FICC
One macro framework for rates, FX, credit, and commodities, helping investors connect cross-market signals and position with clarity and conviction.
The OPEC 2.0 supply cuts announced over the weekend will be fundamentally bullish international crude oil prices. According to our model, brent will cross the USD 100/bbl mark by August this year. We believe the cohort is pre-emptively cutting oil supply in response to threats to their economic interest, including risks arising from the higher possibility of recession and rising market volatility following the banking crisis.
This US Bond Strategy Insight takes an in-depth look at core non-housing services inflation.
CCP officials are discussing policy options for breaking out of a deepening liquidity trap. Anything policymakers come up with will be additive to existing spending and to the multi-trillion-dollar fiscal-stimulus packages being rolled out by the EU and US. Inflationary pressures in the real economy will become embedded as increasing demand for industrial commodities meets constrained supply. Stagflation likely follows.
The recent uncertainty regarding the health of the banking systems in the US and Europe is not having any material impact on overall financial conditions or economic sentiment. The aggressive rate cut expectations, especially in the US, are unlikely to be realized. Although the macro growth and policy backdrop remains unfriendly for corporate debt on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Fed lifted rates 25 bps yesterday while also signaling that the tightening cycle is near its peak. We discuss the short-run and long-run implications for Treasury yields.
Systematically important central banks continue to compound policy errors, which will feed higher headline inflation. Hiking interest rates to induce labor-market slack – i.e., higher unemployment – to bring down core inflation will reduce demand for scarce commodities as incomes fall. It also will increase the cost of conventional and renewable capex and slow the final-investment-decision (FID) process. Net, supply will tighten as demand is squeezed. This will resolve itself in higher volatility and prices. Separately, we were stopped out of our XOP and XME ETFs spanning energy and mining equities, respectively, with a loss of 11.9% and a gain of 4.4%. We will be re-establishing these exposures at tonight’s close.
This week’s report looks at the banking crisis within the context of shrinking dollar liquidity and implication for FX markets.
Depending on market volatility during the next few trading days, the Fed will either lift rates by 25 bps next week or pause its tightening cycle. Either way, the Fed’s hiking cycle is close to its peak but rate cuts won’t be coming anytime soon.