Syz the moment

Recession confirmed?

Markets like clarity and hate confusion. The first half of the year was about disinflation + AI buzz. Now the markets are not sure about what's next. And some of the confusion seems to be coming from central banks... This week we got a very confusing message from the #fed: a pause in rates, higher dot plots in 2024 but also calling a soft landing NOT a base line expectation, hence sharing fears that keeping real rates for a long period of time creates some downside risks for the economy and the markets... The combo higher inflation risk + downside growth risk is not a great value proposal for Mr Market at the time you can nicely paid by keeping your assets in money markets funds... Source chart: Bloomberg

Japan | BOJ left its monetary settings unchanged and offered no clear sign of a shift in its policy stance, putting a damper on market speculation over the prospects for a near-term interest rate hike and adding pressure on the yen. The Bank of Japan kept its negative interest rate and the parameters of its yield curve control program intact on Friday in an outcome predicted by all 46 economists surveyed by Bloomberg. It also maintained a pledge to add to its stimulus without hesitation if needed, a vow that offers yen bears a reason to keep betting against it. Japan’s currency weakened as much as 0.4% after the decision to around the 148.20 mark against the dollar. This helped stocks, which trimmed about half of their losses for the day. The benchmark 10-year bond yield was down half a basis point from Thursday’s closing level at 0.74%. Source: Bloomberg

The hike continues what many see as a return to more orthodox monetary policy under Governor Hafize Gaye Erkan, a former executive of First Republic Bank & Goldman Sachs, who was appointed in June after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a close-fought re-election. Erkan now hiked rates by a cumulative 2150bps. Source: Bloomberg, HolgerZ

The Swiss national bank unexpectedly leaves its policy rate unchanged at 1.75%. Market was estimating the probability of a 25bps hike at more than 70% yesterday.
USDCHF broke the 200 daily moving average of 0.9036 and now trading higher over 0.9060.
EURCHF also trading higher at 0.9650.

Incredible how closely today's action tracked the average. Source: bespoke (read "today" red line as yesterday)

"I WOULD NOT CALL SOFT LANDING A BASELINE EXPECTATION"

FOMC KEEPS RATES UNCHANGED AS EXPECTED BUT MAKES CLEAR THAT HIGHER RATES ARE THE NEW NORMAL...US 2y yields hit highest since 2006 after somewhat hawkish Fed. Bottom-line: #Fed futures now no longer show rate CUTS beginning until September 2024. To put this in perspective, three months ago futures were expecting 4 rate CUTS in 2023. Now, interest rates are expected to PAUSE for at least 1 year... One remark: Fed estimates that r* (the real short-term interest rate expected to prevail when an economy is at full strength and inflation is stable) remains at 0.5%, and yet rates in 2026, when US debt may hit $50 trillion will be 3%. This means that blended interest on US debt will be ~$2 trillion, double where it is now. Source: Bloomberg, The Kobeissi Letter, HolgerZ, www.zerohedge.com