Bond Yields at Highest Levels Since 2019Bonds have edged out new lows as investors weigh deescalation of the war in Ukraine and increased expectations for a Fed rate hike . Yields in ZN, the 10 year treasury note, are the highest they've been since July 2019. We have sliced through multiple technical levels below, and have established new lows, yet again. We do appear to be seeing a brief pivot from lows at 124'19, but 125'07 is providing resistance confirmed by a red triangle on the KRI. If we are able to continue the rally and break through resistance, then 125'17 and 126'00 are the next targets above. If we continue to sell off, then 124'06 is the next target below.
Bonds
ZB1! (10 Year T-bonds ) , H4 Bearish dropType: Bullish Rise
Resistance: 156'01
Support: 152'02
Pivot: 150'15
Preferred case: With price expected to bounce from the stochastic indicator, we have bullish bias that price will rise from our pivot of 150'15 in line with the horizontal swing low support to our 1st resistance of 156'01 in line with the horizontal pull back resistance and 50% Fibonacci retracement.
Alternative Scenario : Alternatively, price may break pivot structure and head for 1st support at 152'02 in line with the horizontal swing low support.
Fundamentals: With the uncertainty of the RUSSO-UKRAINE conflict and the implications on the US economy due to increase increase sanctions. Bond prices will continue to increase as increase frequency of rate hikes seems more unlikely. As fundamentals and technicals align, ZB1! might be a good opportunity to look into.
Bonds Test LowsBonds have smashed through relative lows in the mid 126's to find support at 126'00 which appears to be a technical and psychological level. We have added this as a technical level on the chart. ZN has been on a clear decline falling 3 handles from the 129's to the base of the 126's. The Kovach OBV is on a steady decline, but does appear to be leveling off suggesting we may find support here, or at least that the selloff may ease up. If not, the next target is 125'17. We do appear to be severely oversold and if we see a technical retracement into the bear trend we must break 126'11, where we are currently meeting resistance as confirmed by a red triangle on the KRI. After that, 126'19 and 126'28 are targets.
ZB1! (10 Year T-bonds ) , H4 Bearish dropType: Bearish drop
Resistance: 159'22
Support: 151'22
Pivot: 156'00
Preferred case: With price moving below the ichimoku cloud, we have bearish bias that price will drop from our pivot of 156'00 in line with the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement to our 1st resistance of 159'22 in line with the horizontal swing low support.
Alternative Scenario : Alternatively, price may break pivot structure and head for 1st support at 151'22 in line with the 100% Fibonacci projection level.
Fundamentals: With the uncertainty of the RUSSO-UKRAINE conflict and the implications on the US economy due to increase increase sanctions. Bond prices will continue to increase as increase frequency of rate hikes seems more unlikely. As fundamentals and technicals align, ZB1! might be a good opportunity to look into.
Rate volatility breaks March 2020 high!Here we have the MOVE index.
This expresses the volatility in bond yields, and to an extent, 'fear' in the bond market.
It seems to be quite under the radar right now, but I want to outline why this is important.
The index is currently above the March 2020 settlement high...
And yet US equities haven't necessarily reacted to this move just yet.
But we're seeing signs of stress now in the credit market...
This chart is showing the BAML high yield options adjusted spread FRED:BAMLH0A0HYM2 .
This is important, as it's showing the difference in yield between the treasury curve and all bonds rated BB and below, weighted by market cap...
And we can currently see that this is rising, trading at the highest price since December 2020.
This is where the real risk degradation will come from, and it is starting to follow the overall move in sovereign bond yields (identified by the MOVE index) as global central banks become more and more hawkish.
For firms with a lot of high yield debt, this is not good, considering their margins are likely to be very thin and they could be defined as 'zombies', or firms that are only surviving because they can service their current debt levels.
If this debt cost increases, they will face even more hardship.
Make sure to keep an eye on both of these indices going forward.
