Syz the moment

Source: Visual Capitalist

In the US: ◦ April ADP employment ◦ April ISM manufacturing ◦ March Job openings ◦ FOMC interest rate decision ◦ Fed Chair Powell press conference ◦ April employment rate ◦ $AAPL, $AMZN, $LLY, $MA, $KO, $AMD, $MCD, $QCOM earnings Rest of the world: ◦ In Europe, the focus will be on April CPI prints as well as the Q1 GDP reports. ◦ The latest economic activity and labour market indicators will also be in focus in Japan, and PMIs are due in China. Source: Trend spider

The Bank of Japan kept its policy rate unchanged Friday after its monetary policy meeting, holding its benchmark policy rate at 0%-0.1%. This is in line with expectations from economists polled by Reuters. While the move was expected, this comes after Tokyo’s April inflation came in lower than expected, with the core inflation rate at 1.6% compared to expectations of 2.2% from Reuters. The BOJ also said it will continue to conduct bond purchases. However, they dropped a reference to buying roughly the same amount of bonds as previously. No comment was made by the BOJ on the yen, which has steadily weakened since the BOJ ended its negative interest rate policy last month and abolished its yield curve control policy. The currency broke through the 156 mark against the U.S. dollar Friday after the decision, most recently trading at 156.11. Separately, the central bank also released its second-quarter outlook for Japan’s economy, raising its outlook for inflation in fiscal 2024. The BOJ now expects inflation between 2.5% and 3% for fiscal 2024, up from 2.2% to 2.5% in its January forecast. Inflation is then predicted to decelerate to “around 2%” in fiscal 2025 and 2026, the bank added. The BOJ also downgraded gross domestic product growth forecasts for fiscal 2024 to a range of 0.7% to 1%, down from January’s prediction of 1%-1.2% growth. Think of this as another small step in what the BoJ sees as a relatively long policy normalization journey. As mentioned by Mohamed El Erian, the length of this journey, both on a standalone basis and relative to the US, helps explain the weak Yen. Source: Bloomberg, CNBC

Real GDP expanded at a 1.6% rate in Q1, trailing all forecasts. Main growth engine – personal spending – rose at a slower-than-forecast 2.5% pace. BUT a closely watched measure of underlying inflation advanced at a greater-than-expected 3.7% clip... While "soft" macro data in the first 3 months of the year were "goldilocks" for markets (Growth surprising on the upside + disinflation), the effective Q1 print does not look as rosy... Source: HolgerZ, Bloomberg

Speaking at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday, JPMorgan CEO Dimon said now more so than ever the economy is resembling the 1970s, when both inflation and unemployment were high but economic growth was weak.

Street consensus is 2.5%. Q1 GDP will be published today

German Composite PMI Index moved back to >50 growth threshold in Apr for 1st time in 10mths, driven by a buoyant services sector. At 50.5, up from 47.7 in March, it signaled a modest expansion rate in private-sector business activity. Service PMI recorded its strongest growth since Jun2023 (index at 53.3). The manufacturing PMI meanwhile remained in sub-50 contraction territory at 42.2. Source: HolgerZ, Bloomberg

This setup could be set to continue as long as we see: 1) Signs of inflation remaining sticky or re-accelerating 2) The Fed cautious about the timing of cutting 3) Large deficit spending amid rising rates causing interest rate spend to surge (could hit $1.6T by Dec y/y w/o a rate cut) Source: Markets & Mayhem