ECONOMETER

Weekend developments will help set up the markets for a risk on day.  However, any improvement in sentiment will likely be capped. The good news was that the US and China agreed to a trade truce at the G20 summit, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met at the demilitarised zone while separately the EU and Mercosur agreed upon a trade deal in a strong retort against the rising trend of protectionism.

Presidents Trump and Xi agreed to delay the implementation of new tariffs (on the remaining $300bn of Chinese exports to the US) while agreeing to restart trade talks, albeit with no time table scheduled as yet.  The delay in tariffs escalation and restart of trade talks was in line with expectations but concessions on Huawei were not.   Trump stated that US companies can sell equipment to Huawei without giving details on what can be sold while China also agreed to buy more US agricultural goods.

The chances of a US-China trade deal have risen, but it could still take several months before various remaining structural issues (forced technology transfers, state subsidies, discrimination against foreign companies, regulations on intellectual property etc)
are ironed out. The lack of time frame on US-China trade talks, ongoing structural issues, lack of details on what equipment US suppliers can sell to Huawei and a host of data releases, will limit the improvement in sentiment and reduce the likelihood of any near term deal.

Looking ahead, sentiment may be clouded somewhat by the disappointing China purchasing managers’ index (PMI) yesterday, with the manufacturing PMI coming in at 49.4 in June, the same as in May, with manufacturing continuing to contract.  However, markets may be willing to overlook this as trade tensions were likely a prime reason for the continued weakness in manufacturing confidence.   As such, China’s currency CNY and asset markets will likely react positively overall.

The events over the weekend will likely reduce the chances of a 50bps rate by the Fed at their next meeting, but much will depend on upcoming data.   This includes the June US ISM survey today and employment report on Friday.  Markets expect a 160k bounce back in payrolls in June after the surprisingly weak 75k increase in the previous month.  Assuming the data is line with expectations it seems unlikely that the Fed will feel the need to ease policy by more than 25bp when they meet at the end of the month.