Making Sense

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool.” - Richard Feyman US equities closed in the green with S&P closing 0.65% higher, having risen 2.30% off Oct 27 lows. The U.S. Treasury quarterly refunding statement announced earlier plans to borrow $776 billion in Q4, $76 billion lower than July estimates assuming an end of Dec cash balance of $ 750 bn. During Jan - Mar 24 Treasury expects to borrow $ 816 bn assuming an end of Dec cash balance of $ 750 bn. The news was in line with expectations. Today, Treasury will announce the borrowing calendar.  Asian equities are off to a better start. Expect range bound moves ahead of the FOMC Rate Decision. Sell of in 10Y JGBs persisted after yesterday's monetary policy decision with yields at 0.976% at the time of writing. BoJ increased the flexibility in the conduct of YCC while retaining the target of 10Y JGBs at 0.00% with upper bound at 1% as reference which implies that 1% is no ...

Hi, I couldn't write the post the last 2 days since I was in Kolkata celebrating Durga Puja. I was positively surprised at the traffic management and the good road conditions. I remember when I last visited some 15 years back for Durga Puja,  the roads were heavily congested but this time the vehicular movement was smooth. The pandals are beautiful and illustrate the bedrock of creative talent coming out of Bengal. When you move across the narrow alleys, you know the love for Puchkas, Meat Rolls, Biryani and Tea. Interestingly, this time I observed the love for Vests and Lycra as the streets are full of billboards from Lux Cozi, Rupa and VIP. It was a wonderful trip and worth a visit !! Coming back to markets now, The implied Fed Fund Pricing* for peak terminal rates is 5.43% (+10bps) and Dec 24 pricing is at 4.63% (-80bps). The terminal rate pricing has ranged between 5.49% - 5.37% over the last three months and the Dec 2024 pricing has exhibited sharp volatility with lowest pric...

"STARTING STRONG IS GOOD. FINISHING STRONG IS EPIC." This is the first article I am writing this week post the higher-than-expected CPI inflation print from India and the US.  Data Release: US CPI rose 0.5% in January on a seasonally adjusted basis following an upward revision in Dec data to 0.1 % from -0.10%. Headline CPI rose 6.4 % before seasonal adjustment against market consensus of a 6.20% reading. Core CPI rose 0.40% mom, services (excluding energy services) rose 0.50% mom, shelter rose 0.70% and transportation services rose 0.90% mom. The food index increased 0.5 % mom. Interesting point to note - Egg price index rose  8.5% mom on account of Avian Flu, high cost of feed and transportation etc. In the US , a dozen eggs cost INR 400 / INR 33.33 per egg. Compare that to India where 1 egg costs Rs. 7. The energy index increased 2.0 % mom. The rent index and the owners' equivalent rent index each rose 0.7% mom while the index for lodging away from home increa...

"Thorough preparation makes its own Luck" - As a trader, I couldn't believe in this more. We are all involved in a game where the outcome is probabilistic and that is the universal truth. But attributing the unknown to chance rather than lack of preparation is a fundamental error and sets us up for failure. Guard against failure through thorough preparation.  Know as much as you can to improve the edge and be thorough as hell. After all the satisfaction of doing it right supersedes the chance success.  Interesting moves overnight with a sharp rally in US Treasury yields on the back of a weak 30Y auction, initial jobless claims data at 196000 still suggesting a strong labor market data and sell off in equities.  US 2Y @ 4.50% ( T-1 low 4.41%) - On the 2Y we see a double bottom with a price objective of 4.48% which has been met. The next areas of support for the bond are at 4.57%, 4.61% and 4.73%. US 10Y @ 3.68% (T-1 low 3.575%) - US 10Y took support at swing low of 3.32% t...

 A slew of U.S. economic data were released today.  Pending Home Sales rose 2.50% mom against prior revised contraction of 2.60% (prior -4%). Pending home sales sank 33.8% yoy. However, the current surprise uptick in pending homes sales suggests a bottom could be in the offing. The University of Michigan Sentiment rose to 64.90 from prior 64.60 Personal Consumption Expenditure fell 0.20% from prior revised number of 0.10% contraction Core PCE Price Index rose 0.30% mom (4.40% yoy) vs prior 0.20% (4.70%) Market pricing of interest rates continues to be stable. 2Y US Treasuries trade at 4.21% while 10Y trades at 3.52% but the 2Y and 5Y USD SOFR swaps are trading right at 4.22% and 3.41% respectively. The DXY Index is down 11.50% since Sep end and has taken support at 101.50 for the last 8 trading sessions. The index looks ripe for a corrective bounce but in absence of a catalyst, we like to stay on the sidelines or invest about 20% of the capital just to dip our hands.

""Objective analysis should be made of the reaction to the event rather than the formation of the Opinion" US Q4 GDP grew 2.90% vs consensus expectations of a 2.60% growth and Q3 growth at 3.20%. The US Markets rallied on the economic news with S&P 500 closing the session at 4060.  GDP = C + I + G + NX Though the headline print is strong, the internals paint a mixed picture.  Consumer spending +2.1% vs +2.3% prior Net trade added 0.56% to GDP vs adding 2.86% in Q3 Inventories added 1.46% vs a cut of 1.19% in Q3 Govt added 0.64% vs +0.65% in Q3 Within residential fixed investment, the leading contributors to the decrease were new single-family construction as well as brokers' commissions.  Hopes of a soft landing increased as the headline number is strong but the activity is slowing and the growth in inventories in the context of the current global macro environment is not construed as a positive. Instead of a hard landing, the market narrative has been increasing...