ZB1! (10 Year T-bonds ) , H4 Bullish continuation Type: Bullish continuation
Resistance: 163'18
Support: 157'24
Pivot: 159'16
Preferred case: With price moving above the ichimoku cloud, we have a bias that price will rise from our pivot of 127'25 in line with the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement to our 1st resistance of 129'00 which is also the graphical swing high resistance.
Alternative Scenario : Price may dip to the support level of 127'00 in line with 61.8% Fibonacci projection level.
Fundamentals: With the uncertainty of the RUSSO-UKRAINE conflict and the implications on the US economy due to increase increase sanctions. Bond prices will continue to increase as increase frequency of rate hikes seems more unlikely. As fundamentals and technicals align, ZB1! might be a good opportunity to look into.
2yr & 10yr Bond with M1Nothing to be concerned about here... if you're an ostrich.
Inflation spiraling out of control, while bonds reflect the loosest monetary policy possible with a dovish Federal Reserve hand-wringing about tanking the markets.
M1 has gone beyond parabolic, practically vertical.
The Fed communicated this week that they will try and control future prices but they're not going to do anything to reign in current "transitory" prices.
Fed Chair Powell "hopes" history will say the current regime got this under control when replying to Senator Shelby in congressional talks this week... to which Shelby replied their actions to this point indicate otherwise.
Bonds Volatile As Geopolitics WeighBonds have demonstrated some great volatility in the past 24 hours. We tested 127'08, and formed a rounding bottom before blasting off again to the 128 handle. A wick hit 128'24, another one of our levels before retreating to level off in the mid 128's around 128'11. We are right in the middle of the previous range between 127'08 and 128'24. The Kovach OBV is flat, suggesting it could go either way from here.
US 10-Year Yield PeakThe 10 year yield will not get to 3%. Since 1987 we have seen this downward trend in treasuries indicated by the channels on the chart.
As of today, the 2 standard deviation peak is at 2.2% and the 3 standard deviation peak is at 2.9%. In one year it will move down to 2.0% and 2.7% respectively. There's also a chance we already peaked and we don't see a 10 year yield over 2% for the foreseeable future.
There has not been a single time since 1985 that we broke out of the 3 standard deviation upper bound. It is safe to say 2.9% is a hard cap on the 10 year without a major meltdown in the US bond market.
Even the 2 std. dev. channel has only been broken twice (and only once significantly) since then. I think this will cause huge bond buying whenever it gets above 2.2% and realistically we won't see over 2.5%.
Eventually we'll start flirting with the 0% bound and the 2 std. dev trend will dip negative sometime in 2030. Until then, enjoy the roaring 20s.
Bund approaching much tougher resistanceAs traders unsurprisingly head to safe havens, one of the biggest movers has been the bond market, which has seen a vicious rally higher. I am having a look at the bond market this morning. How far will this rally go? This is a tough call to make but given the overhead band of resistance, which the market has reached, my suspicion is that we should at least see a pause here.
So, what makes a ‘tough’ area of resistance on a chart? This happens when a number of chart factors converge in the same area – so for the Bund March contract market this morning (N.B. this is about to expire) we have 2 double Fibos at 170.90/96 (61.8% retracement of the move seen this year and the 50% retracement of the move down from August 2021. Directly above here lies the 200-day ma at 171.66 AND another double Fib oar 172.52/69 (the 78.6% retracement of the move seen this year and the 61.8% retracement of the move down from August). In addition, we have a whole host of resistance coming in from price – previous highs and lows. We also have the 55-week ma coming in at 171.54.
MY point is – there is a LOT of resistance in this band, and you may like to tighten up stops if you are in it!
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Why I think it's a good idea to have some EM exposureEmerging markets have dramatically underperformed the S&P 500 since the launch of the first EM ETF in 1987. However, during that period, there have been stretches of outperformance. In fact, there appears to be a cycle. EM outperformed from 1987 to 1994, underperformed from 1994 to 2000, outperformed from 2000 to 2010, and underperformed from 2010 until the present. I believe we may be nearing the end of the current down cycle, and approaching a period of EM outperformance. I also believe EM is relatively inexpensive compared to the S&P 500, and that yields on both EM equities and EM debt make a good case for EM investing here. And, finally, I believe that there are significant tail risks ahead for the US and Europe, and some diversification is warranted.
