Forex
Diverging rates outlook has China’s yuan eying 2022 lows
Bond markets are putting Chinese and global rates on opposite paths, speculating on cuts in China against hikes in the U.S. and prompting banks and Chinese companies to prepare for a weaker currency as Beijing rolls out more stimulus.
The yuan fell past the closely-watched seven-per-dollar level last month and hasn’t stopped, as China’s post-pandemic economic recovery falters amid weak demand at home and abroad.
This week it hit a six-month low on the dollar after surprise cuts to key China rates, putting the gap between 10-year sovereign yields in China and the U.S. at its widest since November. The gap with British yields is the widest in 16 years.
The position, with China’s rates below those in the United States, is the reverse of more than a decade of high-growth that saw China paying better yields than markets in the west.
That it is failing to unwind as the pandemic recedes has caught many off guard and — along with the speed of the yuan’s recent slide — has investment banks cutting currency forecasts and analysts seeing risks ahead as companies hoard dollars.
“(The yuan) is set to remain pressured by structurally negative carry that handicaps supportive flows including foreign portfolio investment bond inflows and corporate dollar selling,” said J.P. Morgan analysts in a note.
“The People’s Bank of China’s tolerance of currency weakness … also opens up room for further yuan weakness.” J.P. Morgan recently downgraded its year-end yuan forecast, from 6.85 per dollar to 7.25 per dollar.
The yuan has lost nearly 4% so far this year to 7.1674 per dollar on Wednesday, making it one of the worst performing Asian currencies, as China’s widely touted post-COVID recovery quickly lost steam.
Some investment banks expect the yuan to end the year as weak as 7.3 – a level seen in November when China’s borders were shut and strict health policies disrupted economic activity.
That would imply a further 1.8% depreciation.
The People’s Bank of China did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comments on banks’ cuts to yuan forecasts or risks to the currency from corporates’ positioning.
RISK FACTOR
Policy action and expectations are driving the rates and currency markets to move in tandem in anticipation that western economies will continue to struggle to rein in inflation and keep policy settings tight, while China will be struggling to replicate its pre-pandemic growth.
Even if the Federal Reserve holds rates steady later on Wednesday, as expected, traders are braced for an extended period of elevated U.S. interest rates and, increasingly, for China to hold rates low or push them even lower.
This week China cut its reverse repo rate and another short-term cash rate for commercial banks, seen as a signal that further policy easing is in the offing. Analysts polled by Reuters expect the PBOC will cut the costs of medium-term loans on Thursday and many market watchers expect a benchmark lending rate cut next week.
Authorities have also been guiding state-owned banks to cut interest rates on dollar deposits, according to sources with direct knowledge of the matter, in an effort to nudge exporters to shift their huge and growing pile of dollars back into yuan.
Chinese companies have accumulated $24.2 billion of “excess” dollar savings over the past year, according to a J.P. Morgan estimate, bringing the total foreign exchange deposits in China to $851.8 billion at end of May.
To be sure, moving even some of that into yuan ought to be supportive, and the forwards market implies traders are much less bearish than the bank forecasts.
“A lower dollar deposit rate will act as a counter-cyclical measure,” said Tommy Xie, head of Greater China research at OCBC Bank, and discourage borrowing in yuan to buy dollars.
However, traders and analysts said companies are unlikely to follow the authorities’ intended path and may even direct their capital outside China to offshore accounts.
The SOFR, a benchmark overnight dollar interest rate, traded at 5.05% on Wednesday, 75 basis points higher than the ceiling of dollar deposit rates at big banks in China, showing dollars can earn better interest abroad.
“Corporates may be increasingly attracted to putting their dollar proceeds in offshore accounts,” said Kiyong Seong, lead Asia macro strategist at Societe Generale.
“Capital outflow was a clear risk factor to depreciate the yuan further in the second half of this year,” he said, with lowered dollar deposit rates presenting such a risk.
Forex
Dollar on track for weekly gain after Trump election win
By Karen Brettell and Stefano Rebaudo
(Reuters) -The dollar rose on Friday and was heading for a weekly gain as investors evaluated the likely impact on the American economy of Tuesday’s election of Republican Donald Trump as U.S. president.
