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Sunday, June 7, 2009
0 Treasury bull bubble ready to burst
This week the Treasury is set to auction $101 billion worth of new debt. I'm not even sure why they are referring to these events that involve the Fed buying US debt as a "Treasury auction"... it would be the equivalent of me listing a product on ebay, borrowing money from a bank at 0% interest, bidding up my own product, and then buying it myself with the bank's money and promising the bank I'll repay them when I re-sell my product again sometime in the future.
There's not even any logical sense in this sham the Fed and Treasury are running and it's going to end up backfiring on them because this type of manipulation will burst the bull bubble in Treasuries, it will send the yield on the 10-year far above the 3.00% level and that will put downside pressure on mortgage lending rates making it even harder for potential homeowners to borrow which will even further cap home prices and prevent them from rising. Yeah, that sounds like a great plan to me... and then we have the whole issue for how this sham floods the money-supply which I don't even have time to get in to right now.
In my view, the days of the great Treasury bull run should be officially over. Treasury prices should be starting their march back down while yields should be starting their march back up. Treasury supply should far exceed demand and all of those factors are nothing but bearish for Treasuries. But, with $101 billion worth of fresh US debt flooding the markets this week, I believe equities will be one of the beneficiaries...
0 UK sovereign debt risk
Not only do those debt and budgetary issues put the GBP at risk, the potential for a ratings downgrade on UK sovereign debt adds a tremendous amount of risk. Just like Treasuries and Bunds, Gilts are AAA rated but it's my opinion their rating is now at risk. With UK government expenses running almost 125% higher than revenues, how can their sovereign debt rating not be at risk?
The way the UK is dealing with the staggering expense-to-revenue situation is by printing more money but anybody with half a brain cell in their head knows that's not an answer to the problem. In a perfect and honest world the UK's debt rating would have already been reduced to at least emerging market levels (BBB) even though their budget, expense-to-revenue, and debt-to-GDP ratios rival that of any third world country. At this point Great Britain's monetary and fiscal situation reminds me of another island, Haiti.
According to the latest UK debt figures, the DMO will need to raise an additional £197 billion in public debt in 2010, £154 billion in 2012 and 2013, and £125 billion in 2013 and 2014. So, what does all this mean for us as Forex traders, especially for those that trade the pound? It's very simple, and it won't matter what your chart or your techs say, should Standard and Poors, Moodys, or Fitch drop the triple-A rating on Gilts, the pound sterling will be brutalized, end of story.
0 The cousins of Forex
The final two days last week while I was trading the yen crosses I noticed an interesting correlation shift between the yens and their majors, specifically between the EUR/JPY and its cousin, the EUR/USD and the GBP/JPY and its cousin, the GBP/USD. I'll get to that part in a moment, but before we dissect that potential correlation shift we need to put some things in perspective in regards to the Japanese yen.
Overall, the JPY put in a rather strong week, especially against the USD, even in the face of equities that were able to rally after selling-off earlier in the week. Under "normal" market conditions, the exact opposite would have been the case as riskier appetites send their money-flows into equities and out of the yen, and based on that fairly solid and steady market correlation, the yen crosses would have been driven higher as the S&P 500 and Dow made back their losses.
That wasn't exactly the case for one of the two yen crosses... earlier in the week I gave a GJ support level of 141.50 which did manage to hold solid all week, but there was a definite shift in the correlation between the GU, GJ, and equities... both the EUR/USD and GBP/USD managed to put in a rather strong performance on Thursday and Friday, however, the GBP/JPY sold-off to a much larger degree than the EUR/JPY even though they generally follow each other when equities are strong and their cousins remain well supported, which was the case at the end of last week.
On Friday the EUR/JPY made its high for the day and remained well supported to the upside just as the EUR/USD was putting in the same exact performance. The GBP/USD also remained fairly supported yet the GBP/JPY was sold-off with conviction. As the euro was testing the 1.3300 level its cousin was testing the 129.00 level, which were their top of the range highs, correspondingly, while the pound sterling was testing its highs at the 1.4770 level and was able to remain supported above 1.4700, the GJ was plummeting down to the 142.50 level which was 200-points lower than its high. Within the GJ's price action it showed zero signs it should be bought and was screaming "sell me" from the time NY opened and right through the close.