Analyzing the Cycle
If indeed there's a cycle in the relative performance of EM vs. US, how much longer will the current downswing last before the next upswing?
The lengths of the last three EM/US cycles were 2192 days, 2464 days, and 3682 days. That's an exponential progression. If the progression continues, the current cycle should be around 4550 days. We're currently at 4110 days. So, we may be nearing the end of the cycle. (But this is by no means an exact science; I just think it's interesting).
Analyzing Valuation
Let's compare some basic price ratios on an EM ETF and an S&P 500 ETF. This data comes from Fidelity.
IEMG
P/E: 12.15
P/B: 1.76
P/S: 1.42
P/FCF: 8.63
Dividend Yield: 3.08%
SPY
P/E: 23.00
P/B: 4.30
P/S: 3.00
P/FCF: 17.22
Dividend Yield: 1.27%
So you're paying roughly 2x as much for the S&P 500 as you are for emerging markets. That might make sense if you expect EM economic growth to greatly lag US economic growth, but that isn't really the story that the economic data tell. The US's share of global GDP has stayed approximately the same over the last several decades (~15%), while EM's share of global GDP has increased from approximately 42% in 1996 to about 60% currently. 71% of global GDP growth is in emerging markets, and only 29% is in developed markets. So the data don't support the view that the US economy is growing much faster than EM.
Rather, I think US equities have a high premium for a couple reasons. First, US companies have done a really good job of increasing earnings a lot faster than the economy grows. S&P 500 profit margins have steadily grown from about 6% in 1994 to about 14% today. Secondly, interest rates in the US have gradually fallen over the last several decades, and as interest rates fall, stock market multiples expand. (Instead of buying bonds, investors buy stocks when bond rates and yields are low.) However, we may be nearing the end of both of these trends. 0% is probably the floor for nominal interest rates in the US, and corporate profit margins can't expand forever. (I don't know where the ceiling for margins might be, but I suspect that rising margins are related to falling interest rates, so that if rates hit a floor, margins will hit a ceiling.)
If multiple and margin expansion in the US start to hit a limit, then the future of multiple expansion and margin expansion will be emerging markets, where rates are still way above zero and can go a lot lower. Plus, EM investors will get paid a much higher dividend yield in the meantime.
EM Debt vs. EM Equities
Traditionally, US investors have been advised to maintain a 60-40 portfolio-- 60% stocks, 40% bonds. But with real yields on US bonds deeply negative, a lot of US investors have gone to an all-equities allocation. I'd argue that one way to get bond exposure with better yield is to buy EM bonds rather than US bonds.
Comparing VWOB vs GOVT is informative. VWOB is an ETF of sovereign EM bonds, and GOVT is an ETF of sovereign US bonds. As you can see, the overall yield-adjusted return on VWOB has been significantly higher since the start of our data in 2013. The distribution yield on VWOB is about 4.52%, and the distribution yield on GOVT is about 1.43%. So you get way more yield on VWOB. The default risk is higher too, of course, which is why VWOB is more volatile than GOVT.
Note that there's been a big dip in relative valuation recently. There are a couple reasons for that. First, with inflation high, emerging markets have been raising interest rates and tightening financial conditions a lot faster than developed markets. And second, the Russian invasion of Ukraine raises the risk that both Ukraine and Russia will default on sovereign debt.
I don't know where the relative bottom will be, but I've been buying EM debt on the way down. We're heading into a monetary tightening cycle that poses risks to all global asset prices, but since emerging markets are so far ahead of developed markets in the cycle, it's possible that a lot of the tightening is already priced in for EM.
