The Australian dollar has been rising very quickly in the past few weeks. This is as expected. My target is the low- to mid-80s. The drivers are obvious in very high terms of trade and a declining US dollar. How are these two playing out together? First, a Wall St take on the US Dollar
Goldman is pumping this one like there is no tomorrow: The rally in oil prices has paused after Brent prices briefly reached the $65/bbl summer forecast we first set-out last August, on the realization that frigid US weather will only marginally tighten the global market and over concerns for a return of Iranian barrels. Despite
Capex intentions are out from the ABS. These figures are estimates for the next eighteen months of business investment, direct input into GDP. They are better than some feared but still not well. Via ABS: Total capital expenditure Estimate 5 for 2020-21 is $121,428m. This is 4.8% higher than Estimate 4 for 2020-21. Estimate 1
BofA: In a normal business cycle recovery, the economy gradually returns to full employment, causing a lagged return of inflation pressure. This gives monetary and fiscal authorities’ time to recalibrate policy before there is serious overheating. This cycle looks far from normal: Super easy monetary and fiscal policy suggests the fastest business cycle recovery since
While global stock markets are still on the march, Chinese bourses have been bashed over the past week in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Given China is the leading indicator for this business cycle, first into and out of the virus, with accompanying stimulus, is this the harbinger for global markets? First up, the correction so
Mizuho: Despite January’s negative inflation rate, we still look for mildly positive inflation for 2021. In this note, we examine a few factors that are likely to impact China’s inflation throughout the year, including CPI’s base effect and revised weights, the pork cycle, consumer confidence, credit growth and the external environment. In detail, the base
Iron ore prices traded flat yesterday. Paper markets were soft overnight. Rebar did better: Yesterday CISA released mid-Feb output data for major mills and it hit preposterous levels: This is a part of the early year build of steel inventory and will come down before long. Even so, it is clearly bullish for now. Even
The filth deepens. Now our chief intelligence officer, Peter Dutton, knew nothing. Via Domain: A special investigations board at the Australian Federal Police discussed the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins on February 11 this year, triggering formal advice to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton about her case. The board, chaired by deputy commissioner Ian McCartney,
The RBA has been very explicit about why it has renovated its entire monetary policy framework. Its inflation goals have fallen short for a decade. One major reason why was monetary policy was too tight leading to an overly high Australian dollar. Yesterday at Bloomberg, Westpac’s Sean Callow declared: “The conversation around the Aussie changes
The post-pandemic environment is deeply irrational. We’ve seen markets crash down and crash up. Autocracies charge into self-defeating abuse of all and sundry. Democracies give up entirely upon accountability. Riots at the Capitol. The “great reset” conspiracy theory. The normalisation of rape in the Australian Parliament House. Entire countries swept by death while others bunker
BofA with the lastest charts: The latest update to University of Washington’s IHME Covid-19 model shows dramatic improvement in the trajectory for the US Covid-19 situation between now and the summer. They no longer predict another spike in daily infections due to the more infectious mutated variants, all that remains is a bump–i.e. a March
Via Credit Suisse, now aligned with Goldman uber-bulls: Raising S&P 500 Target to 4300 on Earnings Upside and Reopening Prospects We are raising our 2021 S&P 500 price target to 4300 from 4200, representing10.9% upside from current levels, and 14.5% for the year. This follows an increase from 4050 on January 7 (seeS&P 500 to
Late yesterday China released its 70-city house price index and it showed some refirming of prices for January with month-on-month prices at 0.3% and year-on-year at 3.9%: The number of cities registering gains swung back to positive with 40 versus 30 stable of falling: The price gains are still very much in lower-tier cities: There
US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, weighed in on Bitcoin last night, clearly on the negative side. This is important: It is a highly speculative asset and you know I think people should be aware it can be extremely volatile and I do worry about potential losses that investors can suffer. I don’t think that Bitcoin
Wholesale degeneration is now unleashed in Aussie politics. Prime Minster Scott Morrison’s rape protection racket is leading it. The Guardian: A former candidate for the Greens party has alleged Frank Zumbo, an office manager for the former Liberal MP Craig Kelly, behaved inappropriately towards her when she was a teenager, saying she felt compelled to speak
Iron ore prices fell yesterday, February 24, 2021: The proximate trigger was the tightening of output restrictions in Tangshan as pollution levels surpassed healthy levels. In the past, these types of restrictions have proven bullish for iron ore if they triggered a rise in steel prices but we seem to be so over-heated here, with
Two investing legends – Ray Dalio and Jeremy Grantham – have recently put different cases for why parts of the technology component of stock markets are in a bubble vulnerable to steep correction. Grantham argued that the extreme valuations in growth stocks and the pervasiveness of crazy behaviour were dead giveaways that a bust was
Overnight the Australian dollar fell back a little from its recent charge. In truth, it was a pretty minor setback, especially so given risk assets struggled through much of the night, wrestling with higher yields: The battler is still in a clear uptrend as commodity currencies outperform amid the great rotation from growth to value.
