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New Zealand dollar edges higherThe New Zealand dollar has posted small gains on Thursday, as NZD/USD has pushed above the 0.68 line in the North American session. New Zealand is hugely dependent on its export industry, and the Covid pandemic has taken its toll on exports, as global demand has fallen. However, with the worst of Covid hopefully behind us, global demand has picked up, which bodes well for New Zealand's economy. The ANZ Commodity Price Index climbed 3.9% in February, its strongest gain since March 2021. The war in Ukraine has intensified, with fierce fighting reported near Ukraine's major cities as the number of refugees fleeing from Ukraine has hit one million. Western countries has imposed severe sanctions on Moscow as relations between East and West have plummeted. Russian and Ukrainian officials will hold talks later today, which has raised risk sentiment and kept the New Zealand dollar in positive territory. NZD/USD has been on an impressive roll, posting four straight winning weeks and has gained close to 1 per cent this week. So far at least, the panic in the financial markets has not weighed on the New Zealand dollar, which is sensitive to risk. The Fed is again on center stage, as Chair Jerome Powell testified on the Hill on Wednesday and will appear before lawmakers today as well. There had been some speculation that the war in Ukraine might force the Fed to delay a rate hike, but Powell removed any such doubts in his testimony, stating that the hike would go ahead as planned. Powell's comments suggested that the Fed will stick with the traditional 25-bps move rather than a massive half-point hike. The confirmation of a rate hike by Powell boosted US Treasury yields, and currently the 10-year yield is at 1.85%. There is resistance at 0.6826 and 0.6908 NZD/USD has support at 0.6647 and 0.6550
by OANDA
Bonds Attempt to Establish Value Near LowsBonds have picked up from lows, retracing the vacuum zone back to resistance at 126'19, exactly as we had predicted yesterday. The Kovach OBV picked up very slightly, but nowhere near enough to suggest any serious buying momentum. We are seeing resistance from these levels, as anticipated, confirmed by a red triangle on the KRI. It seems likely that ZN may retrace the range again, and find support at 125'17, but if we continue to test higher levels, then 126'18 and 127'01 are the next targets.
CBOT:ZN1!
by quantguy
GOLD highs coincide with returns vs TreasuriesThe light blue line is the price of gold against M2 money supply in order to show it on the chart more easily. Mainly, take note of the highs on this line. The purple line represents returns on the 30 year treasury after removing loses from inflation. Inflation normalized returns. The blue line represents the return on GOLD. Namely, it maintains it's value through inflation, thus it's return is the rate of the inflation minus the inflation in gold itself through mining. It is estimated that the inflation of GOLD is approximately 2% per year. Notice the occasions when the blue line is above the purple line. These periods are when GOLD returns more than the 30Y. They are brief, but more than often coincide with highs in the price of GOLD, whether local highs, or the ATH. At the present, please take a look at the blue line. Enjoy.
