Despite all the jawboning ahead of the IMF / World Bank meetings over the weekend the meeting ended with little agreement on how deal to with the prospects of a “currency war”. US officials continued to sling mud at China for not allowing its currency, the CNY, to appreciate quickly enough whilst China blamed the US for destabilizing emerging economies by flooding them with liquidity due to the Fed’s ultra loose monetary policy stance. Chinese trade data on Wednesday my throw more fuel on to the fire given another strong surplus expected, lending support to those in the US Congress who want to label China as a “currency manipulator”.
Although the IMF communiqué mentioned countries working co-operatively” on currencies there were no details on how such cooperation would take place. The scene is now set for plenty of friction and potential volatility ahead of the November G20 meeting in Seoul. Although many central banks are worrying about USD weakness when was the last time US Treasury Secretary Geithner talked about a strong USD? US officials are probably happy to see the USD falling and are unlikely to support any measure to arrest its decline unless the drop in the USD turns into a rout. In contrast, the strengthening EUR over recent weeks equates to around 50bps of monetary tightening, a fact that could put unwanted strain on Europe’s growth trajectory, especially in the periphery.
The outcome of the IMF meeting leaves things much as they left off at the end of last week. In other words there is little to stand in the way of further USD weakness apart from the fact that the market is already extremely short USDs. Indeed the latest CFTC IMM data revealed that aggregate net USD positioning came within a whisker of its all time low, with net positions at -241.2k contracts (USD -30 billion), the lowest USD positioning since November 2007. Interestingly and inconsistent with the sharp rise in the EUR, positioning in this currency remains well below its all time highs, supporting the view that rather than speculative investors it is central banks that are pushing the EUR higher.
The US jobs report at the end of last week proved disappointing, with total September payrolls dropping by 95k despite a 64k increase in private payrolls. The data will act to reinforce expectations that the Fed will begin a program of further asset purchases or quantitative easing (QE2) at its November meeting. Data and events this week will give further clues, especially the Fed FOMC minutes tomorrow and speeches from Fed Chairman Bernanke on Thursday and Friday as well as various other Fed speakers on tap.
Recent speeches by Fed officials have highlighted growing support for QE although some have tried to temper expectations. Questions about the timing and size of any new programme, as well as how it will be communicated remain unanswered. Although November seems likely for the Fed to start QE the Fed’s Bullard suggested that the Fed may wait until December. The minutes will be scrutinized for clues on these topics. The Fed is likely to embark on incremental asset purchases with the overall size being data dependent and the USD set to remain under pressure while this happens.
ECONOMETER 