have peaked.
Most of the economic arguments in favor of the U.K. leaving the EU do not carry much weight, as we discuss in this collaboration between BCA's <i>Geopolitical Strategy</i> and <i>European Investment Strategy</i>. However, the probability is a coin toss - much higher than investors tend to think. We review the geopolitical and investment implications of the "Leave" and "Remain" scenarios.
The current uptrend in Treasury yields will be cut short once the dollar appreciates in response to an increasingly hawkish Fed. Maintain benchmark duration and add a long 2/10 barbell, short 5yr bullet trade to profit from Fed hawkishness.
Bearish sentiment, higher oil prices and Chinese policy stimulus leave room for a continued bounce in stock prices. But this rally is unlikely to prove sustainable.
The euro stopped weakening in March 2015, which coincided with the ECB starting its asset purchases. Since then, the ECB's incremental policies have been unable to push the euro lower. The price action speaks to the resilience of the currency and indicates that a lot of bad news has been discounted.
Cutting through the hype that will surround policy initiatives today, the ECB is caught between a rock and a hard place. We explain why, and what it means for investors.
In recent travel, our clients remain focused on downside risks to today's range-bound markets. And for good reason. Uncertainty regarding Chinese reaction function is the biggest source of political risk in today's markets. We discuss it in detail in this month's report, along with an update on our views of Brazil, Russia, and Turkey. In addition, we examine the potential casualties of the European immigration crisis and the likelihood of Donald Trump becoming the president of the United States.
Expectations of a deepening EM/China growth slump and RMB depreciation have been the key to the selloff in global risk assets. There is no basis for these expectations to improve. Therefore, there are few fundamental reasons for EM and global risk assets to rally much further. Stay put. In Brazil, the impeachment rally is unsustainable and will reverse sooner than later. Stay short Brazilian risk assets.
Over the coming two weeks, the G3 central banks will be holding key policy meetings that could prove instrumental in setting major FX trends for the next several months. What can currency traders expect?
Are the arguments for overweighting European equities still valid? If so, overweighting relative to what?