Analysts expect Trump’s policy proposals — including more trade tariffs, a clampdown on illegal immigration, lower taxes and business deregulation — will boost growth and inflation.
But in the near term there remains considerable uncertainty over what policies will actually be introduced.
“We don’t really know how much was campaign rhetoric, how much is a negotiating position, how much of it is speaking principle,” said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex in New York. “Part of the volatility we’re seeing in the dollar and in interest rates is that the market is trying to figure it out.”
Republicans also won control of the Senate and are leading the race for the House of Representatives, with some races still to be called.
The jumped to a four-month high of 105.44 on Wednesday, but has dipped since, partly due to profit-taking. It was up 0.58% on the day at 105.01 on Friday and on pace for a 0.68% weekly increase.
Data on Friday showed that U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a seven-month high in early November, in a survey taken before the election.
The next major U.S. economic release will be Wednesday’s consumer price data for October.
“We need more clarity about U.S. policies,” said Athanasios Vamvakidis, global head of forex strategy at Bank of America. “Until then, the greenback will be trading (on) data and expectations for the Fed easing path.”
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve cut rates by 25 basis points, which had been widely expected. Chair Jerome Powell said the U.S. central bank would not speculate on the impact of any policies by the incoming U.S. government.
Traders are pricing in 65% odds that the Fed will cut again by 25 basis points in December, down from 83% a week ago, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch Tool.
The euro dropped 0.85% to $1.0712 and was headed for a 1.12% decline for the week, which saw the collapse of Germany’s coalition government on Wednesday.
Against the Japanese currency, the greenback fell 0.13% to 152.73 yen.
The yen is expected to suffer as the interest rate differential with the United States widens, which could prompt Japan’s central bank to raise rates as soon as December to prevent the currency from sliding back toward three-decade lows.
weakened after Beijing unveiled a 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) debt package on Friday to ease local government financing strains and stabilize flagging economic growth.
“Markets may have been hoping for a larger-than-expected stimulus,” said Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING.
The was last down 0.69% at 7.2 per dollar.
The Australian dollar, often used as a liquid proxy for its Chinese counterpart, fell 1.53% to $0.6576.
was last up 1.45% at $77,068, after earlier reaching a record $77,303.97.
Trump is expected to enact a more favorable regulatory environment for the crypto industry.
Forex
Dollar set for small weekly gains after Fed rate cut
Investing.com – The U.S. dollar steadied Friday, set to end a volatile week with small gains as traders digested the implications of a new Trump presidency as well as benign Federal Reserve.
At 04:30 ET (09:30 GMT), the Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six other currencies, traded flat at 104.372.
The index is on track for a gain of just 0.2% this week, even after gaining 1.5% on Wednesday in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory, when it recorded its biggest single-day gain since September 2022.
Dollar unwinds Trump gains
The dollar surged to a four-month high on Wednesday as traders positioned for a new Trump administration, with its tariff and immigration policies likely to prompt the Federal Reserve to reduce rates at a slower and shallower pace.
However, some of these gains have been unwound after the cut interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, and signaled the likelihood of further rate cuts ahead as inflation appeared on course to fall to the central bank’s 2% target.
“A large portion of the election move in the dollar has been unwound. That, to us, looks more like a positioning adjustment rather than a rethink of what a Trump presidency means for global markets,” said analysts at ING, in a note.
“Remember that markets got to Election Day broadly pricing in a Trump victory, and while the dollar spiked in reaction to the Republican clean sweep, there are perhaps some questions now on how far the dollar can rally near term given the focus is shifting back to the macroeconomic discussion.”
The US consumer price index for October is due next week, and this could influence market sentiment as the year comes to a close.
Euro weighed by German political crisis
In Europe, dropped 0.2% to 1.0785, with the common currency on course for a weekly loss of around 0.5%, weighed by a political crisis in Germany, the eurozone’s biggest economy.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday sacked his finance minister, paving the way for a snap election after months of disagreements in his three-party coalition.
