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Inflation

The Rand in the rocky credit markets The economic calendar is wild this week so I thought it would be best to do a deep fundamental dive into the USDZAR . All the attention will be on the Federal reserve tomorrow and whether or when they will pause their rate hikes. We need to look past the hype around the interest rate and the “pivot" narrative. Focus should however be on how the markets will cope with the Fed’s liquidity drain and how it will impact the future price of money ( ie . Interest rates). Before we kick-off, correlation does not imply causation... I’ll start by explaining the chart you’re looking at. What you’re seeing is the positive correlation between the USDZAR and the difference between the South African government bond 10-year yield (ZA10Y) and the US 10-year treasury yield (US10Y). The interest rate differential is referred to as the carry trade potential. Investors can borrow money on the cheap from developed low-risk markets and invest the borrowed money in riskier destinations to earn more interest. The interest rate difference is then pocketed by the investor. The preferred vehicle to capitalise on the interest rate differentials between two locations are government bonds (they are low risk and liquid). The reason for the positive correlation between the USDZAR and the bond yield differential is because when there is risk-on sentiment in the market, investors tend to move funds out of the safety of US treasuries and into riskier assets. The sell-off in US treasuries causes US10Y yields to rise (decreasing the bond yield differential), and the rand tends to appreciate in risk-on phases of the market, citrus paribus. (Decreasing bond yield differential; USDZAR decrease due to rand appreciation). Conversely, when investors are risk-off they run to the safety of US treasuries. The buying of US-treasuries lowers the US10-year yield which increases our bond yield differential. We all know how rapidly the rand can depreciate in risk-off phases when the liquidity wave pulls back to the US, leaving the rand on the rocky shore. (Increasing bond yield differential; USDZAR increases). Our strong correlation however weakened in August 2022 when the US 10-year yield rocketed higher after the Fed started their hiking cycle. Let’s zoom in on the Fed since its Fed week. The most important chart in the market , the Fed’s balance sheet: www.federalreserve.gov . The Fed has so far tapered roughly 5.52% off its balance sheet since April 2022. The Fed is selling treasuries to taper its balance sheet and to soak up liquidity from the market (if there will be enough buyers, only time will tell). This is rand negative. Now let’s get to where all this week’s focus will be, the Fed’s interest rate decision. The Fed is expected to slow its rate hikes to 25bps this week and push rates from 4.50% to 4.75%. The Fed tends to follow the US02-year yield (US02Y) as guidance on its interest rates and it seems as if the US02-year yield has topped out between 4.75% and 5.00%. The Fed pause seems near, and the latest inflation figures from the US supports the narrative that the Fed has managed to cool inflation. The most concerning thing in the market currently is the inverted yield curve: History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes. For the Fed to normalise the credit markets it will have to pause rates. That is usually when something the market breaks and the Fed is forced to cut rates and inject liquidity into the markets. When the Fed pushes easy money ( QE or whatever buzz phrase they'll use) into the market investors rotate from longer dated bonds to shorter dated bonds. To conclude, if and when the Fed pauses its rate hikes, the US10-year yield will melt higher which could be rand positive based off our correlation analysis. Just have popcorn (and gold , silver and other real assets) ready for when the Fed is forced to cut rates/ pivot because that will be caused by arguably the biggest credit market implosion in the history of fiat money. To end off I leave you with the words of Zoltan Pozsar: "commodities are collateral, and collateral is money."
by Goose96
Dont be fooled by the pump!!!!!Bitcoin has no value. Its value is made by human emotions. What happens when humans enter the depressive state of mind? Bitcoin will no longer be supported nor be interesting. Last time I posted on Bitcoin, I said that the narrative that would drive the price down was corona. And i quote: "With this corona bullshit..." This time the narrative will change. WAR and INFLATION will drive bitcoin down this time. WAR and INFLATION will make people enter a depressive state of mind. DXY will be pumped (WAR will cause this) = Bitcoin dumped. Short the next pump to 25k and join me on this ride to the ashes. "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9 Thank you!
