Previous post Next post

FX Daily, December 28: Short Note for Holiday Markets

Swiss Franc

EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, December 28

(see more posts on EUR/CHF, )
EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, December 28

- Click to enlarge

FX Rates

Equities:  Good day in Asia, where the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index rose 0.3% to snap a six-day slide.  Of note the Hang Seng re-opening from a long holiday weekend rose (0.8%) from a five-month low.  Chinese shares that trade in HK also did well, rising 1.5%.  Indonesia, which broke a nine-day slide yesterday, is building on the gains today.  Foreigners had been consistent sellers previously.  European shares narrowly mixed, with the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 up marginally, but a higher close would be the third in a row.  Materials and energy leading the way.  Note that financials are lows, as are Italian bank shares.

FX Performance, December 28 2016 Movers and Shakers

FX Performance, December 28 2016 Movers and Shakers

Source: Dukascopy - Click to enlarge

Bonds:  Yields are mostly softer.  Of note the US-German 2-year yield is making a new extreme near 210 bp. Be careful here.  The on-the-run, which is the latest 2-year bund that Germany sold is not the same as the generic yield, which is what the spreads are calculated from.  The US 10-year premium is near 3.35%, which is also an extreme.   Gilts are leading the decline in yields today more broadly.  We note that Italy is keeping up with Spain.Sterling: Traded on both sides of yesterday’s ranges, but held just above last week’s  lows.  I think the drop likely reflected thinness of price action.  A move toward $1.2270-$1.2280 seems likely in North America.

FX Daily Rates, December 28

FX Daily Rates, December 28

- Click to enlarge

Euro:  Initially rose to $1.0480 in Asia (last week’s high ~$1.05), but was sold off and held yesterday’s lows to almost the tick.  It is not particularly pretty, but my sense is that the consolidation/correction remains intact.  A move back to $1.0460 or so would not be surprising.

JPY:  The dollar has been confined to about a third of a yen at the upper end of yesterday’s ranges. Initial support is seen in the  JPY107.40-50 area.  The dollar has closed above JPY118 once in recently and that was December 15.  In thin markets, the dollar is making higher highs and higher lows  this the third session.  The 10-year spread is steady around 2.50%.  Note that the BOJ appeared to be somewhat less active in the long-end of its curve, suggesting the recent stepped up action was a result of the speed of the move possibly rather than the level

Dollar-bloc and Scandis:  These are the strongest currencies today.  As far as I can reckon there are two forces here.  First is the thin holiday demand having exaggerated impact.  Second, there does seem to be some end-of-year parking of funds in high yielders.

FX Performance, December 28

FX Performance, December 28

- Click to enlarge

Japan

Economic data: Japan stands out with industrial production in Nov rising 1.5%, the most in five months.  It was a little less than expected, but the expectations for Dec (2%) and Jan (2.2%) are constructive.  This seems to be a function of two things: stronger exports and a cyclical function with inventories falling and shipments rising.  It seems to me too early to expect yen depreciation to have much feed through impact yet.

Separately, Japan reported retail sales jumped 1.7% (year-over-year).  It is the first gain since Feb and is twice the gain as expected.   However, earlier this week Japan reported a 1.5% decline in overall household spending.  This indicates what was gained in retail sales was more than offset else where and consumer sector is still weak in Japan.

Graphs and additional information on Swiss Franc by the snbchf team.

 

Full story here Are you the author?
Marc Chandler
He has been covering the global capital markets in one fashion or another for more than 30 years, working at economic consulting firms and global investment banks. After 14 years as the global head of currency strategy for Brown Brothers Harriman, Chandler joined Bannockburn Global Forex, as a managing partner and chief markets strategist as of October 1, 2018.
Previous post See more for 4.) Marc to Market Next post
Tags: ,,,,,,,

Permanent link to this article: https://snbchf.com/2016/12/28-fx-daily-chandler-holiday-markets/

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.