Bonds bowl over the pins, IMF forecasts due
A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan
U.S. Treasuries are starting to balk at post-election fiscal prospects and the resulting spike in benchmark borrowing rates has knocked stock markets off their perch and lifted the dollar to its best level since early August.
Ten-year Treasury yields US10YT=RR zoomed higher again on Tuesday, topping 4.2% for the first time in three months.
On one level, there's been some further dialling back of Federal Reserve easing expectations - with an implied 'terminal rate' for the whole Fed easing cycle backing up close to 3.5% next year and less than 150 basis points from the current policy rate.
The robust performance of the economy is mainly responsible for that, as is the steady stream of Fed officials speaking of only 'modest' rate cuts ahead. Trepidation about market-based long-term inflation expectations USBEI10Y=RR, USIL5YF5Y=R troughing as high as 2.3%-2.5% is also starting to shift the horizon somewhat.
But investors are mostly focussed now on next month's election and the absence of any plan from either party to rein in budget deficits already well north of 6% of GDP. What's more, betting markets now lean toward the candidate - Donald Trump - most likely to aggravate that fiscal position and bookmaker bets on a Republican clean sweep of Congress are rising too.
Reflecting some of those concerns, the New York Fed's estimate of the 10-year Treasury 'term premium' - a key measure of the compensation investors demand to hold long-term government debt securities - has risen to its highest level of the year, at more than 14 bps. It's been negative for most of the year.
BlackRock boss Larry Fink repeated his warnings about the deficit situation at an event on Monday, saying rising government debt was a 'big problem' and both parties were guilty for the widening deficits.
The back-up in Treasury yields this week has lifted the dollar index .DXY to its best levels since August 2, with currency markets also parsing the implications of Trump's sweeping trade tariff plans.
Goldman Sachs said on Tuesday the euro EUR= could fall as much as 10% - implying a drop below $1.0 from current levels - in a scenario in which Trump imposes widespread tariffs and cuts domestic taxes if he returns to the White House.
A 10% global tariff and 20% levy on Chinese imports, combined with the stimulus of domestic tax cuts, could cause the dollar to rally sharply and the euro to drop 8% to 10%, Goldman's Michael Cahill told clients.
Although the euro regained some footing, the dollar continued to push higher above 150 yen as Japan's weekend election is eyed by markets. The Canadian dollar CAD= was also on the back foot ahead of a possible jumbo 50bp rate cut from the Bank of Canada on Wednesday.
With election and debt worries, geopolitical angst and longer-term inflation questions as a spur, gold XAU= continued to probe higher - though remained just shy of intraday records set at $2740 on Monday.
The bond market rumbling has been enough to knock Wall Street stocks .SPX back from new records, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq outperformed and made some gains ahead of megacap corporate earnings later this month. Futures were mostly in the red ahead of Tuesday's open, however.
Much of the macro world will be focussed on the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in Washington, with the IMF's latest World Economic Outlook due for release later and multiple top central bank officials speaking around the event.
Overseas, Japan's Nikkei .N225 ended down more than 1% despite the weaker yen, and Chinese stocks .CSI300, .HSI were mostly flat. Europe .STOXXE was lower too.
In corporate developments, there was good news in the tech sector from SAP SAPG.DE, whose shares rose 5% after the German software company raised full-year targets on strong cloud business.
And HSBC Holdings HSBA.L said on Tuesday it would combine some of its commercial and investment banking operations in a major overhaul under new CEO Georges Elhedery. A new leadership structure, which includes the appointment of Pam Kaur as the lender's first female chief financial officer, will carve up its operations into four business lines - Britain, Hong Kong, corporate and institutional banking, and wealth banking.
Key developments that should provide more direction to U.S. markets later on Tuesday:
* US corporate earnings: Texas Instruments, General Motors, General Electric, Verizon, Baker Hughes, Enphase Energy, Packaging Corp of America, Invesco, CoStar, Seagate Technology, Paccar, Fiserv, 3M, Moody's, Quest Diagnostics, Pentair, Pultegroup, Sherwin Williams, Danaher, Freeport-McMoRan, Interpublic, Norfolk Southern, RTX, Genuine Parts, AO Smith
* International Monetary Funds releases World Economic Outlook at IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington; European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, ECB chief economist Philip Lane and Bank of Portugal governor Mario Centeno all speak; Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, deputy governor Sarah Breedon and BoE policymaker Megan Greene all speak
* Richmond Federal Reserve's October business surveys; Canada September producer prices
* Philadelphia Federal Reserve President Patrick Harker speaks
US Treasury 'term premium' highest in 2024 https://tmsnrt.rs/3Y7YNtC
Net finance flows to developing countries turned negative last year https://reut.rs/4hb0CyI
Boeing's dire share performance https://reut.rs/48hJd3b
EU car market share https://reut.rs/4dVZZGp
China's jobless youth https://reut.rs/3BQRLlv
Editing by Christina Fincher
mike.dolan@thomsonreuters.com
Related Assets
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
