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The RBA just turned dovish, but the macro data do not justify many more cuts. We unpack why Australia’s strong labor market and sticky inflation limit the scope for further easing.
Tariff front-running behavior makes the April hard economic data difficult to interpret, but we take the strong reading from Food Services spending as a signal that the US consumer has not yet buckled.
A weakening economy will apply downward pressure to Treasury yields, but the Trump term premium will keep long-dated yields higher than they would otherwise be. This makes Treasury curve steepeners the most attractive trade in US fixed income.
The easing bias remains, but not all central banks are equal. This Central Bank Monitor update reveals who is ready to cut more and who is still pretending not to.
OPEC+ recently announced another outsized oil production hike, tripling its planned June output increase to 411k b/d for the second consecutive month. Our take on why KSA is boosting crude output at a time of heightened downside demand risks is that it is pursuing an oil price war lite. President Trump is not only blessing this strategy but also depending on it.
Rate cuts, recession risks, and relative value. This report unpacks how the BoE, Riksbank, and Norges Bank are reacting to global trade turmoil and where the opportunities lie.
Taiwan, Singapore, and Korea's currencies might appreciate versus the USD, driven by capital repatriation from domestic private investors away from the US. This thesis is less pertinent to India, Indonesia, and the Philippines because they have large net foreign portfolio liabilities. Malaysia and Thailand fall in the middle, while China is an exception. Investors should play intensifying deflationary pressures in Asia by betting on lower interest rates in the region.
The Fed held rates steady this afternoon, and the timing of its next move will be dictated by whether the tariff shock to inflation is transitory or more long lasting.
We apply our systematic approach to investing based on economic, inflation, and monetary policy surprises to the major global bond markets. The economic regimes defined by the current macro-surprises setup confirm our existing fixed-income portfolio tactical recommendations.