China rate cuts remain short of expectations, focus on Jackson Hole, BRICS

The week starts with weak appetite as Chinese banks cut loan rates less than expected; the 1-year LPR was cut by 10bp to a record low versus 15bp cut expected by analysts, while the 5-year LPR was left unchanged despite pressure from Beijing. Chinese banks’ decision to keep the 5-year rate steady is confusing for investors, in the middle of a property crisis. The Hang Seng index sank further into bear market, and the global risk sentiment is less than ideal as healthy economic data from the US, and darker clouds over China cast shadow on both stock and bond markets.  

The US 10-year yield approached the highest levels since 2007, as the US 30-year yield hit the highest levels advanced towards levels last seen in 2011. The rising yields weigh on major stock indices. The S&P500 closed last week around 2% lower, and Nasdaq 100 lost 2.6% last week. Interestingly, the S&P500 has been down by around 3% since the beginning of this earnings season – while the earnings season was not that bad. Nearly 80% of the companies announced better-than-expected results and Refinitiv highlighted that the Q2 of 2023 had the highest rate of companies beating expectations since Q3 2021, and the earnings expectations rebounded to the highest levels since last October, when the major US indices bottomed out. This picture simply means that the fear of a further Fed tightening, prospects of higher interest rates, combined to the set of bad news from China simply didn’t let investors enjoy the better-than-expected earnings.  

Jackson Hole and BRICS 

This week, investors will have their eyes and ears on Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole speech due Friday. The chances are that he will keep his hawkish stance despite falling inflation. The minutes from the latest FOMC meeting highlighted ‘significant upside risks’ on inflation. This being said, the fear of decidedly hawkish Fed is already priced in, and if there is no more hawkish surprise from this week’s Jackson Hole meeting, tensions among investors could ease by next week, and give markets some breathing room. 

Elsewhere, BRICS summit will take place this week between 22nd and 24rd of August. What’s interesting with this summit is 1. A month ago, South Africa said that 40 more nations wanted to join BRICS, and 23 of them formally applied to become members including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and UAE. 2. They would like to drop US dollar and eventually start using member-state currencies to settle their trade terms between them, and 3. There are rumours that the BRICS countries could even issue a gold-based currency to replace the US dollar, as many nations are willing to free themselves from the risks of holding and using US dollars. Note that the rumours of a gold-based BRICS currency didn’t necessarily boost appetite in gold lately. The price of an ounce is, on the contrary, mainly driven by US yields. The rising US yields weigh on gold appetite by increasing the opportunity cost of holding the non-interest-bearing gold. The yellow metal slipped below its 200-DMA last week for the first time since December. A downside correction in the US yields could slow the selloff and encourage a minor positive correction but given the Fed’s undoubtful hawkish stance on its rate policy, gold bulls may need BRICS to say something about their currency plans. But I am afraid the latter might not be on the agenda of this week’s summit.