ECONOMICS:USIRYYLong
by rrmhearts
Inflation, bond yields, the dollar and the Fed! Macro series pt1Part 1 Hello everyone! It's been a few weeks since my last update on the markets, and this one is going to be a very special one. Will go through many different aspects of most major markets, by using both technical and fundamental analysis. It will be an in-depth analysis with lots of charts of several instruments, that have the potential to give us a clear picture of where we are and what is going right now in the global landscape. Because there are so many things I'd like to mention, I've broken the analysis down in different parts, all of which you will be able to find on the links down below. The first and most important pieces of the puzzle are the US Dollar and interest rates, as together they are one of the largest components in essentially every market as they partially determine the liquidity and demand, by ‘setting a price for money’. In 2020 many forecasters predicted that the value of the dollar would collapse and said it was dead as it had lost 10-15% of its value relative to other fiat currencies. Yet they were very wrong in 2021 as the dollar bottomed and started rising along with interest rates, despite inflation skyrocketing in the latter part of the year. At the same time many claimed that the bond market would collapse, yet even though long term US bond yields had been rising from Aug 2020 up until Mar 2021, just to barely get to pre-pandemic levels where bond yields were already really low. Then went sideways until the end of 2021, where they started rising again. During that time short term US bond yields were close to 0 and only started rising at the end of Sep 2021 as inflation started climbing fast and the market started anticipating the Fed raising rates. Therefore, as those yields were rising due to inflation going up, so did the USD which might seem counterintuitive. Why would it go up if it’s losing purchasing power? Well fiat currencies are trading against other fiat currencies and the world is heavily interconnected, so it’s a relative game and inflation wasn’t just US phenomenon. However most importantly it was clear that inflation didn’t come due to the Fed doing QE or lowering rates, but due to several other factors. To name a few 1. Government spending, 2. Credit creation during Covid, 3. Deferred loan/rent payments, 4. Wealth effect due to stocks/housing going up, 5. Supply chain issues, 6. Supply shortages due to labor shortages or businesses closing, 7. Pend up demand, 8. Higher demand for goods than services, as well as demand of new types of goods, and finally and most importantly 9. Issues in the energy sector and particularly due to the fact that many oil and natural gas wells got shut and weren’t reopened. Now you might be thinking ‘wait a second, where does QE fit into all of this?’. Unlike what most people believe about QE or low interest rates, the Fed doesn’t print money. It simply creates reserves which the banks can’t use to buy anything and low interest rates are a sign that the economy is in trouble as banks aren’t willing to lend to anyone other than big institutions. QE isn’t inflationary as it is just an asset swap and the Fed doesn’t determine anything aside from short-term rates. So, what does the Fed actually do? Essentially, they are trying to push banks to lend, yet banks refuse to do so, and in turn the Fed tries to manage expectations. It all boils down to the Fed making people believe they know what they are doing and that they are a powerful institution that can either create or fight inflation. Therefore, in the list of factors there is another one (no. 10) which is that the Fed convinced everyone that they flooded the world with cash and that affected the spending/investing habits of the people that believed them. Yet there was a market that hasn’t really believed them, and that is the bond market. The bond market keeps indicating that we are stuck in a low growth environment where inflation isn’t a long-term issue, just a short term one. It is also telling us that there is too much debt and too many problems, many of which policy makers haven’t been able to solve. Not only that, but many of the policies have been making things worse and worse, and that in 2022 it looks like inflation is probably going to slow down. Hence if markets and the data are telling us inflation isn’t going to be a major issue in 2022 and the sources of inflation are elsewhere, why will the Fed raise rates? Can it raise rates? By how much? What impact will that have on the economy? For the first question there are some pretty clear explanations. One of them is that Fed wants to raise rates is so that people keep believing in that they can control inflation and that they aren’t just there to pump the stock market. Many believe in the Fed put, which is the belief that the Fed doesn’t want to do anything to upset the markets and that if things go bad the Fed will support the stock market because it can. However, another one is that there are also many people who are upset about inflation and want someone to do something. These people demand the Fed to act, as the Fed itself claims to have the tools to fight inflation and that it created the inflation in the first place. Hence at the moment the Fed is stuck between a rock and a hard place, as markets are at ATHs, housing at ATHs, the economy is slowing down and overall is in a pretty bad place, while for most people the costs of living are up by 10-20% compared to 2 years ago. By the Fed’s own mandates and admissions, inflation above 2% is high (CPI was at 7% YoY) and their reasoning for QE + low rates has been their goal of full employment… and as we’ve reached a point