May 1, 2019
Economists are having a tough time figuring out why the market is pricing in potential rate cuts in the US while the economic data is so good. It’s a good question. GDP growth is above trend and the country is considered to be at full employment. Assuming all markets are equally forward-looking, it’s hard to reconcile the growing gloom in the rate complex against generally positive news flow on the economy and with equities posting record highs.
As of now, the front-end rate futures markets are discounting one rate cut for this year and one more in 2020. This implies a sense of trouble appearing on the horizon that could require a policy response. The Fed says that rate cuts are not in play but they’re not trying too hard to dissuade investors from arriving at that conclusion.
Part of the concern can be attributed simply to the age of the current economic expansion. These things don’t last forever. Absent a total collapse, by July this expansion will become the oldest on record at 121 months. That would be more than twice the average of 59 months for the prior 13 cycles.
Another explanation is the lack of inflationary pressure now playing a larger role in overall policy calculus. Something has gone wrong when trillions in stimulus don’t buy a sustainable inflation rate.
But a more interesting theory for the move in rates involves the growing probability of a much stronger US dollar, an outcome that could ultimately force the Fed to hold back its rise with looser monetary policy. Deep liquidity and a robust US economy make the dollar the most attractive currency on the world stage, but it is a double-edged sword.
It remains my opinion that a higher dollar poses an unknown and very underappreciated risk for the global macroeconomic condition, and not just as a general deflationary headwind. The leveraged exposure to the dollar created by years of borrowing against easy Fed policy by both sovereign and corporate entities is massive. And like other extremes caused by excessively profligate central bank policies, it’s truly unprecedented. We really don’t know what these actions have wrought and what the impact will be when the unintended consequences are eventually revealed. 2018 gave us a small taste of what happens when the dollar goes up: emerging markets and other vulnerable dollar-sensitive credits fall first, and then like dominoes end up knocking over the developed markets. It could happen again.
For now, the conundrum continues. As we have been witnessing since December (and for the past decade), the equity sector thrives on even the slightest prospect for easier Fed policy. The reasons why never seem to matter. Until they do. If I’m right about the dollar, signs of economic weakness and lower rates should not be taken as a benign development but rather as a warning.
A Trader's Perspective 