by Kim | May 29, 2023
Key events this week – US Non-Farm Payrolls, Euro Area CPI May, Aus Monthly CPI
Recap from last week
The latest FOMC minutes showed uncertainty about the path of rates in the outlook and the extent to which further rate increases would be appropriate. Members noted the need for policy optionality. Views on the outlook diverged among committee members. Progress on reaching 2% inflation could be too slow so additional hikes could be warranted or, if the economy evolved according to some outlooks, then further policy firming may not be necessary.
Data so far had not ‘provided sufficient clarity’ for the policymaker’s next steps, so Governor Waller introduced a framework option for the next FOMC meeting; hike, skip, or pause. Skipping a meeting allows the Fed to hold rates, with the option to hike again, while maintaining a hawkish bias (given that progress on inflation is slow/stalling, and the labor market remains tight). Waller also noted that changes in credit conditions could be a deciding factor between hiking or skipping in June or July. One important factor could be the resolution of the debt ceiling and the resulting rebuild of the Treasury cash account tightening financial conditions.
By the end of the week, markets had priced in another US hike for Jun with cuts still commencing in Nov or Dec. This repricing was also in part due to the stronger US PCE inflation reading for Apr across headline and core measures, faster consumption growth in Apr, improvement in real disposable income growth, initial jobless claims that were revised lower, an increase in new home sales, and an acceleration in the May PMI activity led by services.
The prelim global PMIs for May were mixed. The headline manufacturing PMIs recorded a fourth month of slowing momentum, with Japan the exception. The US manufacturing PMI slipped back into contraction while output growth stayed positive. Services growth remained moderate, but momentum stalled across Europe, the UK, and Aus, while growth continued to accelerate in Japan and the US. The broader release of the May PMI’s will commence this week.
Outlook for the week ahead
The next FOMC meeting is 14 Jun, meaning this is the last week before the blackout period for that meeting. There are several Fed speeches scheduled this week with possibly more to be added. The US labor market data this week will be important as the FOMC determines the path forward for policy.
US non-farm payrolls for May are expected to increase at a slower pace of +180k (prior +253k). Participation is expected to remain unchanged while the unemployment rate is expected to increase slightly to 3.5%. Job openings for Apr are expected to fall to 9.3m (from 9.6m). The ISM manufacturing PMI will be released this week along with the Fed’s Beige Book overview of regional activity.
Other inflation data will be important this week. The Euro Area prelim CPI reading for May will be released and headline CPI is expected to remain elevated at +7% while core inflation is also expected to remain elevated at +5.5%. The ECB minutes will also be released this week.
Aus monthly inflation for Apr is expected to edge below +7%. RBA Governor Lowe will provide testimony this week ahead of the RBA meeting next week.
This week, the US Treasury will auction and settle approx. $431bn in ST Bills, Notes, Bonds, and TIPS, raising approx. $100bn in new money.
QT end of May/start of June: Approx $40.3bn in ST Bills, Notes, and Bonds will mature on the Fed balance sheet this week and will be reinvested. Approx $33.6bn in Notes, Bonds, and ST Bills will roll off the Fed balance sheet.
A deal to suspend the debt limit (through Jan 2025) has been reached. Details are now going into draft legislation with a vote expected around midweek. The estimated X-date was updated to a likely 5 Jun 2023.
More detail (including a calendar of key data releases) is provided in the briefing document – download the pdf below:
Comments and feedback are welcome. Please email me at kim.mofardin@marscapitalpartners.net
by Mofar2016 | May 29, 2023
Last week, US equities maintained bullish momentum after a hard test of our 50 day sma support highlighted over the last few weeks. The best case for the bears is a "sell the news" bearish reversal after this push to marginal new highs in the SPX and Nasdaq indices. The US$ extended its rally across […]
by Kim | May 22, 2023
Key events this week – US PCE inflation, FOMC minutes, Prelim PMIs May, RBNZ policy decision
Recap from last week
In his speech last week, US Fed Chair Powell gave the strongest indication yet of a potential pause in the US rate hiking cycle. He noted that the stance of policy is restrictive and there are uncertainties regarding the lagged effects of the tightening done so far, including the additional tightening from recent “banking stresses”;
“Having come this far, we can afford to look at the data and the evolving outlook to make careful assessments,”
The justification to pause changes the focus to a forward-looking expectation that, due to long and variable lags, the full effect of policy tightening has yet to take effect (rather than a policy shift to a pause due to an obvious slowdown in the economy). After Powell’s speech last week, markets priced out the slightly higher probability of another hike in Jun.
