Tag: Emerging Markets

Enjoy the Party but Dance Near the Door

Reason to be skeptical of the latest central bank reflation trade

Photo by Filios Sazeides on Unsplash

The title of this piece refers to an old cautionary Wall Street cliche that describes a trader’s dilemma where the price action says one thing but his gut warns him that something is not quite right, and to not get too complacent. This is an apt description of the current state of play over the past few days. Markets are reacting optimistically to a potential trade deal with China and the prospect of supportive policy intervention by the major central banks, most of which involves creating more debt. Besides possible rate cuts by the Fed, BOJ, and ECB, China unleashed another huge credit impulse, see https://bit.ly/2kAGnTz, South Korea has enacted a massive fiscal spending program, see https://on.ft.com/2ZBihGx and the Germans are exploring ways to circumvent current limits on debt issuance, see https://reut.rs/2kDcsKl. That’s a lot of stimuli. No wonder the markets like it.

However, this collective panic among the policy crowd in the face of slowing economic growth doesn’t offer any new ideas other than to throw more money at a situation that previous waves of cash have failed to fix. Most investors now realize that after a decade of extreme monetary policies, excessive debt is becoming the problem, not the answer. It’s the reason why large parts of the world are trapped in a deflationary malaise. Not only will piling on more debt not work, but it will also make the eventual reckoning even more painful.

Since early this year we have focused on several trends: slowing global growth, falling rates, and a stronger dollar. A continuation of these generally-bearish themes, along with the pressure that it exerts on the vulnerable corporate credit and emerging market sectors, is still our base scenario.

Nevertheless stocks, yields, credit, and commodities have all caught a bid in recent days. The dollar is offered. With good reason, investors still strongly believe that the central banks can affect outcomes and that a safety net is firmly in place under the markets. One of our favorite risk sentiment canaries, the Canadian dollar, impressively held support at USDCAD 1.3400 (see chart below.) This is a sign that a broader recovery in the marketplace in the near-term is not only possible but likely.

Longer-term, the prospect of a global economy that is weakened by over-indebtedness and unable to maintain sustainable growth without the repeated intervention of central banks is a frightening prospect, and remains our primary concern. The big danger in our future will come at that point when investors lose faith in central bankers’ ability to keep the markets propped up. We’re not there yet but that re-set in valuations will be the trade of a lifetime…and not in a good way. Will it be next month, or next year, or five years from now? Nobody knows. So in the meantime enjoy this latest bull party but remember to dance near the door.

USD/CAD. The Canadian dollar (CAD) is a reliable indicator of global risk sentiment. Stronger CAD is bullish for asset prices.
US dollar index (DXY). Fails to break out higher, also bullish for asset prices, especially emerging markets.
Benchmark US 10yr Yield. Bottom in for now as broad risk sentiment recovers.

Fed Rate Cut: Too Little, Too Late

Strong dollar poses risks for reluctant policymakers

Photo by Colin Watts on Unsplash

August 4th, 2019

The Fed cut rates by 25 basis points (one-quarter of a point) last week, as expected, amid signs of slowing global growth. Chairman Jerome Powell tried to reassure investors that the economy was still on solid ground and that the move was merely a “mid-cycle adjustment”, not the beginning of a prolonged easing cycle. Don’t bet on it. Persistent strength in the US dollar is both a sign and a reason why a recession is closer than they think.   

As we’ve noted repeatedly here before, the US dollar is the Achilles heel of the international financial system. Through their easy-money policies in the wake of the 2008 recession, the Fed encouraged a massive buildup in leverage by both sovereign and corporate entities. Unfortunately, to service that debt borrowers are negatively exposed to any decrease in the supply or increase in the price of those dollars.

In the past year, slower global growth, declining international trade volumes, tighter US monetary policy and a reduction in the Fed’s balance sheet have all contributed to a reduction of dollar liquidity in funding markets. This fundamental shortage of dollars has driven its price higher on FX exchanges. In 2018 a strong dollar roiled the markets (especially emerging markets) before the Fed was forced to pull the plug on its monetary policy normalization plans in the hopes of capping the currency’s rise. It worked, barely. After pausing for a couple of quarters the dollar is on the move again as the global shortage intensifies. See https://bloom.bg/2YnU5fh. The path of least resistance is clearly higher, perhaps significantly, and it’s going to take a lot more than one rate cut to turn it around.

Compounding the dollar squeeze is the current budget bill crafted by congress, which eliminates the debt ceiling for the next two years and allows US government spending to increase virtually unchecked. To meet these new financing needs it is expected that over the next several months the treasury will need to raise $250 billion in fresh cash, further draining the supply of dollars in the system. See https://on.wsj.com/2SXVJOE.

Despite the shift toward easier monetary policy, the broad dollar index (DXY) climbed to its best level in two years. The FX market’s message to the Fed is unmistakable: the cut in rates was too little, too late. The risk for policymakers from here is that a stronger dollar will create deflationary headwinds, possibly tipping weak economies into recession, and force the Fed to cut rates deeper than they’re willing to admit.

The US dollar, breaking out.

Fed Rate Action Could Boost India Modi Euphoria

The re-election of Prime minister Modi and potential rate cuts from the Fed have been well received so far but the general softening in global growth remains a threat, especially to the emerging markets.

June 12th, 2019  

I have joined the team at ConnectedtoIndia.com as a special contributor, providing market commentary with an Indian angle. 