Tail Risks
One of the reasons that EM equities and bonds are less popular than the US equivalents is that they're seen as being exposed to a lot of tail risk. The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a good example. Autocracy and political instability can lead to bad leadership decisions that tank markets.
But I think the US has more political tail risk exposure than we'd like to admit. Our political discourse has been deteriorating for years, with partisanship extremely high, membership in civic organizations extremely low, and voters' policy views increasingly unhinged. Victims of our own success, we're being targeted by highly effective propaganda machines in Russia and China that seek to sow the seeds of political instability. We've also got so much money sloshing around in this country that our political process is being targeted by corporate lobbyists and criminal syndicates as well. It's not a good sign when companies get 10x the return from investing in lobbyists than from investing in R&D. The US still ranks low on measures of corruption, but that's largely because the scales aren't built to estimate the kind of corruption we have in the United States (e.g. "access money").
Consider that the leading presidential candidate for 2024 is under investigation in multiple jurisdictions for financial fraud and is widely suspected of connections to the Russian government, yet there's no real sign of his party even trying to muster a primary challenger. And on the other side, you've got a guy with unprecedented low approval ratings, and his party doesn't seem to be trying to muster a primary challenger either. I don't know how you break the two-party duopoly, but it's increasingly dysfunctional. And all this political dysfunction is arguably parasitic on economic growth.
Perhaps even more worrying than political tail risk is climate tail risk. Granted, the US has more resources than other countries that it can deploy to adapt to a changing climate. But it has one big vulnerability that EMs don't have: the North Atlantic current, which is reportedly on the verge of collapse. When the North Atlantic current goes, there will be catastrophic changes in climate for both North America and Europe. The southern hemisphere is less exposed. So, I think southern hemisphere investments make for good diversification to protect against specifically northern hemisphere climate risks.
Bonds Soar off the Russia/Ukraine ConflictBonds have soared as risk off sentiment prevails as the Ukraine conflict intensifies. Russian forces are bearing down on Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine and civilian casualties are mounting. ZN has blasted off from highs at 127'08, through 127'22, and well into the 128 handle. We have cleared 128'01, the first level in the 128's, and have just broken through 128'10. With such a strong bull impulse, it is difficult not to anticipate a pullback or sideways currection at this point. We are likely to at least range at current levels, between 128'01 and 128'11, with a ceiling at 128'24. If not, expect a retracement to 127'22. Worst case, it is certainly possible that we will retrace the entire move to 127'08 (recall that gold did this just last week).
Bonds Retest LowsBonds tested relative highs with increased risk off sentiment due to Russia's attack on the Ukraine. However, after a day of stock selloff and safehaven inflows, we quickly retraced back to support at 126'11. The Kovach OBV barely budged off the rally to 127'08, where a red triangle on the KRI confirmed resistance. It has since bottomed out, confirming support at 126'11, but if we break down from here, then there is a vacuum zone down to lows at 125'17.
Macro market update - Traditional & CryptoHello everyone! In this idea we'll talk about the current macro environment and give updates on the most important markets.
Although I am not a political analyst and definitely not an expert on the Russia/Ukraine conflict I need to start from there, as the situation seems to be getting worse by the day. For now, there is no clarity as to what will happen next, even though some sort of agreement/resolution is still possible, probabilities currently seem stacked in favor of a war breaking out. Of course, the impact this would have on markets would be significant and that's something markets are already pricing in. The key issue here is that the markets were already severely stressed due to high inflation (shortages), world economy drowning in debt and all sorts of issues, while bond yields were going higher. Therefore, it isn't just that conflict in isolation, it is the conflict at a time where nothing seems to be going right. Again, I have no idea what will happen or how other countries will try to interfere if Russia invades Ukraine, however there is no way there won't be all sorts of issues, especially around energy markets and especially in Europe. Just the uncertainty around energy prices which could cause another inflation spike, at a time where people are demanding governments and Central banks to do something about inflation, while markets are overvalued and are trending down, is not a good combination.