So why would the EU and EJ maintain its positive correlation and maintain its ability to move in tandem with equities while the GU and GJ went in opposite directions? Now before we go any further, let me just say this is my own theory and opinion, so take it for what it's worth...
As technical as the GBP/JPY may be, the markets were hit with some massively negative fundamental data out of the UK and even though the GBP/USD found a way to recover back above the 1.4750 level on Friday, I think it's possible the pound sterling/yen correlation is showing risk aversion towards the UK economy, based on the UK's fundamentals which are growing alarmingly negative.
The dollars fundamentals were bad last week and the yen gained a lot of ground on dollar. The euro's fundamentals were great last week and the euro gained on yen. The pound sterling's fundamentals were abysmal and the yen gained on the pound... are you seeing a pattern here? I am. As risk aversion still remains the order of the day, to me it's obvious that the yen was the weakest against the currency which had the strongest fundamentals, and that currency was clearly the euro, not the dollar or the pound sterling.
0 Prices and inflation
As we've talked about several times the past few weeks in the updates, prices and price inflation are a major catalyst that either drive markets up or drive them down, it's a very simple correlation. Here's what today's GDP data revealed about 2008 Q4 and 2009 Q1 prices/inflation:
GDP price index for domestic purchasing:
-3.9% in Q4 2008
-1.0% in Q1 2009
GDP price index for domestic purchasing ex food and energy:
+1.2% in Q4 2008
+1.4% in Q1 2009
Those numbers are pretty cut and dry. The plunge in consumer price inflation that hammered equities in Q4 of 2008 is subsiding and this is the kind of fundamental data that leads to higher prices of equities and money-flows that go out of the USD, JPY, and Treasuries and back into those higher risk markets. These price and inflation numbers are what I consider to be some of the core underlying fundamentals of what moves markets and money-flows and it's glaringly obvious why equities have recovered in 2009. The correlation between prices, inflation, and equities shows part of the story for why and how equities have been able to recover, these fundamental correlations are working just as they should should be and even though there are signs of disinflation within other fundamental data, this GDP report reveals possible resurgence of price pressures.
0 How abysmal headline growth data sparks a rally
I was shocked to see it but I think we actually got some truth this morning with the latest GDP data. The headline number showed contraction of 6.1% in Q1 while Q4 was revised even lower to show contraction of 6.3%. Yes, those numbers are ugly and I'm sure quite a few market participants were expecting the S&P 500 and Dow to get hammered on this data, but that was certainly not the case. About the only thing that got hammered was the USD Index and Treasuries.
The headline numbers really didn't matter, especially to those that move markets. It was the underlying fundamentals contained within the GDP report that sent money-flows into risk markets like equities, crude, gold, and non-risk averse currencies such as the euro, pound sterling, and Aussie, and out of the dollar, yen, and US Treasuries. When it comes to using the fundamentals to gauge market direction, sentiment, and where money-flows will go, the thing I do is breakdown the entire GDP report to get a full and well rounded view for how markets should react.
So, what I'm going to do here is go through what I saw in the GDP fundamentals that explain why the markets reacted the way they did; this is the exercise I go through in my mind whenever we get a major piece of fundamental data that will cause strong price action volatility. And GDP is certainly one of those fundamentals that impact money-flows and sentiment
0 Learn Forex
Unless your broker or signal provider is calling the shots for you, a certain amount of bona fide forex training is in order. From formal schooling to online education and learn-at-home courses, sorting through the various forex training alternatives can be more confusing than the subject of forex itself.
Regardless of where you are in your forex career, make sure you stay abreast of current trends and changes as they apply to forex trading techniques, signals, pips, spreads, and more. As a well-educated forex trader, I still seek counsel from my favorite signal providers just to stay one step ahead. For many, one source of forex education is not enough, as different services offer varying degrees of information about the forex market. Make sure your forex education is both well rounded and from reputable trainers.