Given that US inflation remains elevated, and the labor market remains tight, markets also started pricing out some of the near-term rate cuts and firmed up a pause through to Nov. US data last week showed the economy remained on a solid footing. US retail sales growth was positive albeit slower than expected – still reflecting a resilient consumer. Real retail sales have slowed and are shifting back toward the pre-pandemic trend. US manufacturing output growth was stronger in Apr, increasing by +1% over the prior month, led by motor vehicles, but also other durable & non-durable goods output. But the first two regional manufacturing surveys for May suggest some weakness in manufacturing could return. US housing activity, especially homebuilder sentiment, has continued to improve (led by the South and the West). Existing home sales were weaker in Apr. Importantly, the initial claims spike from last week was revised lower and claims fell back in line with the recent trend. Continuing claims remained stable.
Other global inflation data was mostly higher than expected. The BoC is still on a “hawkish hold” as Canadian headline inflation accelerated slightly to +4.4% in Apr and +0.7% over the month. The ECB has remained more hawkish with Euro area headline inflation confirmed at +7% in Apr and +0.6% over the month. Japanese CPI growth accelerated this month across headline and core measures. The BoJ preferred measure of inflation accelerated to +3.4% over the year with the monthly pace accelerating to +0.7% – the fastest monthly pace so far in this cycle.
The RBA minutes indicated that arguments were ‘finely balanced’ in deciding to hike by 25bps in May. After pausing in Apr, the Board was ultimately concerned about the upside risks to inflation and was buoyed by strong employment growth in Mar. The Aus data last week may weigh unevenly on the RBA decision next month; despite stronger than expected wage growth in Q1 of +3.7% (from +3.4% in Q4), employment for Apr was weaker than expected. The small decline in employment added to the increase in labor supply, resulting in a higher unemployment rate of 3.7% (from 3.5%). Signs of a weakening labor market will likely be a concern for the RBA.
Outlook for the week ahead
There will be continued headline risk from US debt ceiling negotiations this week and US Treasury Secretary Yellen is expected to provide an update on the ‘x-date’. Headline risk is likely to remain elevated, especially leading into the holiday long weekend.
US data will focus on inflation for Apr, housing, consumer income, spending, manufacturing, and growth momentum going into May. This will provide important input for assessing the path of the economy, amid expectations of an imminent slowdown. Headline PCE inflation is expected to ease slightly to +3.9% over the year while increasing over the month to +0.4%. Core PCE inflation is expected to be unchanged at +4.6% over the year. The final University of Michigan consumer sentiment reading for May will be released on Fri and will provide an update on the surprise spike higher in longer-term inflation expectations (up to +3.2%) reported in the prelim release.
There will also be several US Fed speeches throughout the week, including Governor Waller on the economic outlook.
The FOMC minutes of the May meeting will be released. This may provide some insight into discussions around the conditions for further hikes or for a pause in the hiking cycle. The minutes may also provide some insight into financial stability reports from staff.
The RBNZ will meet this week and it is expected to hike rates by another 25bps to 5.50%.
Finally, the prelim Global S&P PMIs will provide the first view of growth and activity momentum for May across key developed markets. The prelim May PMIs will be important in indicating whether stronger momentum, led mostly by services, has continued in Q2.
This week, the US Treasury will auction and settle approx. $322bn in ST Bills and FRNs, raising approx. $41bn in new money. The US Treasury will also auction the 2-year, 5-year, and 7-year Notes this week which will settle at the end of the month.
QT: Approx $14bn in ST Bills will mature on the Fed balance sheet this week and will be reinvested.
