US equities, USD, Chinese QE unwind, BoE and Cable...

S&P500
Did FaceBook ring the bell for the market top, at least for now? Seems like it so far.
 
USD
The worlds biggest debtor wants to take on the FX and bond markets...  

In the LBO Whitehouse you grow revenues (nominal GDP) while keeping funding costs cheap and you avoid a bad recession at all costs I really think the Fed will struggle to get past the 3-3.5% level for a wide range of reasons, and therefore the Fed stops hiking rates or is forced to by a change in mandate 

At that point the USD sinks as investors look for higher real yields elsewhere and later on the bond market revolts as the wage/ inflation cycle takes hold But this year the USD is up up up and eitherway you don't want interest rate duration from here

Chinese QE unwind.
Chinese now net sellers of CRE having been the trophy price payers last 2 years...

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3491015


BoE and scaring the Cable shorts (or could it be scarring?)
Thought this was a good short interview on the BoE and what the market has priced in. You never know, Carney might even scare the market into a brief Cable rally.

FX moves: USD, EUR, JPY, CNY

The Yen and the CNY. One of the cheapest majors and one of the most expensive. On say a 2 year time horizon it might be time for the Yen to rally and CNY to devalue... with a target of >7.5c/ Yen

 USD also on the cusp of a breakout

So USD up this year on a rate hike funding short squeeze, potentially a violent top. Then at some point in 2019 as the US transitions into an inflation cycle, a long term (burn off the debt) bear market starts to emerge. 

For the Euro to be genuinely strong though I think we need a crisis and then an EIB bond financed belt and road plan to invest what you could call the Rhine valley goods surplus. Italy can engineer the show down on that.

First Copper, then...

Copper is rolling over on Trade Wars, China slowing. Should drag HY down first, then equities with a few months lag.

My comments on Wolf Street's QE unwind update

In the 9 months since QE unwind started Fed has cut ~5% off the balance sheet. Since then:

• US Tsy real yields are at top of the QE range, 80bps at 10yr
• Tsy curve has flattened
• USD rallied
• BBB IG bond spreads to 1.6% vs 1.3%
• US high yield spreads seems to have bottomed
• EM tanked
• Liquidity has dried up at times in some areas of bonds markets as they reset to higher yield levels with not much market making to intermediate the move
• Global Prime Residential is in a bear market in many locations
• S&P equity breadth narrowed
• We had one volatility explosion in equities, and one in govvies (Italian 2yr) and several in EM FX/ equities.

Nevertheless with credit growth in Q1 at 18% of GDP annualised, main street USA is doing fine. 

In Q4 balance sheet reductions will go to $50bn a month and next year they are targetting 15%/ $600bn in reductions and potentially 100bps more from here in Fed funds rate hikes which would take Libor to about 3.5%.

If the USD Treasury yield curve steepens on a reflationary policy outlook it could see the 10year at 3.5-4%.

https://wolfstreet.com/2018/07/06/update-on-the-feds-qe-unwind/