Oct 12, 2017 - Market Update (FOMC Minutes - debated inflation, JPMorgan & Citigroup reporting, Goldman Sachs back to investment banking?, EURUSD above 1.1830, heading to 1.2000 but..., CZK on the horse, Gold - which way now?, Homework time for Catalonia until Monday)

Short recap

Asia up reaching 10 yr high

Europe opening flat to lower

Spain gave until Monday Catalonia to drop independence

Otherwise will take over all powers over the autonomy region

Oil inventories rising even though OPEC is cutting production

FOMC Minutes – inflation debate intensified

Some patience to assess inflation path warranted

But others are looking at Dec hike

Doves and Hawks at Fed  chart

Repatriation tax rate at 10% according to Trump

Equities

A bit of reminder of .com area – A Biotech Company Changed Its Name to ‘Riot Blockchain’ and Its Stock Is Surging  link

Japanese equities may still look interesting but don’t forget that BoJ is still active in the market

Better days for banks ahead?  link

May get support from rising rates that will translate to higher profit margins

Citron (short seller) – looking to publish more of their research on Shopify

JPMorgan – should report a bit better results, focus on trading and loan business

Citigroup – expecting slight disappointment earnings

BlackRock enjoying the bull run as index investors take the AUM to USD 6 trln

Goldman Sachs looking to return to investment banking as it is looking for new deals

Bonds

10-yr Trys yield at 2.34%

10-yr Bund yield at 0.46%

Wealth manager warns on bond markets creating the 'biggest financial crisis of our lifetime'  link

Are bonds ready for a quick reversal as central banks look to remove QE?

Bond markets are at certain point illiquid

Guessing that ECB knows this one better as they have sometimes troubles to find suitable available bonds to buy

EURUSD

Catalonia is over for now, markets turning attention back to EZ macro

Back above 1.1830, opening the door for 1.2000

Resistance at 1.1910

Support at 1.1862 (23.6% Fibo), 1.1845 (100 DMA)

USDJPY

Resistance at 112.61 (10 DMA), 112.70 (Ichimoku turning line)

Support at 111.89 (200 DMA), 111.85 (23.6% Fibo)

EURCZK

CZK on the rising wave, now below 26.00

Resistance at 25.88 (10 DMA), 25.97

Support at 25.47

Bear in mind that it is still too early read the charts after CNB 27.00 floor adventure

But at least weekly chart can give us some clues where we are heading to

CNB sitting on tons of foreign reserves and now losing money

Some politicians calling for joining EUR

General elections taking place on Oct 20-21

 Source: Saxo Bank

Gold

Resistance at 1295/96 (highs), 1297 (50 DMA), 1299 (38.2% Fibo)

Support at 1281 (50.0% Fibo)

Source: Saxo Bank 

Data/events

ECB’s Draghi (1430 GMT)

ECB’s Praet (1430 GMT)

Fed’s Brainard (1430 GMT)

Fed’s Powell (1430 GMT)

ECB’s Coeure (2000 GMT)

ECB’s Lautenschlaeger (2010 GMT)

Fri

Fed’s Rosengren (1230 GMT)

ECB’s Constancio (1415 GMT)

Fed’s Evans (1425 GMT)

Fed’s Kaplan (1530 GMT)

Fed’s Powell (1700 GMT)

Oct 18 – China National Congress

Oct 22 – Japanese elections

Oct 26 – ECB

Nov 1 – FOMC

Should you have any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

Good luck Champs!

Mr Hawk

DISCLAIMER: This material was created for informational purposes only and represents the Land of Trading team’s view of the past and current economic and capital market environment. It is not an investment advice and should not be viewed that way at all, and the creators of this material cannot be held liable for any potential losses resulting from trading, where despite this disclaimer someone would consider this material as an investment advice. All rights reserved ©2016. Contact: landoftradingATgmailDOTcom

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Apr 7, 2017 - Market Update

Short recap

Asia lower, safe heaven flows to bonds as US strikes can rise the confrontation risk with Russia and Iran

Russia calling for UN Security Council meeting, US informed RU about strikes in advance

Don’t want to sound cynic but it was a very good move from Trump’s team and Trump will definitely benefit

In other words diverting the attention from economic agenda to something else (for the time being)