More detail (including a calendar of key data releases) is provided in the briefing document – download the pdf below:
Comments and feedback are welcome. Please email me at kim.mofardin@marscapitalpartners.net
by Mofar2016 | May 22, 2023
Last week, equities pushed to marginal new highs as expected but the structure appears incomplete. The gap between leaders (Nasdaq) and laggers (Russell) continued as the Nasdaq indices extended recent gains to push through our initial upside targets. The Russell remains range bound near its cycle lows and is at risk of breaking down. The […]
by Kim | May 15, 2023
Key events this week – US Retail Sales, US Fed Chair Powell, Central Bank speeches, RBA Minutes, global CPIs for Apr; Canada, Japan, Euro Area
Recap from last week
There was a small deceleration in annual US inflation for Apr. Inflation remains high with headline CPI growing at +5% and core CPI at +5.5%. The more recent 3mth and 6mth annualized time frame shows that headline inflation continues to ease. But this is less so the case for core CPI with recent time frames still showing persistent inflation pressure. Some of the underlying changes in the CPI were more positive this month with a further slowdown in the trend of the monthly shelter price growth. Will it continue? Slowing shelter price growth is central to most forecasts for overall slowing inflation.
The trimmed mean inflation has remained elevated through this cycle so far, suggesting that inflation pressure has been broad across expenditure categories. While the annual trimmed mean inflation rate slowed only slightly to +6.1% in Apr, the monthly rates have been slowing more consistently and the 3mth annualized rate is now down to +4.2%. This may indicate that broader inflation pressure has eased faster over the last few months.
But other data pointed to slower progress on inflation. Last week, the University of Michigan consumer inflation expectations over five years increased to +3.2% – the highest in over a decade. The Atlanta Fed wage data for Apr showed wage growth remained at an elevated level.
Was this CPI report enough for the FOMC to pause next month? Markets say yes for the moment – but there is still a lot of data before the next meeting. The challenge for the FOMC will be getting persistent inflation down to the 2% target without any further tightening and especially while the labor market remains tight.
Still, the first interest rate cuts remain priced in for Sep – indicating that the US economy is expected to weaken. Some data last week added weight to this outlook. Growth in initial claims shifted notably higher to +264k. But it was alleged that fraud was driving some of the increase in claims (Source; Bloomberg). The other report was the loan officer survey. While the survey showed no shift up to a ‘considerable’ tightening in credit conditions (resulting from the recent bank failures), credit conditions have continued to tighten and some demand for credit has slowed further. This provides a headwind for the growth outlook.
Outlook for the week ahead
The most recent US PMIs indicated that momentum improved somewhat in the US in Apr, so data this week will be about confirming that shift in momentum going into Q2. Retail sales growth is expected to increase to +0.7% in Apr, supported by stronger growth in motor vehicle sales. Overall US industrial production for Apr is expected to remain flat/weaker at -0.1%. The first regional manufacturing surveys for May will provide some insight into the trend in manufacturing activity. There will also be important housing data. Existing home sales for Apr are expected to slow to 4.3m (annualized rate), while home builder sentiment for May is expected to stay unchanged. New permits and starts for Apr are expected to be little changed.
There will be a lot of central bank-speak this week. This will include a discussion between US Fed Chair Powell and former Fed Chair Ben Bernanke on Friday. US Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Barr will also give two days of testimony.
More global inflation data for Apr will be reported this week. Canada’s CPI is expected to slow to +3.7% over the year, but increase to +0.9% over the month. Japan’s CPI ex fresh food is expected to stay elevated at +3.1%. The Euro Area headline inflation for Apr is expected to be confirmed at +7% over the year and +0.7% over the month.
Finally, the RBA will release the minutes of the last meeting, and this should provide insight into the decision to increase rates after deciding to pause at the prior meeting. The important Aus wage growth data for Q2 will be released and wage growth is expected to accelerate to +3.6% and by +0.9% QoQ. The Aus labor market survey for Apr will also be released and net employment growth is expected to slow to +25k, while participation (66.7%) and unemployment (3.5%) remain unchanged.
Headline risk around debt ceiling negotiations will remain elevated.
This week, the US Treasury will auction and settle approx. $436bn in ST Bills, Notes, and Bonds, raising approx. $31bn in new money. The US Treasury will also auction the 20-year Bond and 10-year TIPS this week – both will settle at the end of the month.
QT: Approx $48bn in ST Bills, Notes, and Bonds will mature on the Fed balance sheet this week and will be reinvested. Approx $29bn in Notes & Bonds will mature on the Fed balance sheet this week and will be redeemed.
More detail (including a calendar of key data releases) is provided in the briefing document – download the pdf below:
Comments and feedback are welcome. Please email me at kim.mofardin@marscapitalpartners.net
