I have a feeling that many readers didn’t like my conclusion last week, that the major markets and asset classes are a bit like watching paint dry. I concede that it was a lousy metaphor, but last week provided an excellent example that markets are still playing second fiddle to events elsewhere in the public sphere. The NATO summit in Brussels and Mr. Trump’s visit to the U.K. drew all the headlines*, once again forcing economists and strategists to take on the uncomfortable mantle as armchair political analysts. To the extent that Mr. Trump’s odd ways are the common denominator across most geopolitical risk these days, experience suggests that investors should ignore it. That said, I suspect the resurgence in the dollar has something to do with it. The U.S., and by extension Mr. Trump, wield extensive power in the global economy. The more that the White House throws its weight around—on the laughable premise that the U.S. is being short-changed as part of the post-WWII world order—the stronger the dollar gets. In other words, Mr. Trump can win the trade wars, and extract pounds of flesh from his allies, but if the dollar zooms higher, the end-result could be the opposite of what the president, and his base, set out to achieve in the first place.
Read MoreFrom the perspective of the big narratives, markets at the moment are like watching paint dry. In equities, EMs are taking a good’ol beating, but the MSCI World is no closer to breaking its range since the Q1 swoon on the back of Volmageddon. This is mainly thanks to a combination of steady tech-outperformance in the U.S, and sideways indecision in most of the major EU indices. In FX markets the dollar is bid, especially against EM currencies, but investors seem split on whether this trend will be sustained or not. Gun-to-head, I think the dollar can rally further, but as I noted last week, don’t ever place your FX bets based on what economists say. Finally in bonds, the U.S. yield curve is flattening, and despite endless discussion in financial media, we still don’t know the answer to the main question. Does the Fed care, and would an inversion stay its hand? I have discussed this several times on these pages, and the central point is simple I think. If a flattening yield curve is a problem for the Fed—and assuming that the rest of the world isn’t moving—it only has one option to reverse the trend; it has to slow down its hiking cycle, or halt it altogether. This possibility has been hotly debated in recent weeks alongside mounting evidence that the rest of the world is slowing.
Read MoreOne of the more interesting stories in markets last week was the disagreement about whether investors are bullish or bearish on the dollar. On the face of it, this is a silly debate. Clearly, sentiment has become significantly more positive on the dollar in the past three months, lifting the DXY index up by nearly 6% to a nine-month high of just under 95.0 at the start of Q3. On occasion, I nail my colours to the mast and try to come up with short-term ideas in equities and bonds, but I am generally loath to do it in FX markets. Currencies have a tendency to the exact opposite of what macroeconomists predict that they will. Usually, the stronger the conviction of economists, the stronger the countermove. With that warning in mind, I think it’s worthwhile looking at the stories which currently are propelling the dollar. The macroeconomic argument for a stronger dollar is simple. The synchronised global recovery has become de-synchronised since the beginning of the year, and the U.S. economy has emerged head-and- shoulders above the rest. Not only that; Europe and China have slowed while the U.S. economy appears to have gathered strength in the second quarter.
Read MoreSometimes it is best just to sit back and do nothing, and perhaps, watching the World Cup isn’t such a bad way to spend your time at the moment. Last week, I laid out what I consider the two main economic and market themes. First, real narrow money and liquidity growth is slowing, which is usually a bad sign for risk assets and second, monetary policy divergence is being stretched to new extremes. I surmise that most of the key macro-trading trends can be derived from these two stories. All other important themes are just crammed into the box labelled political uncertainty, a box which incidentally is increasingly full to the brim. The consensus is that political risk is the dog the never barks; this true on a headline level. But I can’t help but think that markets are a like deer caught in the headlight. Everyone is waiting for one of the political land mines to blow up, but no one knows what to do about it. In the U.S., Mr. Trump has escalated the global trade wars, though markets are not exactly pricing-in the end of the globalised world order as we know it. Rather, they seem to have settled on the idea that the U.S. is winning. Small cap U.S. equities have soared, and the dollar is bid. The latter effectively is an equaliser. If the dollar rises as U.S. imposes import tariffs, the real economic impact of Mr. Trump’s policies will be curbed, perhaps even neutralised altogether.
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