Short
by Chew5Gum
9
Be prepared for a hawkish-than-expected Fed this week?Happy New Year of Rabbit! We will have a busy week. In addition to companies keep reporting result (Four of the FANNG companies will report earnings this week), other major events include a decisive Fed meeting, ECB meeting, BOE meeting, US employment data and OPEC+ meeting. Everyone’s focus will be on Fed meeting. Market fully expects a 25bp rise this week, and Fed might bow to market pressure and adapt a slower hiking pace. Having said that, the risk is Fed might signal there will be more interest rate hikes before the rate reach above 5%, rather than Fed Watch pricing in a pause at 4.75%. There is no doubt inflation is slowing down and the decelerating pace is pretty impressive, but there is still a big gap from the 2% target. Although there was some layoff news, they mainly concentrated on the sectors/companies that expanded rapidly during pandemic and now they are just downsizing to pre-covid level. From the initial jobless claims number, we can see the labour market stayed strong that might keep service inflation elevated. On Friday’s employment report, market expects hourly earnings will grow 4.3% yoy in January and unemployment rate inch up to 3.6%, that might force Fed to hike rate more than expected. The reopen of China economy might also pose risk to higher inflation. Cyclical commodity price such as copper and crude oil moved higher, offsetting the demand destruction concern resulted from a potential global recession. NYMEX WTI Crude Oil Futures broke the downtrend, a further breakthrough above USD82.64 might confirm a formation of uptrend, and could test USD93.64(Q4 double top high) and then USD96.97 (50% retracement). Any further expansionary fiscal policy targeting property or infrastructure sector in China, could also push the commodities price higher and thus the inflation. The supply chain diversification will structurally push up inflation. As the world factory, supply chain in China is very mature and cost effective, any shift of production line to other countries likely associated with higher cost. Idle capacity in China, together with new investment on supply chain in different countries, will permanently push the production cost higher. Globalization helped contain inflation, and the reverse will drive it up. There is risk the inflation will hover around 4% and refuse to go down further, that might put Fed in a difficult situation and diminishing any hope there will be an interest cut this year. ECB and BOE are expected to hike rate by 50bp this week. This might prevent Fed from being too dovish. OPEC+ will have meeting this week and no policy change is expected. However, we need to monitor the risk of escalation of geopolitical tension in Ukraine, and how Russia responds to the price cap on refined products imposed by EU and G7 from Feb 5. Be prepared for some market volatility, and a hawkish-than-expected Fed this week. Happy Trading. Disclaimers Above information are for illustration only and there is no guarantee on the accuracy of the information. They should not be treated as investment recommendations or advices. CME Real-time Market Data help identify trade set-ups and express my market views. If you have futures in your trading portfolio, check out on CME Group data plans in TradingView that suit your trading needs www.tradingview.com
NYMEX:CL1!Long
by FOTrading
How to Reduce Inflation in South Africa in 2023! - 5 WAYS!How to Reduce Inflation in South Africa in 2023! - 5 WAYS! I got this excellent question today from someone Which I thought was an important question to answer considering the state of the Country of South Africa. Hi everyone. In SA I always wonder how an ordinary person "employed or not" can contribute to bring positive change to our inflation? A. Here is my answer... As an economist, I can say in theory it is possible to bring positive change to the inflation rates but in reality – with corruption – I’m not sure it’s that easy. Also, it’s the butterfly effect where we need to come together as a community (country) to work towards lowering inflation. So on the one hand, there needs to be less spending unfortunately. Here are a few measures I can think of… #1. Lower non-essential spending. People need to stop spending unnecessarily on products and services and instead start saving more for their future. This will hamper and reduce the impact of inflation. #2: Support your local places! This world is becoming highly globalised not only where the rich get richer but the TOP stores and shops get richer too. As a community, we need to start supporting the local businesses that have great quality products and services to. We need to be more friendly to each other and help spread awareness to the small but great man. This will help stimulate the local economy and bring on more job creation and economic growth. #3: More investments in education Education is key to help bring personal development and skills training. We need to educate our fellow people on business skills, high income skills, programming, AI, machine learning, savings, risk averse investments and encourage more businesses to help grow. #4: Save more to invest more When inflation is high it means people were spending uncontrollably which pushed up demand and lowered supply. Instead, we should encourage more savings in stocks, property, trading, funds, and personal finances to reduce the effects of inflation. Instead of drinking sorrows away, spending on games to bide time – focus on less spending and more saving for the future – reducing the debt levels. #5: Invest in renewable energy Load Shedding is here to stay. And so we need to try to support more renewable energy initiatives that come about. Solar, wind and gas. This will definitely help reduce the cost of energy and curb inflation. As I said, we can only do our part and hope for the best. We are a nation with hope, optimism and trust. But instead of just trusting the government we should also learn to support and trust our local businesses and methods to living a better life. Hope that helps.
