Australian dollar scorched by hot US inflation

Advertisement

DXY launched last night:

AUD copped the blast:

North Asia too:

Oil held on, gold gave way:

Advertisement

Dirt is in free fall:

Miners were whacked:

EM too:

Advertisement

Treasuries were flogged:

And stocks thumped:

Goldman with the culprit:

Advertisement

January core CPI rose 0.39%, 9bp above consensus expectations and compared to +0.28% in December. The year-on-year rate was unchanged at 3.9% compared to consensus of 3.7%.

The strength largely reflected start-of-year price increases for labor-reliant categories such as medical services, car insurance and repair, and daycare, and we assume inflation in these categories returns to the previous trend on net in February and March.

However, the large and persistent owners’ equivalent rent category (OER) was also surprisingly strong, perhaps driven by the rebounding housing market.

Used car prices fell sharply, and we continue to expect further declines in February and later this year. We tentatively expect core PCE prices rose 0.34% in January (mom sa). We will update our estimate after this week’s import price and PPI data.

Private rent measures are much weaker, so OER should roll over in due course.

Remember that it is PCE that matters to the Fed, so we may still escape with pop in prices.

My hope is we get a decent sell-off for a re-entry point. I am not convinced that this is anything other than a blip that impacts the timing but the eventuality of Fed easing.

Advertisement

AUD down while it lasts!

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.