If you personalize losses, you can't trade. It is important to know the probability of your wins so when you loose , take comfort in knowing that you will make money only x % of the time. Initial Jobless Claims came in for the week ending Jan 14 decreased by 15,000 to 190,000 and Continuing jobless claims for the week ending Jan 7 increased by 17,000 to 1.647 million. The employment data has been resilient.  Dec total housing starts declined 1.4% mom in December to 1.382 million units while total building permits declined 1.6% mom to 1.330 million. High mortgage rates are biting into spends on housing as can be seen in the chart below. Remember, we are seeing goods disinflation and due to the construction of the shelter component of CPI, shelter inflation will also start coming off from Q2, the services excluding shelter component could be sticky.  What is important here to understand is - there is divergence in the embedded market pricing of Fed Funds rate and Fed's proj...

“You have power over your mind, not outside events.  Realize this, and you will find strength.” US NFP Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 223,000 in December, and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction, and social assistance. Average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 9 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $32.82. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 4.6 percent.  Average hourly earnings offered a welcome moderation. USD declined as market positioning shifted to a 75% probability of a 25 bps hike in the Feb 1 policy. DXY declined 1.65% to a low of 103.87.USDINR traded a low of 82.27 after the market hours. China Reopening The big news over the weekend has been China re-opening to the world after 3 years of isolation as it followed a zero covid policy. Deep declines are see...

"Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most" - Abraham Lincoln Data releases: Strong US ADP employment numbers and the low level of initial jobless claims boosted the usd index overnight.  According to the Dec ADP employment report, private-sector employment rose 235,000 well above expectations of 150,000. Annual pay for “job-stayers” rose 7.3%. US New jobless claims came in below estimates at 204k (exp. 225k). Meanwhile US Continued Jobless Claims came in at 1.694M (exp. 1.708M). November trade deficit narrowed to $61.5 billion, lowest since September 2020 on a decline in both exports and imports as global demand weakened.  A strong ADP employment report adds to the expectation of a stronger NFP print due to be released today (exp 200k, u/r 3.70%, wage growth 0.40% mom). Initial jobless claims are a leading indicator and the low level of claims goes to show the tightness of the labor market. Labor market tightness fuels concerns that the Fed migh...

 "Discipline is the bridge between roads and accomplishment" Third estimate of the US Q3 GDP was revised higher to 3.20% from 2.90% on revision in consumer spending to 2.30% from 1.70%. The GDP Price deflator was revised up to 4.40% from 4.30%. Initial claims for the week ending Dec 17 2022 increased to 216000 (+2000) and continuing claims fell to 1.672 mn (drop of 6000). While David Tepper comments' , an American Hedge Fund manager, “I would probably say I’m leaning short on the equity markets right now because the upside-downside doesn’t make sense to me when I have so many people, so many central banks, telling me what they are going to do, what they want to do, what they expect to do,”; further roiled sentiment.  Strong GDP numbers, labor market strength and negative outlook from one of the most successful hedge fund managers added to market concerns of overtightening by Federal Reserve despite a declining inflation print and deteriorating data ( Home Sales / PMI / Re...

"There is nothing so fatal to character as half finished tasks" - David Lloyd George RBI released minutes of the MPC The minutes of Dec 5 - 7 MPC meeting were released. Please refer to the earlier posts  MPC Dec 7  and  Nov Inflation  blog post. RBI had raised policy repo rate by 35 bps to 6.25%. The SDF - MSF corridor stands at 6% - 6.5%. The broad narrative rests around downside risks to global growth and the drag from net exports; resilience of domestic growth; stickiness of inflation on partial pass through of higher input cost price pressures seen earlier. While the members agree on a lower trajectory of inflation, some members expressed their concerns on the lagged effect of monetary policy and that a wait and watch stance will be more appropriate other expressed concerns on inflation expectations becoming unhinged. Jayant Verma was a lone dove who dissented to the repo rate hike and status quo on stance (withdrawal of accommodation) while Ashima Goyal dissente...

 Goodmorning!! “A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.” - Mahatma Gandhi A quick wrap up of yesterday developments -  BoJ will apply a negative interest rate of minus 0.1 percent to the Policy-Rate Balances in current accounts held by financial institutions at the Bank. BoJ expanded the band around the 10Y yield target to +/- 0.50% from +/- 0.25% and increased the monthly bond buying under the new quarterly bond buying plan to yen 9 trn from earlier yen 7.3 trn. The move was attributed to improve the market functioning and formation of the yield curve. The JGB curve steepened with the 1x10 curve at 0.5350% from the earlier 0.34%. BoJ emphasized the current move as not a rate hike or policy accommodation removal. He also mentioned that he will be closely watching the next Spring's wage negotiations and the Trade Unions have announced a nominal wage growth target of 5%. However, the market does not believe the BoJ narrative and interprets the re...