ECONOMICS:ZAIRYYEducation
by Timonrosso
Copper is Screaming! Are you listening?Why is Copper so important to track and what can we learn from studying its price action. Copper simply put is the most used base metal in the world and really powers every aspect of world. Doctor Copper is telling us something. Copper has had an impeccable rally of the lows, this has been confirmed with the major rally in copper mining stocks. In this chart we have overlayed the inflation rate in orange with the price action in copper. The inflation rate has a delayed reaction based off of the price action in Copper. What we can observe recently is the price of copper topping 112 days before the inflation rate. Copper had a significant decline which was followed by a decline in peak inflation. Over the last 148 days, Copper has rallied 38%. Could this mean that we are about to see a delayed spike in the inflation reading?
CAPITALCOM:COPPER
by Trading-Capital
Do you Hear Lumber Screaming?Lumber is at a critical inflection point. Its likely telling us that Central bank policy is about to experience more inflation if they start to ease to soon. If Lumber continues to rally, its screaming more housing inflation could be around the corner. Since we have a major Technical Topping formation in play, Lumber is still vulnerable to more downside which could also mean the housing market has much softer prices ahead. If lumber is to show nay chance of negating this bearish pattern it needs to close above the yellow trendline for 2 consecutive weeks.
L
by Trading-Capital
AUD/USD rises as inflation jumpsThe Australian dollar has extended its rally with solid gains on Wednesday. In the North American session, AUD/USD is trading at 0.7080, up 0.51%. RBA policy makers are no doubt having a bad day at the office, as Australia's inflation climbed sharply in the fourth quarter. CPI rose to 8.4%, up from 7.3% in Q3 and above the consensus of 7.7%. The hot inflation report will douse hopes that inflation has peaked and there's little doubt that the RBA will have to continue raising rates. The markets had priced in a peak rate of 3.6%, but with the cash rate currently at 3.1% and more rate hikes on the way, it appears that the market is underestimating the terminal rate. The inflation release boosted the Australian dollar around 1% and to a five-month high after the CPI report, but the Aussie has pared much of those gains. The outlook for the Aussie is looking brighter for several reasons. The RBA will almost certainly continue raising rates over the next several months, commodity prices are strong and China's reopening will increase demand for Australian exports. There were no major releases out of the US today, but Thursday has a crowded data calendar, with GDP, durable goods and new home sales. GDP is expected to slow to 2.8%, down from 3.2% in Q3 but still respectable. On Wednesday, US PMIs pointed to a decline in the manufacturing and services sectors, pointing to cracks in the US economy as high rates have dampened economic growth. The US dollar has been under pressure as soft US numbers have increased expectations that the Fed will ease up on rate policy due to the slowing economy. A stronger-than-expected GDP would likely provide the US dollar with a much-needed boost, while a soft GDP reading should send the US dollar lower. AUD/USD is testing resistance at 0.7064. Above, there is resistance at 0.7160 0.6968 and 0.6872 are providing support
by OANDA
Crude oil a leading inflation indicatorTwo observation made the last two years between crude oil and CPI: 1) There were 5 waves up and 2) 3 significant peaks However, between the last 2 peaks of crude, it was a lower low follow-by its downtrend, and CPI followed this downtrend subsequently. Among many commodities, crude oil moves the most in tandem with CPI, but crude seems to lead in this study. Refer to the daily chart on your own, try drawing a downtrend line, you will see crude oil prices has broken above its downtrend line recently. If crude oil is going to transit to an uptrend from here, we will have to track CPI very closely. The inflation fear is still there. Did a video on this observation last week, refer to the link below. Crude Oil Futures Minimum fluctuation 0.01 = $10 0.10 = $100 1.00 = $1,000 10.00 = $10,000 Disclaimer: • What presented here is not a recommendation, please consult your licensed broker. • Our mission is to create lateral thinking skills for every investor and trader, knowing when to take a calculated risk with market uncertainty and a bolder risk when opportunity arises. CME Real-time Market Data help identify trading set-ups in real-time and express my market views. If you have futures in your trading portfolio, you can check out on CME Group data plans available that suit your trading needs www.tradingview.com
NYMEX:CL1!Long
by konhow
2
It's happening! Blow-off top, Day 1.Traders, You all know that I have been expecting and discussing this day for many moons now, the day we break above our macro downtrend. Today is that day. Day 1 of what I expect to be a blowoff top that will surprise many investors, maybe a majority of investors. Before I get ahead of myself in enthusiasm, we will need another confirmation candle here on the daily. I'd love to see us close and open above the macro uptrend line as well, but that type of price movement is not necessary for confirmation. All we need to do is open and close tomorrow's candle above our macro downtrend and we are good to go. New highs in the U.S. stock markets should arrive sometime this year. I would anticipate by mid-summer to late fall. Enjoy the ride! Stew. [
ULong
by stewdamus