China has no comments so far

Trump-Xi socialized a bit yesterday, no working talks yet

Geopolitical events difficult to trade but they usually mean revert as the market finds another theme

Sitting on crucial levels:

USDJPY at 110.00

US Trys yield close to 2.30% support

Gold above 200 DMA at 1256 and above recent high

S&P 500 to decide soon which to go

Oil was 2% up

10-yr Trys yield at 2.32% - after falling as low as 2.29% quickly recovered

10-yr Bunds yield at 0.25% - Draghi confirmed there is no need to change monetary policy

AUD down on risk off and fall in iron ore

EURUSD to test support at 1.0623 (100 DMA)

JP econ adviser saying JPY not at extremely strong levels

EURCZK cap removed

FX foreign reserves come close to USD 115 bln with a huge jump in 2017

No surprise that CNB acted that quickly right after official hint from last week

Overall it was an expected move, no huge reaction, handled it way much better then SNB

Looking at a steady move lower but still a short covering can take place as some speculators were betting on a sudden move

EURCZK at higher levels would mean a better entry point for CNB foreign reserves offloading

Stocks very muted reaction to Syria strikes

Defence stocks likely to benefit today

Step by step move over to high quality and low volatility stocks may be warranted

Unilever on the way to prove its shareholders both financially and via restructuring that it can run biz on its own

Adidas putting the 3D technology to real life to produce more customized products

Linde-Praxair merger – Linde board having headaches

Twitter co-founder sold some minority shares

JPMorgan, GS and RBC enjoying increase in M&A activity in Canada

Data

US NFPs

Headline 180k exp vs 235k prior

Unemployment rate 4.7% exp vs 4.7% prior

Average earnings +0.2% exp vs +0.2% prior

Few comments apart from official numbers above:

A bit mixed views as employment was strong in ISM Manufacturing

While dropped substantially in ISM Non-manufacturing

ADP strong at 263k

Jobless claims steady

Our expectations are closer to 200-220k

Market putting more emphasis on the dynamic of hourly earnings grow because of inflation pressures

That in turn may benefit USD

With this respect would need to see earnings growth at a higher pace than +0.2% m/m or +2.8% y/y

Weather may play a role

Unlikely that a bad surprise would effect Fed rate hikes

Wouldn’t be surprised if stock markets finally take a note of hiking…

Trump meeting Chinese president (2^nd day)

NATO foreign ministers meeting (2^nd day)

Fed’s Dudley speaking

Short week next week ahead of Easter holidays

Apr 23 – French presidential elections

Apr 29 – EU Summit to sign off the Brexit negotiations guidelines – until then we won’t have clearer EU position on Brexit

May 7 – French presidential elections 2^nd round

Should you have any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

Good luck Champs!

Mr Hawk

DISCLAIMER: This material was created for informational purposes only and represents the Land of Trading team’s view of the past and current economic and capital market environment. It is not an investment advice and should not be viewed that way at all, and the creators of this material cannot be held liable for any potential losses resulting from trading, where despite this disclaimer someone would consider this material as an investment advice. All rights reserved ©2016. Contact: landoftradingATgmailDOTcom

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Mar 23, 2017 - Is Czech Central Bank ready to remove the EURCZK 27.000 floor?

Well, as mentioned in our Market Update yesterday link, something must be baking no doubt...

There many traders asking the question how to trade the move but unfortunately, there is a huge two-way risk related to unpegging of EURCZK. As it is getting very crowded and nothing has been going on (spot wise) except for Czech National Bank regularly intervening there, the risk of abrupt move within almost inexistent liquidity is very high. Thus many brokers charge high margin requirements on spot trades or went manually on forwards and completely removed option trading.

More and more traders question the date when CNB will remove the peg. Wouldn’t be surprised if central bank moves soon (already in April/May) what is before the summer and well before next parliamentary elections in the fall this year in Czech Republic. It can do so even in between the official rate announcement days as the CNB may be pressed by inflation pressure.

Next CNB meeting is taking place on Mar 30, what is right before the end of the period (Q1 2017), thus before the deadline the CNB gave to market to keep the EURCZK floor at 27.000 intact. In other words we are getting closer as the following meeting takes place May 4.

Another date to watch may be Apr 10, when the March inflation data will be released. Meanwhile the year on year inflation moved to 2.5% level what is above the target level of CNB.