For many years we have all watched on as Dictator Dan did his level best to turn the Victorian economy into little more than a population ponzi scheme. We warned throughout that this was ill-considered “can-kicking” given all it did was crush wages and lift asset prices while building out for an influx of people
More interesting ruminations from a slightly less bullish Goldman Sachs on how to hedge inflation. My own view is that gold is not working as it used to. Real rates have been pummelled but that has triggered a rush to BTC instead. I reckon that given this inflation pulse will be strongest in the US
Bridgewater doyen, Ray Dalio, takes on the quadrillion dollar question today. Are stocks in a bubble? He breaks it down via series of measures that breaks out a cohort of “bubble stocks” while the broader market is only expensive. This looks to me like Mr Dalio is arguing that we have K-shaped bubble, if you
Markets are today busily repricing the prospects for interest rate rises around the world. This is being driven by the vaccine-led post-COVID recovery, ongoing monetary and fiscal stimulus and rising supply-side inflation associated with bottlenecks and runaway demand for goods while services are suppressed by lack of mobility. Yesterday TD Securities argued that the RBA
Via Fitch: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Australia’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) at ‘AAA’ with a Negative Outlook. KEY RATING DRIVERS Australia’s rating reflects its strong institutions and effective policy framework, which supported nearly three decades of economic growth prior to the coronavirus pandemic and helped limit the severity of the current shock. The
Mizuho: ◼ Usually, it takes two to three weeks for China’s industrial production to recover to full capacity post a lunar new year (LNY) holiday as rural migrant workers return to the city. However, such a recovery is expected to arrive earlier this year as many workers spent the holiday in the city due to
Iron ore prices were firm overnight as paper rebounded with steel and dirt yesterday: The latest update for steel output levels in China via CISA are insane at 2.15mt per day: I expect output to fall as the year wears on, much like 2011, as China steadily applies the stimulus brakes. In a supply-constrained environment,
Crikey wraps it nicely: Former Liberal staffer Chelsey Potter has written an op-ed at InDailyaccusing federal Finance Minister Simon Birmingham of not meeting with her either before or after she went public with allegations of sexual assault by a colleague. InDailyfurther explains that Birmingham, who was not told of the allegations while Potter worked in his office, has confirmed he declined to
Readers will know that we have been expecting a scary steepening of the bond curve. The reasons are clear. The global vaccine recovery has begun. Central banks have nailed short-end yields to the floor. Fiscal stimulus is booming. There are short-term inflation pressures in the global inventory rebuild and production bottlenecks. Energy prices are surging.
Bill Evans at Westpac: The housing market upturn that emerged in the third quarter last year has strengthened and broadened materially through year-end with all aspects now showing strong gains. Turnover is up 25% over the year, prices nationally are pushing above their pre-COVID levels, dwelling approvals surged 22% in the final quarter of 2020,
I have noted many times over the past year why the OECD would be bonkers to promote former Australian Finance Minister, Matthias Corman, to secretary-general. The two reasons are straightforward. Cormann’s record of voting on climate change is abysmal and he played a key role in destroying Australia’s world-leading carbon price. Second, economically, Cormann is
For those who are sceptical that China is on the verge of delivering a threat to the USD with the world’s new reserve currency, today marks another cynical day. There is new excitement at Bloomberg for CNY as its daily turnover rises: The article notes that the driver is the carry trade into higher Chinese
