Trump’s double surprise
It is quite clear that in the days leading up to the U.S. Presidential election, both markets and surveys got it wrong. Traditional polling once again failed to spot the depth of support for radical political change. This was after all the U.S., which has delivered the strongest post-crisis economic performance of any developed nation.
Read more...BOE: Bank on track
Today’s BOE decision represents a correction in UK policy makers’ thinking. The sudden stop in activity which was implied by the Bank’s August stimulus package has not materialised and the focus has instead returned to significantly above-target inflation by 2018. This is going to be supportive of sterling, especially as consensus views on the exchange rate had become so negative.
Read more...BOE leadership: Carney’s conundrum
Mark Carney’s testimony to the UK’s House of Lords economic affairs committee was notable both in regard to his personal intentions and the future interaction between fiscal and monetary policy. In respect of the former, his emphasis on personal circumstances in terms of whether he wished to serve a full 8 year term at times felt uncomfortably close to sounding as if he wished to spend more time with his family. Even if this may have been unintentional it has contributed to the speculation over his future.
Read more...US and European earnings trends: Better to travel than to arrive
While political volatility may be on the increase, consensus profits forecasts have in contrast remained on a stable trend over the second half of 2016. In the UK, 2017 forecasts have now recovered their modest post-Brexit drop, in part due the positive impact of the decline in sterling. US estimates for 2017 have also only fluctuated in a very narrow range during the last six months. In continental Europe the post-Brexit declines have stuck and there has been an additional modest decline in forecasts during October. This period of relative stability in earnings forecasts is in sharp contrast to the significant declines which spooked investors for much of 2015 and Q1 2016.
Read more...Sterling: Lower for longer as the EU strikes back
The UK’s new Prime Minister Theresa May’s honeymoon period is clearly over. Days after emphasising the importance of national sovereignty and appearing to lean towards a ‘hard’ Brexit, a dawn raid on sterling and subsequent weakness has given opponents ammunition to attack the UK’s plan to leave the EU. Furthermore, tough talk from the UK government has been reciprocated from EU leaders and European heads of state. President of the European Council Donald Tusk may even have given the game away by linking the concept of a ‘hard’ Brexit to ‘no Brexit’. For sterling, we believe investors should look through the politics and focus on the economics.
Read more...Just don’t mention the yen
Today’s “Comprehensive Assessment” by the Bank of Japan of its stimulus efforts has in our view underemphasised the role of the weaker yen in bringing Japan out of deflation. The data show a very strong link between lagged moves in USD/JPY and Japan’s core inflation rate, Exhibit 1. Moves in the yen over the last year indicate that Japan’s core CPI may once again be falling back towards zero which may induce the BOJ to engage in further stimulus efforts. However, we wonder if the lower bound on interest rates is not the only constraint central banks are now facing.
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