Say something hawkish, I'm giving up on you

The week started on a positive note on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Equities in both Europe and the US gained on Monday. The tech stocks continued to do the heavy lifting with Nvidia hitting another record. The positive chip vibes also marked the European trading session; the Dutch semiconductor manufacturer ASML regained its status as the third-largest listed company in Europe, surpassing Nestle, thanks to an analyst upgrade. 

Moving forward, the earnings announcements will take the center stage, with Netflix due to announce its Q4 results today after the bell. The streaming giant expects to have added millions more of new paid subscribers to its platform after it scrapped password sharing last year.  

Away from the sunny US stocks, the situation is much less exciting for China. Right now, the CSI 300 stocks trade near 5-year lows and Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong are trading with the deepest discount to the mainland peers in 15 years, as the Chinese interventions are said to be less felt in Hong Kong than in the mainland. Today, though, the Chinese stocks are better bid because Chinese Premier Li Qiang called for more effective measures to stabilize the slumping Chinese stocks, but the truth is, investors left Chinese stocks because of the ferocious government crackdown on most loved Chinese companies. Nothing less than drastic financial support would be enough to bring investors back. 

The Japanese stocks continue to be the bright spot among the Asian equity markets. The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) negative interest rates, the cheap yen and the positive outcomes of the tech war between the US and China have been pushing the Japanese Nikkei index to multi-decade highs, and these factors are not ready to reverse just yet. Today, the BoJ didn’t only announce that it would keep the interest rates unchanged at -0.10% and the upper band for the 10-yer yield steady at 1%, but the bank lowered its inflation forecasts citing the decline in oil prices. We haven’t heard the BoJ presser at the time of writing but lowering inflation forecast highlights that there is no emergency to make any changes to the BoJ policy, even less so after a powerful earthquake hit the island at the very beginning of the year. On the contrary, if inflation – which is the bad side of low rates – is under control, the bank would do better to keep the rates low and its economy supported. As such, the USDJPY remains bid above the 148 level after the BoJ decision and before the post-decision presser. The long yen trade looks much less appetizing today than it did by the end of last year. Yet going short the yen is a risky option considering the rising risk of a verbal intervention when the USDJPY approaches the 150 level. Therefore, the USDJPY will likely waver between the 145/150 range, until there is more clarity about the timing of the BoJ normalization.  

Elsewhere, the day is expected to unfold slowly. Investors will monitor the Richmond manufacturing index and await Netflix's earnings release. Additionally, attention is on Donald Trump, who has gained favoritism after Ron DeSantis withdrew his support and endorsed Mr. Trump for this year's presidential race. The potential impact of a Trump victory on financial markets is challenging to quantify; he may adopt a tougher stance on China, implement tax cuts, and increase spending, leading to mixed effects.  

For those who missed out on the meme stock frenzy, it's however intriguing to observe Trump's special-purpose acquisition company, DWAC, which surged nearly 90% yesterday.