This political turmoil comes at a critical juncture for Europe’s biggest economy, with Trump’s election victory raising the possibility of a trade war with the region’s main trading partner.
“EUR/USD traded briefly above 1.080 yesterday on the back of the broad-based unwinding of post-election USD longs,” ING said. “This appears to be a positioning unwinding, and we doubt markets are reconsidering the negative implications of Trump’s expected policies on the eurozone.”
fell 0.2% to 1.2961, with sterling falling further from the psychologically important 1.30 level in the wake of the Bank of England’s latest interest rate cut.
The delivered its second rate cut since 2020 on Thursday, dropping by 25 basis points to 4.75% from 5%, but also indicated that the latest UK Budget could cause inflation to take a year longer to return sustainably to its 2% target.
“A December rate cut is looking rather unlikely following the budget, and markets are also pricing in a very small implied probability,” ING said. “At the same time, we don’t think the budget will significantly derail the BoE’s easing path next year, and we still expect faster cuts in the spring compared to market expectations.”
Yuan looks to NPC meeting
climbed 0.2% to 7.1555, with the yuan weakening slightly with the focus squarely on the NPC meeting, which concludes on Friday, for more cues on Beijing’s plans to roll out fiscal stimulus.
Analysts expect the government to approve at least 10 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion) in fresh spending for the coming years. The NPC meeting comes after Beijing announced a slew of stimulus measures over the past month, but did not specify their timing or scale.
fell 0.4% to 152.39, with the yen gaining after Japanese ministers issued fresh verbal warnings over potential intervention in the currency market.
fell 0.5% to 0.6646, but was headed for an over 1% weekly gain.
Forex
Asia FX steadies as dollar slides after Fed cuts interest rates
Investing.com– Most Asian currencies steadied on Friday after clocking sharp gains in the prior session, while the dollar nursed some losses after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates as widely expected.
Regional currencies recouped a bulk of their weekly losses after the Fed’s move, with some even turning positive for the week. The dollar, on the other hand, tumbled from four-month highs, with some traders also locking in recent gains.
Focus was also on more cues on fiscal stimulus from China, as a meeting of the country’s Nation People’s Congress entered its final day.
Dollar nurses tumble from 4-mth high after Fed rate cut
The and both steadied in Asian trade, steadying from a sharp drop on Thursday after the Fed to a range of 4.50% to 4.75%.
The greenback had shot up to a four-month high earlier in the week after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, with Trump’s policies potentially heralding stickier inflation in the long term.
The Fed said a change in U.S. leadership was unlikely to affect monetary policy in the near-term. Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the economy was in a good place, and that the bank was likely to ease policy further in the coming months.
Traders were seen pricing in a 76.5% chance the Fed will cut rates by 25 bps in December, and a 23.5% chance rates will remain unchanged, showed.
Chinese yuan fragile with NPC in focus
The Chinese yuan- which was among the worst hit by dollar strength this week- weakened slightly on Friday, with the pair rising 0.2%. The pair was also set to rise 0.4% this week.
Focus was squarely on the NPC meeting, which concludes on Friday, for more cues on Beijing’s plans to roll out fiscal stimulus.
Analysts expect the government to approve at least 10 trillion yuan ($1.6 trillion) in fresh spending for the coming years. The NPC meeting comes after Beijing announced a slew of stimulus measures over the past month, but did not specify their timing or scale.
Broader Asian currencies mostly weakened on Friday, but were sitting on strong gains from the prior session following the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut.
The Japanese yen was an outlier, with the pair falling 0.2% and further away from three-month highs after Japanese ministers issued fresh verbal warnings over potential intervention in the currency market.
The Australian dollar’s pair fell 0.4%, but was headed for a nearly 2% weekly gain. The South Korean won’s pair rose 0.4%, while the Singapore dollar’s pair rose 0.1%.
The Indian rupee was a major laggard this week, with the pair surging to record highs above 84.4 rupees. The pair remained close to these highs on Friday.
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