Category Archive: 4.) Marc to Market

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FX Weekly Preview: Bank of Canada, US CPI, and UK Labor Update Featured

2017-07-10

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2017-07-10

Yellen will unlikely deviate from general tone of post-FOMC meeting remarks. FOMC minutes were clear, most members see the decline in inflation due to transitory developments. Bank of Canada is expected to hike rates and will likely leave the door open to another rate cut in Q4. UK wage growth has continued to slow.

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FX Daily, July 07: Taper Tantrum 2.0 Dominates

2017-07-07

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2017-07-07

Taper Tantrum 2.0, emanating from Europe rather than the United States continues to overshadow other developments. Yesterday, the yield on the 10-year German Bund pushed through the 50 bp mark that has capped the occasional rise in yields in recent months. The record of the ECB meeting was understood as indicating that the official assessment had surpassed the actual communication in order try to minimize the impact.

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FX Daily, July 06: Stocks and Bonds Mostly Heavier, while Dollar Hovers Little Changed

2017-07-06

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2017-07-06

The US dollar is narrowly mixed against the major currencies after being confined to tight ranges through the Asian session and European morning. Equities are nursing small losses, and interest rates are pushing higher. The yield on the 10-year German Bund reached 50 bp for the first time since early 2016. Oil prices have steadied after yesterday's slide.

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FX Daily, July 05: Dollar Firm as Investors Await Fresh Directional Cues

2017-07-05

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2017-07-05

The US dollar is enjoying a firm tone today. Yesterday's two weakest major currencies, the Australian dollar and Swedish krona are the strongest currencies, but little changed on the session. After a strong rebound in the greenback to start the week, it mostly consolidated yesterday.

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FX Daily, July 03: Dollar Bounces to Start H2

2017-07-03

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2017-07-03

The beleaguered US dollar is enjoying a respite from the selling pressure that pushed it lower against all the major currencies in the first six months of 2017. A measure of the dollar on a trade-weighted basis fell about 5% in the first half after appreciating nearly 8% in Q4 16.

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FX Weekly Preview: Official Coordination or Is the Market Getting Ahead of Itself?

2017-07-03

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2017-07-03

The consensus narrative sees a coordinated attempt by officials to prepare investors for less accommodative monetary policy. Data from the eurozone and UK may suggest the respective economies are not accelerating. Before getting to the jobs report, the US economic data, like auto sales, may be soft, while the prices paid in the manufacturing ISM may ease.

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FX Daily, June 30: Greenback Stabilizes

2017-06-30

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2017-06-30

The US dollar has been battered this week amid a shift in sentiment seen in how the market responded to comments mostly emanating from the ECB's annual conference. It is not really clear that Draghi or Carney gave new policy indications.

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FX Daily, June 29: Run on Dollar and Yen Continues

2017-06-29

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2017-06-29

The main driver of the foreign exchange market is the continued reassessment of the trajectory of monetary policy in the UK, EMU, and Canada. The OIS market does not show that higher rates are discounted for the next policy meeting (August, September, and July respectively), but rather there is greater confidence that, outside of Japan, peak monetary stimulus is behind us.

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FX Daily, June 28: Draghi’s Sparks Mini Taper Tantrum, Euro Chief Beneficiary

2017-06-28

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2017-06-28

Sounding confident, ECB President Draghi seemed prepared to reduce the asset purchases, and this overshadowed his explicit recognition that substantial accommodation is still necessary. This is very much in line with what many, including ourselves, anticipate: At the September ECB meeting, an extension of the asset purchases into the first part of next year, coupled with a reduction in the amounts being purchased.

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Great Graphic: Dollar Breaks Out Against Yen

2017-06-28

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2017-06-28

Dollar's Decline
The dollar is at new lows for the year against the euro and Swiss franc. Draghi's comments earlier that transitory forces are dampening price pressures were seen as broadly similar to the Fed's leadership's assessment about US prices. The implication is that the ECB will announce tapering its purchases as it extends them into next year.

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Great Graphic: US Wage Growth Exceeds Productivity Growth

2017-06-28

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2017-06-28

One of the longstanding challenges to growth US aggregate demand has been that wages have not kept pace with inflation and productivity.  The decoupling appears to have taken place in the late 1960s or early 1970s depending on exactly which metric one uses.In my book, the Political Economy of Tomorrow, I argue the decoupling of men's wages from productivity and inflation made it possible and necessary for women to enter the workforce in large...

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FX Daily, June 27: Euro Surges on Draghi, While Yuan Rises on Suspected PBOC Action

2017-06-27

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2017-06-27

ECB President Draghi told the audience at the annual ECB Forum transitory factors were holding back inflation. This was quickly understood to be bullish for the euro, and it rallied from near the session lows below $1.12 to around $1.1260, a nine-day high.

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FX Daily, June 26: Italian Markets Shrug off Banking Morass and Local Election Results

2017-06-26

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2017-06-26

The US dollar is mostly slightly firmer as North American dealers return to their posts. Ideas that the UK Tories are getting close to a deal with the DUP appears to be lending sterling a modicum of support, as it tries to extend its uptrend into a fourth session. The Japanese yen is the weakest of the majors, rising equities, and yields, spurs the dollar to re-challenge last week's high near JPY111.80.

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FX Weekly Preview: Drivers A Couple Things that Aren’t on Your Economic Calendar

2017-06-26

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2017-06-26

Fed, ECB and BOJ preferred inflation measures will be reported, but are unlikely to change views. Canada's Survey of Senior Loan Officers may be more important than April GDP. US healthcare bill in the Senate and likely action on steel could be the most significant events in the week ahead.

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Short Summary Weekly MOF Portfolio Flows

2017-06-25

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2017-06-25

Japanese investors bought the third largest amount of foreign bonds this year last week, but still not enough to offset sales in first part of the year. Japanese investors are buying around the same amount of foreign equities as last year. Foreign investors are buying more Japanese stocks and bonds than they did on average last year.

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Bond Yields, Inflation, and More

2017-06-24

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2017-06-24

Falling oil prices pushing down inflation expectations and lowering bond yields is the conventional narrative. It ignores that survey-based measures of inflation expectations are stable. It ignores a host of other demand factors.

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FX Daily, June 23: Dollar Pares Gains Ahead of the Weekend

2017-06-23

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2017-06-23

The US dollar is trading lower against all the major currencies today, which pares its earlier gains. The greenback is holding on to small gains for the week against most of them, except the New Zealand dollar, Swiss franc and Norwegian krone.

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Great Graphic: Fed, ECB, and BOJ Balance Sheets

2017-06-23

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2017-06-23

This Great Graphic composed on Bloomberg shows the balance sheets of the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the Bank of Japan as a proportion of GDP.

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FX Daily, June 22: Greenback Goes Nowhere Quickly, While Yen Remains Bid

2017-06-22

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2017-06-22

The summer doldrums begin early. The US dollar is little changed against most of the major currencies. Bond yields are mostly one-two basis points lower, and equity markets are mixed but with a downside bias. Oil prices slump more than 2% on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. This is weighing on bond yields and equities.

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Great Graphic: Selected GDP Performance since 2008 and Policy

2017-06-22

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2017-06-22

This Great Graphic was tweeted by Martin Beck, and it comes from Oxford Economics, using Haver Analytics database. It shows the relative economic growth since 2008 for the US, UK, Japan, and EMU.

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