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ECB monetary policy meeting today – preview of a live one – and where to for the EUR.

  
  Analysis
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The European Central Bank Governing Council will be dovish today, and may even cut the main rate.

  • 1145 GMT for the announcement
  • 1230 GMT is President Draghi’s press conference
  • Most expect the depo rate to remain on hold at -0.4%, although the probability of a cut (to 0.5%) is priced around 38% … which is not negligible …. this meeting is ‘live’.
Here’s a quick preview from TD:
  • The odds of a dovishly more proactive ECB look twice as high as those of a hawkish disappointment
  • The press conference is key to the ECB’s view on the rate floor, potential QE, low inflation expectations, and reinforcing a “symmetric” inflation target
And, on the euro:
  • With our base case fully priced and EUR weak, we see some scope upside if Draghi delivers as expected.
  • Dovish risks prevail, which could send EURUSD lower into fresh ranges. 
  • Next week’s FOMC may constrain follow-through.
European Central Bank dovish draghi

Barclays on the FOMC – 25bp cut in July, more to come by end of 2019

  
  Analysis
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Scanning through some of the late week info from via banks, this via Barclays, in brief:

  • Powell’s testimony was dovish, surprisingly so
  • Increases confidence on 25 bp cut to come this month
  • two more 25bp cuts to come by the end of the year
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No surprise from Barclays on the July forecast, this is consensus. A further 50bps to come by year end is a bit of an eyebrow raiser though.

Citi on the FOMC, 25 bp cut this month and another by year end

Citi see an increased downside risk for the US economy …. but acknowledge:
  • that view is clearly not shared by Chair Powell
  • July … a 25 basis point cut is likely to provoke two or more dissents, 25 basis points may be the compromise policy outcome
  • Following … one additional 25 basis point cut, most likely in September

Week ahead: US earnings, South Africa rates, EC president vote

  
  Analysis
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No summer hours here. Investors are bracing for a busy week as earnings season gets under way in America, in Europe parliament votes for a new president for the European Commission and on both sides of the Atlantic, investors face a deluge of economic data. Here’s what to watch in the coming days. US earnings Banks unofficially kick off second-quarter earnings season on Monday and investors will be tuning in to see whether corporate America is headed for its first earnings recession since 2016. Citigroup starts the earnings party on Monday and JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo follow suit on Tuesday. Prospects of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve are unnerving investors that are watching to see if this could squeeze banks’ profit margins. My colleague Rob Armstrong has more in his excellent bank earnings curtain raiser. I

in all, nearly 60 companies in the S&P 500 are expected to report results including the big banks, Netflix, Microsoft, Schlumberger and Johnson & Johnson. US data Markets have largely pencilled in a cut by the Fed at its monetary policy meeting this month, though investors continue to debate how many cuts the central bank may push through this year and how deep the cuts will be. To get a better picture of the US economy and clues to Fed policymakers’ thinking, investors will closely parse a string of economic data for updates on consumer and industrial health. Americans are expected to have tightened their purse strings a little last month with headline retail sales expected to rise 0.2 per cent month-on-month, following a stronger 0.5 per cent increase in May. Control sales, which strip out volatile items like food, energy and building materials, are expected to rise 0.3 per cent. Investors will also tune into consumer sentiment data later in the week. Updates on the industrial sector come via regional manufacturing surveys as well as industrial production data, which is expected to show factory output cooled. The economic calendar also includes updates on the housing market. UK data

The economic calendar across the pond also promises to be busy with jobs data, inflation and retail sales on the docket. As markets consider the possibility of a rate cut by the Bank of England, “next week’s raft of UK data are likely to give ammunition to both sides of the argument,” noted economists at ING. While wages are expected to tick back up, they said “the high street isn’t feeling the benefit of this modest improvement in real wage growth”. However, they added: “With Brexit noise only likely to increase over the coming months, and a risk that trade tensions could worsen, we think the Bank of England will keep rates on hold for the rest of the year.”

EU Commission president On Tuesday the European Parliament votes on the next EU Commission president. Ursula von der Leyen has promised parliament a bigger say in Brussels’ decision-making as she seeks MEPs for the top post in Brussels for the next five years. “A successful vote will be largely ignored by markets, but a failure to garner enough support (which is still a possibility) could blow up the entire deal that the Council reached earlier this month, though we do think that Ms [Christine] Lagarde’s ECB nomination will be safe either way,” said strategists at TD Securities. South Africa rates On Thursday attention shifts to South Africa, where the reserve bank is widely expected to announce a 25 basis point cut to the repo rate, putting it at 6.5 per cent. Since the last SARB meeting in May, the monetary policy committee has undergone a massive transition. Strategists at TD Securities “think the message will be moderately dovish, suggesting potentially more easing,” and expect “slightly positive” reaction in the rand as they argue markets have “priced for more easing than we expect”.

US nonfarm payroll data – scenarios for the Federal Reserve’s FOMC interest rate decision

  
  Analysis
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ABN AMRO look at the implications for the next Federal Open Market Committee interest rate decision (meeting is on 30-31 July). ABN AMRO set the stage for Friday’s data:
  • Markets will be particularly sensitive to incoming data as we approach (the FOMC)
  • The key question for markets remains whether the Fed will cut 25bp or 50bp, rather than whether they will cut at all
  • a 25bp cut is fully priced by OIS forwards
  • a 50bp cut is 2/3 priced
The bank expects +175K, which is above consensus (160K), citing
  • the May number was a very weak +75k (the Jan-April average was +195k). 
  • … likelihood of some payback for the May weakness
OK, for Fed implications (bolding mine):
  • June nonfarm payrolls will therefore attract even more attention than usual
  • A somewhat weak print (120-150k) would not have a significant market impact, but if we were to see another sub-100k reading, markets would likely take it to mean a higher likelihood of a 50bp rate cut, at least as a kneejerk reaction
  • For the Fed, we doubt such a figure would be enough by itself to lead to a 50bp cut, and so we suspect such a market reaction would not last (by the same turn, we doubt a strong print would derail cuts).
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Hmmm. I reckon if its a sub 100K ABN AMRO might be surprised at the intensity of the market reaction. It would heighten the 50bp expectation again and see a lower USD in a  thinly trading (post July 4 US holiday) market.
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