where unemployment is very low and there are even labor shortages as many people haven’t gotten back to the labor force since the pandemic begun. This in turn puts pressure on wages and inflation, hence the Fed has to act based on its own ‘goals’. Yet if they act, and especially if they act quickly, the markets could crash and this could have even more implications on the economy. It is pretty clear that they have to walk a fine line, except it’s also pretty much impossible for their actions not to affect the markets which are overleveraged and are showing signs of weakness. On the one hand they need the markets to come down a bit, in order to slow down the wealth effect which affects inflation, as well as prevent excess speculation from going even further… and on the other hand they must not overdo it because the whole system could grind to a halt. Keeping all of the above in mind, it seems pretty hard for the Fed to significantly raise rates. Yesterday when Powell started answering questions, he was pretty hawkish because people aren’t taking the Fed seriously, but there is a long way between them talking about being serious and them actually doing it. Doing both QT and raising rates more than 3 times this year, something that the market seems to be expecting at the moment seems a bit farfetched. Like Alex Gurevich said on his recent appearance on ‘The Market Huddle’ podcast (and I am paraphrasing a bit), the most likely scenario for the Fed is to raise rates once. In his view they could do one and not hike again for a decade. Maybe they get two or more, but 1 is more likely than 2, and 2 are more likely than 3… and so on. He also mentioned that he thinks we in the late stages of this cycle, and I happen to agree with both views. My reasoning is that the inflationary factors mentioned earlier seem to be weakening substantially and slowly giving their place to the disinflationary/deflationary factors like supply chains issues being slowly resolved, less government spending, debt accumulated during the pandemic having to be repaid and so on. Inflation in 2021 was really high, though towards the end of the year several data points started showing that it was slowing down and in 2022 we could have 2-3% inflation or even outright deflation. To sum it all up, the Fed will start raising rates too late, as real rates have already started coming up and could go up even higher inflation starts going lower. The impact this could have on an overleveraged market is substantial, something that could force the Fed to stop raising rates and even stop its talks about reducing its balance sheet… or maybe even force them to go back into cutting rates and doing QE. Up to this point we’ve only talked about rates, but haven’t mentioned anything about the USD and how it could affect entire financial system. This is another very important factor that the Fed needs to be aware off, even if they haven’t been explicit about it recently. The USD is the global reserve currency and most of the world’s debt is denominated in USD, which means that when it goes up relative to other currencies, then debt repayments become harder especially for those who don’t earn USD. At the same time when US interest rates go up AND the USD goes up relative to other currencies, that creates immense pressure on the financial system. That’s because people/institutions have to pay more interest on their loans, while the currency they are earning and need to convert into dollars to repay their debt, is worth less and less. These two factors create some serious deflationary pressures as someone might be forced to cut their spending or even outright sell assets in order to keep up with his obligations. Of course, in a situation where the entire globe is doing well and rates go up because the economies are booming, debt is low, and it just happens that the USD is going up as it happens that the US is doing better than other countries, then the dollar going up isn’t really an issue and neither are rates. However, the dollar going up, especially along with interest rates really is an issue when the world is drowning in debt, economies aren’t doing well, markets are overleveraged and optimized to work well in a low-rate environment. Another thing to keep in mind is that the dollar going up might create a vicious loop by accelerating the sell-off in traditional markets as more and more people sell in order to meet their obligations, or take a risk off stance or to take advantage of higher interest rates or to take advantage of its rise relative to other currencies. At the end of the day the US isn’t an economy that functions in isolation and it isn’t the only one that uses or CREATES dollars. That’s something crucial that many people forget, as even if the US economy is doing great and higher rates might be appropriate for the US, the actions by the Fed could create issues in other parts of the world, which in turn could damage the US economy.
AMEX:SPY
by BitcoinMacro
2
Bonds Test Lower LevelsBonds appeared to be making an effort to attempt higher levels, with a bull wedge pattern forming with an upper bound at 128'10. However, we broke down from this pattern, smashing through the 128 handle into the 127's and then some. The next level of support at 127'22 did little to provide support, though we finally bottomed out for now just above 127'08. Currently, we are seeing a brief pivot with an attempt to break 127'22 from below which is meeting resistance confirmed by two red triangles on the KRI. If we are able to break this level, the next target is 128'01. The Kovach OBV has flattened out suggesting we won't expect much in the way of momentum for now. If we fall further, 127'08 should provide support, then 127'01.
