Kommt mir vor wie im Mai: Öl fällt, der Euro fällt, Gold fällt, Aktien fallen, Emerging-Market-Währungen fallen...
Marc Chandler TheStreet.com Yen Squeeze Triggers Dollar Advance Vs Europe 9/7/2006 7:11 AM EDT
The US dollar's drift lower begun in the North American afternoon yesterday in the aftermath of the benign Beige Book, carried through the early part of the European morning, but was abruptly reversed by comments from the Germany deputy finance minister that the yen's weakness will be discussed at next week's G7 meeting. These comments hit a market leaning the wrong way as it had taken the euro back toward JPY150 and the dollar back above JPY117.00. The reversal has been brutal and has weighed down the other side of yen carry trades, including exacerbating the pressure that had already been evident on emerging market currencies, Focus now shift to the JPY115.50 area, where a large barrier options is believed to have been struck. The BOE are widely expected to leave policy steady today.
Thomas Mirow, Germany's deputy finance minister, unequivocally indicated that the weakness of the yen would be discussed at next week's G7 meeting, and this unleashed main market force of the day, another short covering advance of the Japanese yen across the board. The violence of the market's reaction reflects two things. First, expectations going into the G7 meeting were relatively low, with many if not most participants expecting a general repeat of the April statement. At first blush, Mirow's comments raise expectations. Second, and arguably even more important, is the fact that the speculative market had amassed a large short yen position and weekly MOF portfolio flow data suggests that real money accounts have sold about $15 bln worth of Japanese assets from late July through late Aug (though Japan did report a net inflow of about $5.5 bln in the latest week, according to data released earlier today.
The temptation might be to switch from yen carry trades into Swiss carry trades. And in light of today's slightly softer than expected Q2 GDP from Switzerland, which showed exports stagnating, and dashing any lingering hope that the SNB would hike by 50 bp when it meets on Sept 14, the franc does appear to offer an interesting candidate. However, the challenge lies with the other side of the carry trades--the asset that is to be bought. High yield emerging markets are under pressure and some of the pressure was evident yesterday--look at South Africa, Turkey and Mexico. US and European bonds and stocks which so impressively rallied in August have hit a wall here in early September.
Market positioning appears to be exaggerating the true signal of Mirow's comments. On one hand, Mirow, might not have been sending a signal at all. Foreign exchange matters are routinely discussed. Surely the yen's weakness is one of the features that stand out when one thinks about what has happened in the foreign exchange market since the April G7/G8/IMF meetings. It might on the margins reflect some increasing concern that the yen's weakness against the euro will lead to a surge of Japanese imports into the euro-zone. On the other hand, the risk is that even if there is concern (and continued concern with the yuan's stickiness against the dollar), what are officials prepared to do about it? The main source of the yen's weakness is its low interest rates. Does the G7 really want the world's second largest economy to raise rates more aggressively?
[Das würde über die Auflösung von Carry-Trade Liquidität entziehen und auch auf Aktien drücken - A.L.]
This as Japan reported in recent weeks an unexpected decline in wages and industrial output and less price pressures. The disappointing streak of data continued today with the July leading economic indicator falling to 40.0 from 58.3, the first time in 10-months that the reading fell below the 50 boom/bust level.
Meanwhile, recent comments by ECB officials, especially Trichet and Weber, leave little doubt that the ECB will hike rates early next month. Indeed, the real development in recent days has been what appears to be a campaign to warn the market that the ECB does not envisage being done raising rates this year. One noteworthy comment in the ECB's monthly report, which largely rehashes Trichet's remarks from last week, was the attempt to play down the rise in consumer inflation expectations, which the EC reported on August 31 had reached a 4-year high. The ECB argued that there was little correlation between inflation expectations and future price developments. This stands in stark contrast with the Federal Reserve, which in the recent FOMC minutes seemed to place extra emphasis on inflation expectations.
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