Macro outlook
- Global: US stocks managed not to fall sharply yesterday. But that’s about the best that can be said of them. An initial rally in line with equity futures indications dissipated quite quickly, and it doesn’t feel like we will see any substantial moves higher this side of Powell’s Jackson Hole speech on Friday. On that front, Neel Kashkari yesterday was quoted talking about the need for the Fed to dampen inflation. No hints about a slowdown of rates or 2023 cuts. That could be a clue as to Powell's tone on Friday. The S&P500 declined only 0.22% on the day, the NASDAQ was flat from the previous day. Equity futures are again indicating a modest gain on opening today, but that may be about all we get from stocks for the time being. Bond markets were in the driving seat at the end of last week and the beginning of this week, but yesterday, they did very little, which probably explains a lot of inaction in other markets. 2Y US Treasury yields fell just 1bp to 3.3%. The yield on 10Y Treasuries added 3.2bp rising to 3.046%. EURUSD managed to claw back some ground in lacklustre markets compared to this time yesterday, though it failed to hold above the parity level. The AUD did manage to push back above 69 cents, but it is looking pressured in early Asian trading today on a day with nothing major on the macro calendar. Cable also pushed higher, recovering to 1.1825 as did the JPY, which is now back down to 136.82. Asian FX was also a bit stronger over the last 24 hours, though there were notable omissions to that list, mainly from North Asia. TWD and KRW remain under pressure, along with the THB to a lesser extent.
- G-7 Macro: Eurozone Composite PMIs fell broadly as expected in August, with the headline index down to 49.2 from 49.9 in July, indicating economic contraction. Here’s a link to a note from our Eurozone team if you want more detail. And as we mentioned yesterday, July US new home sales fell to 511,000 on an annualized basis, even weaker than had been expected. This is the weakest sales growth in six years and will put further downward pressure on home prices, though probably not yet rents for some more quarters. Pending home sales today will add to the US housing story, together with July durable goods orders.
- China: Sichuan's lack of hydroelectricity power has been partly solved by switching to coal-fired power. Though not a perfect solution in terms of Co2 emissions, at least the damage due to the lack of electricity to the economy is minimised. But at the same time, more cities are suffering from a lack of water for drinking and agriculture. The critical part is drinking water, and the government is delivering drinking water to affected locations. The damage so far of loss of agricultural produce in Jiangxi is CNY1.96 bn, which is still small compared to GDP of more than CNY114 tr in 2021. China is going to use cloud seeding to increase rainfall but that needs clouds in the sky to be thicker. As such, we do not expect there will be any immediate solution to this year’s drought.
On real estate, more local governments have reduced non-first home mortgage down-payment ratios and mortgage rates. This should release more potential demand for residential properties, but we believe that home buying activity will only pick up when the public sees uncompleted projects finished, which could take more than a quarter.
- Korea: The business sentiment index showed that the manufacturing outlook for August rebounded to 82 (vs 80 in July), while the non-manufacturing outlook remained unchanged at 81 for the second month. Although business concerns over future macro conditions have intensified, the recent stabilization of commodity prices appears to have had a positive effect on improving business sentiment among manufacturers.
- Indonesia: Bank Indonesia (BI) hiked rates unexpectedly yesterday ahead of a planned price increase for subsidized fuel. We had expected BI to hike after the fuel price increase, but they opted to hike "preemptively" as both headline and core inflation are now expected to exceed the target this year. BI also announced a new bond purchase scheme where the central bank would actively sell shorter-dated bonds while buying up the long end, resulting in a flatter yield curve. The Operation Twist-like strategy would be deployed by BI to support IDR (attractive yields on the short end) while containing borrowing costs.
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