Read more in our article from Jan 2017  link

How to trade it? All of us recall the CHF event and let's believe CNB won't follow this example either. On the other hand, trades have learnt the lesson or hope so, and are aware of the potential risks. In other words, the first move will likely be down, followed by eventually swift correction back higher, bit of up-and-down yoyo...etc., and then we may get settled either way. 

It is hard to say what the target lower level may be but market may still find, for example the 28.000/500 appealing to enter the shorts.

On the lower end we may look at: 26.600/650, 26.000, 25.500 or 24.000/300

Should you have any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

Good luck Champs!

Mr Hawk

DISCLAIMER: This material was created for informational purposes only and represents the Land of Trading team’s view of the past and current economic and capital market environment. It is not an investment advice and should not be viewed that way at all, and the creators of this material cannot be held liable for any potential losses resulting from trading, where despite this disclaimer someone would consider this material as an investment advice. All rights reserved ©2016. Contact: landoftradingATgmailDOTcom

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Mar 22, 2017 - Market Update

Short recap

Europe opening lower

Asia down as markets doubt about the Trump’s ability to bring real pro-growth policies in life. In other words the after Trump victory reflation trade is loosing momentum. Nikkei testing the important psychological level 19 000.

The US markets suffered heavy selloff that was also accelerated by negative comments from US administration about the ban of nuclear weapons.

Abe supported open markets policy in Brussels yesterday

EU-JP working hard on a trade pact

US regulators pushing for a risk reduction via making the securities settlement time shorter (2 instead of 3 days)

Trump putting pressure on lawmakers to vote for Obamacare repeal bill as it is a first major hurdle to implementing his agenda. Bear in mind that there is Senate and two Houses of Congress to get it through.

Brexit – 27 remaining members to meet on Apr 29 (note Art 50 to be triggered on Mar 29)

London based banks not to face lengthy set up process while moving to EZ

Goldman Sachs to start moving staff to EZ soon

UK banks to face investigation in relation to Russia money laundering activities

US banks hardly hit during US session (down 3%) as markets losing faith in Trump pro-growth policies, thus reflation trade

We may get ready for a 5-10% correction

S&P 500 below 2350 support

After closing the investigation of Opel (GM) in emission scandal yesterday, the French authorities continue with Fiat-Chrysler

Apple is out with newer version of iPad, priced at USD 329 (lowest in Apple world)

New opportunities for global investment banks open in Canada as the appetite for M&A from Canadian companies and pension funds is rising

Oil still feeling the oversupply

Russia open to support the OPEC/Non-OPEC deal

Gold – finding ideal support from risk off (lower stocks, USD, yields and mounting political risks in US)

EURUSD – important 1.0800/50 if broken we aim for 1.1000 and higher

But if the rally in EURUSD is based on political risk off how sustainable is it?

At the moment the Le Pen defeat is not a done deal yet, just recall the Hillary Clinton winning the debates but the winner was…

USD – suffering against EUR, JPY and GBP, while stronger against EM currencies (reflation trade fading away)

USDJPY – 111.60 important, driven by yields

10-yr Trys yield at 2.43% (mid band of 2.30%-2.60% range)

10-yr Bunds yield at 0.43% (flat)

ECB is “testing” the market reaction to possible taper announcement at Dec 2017 meeting with a 10 bps rate hike

EURCZK – at the beginning of this week we saw a significant increase in activity on the bid side across all forward maturities. At the same time the flow was also much higher than usual, what may continue as a part of risk off, reflation and EM flows, not to mention, of course, the likelihood of CNB to remove the EURCZK 27.000 floor this year.

Data

US: Existing Home Sales – expecting a small decline

Villeroy (ECB) to speak (0830 GMT)

Lautenschlager (ECB) to speak (1130 GMT)

Thursday: US House voting on Obamacare repeal

Super important event in terms of whether Trump can/is able to deliver

Should you have any questions feel free to contact me anytime.

Good luck Champs!

Mr Hawk

DISCLAIMER: This material was created for informational purposes only and represents the Land of Trading team’s view of the past and current economic and capital market environment. It is not an investment advice and should not be viewed that way at all, and the creators of this material cannot be held liable for any potential losses resulting from trading, where despite this disclaimer someone would consider this material as an investment advice. All rights reserved ©2016. Contact: landoftradingATgmailDOTcom

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