Hunt's Autumn Statement: Tax Cuts, Political Maneuvers, and Economic Stability in the Spotlight
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Hunt in the spotlight
British Chancellor of Exchequer Jeremy Hunt will make his Autumn Statement today and he will do his best to try to please British voters by announcing tax cuts amid slowing inflation, try to make the Tories – who lost a lot of support over the past year-and-so and fell around 20 points behind Labour in the latest polls - look good again, while pursuing a hard-won economic and financial stability after the Liz Truss mini-budget crisis, and keep the country's finances together to avoid another Truss-style bond meltdown.
Happily, for him, the Gilt yields have been falling along with other major economies' bond yields since the October peak. The British 10-year yield tested the 4% level to the downside last Friday. Households are happy to see inflation slow, Rishi Sunak is living up – with a bit of luck – to his promise to halve inflation by year-end, and investors think that the Bank of England (BoE) is done hiking the interest rates. The BoE is also expected to start cutting its rates by May next year - to which the BoE Governor Bailey replies saying that if the market conditions loosen too fast, they may have to raise interest rates again. But that's a detail. Cable advanced to 1.2560 yesterday on the back of a broadly softer US dollar. A too generous Autumn Statement – in terms of pleasing voters – could revive the inflation expectations for the UK hence tame the BoE doves. The latter could trigger a selloff in gilts, push yields higher and help sterling extend its gains against the greenback and pave the way for a further advance to the 1.27 level.
Yet, Cable's upside potential also depends on the dollar's downside potential. The US dollar – which came under a decent bearish pressure since the beginning of the month – is near the oversold territory. And the selloff in the dollar could soon bottom out given the Fed's cautious tone faced with the significant decline in the US long-term bond yields.
Elsewhere the EURUSD sees resistance above a major Fibonacci resistance, near the 1.0955 mark, gold is testing the $2000 per ounce this morning as investors chose safety into the long Thanksgiving holiday in the US while US crude sees resistance at the 200-DMA and Bitcoin is down from recent highs on news that Binance CEO was pleaded guilty as his company prioritized growth over compliance and violated anti-money laundering and unlicensed money transmitting to finance terrorists, cyber criminals and child abusers. The Binance verdict will hardly impact the recent appetite in Bitcoin, which is expected to get a boost thanks to potential spot ETF approvals.