With the current events it looks like the probability of the Fed raising rates by 50 bps in March has come down significantly. It is pretty normal to expect the Fed to not try and push things at this stage and even slow down a bit, as they don't want to spook the markets even more. From now on they can blame the fact that they aren't raising rates on the uncertainty caused by external factors which affect the global economy. The fact is that inflation was set to slow down dramatically in 2022 as demand has been going down, liquidity has been drying up and supply chain issues have eased significantly. Hence the Fed raising rates wouldn’t really do much to slow down inflation and it would be just a political move. At the same time, they know they won't really be able to raise rates above 2-3%, while the market is already indicating that in 2023 they will have to cut rates. The yield curve is already inverting and the 2y10y spread is already at 40bps. Essentially they’ve been trapped and a war would be able to get them out of their hole is a war. Why? Because in my opinion bond yields could fall dramatically as investors try to get into the most safe and liquid instruments, while the government will force the Fed to do anything it can to support it and tell it to forget fighting inflation.
In the short term however, we could see a spike in bond yields (2y to 2-2.5% and 10y to 2.5-3%) as the market might initially anticipate higher inflation due to more spending by the government and higher inflation due to higher energy prices. Now the truth is that even though I do expect yields to come back down eventually and resume their long-term downtrend, I could easily be wrong and yields just go up from here. We are at a situation where oil prices could skyrocket and supply chains break down again, while governments trying to print their way out of this hole. At that stage I think the market will want to mostly hold US treasuries as they are the safest and most liquid instruments and it will refuse to create money (banks won’t be willing to lend to anyone other than the government). That would be the point where the market doesn't want to take risks and would be willing to not try and beat inflation. Someone might be now thinking 'well that's crazy, you always have to beat inflation'. Well, that's not always the case and certainly not the case for everyone. At situations like this most people are losing no matter what, as when there are shortages, waste of resources, unnecessary deaths and destruction, there are less winners than usual. Most people are used to living in an environment when the pie is growing, not shrinking... At the same time, it is clear that in the long term the ones that have to lose the most are bond holders, either nominal or real terms, although in the short term they might see tremendous gains once bonds bottom (yields top). The reason behind this is that there is no easy way to get out of this massive debt - low growth environment the global economy is in, without a massive fiat currency devaluation.
So let's go through the charts one by one, starting with bonds. It's very clear that we are getting closer and closer to the key resistance. Bonds are at support (yields at resistance), but the strongest support is 6-7% lower (~50 bps). It is unclear what the bond market is signaling for now, but bonds and stocks going lower would a major sign of trouble in the short term.
Commodities do look pretty strong, with Gold finally starting to shine, although until we get a close above 1960 we could expect some chop. My view on Gold is that it could get even all the way down to 1350 until it really breaks above 1960, however a breakout looks more and more likely.
Oil is also looking pretty strong, even though it might be somewhat overvalued here. It is very clear that there supply of oil is pretty low and barely keeps up with demand, despite the fact that demand has gone down. A war would probably have a massive impact on the market, with Oil potentially making new ATHs in 2022-2023. Like I had mentioned before, the 90-110$ region has a decent amount of resistance, so we could continue to see some chop in that area. Based on the current price action, buying at 75$ would be best potential buy as it would be very hard to see lower prices. 55$ is also possible, but we'd need to see the global economy crash, while a war doesn't happen for it to get down there.
Natural gas in Europe seems to have stabilized, and we could see it go down in case there are no sanctions on Russia or because the US starts exporting some of it to Europe. However we are seeing NatGas slowly trying to go higher in the US, and based on the current price action it looks like it will trade above 6.5$ in 2022-2023.
