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.
