Forex Market Outlook 11/14/11
Once again our attention is on Europe as new regimes are coming into power in both Greece and Italy. This completes the change in all four S. European countries, with Portugal's leader having resigned months ago and Spain's leader electing not to run for office again. Now the challenge will be to get them all to agree and implement the austerity measures required to participate in the terms of the bailout.
This has been a somewhat strange turn of events as the story being floated now is that these indebted nations want more Euro zone participation, and not less. So now they are talking about how to form better controls in the hope of allaying market fears. But in reality, if they really wanted to allay market fears, they would let the ECB stand as the buyer of last resort in the same manner in which the Fed stemmed our crisis 2 years ago. Good luck with that one though.
So the two new governments are stepping into place and are being formed, but there is still some risk in the marketplace until it becomes a "done-deal". While the markets are hopeful in the competency of the new leaders, the proof is in the pudding as they say.
In the meantime Italy had a bond offering that was successful, but the yield was the highest they've had to pay in over a decade. This sent stocks lower and the markets into mild risk aversion mode this morning.
This week is marked by a lot of consumer price data due out from around the globe; however don't expect any Central bank to do anything about inflation if it comes in higher than expected. This is precisely what they are hoping to encourage, despite its limited ability to help economies grow.
Overnight, Japan reported GDP figures that came in higher than expected and was the first expansion they have seen in over 4 quarters, though it must be noted that the majority of these gains are as a result of the re-building efforts from the natural disaster and companies producing more to catch up on losses. In other words, don't expect this type of activity to continue going forward, though this is definitely a positive development. The Bank of Japan interest rate policy decision is due mid-week though don't expect any changes. The Yen is strengthening on the GDP data as well as general risk aversion this morning.
The data in the UK will be interesting this week as CPI has been stubbornly high and the BOE just increased their asset purchase program by 25 billion pounds. The data is due out tomorrow, and will be followed on Wednesday by the BOE inflation report. Wednesday also will bring the UK unemployment report which is expected to tick slightly higher, and Thursday is retail sales figures which are expected to show declines. I think the UK is heading for a stagflationary environment if the BOE doesn't act to reduce inflation.
In the US, while PPI and CPI data will also be out later this week, I think the most important number of the week will be tomorrow's Advance Retail Sales figures. The market is expecting a gain of .3% and this figure may really show the health of the US consumer and whether or not that segment of the economy is starting to pick up. The inflation data is meaningless to me as we know the Fed's next move will be to ease further through QE3 whenever that comes, though there will be some market volatility on the release.
This week is really more about confidence from the Euro zone than anything else. If CPI data comes in lower than it will buy Central bankers time to allow easy money to continue to work its way through their respective economies. If it comes in higher, it is unlikely that public reaction will be enough to do anything about it. Then next month's data will likely show the effects of the $100/barrel price of oil we are seeing today.
Don't be fooled into thinking that Central banks will respond to the data and do what's best for the masses as inflation is a pretty one-way bet right now.
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