The USD is at a weird place as against most developing market currencies it seems to be very strong, but against most developed market currencies weaker than expected. Unfortunately I wasn't able to share a index I created of the USD vs developing markets, but I am able to share an index of the USD vs developed markets, as the DXY isn't the best index out there. Based on it it is clear that the USD is trending higher in the medium term, but it has been going sideways for a very long time and has reached an area of resistance where it could potentially reversed. At the end of the day, there is a need for a weaker dollar and this current set of circumstances could definitely lead into a weaker dollar in the short term. Personally I don't believe that the USD is done, I do believe it has more upside and that it is the strongest currency out there... However I also do see the potential of it going much lower as 1) US prints more than the rest, 2) US rates fall harder than the rest, 3) Everyone tries to get away from the dollar strandard.
Stocks aren't in a great place, as the Nasdaq 100 just made a new low and is flirting with its 400 DMA, the S&P 500 retested its lows and the 300 DMA, while the Russell 2000 looks like it just finished its throwback after a massive distribution and could fall another 15-20%. It is currently very clear that stocks are in a short-medium term downtrend, which is very close to turning into a full blow bear market if they continue lower. In my opinion the long term uptrend is intact, and as the market just managed to sweep some major lows and bounce, this could be the bottom. Or at least I should say it has to be it, or I see stocks going down another 10-20% before they full bottom. At the moment the S&P looks the strongest index out of the 3 and could potentially bottom around 3900-4000. This is the first place I'd be looking to buy, even if it is just for a bounce. For Nasdaq it is very unclear to me where the bottom might be, however for the Russell it is very clear that a potential bottom could come in the 1600-1740 zone. Essentially expecting for the 'vaccine' trade to reverse and buy the retest of the 2018-2020 highs.
The one chart that is telling me there is more pain coming, is the VIX. Based on the current setup it looks like Volatility is in an uptrend and that there is a need for an explosive move higher before it reverses. It would actually be very odd for it to top here, after slowly going higher. In my previous analyses I talked about how I expect the VIX to get to 48 before it reverses, as given the current circumstances it is impossible for me to imagine that we won't see the market extremely fearful due to major changes in the world. Things aren't all that great and there is a lot of change going on in all sorts of directions, therefore I expect to see some sort of shock before I believe the bottom is in for stocks. Again, it is possible that things might have bottomed here, as we got a dip while the stock market was closed and some major lows have been swept, yet it is very hard to imagine that in 2022 we won't get a major crash, unless the Fed doesn't raise rates, resumes QE and there is no war.
Finally, the Crypto market is in a similar state as stocks. The two have been heavily correlated since November and they probably will continue being correlated until we get a major crash. At that point I do see Crypto bottom first and the rally much harder than stocks, as it will benefit the most from an environment of sanctions, high inflation and more money printing. In my opinion, Bitcoin will probably be the one that performs the best over the next few weeks / months, as it is the one that has been going sideways the longest, while it is the safest and most liquid asset in crypto, with the strongest narrative in such an environment (digital gold).
BTCUSD has been in a very clear downtrend and the rejection at 46k just confirmed that until we close above all the major moving averages, anything between 20k and 28k is possible. Going lower would be pretty hard and the most likely scenario over the next few weeks / months, is a bottom at 24-25k. Won't go into more detail here as I've done so twice before and I definitely recommend people to read my previous analyses on the crypto market.
Bonds Attempt to Establish Value Near LowsBonds have picked up from lows, retracing the vacuum zone back to resistance at 126'19, exactly as we had predicted yesterday. The Kovach OBV picked up very slightly, but nowhere near enough to suggest any serious buying momentum. We are seeing resistance from these levels, as anticipated, confirmed by a red triangle on the KRI. It seems likely that ZN may retrace the range again, and find support at 125'17, but if we continue to test higher levels, then 126'18 and 127'01 are the next targets.
Here is why the Us-Dollar stands still! Pump should come soon!Hey tradomaniacs,
everything I wanna say is mentioned in the chart.
Yields are currently falling due to more demand in Bonds (oversold market) which are attractive for investors who want less volatility.
When there is demand in Bondy yields are moving down (negative correlation) which is dragging down the momentum for US-Dollar which should actually move up when equities fall.