The euphoria in Indian stock markets after the recent reelection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s National Democratic Alliance could find further support next week if the US Federal Reserve decides to do an abrupt turn in its interest rate policy, from raising interest rates last December to possibly reversing that decision at its upcoming meeting.

Bombay Stock Exchange Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

Bombay Stock Exchange Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

A US interest rate cut would help provide assurances to India and the rest of the world that dollar liquidity in offshore financing markets will remain plentiful.  This has already brought relief to market risk sentiment, at least for now. Despite some signs of profit-taking today, equity prices in general across all sectors are up sharply in the past week since the Fed hinted at the move.

Weak global economic growth made worse by intensifying international trade tensions is squeezing the finances of many export-dependent countries, drawing comparisons to the turmoil last year that began in the emerging markets and later spread to developed economies.

Currencies of China, Turkey, South Africa, and Brazil, where the first signs of trouble appeared in 2018, have recently come under pressure again.  This has attracted the attention of central bankers, notably Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell, who are eager to head off a repeat performance in 2019.

Many countries, as well as corporate entities, took advantage of cheap dollar loans at low rates during the Fed’s easy money regime in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008.  The resulting increase in leverage left these same borrowers negatively exposed as the Fed began to unwind those policies in earnest beginning in 2017.

Higher interest rates, declining liquidity, and a rising US dollar make that debt more difficult to service or roll over, precipitating a loss of investor confidence, potentially triggering a feedback loop of asset liquidation and in the extreme, lasting economic impairment.  

The lesson of 2018 is of how fragile the global financial system remains despite the trillions of dollars deployed under central bank quantitative easing programs.  Half of the USD5 trillion investment grade bond universe is now rated BBB, just one notch above junk status. A sustained economic downturn or an adverse credit event has the potential to unleash an avalanche of corporate downgrades and forced selling that would affect all markets.  

Reserve Bank of India governor Urjit Patel was one of the first to raise the alarm over the unintended consequences of policy tightening by the Federal Reserve.  

Just over one year ago, in a June 3, 2018 Financial Times op-ed Patel warned of the negative impact created by a dollar shortage across the emerging market sectors and urged the Fed to back off on plans to shrink its balance sheet.  

He described the combination of balance sheet reduction and increased US treasury bond issuance (to finance tax cuts) as a “double whammy” threat that had essentially caused dollar funding in the sovereign debt markets to evaporate, sparking foreign capital outflows and leading to instability in currencies like the rupee.

The Fed listened.  As a result, they will cease drawing down their balance sheet this September.  And if prices in the futures market are any indication, the US could cut rates four times between now and the end of next year.

But is it too late and will it be enough?  Terms of trade are being reshuffled on a global basis, and the effect on growth from disruptions to supply chains is still in the early stages and most likely underestimated.  The risks ahead for India’s, and more broadly emerging nation’s, financial markets is that the extraordinary nature of these challenges falls beyond the control of not just the RBI but of all central banks, leaving India with one foot on shaky ground.

[The rupee and the Indian equity market are essentially the same trade right now as investors remain nervous over the entire emerging market sector.  The prospect for easier policy from the US Federal Reserve has taken some pressure off of the rupee and its currency peer group for now.]

“The views expressed by the author in this article are personal and do not reflect those of Connected to India.”  

Fed Resists Market Push For Rate Cuts

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.

Dec 2020 Fed Funds futures

    Beware the dollar

    Written by Bruce J. Clark

    April 5, 2019

    In 2019 the major central banks have been focused on reflating markets by either pausing or reversing plans for policy normalization (higher rates) that hit many markets hard in 2018. Despite ongoing fears of slowing global growth, equities and commodities have so far responded positively to the prospect of easier rates and more plentiful liquidity.  

    But the one thing that could ruin the party is the strength of the dollar. In my opinion the rising USD was an underappreciated factor that squeezed many regions hard last year, especially emerging economies with current account deficits. Many of these entities had borrowed heavily cheap dollars at low rates under the Fed’s QE program after the 2008 recession, leaving their fiscal position vulnerable as the dollar rose. Not only does it make debt repayment and refinancing more expensive, it also tends to pressure commodity prices that these countries often rely on for exports, creating an unenviable situation where the things they are short (dollar debt) go up and the things they are long (raw materials) go down. And as 2018 proved, because global markets are more interconnected than ever, it wasn’t long before problems in the emerging markets became a problem for the developed markets.

    Normally, you would expect that the dovish shift at the Fed this year would undermine the dollar. I certainly did. As it became more apparent that the highs were in for interest rates in early Q4 last year, I assumed the same for the dollar. It was a perfectly logical conclusion given that major currencies often track the path of underlying interest rates. Wrong. Except for a few shallow dips, the dollar has been remarkably resilient. It even shrugged off the appointments of inflation doves Steve Moore and Herman Caine. In the currency world it remains the best of a bad lot and the safety and liquidity it offers in uncertain times can’t be matched. Being short hasn’t cost much money so far but the longer it remains here at the top of its range, the probability grows that the next move is higher.

    The chart of the dollar index (DXY) is potentially very bullish, and a break above 97.75 would signal the beginning of a (perhaps significant) leg up. This would unleash a deflationary impulse, and much like in 2018 leave stocks and commodities vulnerable. The world needs a weaker dollar to keep the 2019 bull reflation trade going. But it may not get it.

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