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UK markets scaled back Bank of England tightening bets after June CPI numbers. After four consecutive months of substantial upward surprises, they declined more than forecast. At 7.9% Y/Y for the headline reading and 6.9% Y/Y for the core gauge, the UK central bank’s jobs remains far from done though. We stick to our August 50 bps rate hike call even as UK money markets reduced the odds to 50/50. The expected policy rate peak is lowered from 6% to 5.75%. UK Gilts in a daily perspective outperformed vs German Bunds and US Treasuries. UK Gilts yields fell by 10 bps (30-yr) to 19 bps (2-yr). EU and US bonds in a Pavlov-reaction joined the Gilt rally, but eventually retraced their steps. German yields rose by 1.6 bps (2-yr) to 5.2 bps (10-yr), even undoing part of the ECB Knot triggered downleg on Tuesday (neutral comments on outcome September ECB meeting coming from a hawkish voice). From a technical point of view, the German 10-yr yield received support from the 200d moving average which earlier came to the rescue in March, May and June (2x). The uptrend line connecting April/May/June/July lows remains in place as well. US yields ended 0.2 bps (2-yr) to 5.4 bps (30-yr) lower with disappointing housing data playing a temporary role. Sterling underperformed with EUR/GBP temporarily rising towards 0.87 before closing at 0.8657. The King’s money remains in the defensive this morning. Cable fell back below 1.30 to close at 1.2940. EUR/USD closed at 1.1201 from an open at 1.1228, further establishing a topping off pattern after a test of 1.1274 resistance earlier this week. Stock markets ended mixed with the US slightly outperforming. Today’s eco calendar remains thin with US weekly jobless claims the main event. Consensus expects a stabilization around 240k. Prints in the direction of 260k can trigger another dovish market reaction. Corporate earnings can influence trading via risk sentiment. US equity futures are down following misses by Netflix and by Tesla.
News and views
Australian employment again grew at a faster than expected pace in June. The Australian economy added a net 32.6k jobs, down from a 76.5k gain in May, but more than the 15k rise expected. The rise was entirely due to full time job growth. Part-time jobs declined modestly (-6.7k). The unemployment rate stays at 3.5%, near the all-time low (3.4%) reached in October last year. The number of unemployed people declined 11k. The Australian bureau of statistics assessed that “The rise in employment in June saw the employment-to-population ratio remain at a record high 64.5%, reflecting a tight labour market in which employment has recently increased in line with population growth. In addition to there being over a million more employed people than before the pandemic, a much higher share of the population is employed. In June 2023, 64.5% of people 15 years or older were employed, an increase of 2.1 percentage points since March 2020.” Tight labour market conditions continue to put pressure on the Reserve bank of Australia to further raise its policy rate at the Aug 1 policy meeting, after pausing at 4.1% early July. The Australian 2-y yield jumped 11.9 bps to 3.98% after a decline in line with global market developments of late. The Aussie dollar gained from the AUD/USD 0.6770 area before the data release to currently trade near 0.683.
The People’s Bank of China set its daily fixing for USD/CNY much stronger than expected. According to a Bloomberg survey, the deviation/bias was the strongest since November of last year. The fixing is another sign that the PBOC is unhappy with recent yuan weakness, which at the same time is a ‘logical consequence’ of China keeping a more supportive monetary policy compared to most other major central banks. Aside from the stronger fixing, the PBOC also changed some rules with respect to capital inflows as it allowed banks to borrow more overseas, supporting capital inflows. There was also market talk of large lenders selling foreign currency in the domestic FX market to support the yuan. USD/CNY currently trades near 7.1775 compared to a close near 7.223 yesterday.
There will be no KBC Economics-Markets reports on Friday July 21st.
We resume our publications on Monday July 24th.
This non-exhaustive information is based on short-term forecasts for expected developments on the financial markets. KBC Bank cannot guarantee that these forecasts will materialize and cannot be held liable in any way for direct or consequential loss arising from any use of this document or its content. The document is not intended as personalized investment advice and does not constitute a recommendation to buy, sell or hold investments described herein. Although information has been obtained from and is based upon sources KBC believes to be reliable, KBC does not guarantee the accuracy of this information, which may be incomplete or condensed. All opinions and estimates constitute a KBC judgment as of the data of the report and are subject to change without notice.
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EUR/USD treads water just above 1.0400 post-US data
Another sign of the good health of the US economy came in response to firm flash US Manufacturing and Services PMIs, which in turn reinforced further the already strong performance of the US Dollar, relegating EUR/USD to the 1.0400 neighbourhood on Friday.
GBP/USD remains depressed near 1.2520 on stronger Dollar
Poor results from the UK docket kept the British pound on the back foot on Thursday, hovering around the low-1.2500s in a context of generalized weakness in the risk-linked galaxy vs. another outstanding day in the Greenback.
Gold keeps the bid bias unchanged near $2,700
Persistent safe haven demand continues to prop up the march north in Gold prices so far on Friday, hitting new two-week tops past the key $2,700 mark per troy ounce despite extra strength in the Greenback and mixed US yields.
Geopolitics back on the radar
Rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine caused renewed unease in the markets this week. Putin signed an amendment to Russian nuclear doctrine, which allows Russia to use nuclear weapons for retaliating against strikes carried out with conventional weapons.
Eurozone PMI sounds the alarm about growth once more
The composite PMI dropped from 50 to 48.1, once more stressing growth concerns for the eurozone. Hard data has actually come in better than expected recently – so ahead of the December meeting, the ECB has to figure out whether this is the PMI crying wolf or whether it should take this signal seriously. We think it’s the latter.
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