Wait for yields to pump during the sell-off in stocks and US-Dollar will pump.
The Problem With JapanIn this video we discuss the current macro economic problems facing the Bond market and anticipate that regardless of what happens we will see dislocations (volatility) in a number of different markets.
The problems with Japan stems from their monetary policy to implement Yield Curve Control (YCC) where they are committed to keeping their interest rates between +0.25% & -0.25% with the targeted rate as 0%.
As global inflation is hitting consumers hard and all over the world central banks move to increase interest rates & lower economic stimulus introduced during COVID-19, Japan's 10Yr Government Bond (JGB) Yield is at the upper limit of their band (currently trading at 0.22%). As the Bank of Japan (BoJ) now steps into the market and buy as many bonds as required for the market to maintain the desired interest rate it could very easily start to drag other global bond yields such as the US 10Yr Bond lower with it... the exact opposite of what central bankers want right now in order to battle inflation.
Its situations such as this that historically have meant inflation runs out of control and causes catastrophic impacts on the economies of the world, or the flip side to this situation is that Japan is forced to abandon the current band of YCC and accept the inevitable negative effect this would have on both domestic and global Stock markets.
My prediction for how this plays out is that at least for the meantime the global market follows the JGB Yield and starts a correction until this starts to cause real issues for inflation to the extent that central bankers start introducing things such as emergency rate hikes... essentially central bankers may hope they can get away with no increasing rates because they analyse inflation to be "transitory".
In this situation I will be looking at the following trades:
USDJPY Short
Gold Long
Nasdaq Long
Let me know your own thoughts in the comments below & feel free to share this with any friends.
US10Y in-depth analysis - Why I think we will see Gold above 2k In this video I am going to show you why I think that we will have a major decreas e in bonds price this year. This is due to the fact that we are currently trading in a wedge shape , or a so-called Elliot Wave Diagonal which is characterized by a 5-Waves-Pattern , of which every inner wave is shorter than the first impulsive wave.
Fundamentally spoken, I do assume that rate hiking might already priced in the current Dollar and Bond prices. Therefore FED rate hike announcement might be the catalyst for several sell-off waves.
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Thanks.
RT
In depth analysis of bond yields & the USD! Macro series pt2Part 2 This is the second part of the macro analysis series. In this part we'll focus on analyzing the current situation around the US bond market and the US dollar, while trying to map out the future depending on how the Fed and the economy move. You can find the rest of the analysis on the links down below.
After going in depth about interest rates, the USD, the Fed and the economy, it is time to accompany everything with some charts. In the first chart we have the 2year yields of US government bonds which have been in a downtrend for more than 30 years. Based on technical analysis there is resistance for yields at the 1.3-1.5% zone, as well as 2-2.5%. The fact that we are so close to the first resistance is matching well with the fact that after the first rate hike the Fed might not raise rates again, and rates might actually start falling again. Even if that’s not the case, if the Fed tries to push the narrative that it will raise rates even more, we could see the 2y bond yield go up to 2% and stop there, by respecting the long-term downtrend. That also goes well with the fact that inflation could be potentially coming down and even be below 2% by the end of 2022 or with the fact that at that point markets might start to collapse, forcing the Fed to lower rates again. In the second chart we have the 10year yields of US government bonds, and the downtrend in this one is much cleaner. This one is very close to major resistance already, yet it could climb up to 3-3.5% before it tops. Breaking above the resistance channel doesn’t mean the downtrend is broken until we get a close above 3.5%. It is key to note that both charts are showing major signs of long-term bottoms, which could last for years but until we see these trends break it is early to confirm a reversal. For example, the 10y reclaimed its 2012-2019 lows and is showing some strength, while the 2y has had a perfect round bottom and is currently going up strong. The truth is that their bottoms in March 2020 really look like a proper capitulation bottom, ones that could signal the end of a major downtrend.