CBOT:ZN1!
by quantguy
Head and Shoulders Breakdown in BondsAfter breaking down from our head and shoulders pattern, bonds have found support at lower levels and have attempted a rebound. The level 127'08 provided good support confirmed by a green triangle on the KRI, and we saw a nice pivot there. We were able to break above 127'22, the next level above before retracing and stabilizing above 127'08 again. It appears that ZN is attempting to stabilize in this area, as we mentioned in the reports. The Kovach OBV has leveled off, so we anticipate the price action to be range bound between these levels.
CBOT:ZN1!
by quantguy
Bonds Rally with the Stock SelloffBonds have gotten a lift off the selloff in stocks. An influx of risk off sentiment gave ZN a much needed lift back to the 128 handle. We had dipped in the very lows of the 127 handle, and were appearing to get ready to break into the 126's, when the fallout from stocks caused a notable risk off shift. We have broken through our level at 127'22. As predicted yesterday, we crossed the vacuum zone and touched 128'10, the first level in the 128 handle, before retracing slightly. At the time of this writing, we are hovering just under this level. We will see if the fallout in stocks continues today, in which case, we can expect higher levels, the next target being 128'24. The Kovach OBV has turned solidly bullish, likely a bit more than it would if this were just a simple relief rally. But if the selloff continues, 127'22 and 127'08 are the next targets to the down side.
CBOT:ZN1!Long
by quantguy
Japanese yen dips, BoJ meeting nextThe US dollar has edged higher at the start of the week. In the European session, USD/JPY is trading at 114.56, up 0.36% on the day. The yen is coming off its best week since November 2020, with USD/JPY falling by 1.15% last week. US Treasury yields have taken the yen on a roller-coaster ride. Earlier this month, USD/JPY punched above the 1.16 line, as 10-year US Treasury yields were on a roll and climbed above 1.70%. The yield rally ran out of steam last week, allowing the yen to recover. The yen is very sensitive to the US/Japan rate differential, which has been the driver behind the yen's volatility. The 10-year yield is currently at 1.79%, a whisker below the 52-week high of 1.80%. If the 10-year yield resumes its upswing, I would expect USD/JPY to follow suit. The Bank of Japan holds a policy meeting on Tuesday. The bank is expected to maintain its ultra-easy policy, which sounds like business as usual for the BoJ. However, in what could be a significant development, the bank is expected to revise upwards its inflation view for the first time since 2014. Inflation is much lower than the surging levels we are seeing in the US and UK, but the upswing in inflation is significant, given that Japan has grappled with deflation for years. The BoJ has been quietly tapering its bond purchases, and the bank could eventually raise interest rates even if the bank's inflation target of 2% is not met. The BoJ does not have any plans to raise interest rates, but if inflation continues to rise, bank policymakers will have to begin considering raising rates, which until recently would have been considered almost outlandish. There is resistance at 115.54 followed by 116.88 There is support at 113.18 and 112.16
by OANDA
Bonds Ranging Between Our LevelsBonds have edged up, but as predicted, are facing resistance at 128'24. We saw a red triangle on the KRI at this level to confirm resistance. Currently, we are seeking support at 128'10, which we also anticipated. Two green triangles on the KRI are suggesting support here. As discussed yesterday, bonds are establishing value between 128'10 and 128'24. The Kovach OBV has edged up, but has leveled off. If ZN is able to break through 128'24, then there is a vacuum zone to 129'11. Otherwise, we should see support at 128'00.
CBOT:ZN1!
