All Eyes On Yellen: Global Markets Flat On Dreadful Volumes, Oil Slides
By Tyler Durden
In a world where fundamentals don’t matter, everyone’s attention will be on Janet Yellen who speaks at 1:15pm today in Harvard, hoping to glean some more hints about the Fed’s intentionas and next steps, including a possible rate hike in June or July. And with a long holiday in both the US and UK (US bond market closes at 2pm today), it is no surprise overnight trading volumes have been dreadful, helping keep global equities poised for the highest close in three weeks; this won’t change unless Yellen says something that would disrupt the calm that’s settled over financial markets.
Traders are now predicting a higher than 50% chance of an increase in July, so a misstep by Yellen risks upsetting a lull that has sent currency volatility to the lowest since January.
Looking at global markets, stocks were poised for the steepest weekly advance in more than a month on speculation financial risks around the world have eased. The dollar rose versus most peers, pushing oil lower with WTI falling below $49 after rising above $50 for the first time since NOvember yesterday. The British pound was the biggest gainer among major currencies this week on growing confidence the U.K. will remain in the European Union. As emerging markets rebounded, Russia and Qatar returned to international debt markets for the first time in at least three years.
Opinions about what Yellen would say varied from one extreme to the other.
“It will be a difficult task for Yellen,” said Ulrich Leutchmann, head of currency strategy at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “The discussion today will center around her past achievements and not on actual monetary policy, but if she doesn’t give any hawkish signal, many in the market will interpret this as dovishness given recent hawkish comments” by other Fed officials.
Elsewhere, Ralf Zimmermann, a strategist at Bankhaus Lampe, said that “today certainly all investors’ eyes will be on Yellen,” said “The Fed is obviously willing to increase rates. But it is more a risk than a chance for stocks. I was surprised with the recent strength.”
Also chimed in Mark Lister, head of private wealth research at Craigs Investment Partners, who said that “wwe are still a little cautious. Yellen is likely to continue with the rhetoric of wanting to hike and that’s their plan. Equity markets still offer value on a medium-term basis and it’s certainly the only place where you’re getting any sort of yield. We’d welcome a pullback because that would give us a chance to do some buying at more reasonable prices.”
Others, most notably Jeff Gundlach, disagreed with expectations for a hawkish Yellen. The DoubleLine CEO said he expects a dovish speech from Yellen and predicts the Fed will refrain from raising interest rates in June unless traders in the futures market assign a probability of at least 50 percent to such a move.
In short: nobody has any clue as usual what happens next, and certainly not the Fed.
As nothed above, market moves have been …read more
Source: All Eyes On Yellen: Global Markets Flat On Dreadful Volumes, Oil Slides