By looking at the actual price of long-term bonds ($TLT, $UB etc), we can see that they had a proper blow off top. Before we get into our views on bonds though, something we need to clarify for those that don’t know much about bonds, is that bond yields are inversely correlated with the price of bonds, which means that when yields go up, bonds go down and when yields go down, bonds go up. Therefore, the blow off top in bonds could be a major signal that bonds have bottomed for good (yields could be headed higher). To an extend the current drop in bonds could be attributed to the fact that the same way the pendulum swung too much on one side and it is now swinging on the other. This is a pretty reasonable assumption as the bond bull market has been raging for years and in Feb-Mar 2020 it got extremely overbought. Hence shaking out traders who believed and still believe that yields would turn negative soon might have to suffer for a few more months or years before they see their ideas play out, if they ever do. Having said all that is we need to remember that the blow off top was accompanied by some fairly strong actions by the US government and the Fed, in order to save the bond market and the economy, both of which were under immense stress and almost collapsed. Nearly 2 years later and all the support is being withdrawn as the government has cut down its spending, the Fed will raise rates and shrink its balance sheet, and the pandemic seems to be over as Covid has become endemic. These are having notable effects on markets as the 2y yield has been rising faster relative to the 10y and they are now only 60 basis points apart, while in March they were 160 basis points apart. That means that the yield curve has been inverting, which is a major signal that future growth expectations are muted, yet another sign that the Fed might now be able to raise rates much. Essentially the bond market is telling us that there could be some short-term inflationary pressure and growth, but in the long run we won’t have much growth or inflation. Finally, the last key observation is around the Fed doing Quantitative Tightening (QT = shrinking of the balance sheet), which empirically tends to depress long term yields. Usually when the Fed buys bonds, yields go up (when in theory they should go down) and when the Fed sells bonds, yields go down (when in theory they should go up). The reason behind this is that when the Fed buys it creates a risk on environment, so the banks that sold them their bonds go buy other riskier stuff, and when the Fed sells it creates a risk off environment, so the banks that buy the bonds want more bonds. To sum it all up again and put it in a tradeable idea, we could see yields trade higher and higher, and actually peak in March around the time the Fed plans to stop purchasing bonds, a clear buy the rumor sell the news idea.
Next chart is the USD Index, or else known as the DXY. I’d like to start by saying that although this isn’t the best way to measure the performance of the USD relative to other currencies, it is the most commonly used one. Just a few days ago the DXY had a major breakout with a lot of strength and it could go higher, despite the fact that we didn’t get immediate continuation. Since 2015 the DXY has essentially been going sideways, and has formed a pattern that looks pretty similar to 2008-2015 period, something someone could call accumulation or in this case re-accumulation. In our opinion the probabilities of the DXY getting to 112-120 first are slightly higher than getting to 80-84, as the short term and long-term trends are bullish, while the medium-term trend is neutral. Of course, it wouldn’t be surprising if it gets to 80-84 to bottom and then go to 112-120 if things get very volatile with Central banks and especially the Fed taking a lot of actions. In case it goes above 105, then the Fed, the US government and other Central banks will seriously have to think of a way to devalue the USD or there is a risk the global economy will face extreme problems. Despite the fact that these problems could be somewhat preventable, taking any sort of action now will probably have a huge political cost. Everyone wants a weaker dollar as most people owe dollars, not own them. The world is short on dollars, banks in and out of the US aren’t really creating many new dollars, the Fed isn’t creating dollars and yet more and more people rely on the dollar as a store of value or as a medium of exchange. Eventually the world needs to get off the ‘dollar standard’, though this is more likely to happen when push comes to shove. Governments and Central banks will eventually find a way to devalue to the dollar and transition to a new system, but they aren’t ready yet and this is more likely to happen after we get another major financial crisis.
Correction in Russian local sovs not yet implemented in corpsAs usual, Russian local corp bonds are less sensitive to momentum than sovs (OFZ). On price charts you can see that in spite of correction in OFZ corp index moved less. Investors should be more careful in local corps selection paying more attention to spread values.