by quantguy
Japanese yen keeps rollingThe Japanese yen has extended its gains as USD/JPY trades at a 3-week low. In the North American session, USD/JPY is trading at 114.25, down 0.35% on the day. Will the yen break into 113-territory before the end of the week? The Japanese yen has jumped onto the currency bandwagon this week, taking advantage of a US dollar in retreat. USD/JPY has dropped 1.11% this week, as the safe-haven yen has joined riskier assets such as the Australian and Canadian dollars and made sharp inroad against the greenback. It has been a rough January for the yen, which has lost ground as US Treasury yields have shown a monster spike since the start of the year. However, the yield rally has run out of steam this week, with 10-year yields holding steady at 1.73%. This has allowed the yen to recover some of the sharp losses seen in  January. The yen is very sensitive to the US/Japan rate differential, and if US yields resume their upswing, we can expect USD/JPY to rise as well. The US dollar remains in retreat mode, which is somewhat surprising, considering recent economic data. Nonfarm payrolls came in at 199 thousand, well short of the consensus of 425 thousand. This was followed by a 7% CPI release, which was even higher than the previous reading of 6.8%. Both of these events should have given the US dollar a boost, but investors remain in a risk-on mood and are supportive of the other major currencies. The markets were soothed by Fed Chair Jerome Powell's testimony in Capitol Hill that red-hot inflation would ease during 2022. In short, the markets have a healthy risk appetite and do not seem concerned by the hawkish pivot from the Fed as it moves towards a normalization of policy. Still, risk sentiment can change quickly and we could see the US dollar rebound if inflation moves even higher or if Omicron causes more economic damage than anticipated. USD/JPY faces resistance at 116.29. Above, there is resistance at 117.02, which has held since January 2017 There is support at 114.89 and 114.22
by OANDA
Bonds dont like the clown showThe selling in bonds continues as inflation continues on. Wings in my area are almost $10/lb, highest i have seen this in my life (only 28 tho). Most of the time I check to see if there is any short term bond buying, this time however, short term bonds are selling too. It would seem that investors are spooked, Investors really have no where to run at this point. Crypto winter is here, Stocks did great today but those gains are no longer viable with a hawkish fed, homes are skyrocketing but people are already warning of a top, businesses have a labor shortage and with inflation it's obvious investors do not see US debt as a safe haven anymore. At least for now. I will keep you all updated. Hope you all have your popcorn at the ready.
TVC:US30Y
by Joshuakm
2
Government Bond Yield Surge - US2Y, US5Y, US10YThe crypto & stonk killer. Rates have been exceptionally low because of crisis. Look back to 2009. They went up in 2016 for a little bit while donnie complained. (he wanted that easy money because he tweeted about stonks his entire time in office). They drifted lower thereafter and then BAM! Another crisis the government had to print through. Where did all the PPP money go??? Kodak? DWAC? Nobody knows. Frauds abundant and the Fed will now run-off their near $9T balance sheet and start lifting rates. Plebs keep buying $SPY & Tesla calls or Simpcoins. #clueless Should be an epic show. *valuations matter Rates will bust the Fed's 2% Long Term average goal with ease. Crypto kids will go broke and they should blame their doge daddy for pumping them for personal gain. The "trillion" dollar companies will implode. Shibby Bitty too. All of it. GL
TVC:US02YLong
by EpicEconomics
Have Bonds Bottomed??Bonds have stabilized at lows, and have started to form a range, as we suggested yesterday. We have started to find value just above 128'10, and below 128'24, the exact range we identified in the last report. After plummeting two full handles since the beginning of 2022 it was time for ZN to reach some sort of equilibrium before its next move. From here we expect value to continue to form at current levels. A relief rally is not out of the question, especially after such a selloff. If so, we could make a run for the 129 handle again. There is a large vacuum zone above to 129'11, which should be considered a max upper bound at this point. The floor seems to be 128'10 for now. The Kovach OBV is still quite bearish, so there is little hope for a genuine bull rally any time soon.
CBOT:ZN1!
by quantguy
Yen edges below 116, inflation nextThe Japanese yen has edged higher and is back below the 116 level. Still, the yen remains vulnerable, especially with US treasury yields moving higher. Earlier in the week, USD/JPY broke above116 line for the first time since January 2017. The dollar has managed to push the yen to 5-year lows on the back of rising US Treasury yields. The 10-year yield, which finished 2021 above the 1.50% level, hasn’t missed a beat in the first week of 2022 and has pushed above 1.70%. The widening US/Japan rate differential has been weighing on the yen, which is extremely sensitive to the rate differential. If US yields remain high, I would not be surprised to see USD/JPY break past the 118 mark over the coming weeks. Inflation has become a hot topic for the Federal Reserve and the BoE, as policymakers must deal with inflation levels that are double or triple the banks’ inflation target of 2%. In Japan, inflation has been at low levels for years, with deflation a constant problem. However, Japan hasn’t been immune to surging energy costs and rising prices of raw materials, and inflation is now getting some attention from the Bank of Japan. We’ll get a look at Tokyo Core CPI for December later in the day, which is expected to rise to 0.5% y/y, up from 0.3% in November. With the FOMC minutes behind us, the markets are anxiously awaiting Friday’s nonfarm payroll report. The ADP employment report surprised to the upside, with a massive 807 thousand new jobs, double the consensus of 400 thousand. The huge gain led Goldman Sachs to upwardly revise its forecast by 50 thousand to 500 thousand and some analysts are projecting a print north of the 1-million mark. Still, it should be remembered that the ADP report has not been a reliable indicator for nonfarm payrolls. The consensus for the NFP stands at 424 thousand, and if the reading comes in below expectations, we could see the US dollar falter as a weak NFP could delay the timeframe for the first rate hike of 2022. USD/JPY is putting pressure on resistance at 115.78. Above, there is resistance at 116.38 There is support at 114.54 and 113.98
by OANDA
$TLT selling off to $138-141 before rallying higherTLT looks to be close to finding a bottom. I could see TLT finding a bottom in the $138-141 range then basing for a couple of weeks before rallying higher in early November. Key dates and levels on the chart. My macro thesis is that we're at the start of a larger pullback in markets and money will flow to treasuries as a safety net. Dates align on both the S&P bottom and TLT top around March... Let's see how it plays out.
NASDAQ:TLTLong
by benjihyam
3
CAD climbs on soft US data, risk-on moodThe Canadian dollar continues to show strong movement early in the New Year. USD/CAD is currently trading at 1.2674, down 0.56% on the day. The first tier-1 events in 2022 out of the US disappointed, missing their estimates. The ISM Manufacturing PMI for December slowed to 58.7, missing the consensus of 60.0 and below the November reading of 61.1 points. The PMI showed a 19th consecutive month of expansion, so there's no arguing that the manufacturing sector is not performing well. Still, the December reading was the lowest since January, which posted an identical figure of 58.7 points. Manufacturing has been expanding, but growth has been hampered by raw material shortages, a lack of workers and supply bottlenecks. ISM Manufacturing Prices slowed to a 12-month low, with a reading of 68.2. This was down sharply from the previous read of 82.4 and shy of the estimate of 79.5 points. On the employment front, JOLTS Jobs Openings for November decreased to 10.4 million, missing the forecast of 11.07 million and below the October reading of 11.09 million. The Canadian dollar has also benefitted from elevated risk sentiment. Treasury yields have been rising this week, as investors continue to sell Treasury bills on improved sentiment that the latest wave of the Omicron variant, although extremely contagious, will be less severe than originally feared. In the US, Omicron cases are exploding, with the average number of new cases breaking above 400 thousand, a 200% increase in the past 14 days. However, hospitalisation rates have not jumped higher and Covid-related deaths have actually declined slightly during this period. With no indications that Omicron will have a devastating effect on the global economy, investors remain in a risk-on mood. USD/CAD has support at 1.2558 and 1.2477 There is resistance at 1.2784. Above, there is resistance at 1.2929
by OANDA
Yields Soar, Treasuries Smash Lows!!Bonds have tumbled off soaring yields. Rising inflation seems to be one of the key drivers, along with paradoxically increasing risk on sentiment in stocks, as the indexes are testing new highs again. ZN smashed through support in 130 handle. We saw absolutely no support from 130'00, the final barrier to the 129 handle, and even less from 129'26, the first level in the 129's. We finally bottomed out (for now) at 129'11, one of the levels we have identified months back using inverse Fibonacci Extension levels. The Kovach OBV has fallen off a cliff with the selloff, but appears to be leveling off as the price stabilizes here. Anticipate some ranging at current levels are digested. The next level down is 128'24. If we catch a relief rally, then 129'26 should provide resistance.
CBOT:ZN1!
by quantguy