US STOCKS: S&P Pauses Ahead Of 6300, New Tariffs See Futures Open Lower In Asia
The ESU5 Friday night range was 6276.75 - 6312.75, Asia is currently trading around 6276. The September contract traded sideways on Friday just off its all-time highs. This morning has seen US futures open under pressure with Trump issuing fresh 30% tariffs on Europe and Mexico starting Aug. 1, ESU5 -0.40%, NQU5 -0.40%. The market has most recently been able to look through these tariffs, is this just another dip to be added to or will their accumulation finally tell ?
- Daily Chartbook on X: "While the rally has surprised many investors (including us), risk sentiment indicators remain broadly neutral, which suggests that many investors haven't participated in the rally. - TS Lombard”
- Lance Roberts on X: “The markets are very complacent and expectations are high for a continued bull run. However, one thing to consider is that we are moving into the seasonally strong period for volatility." See Graph Below.
- (Bloomberg) - “Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the resurgence of tariff risk this week is how markets ignored it. The dollar climbed, high-yield spreads widened a measly 11 bps in the first four days of the week, and the S&P 500 notched up yet another record high as the VIX basically yawned.”
- “Earnings season starts again with the focus on the big banks. Volatility over the last quarter will have helped trading desks across the street, however investment banking revenues may be impacted by the slower pace of dealmaking.” - BBG
- Short-term this is starting to look a little overdone but the market clearly disagrees for now and sees the potential for a melt-up. First support is back towards the 6100 area.
Fig 1: VIX S&P Seasonality
Source: MNI/@LanceRoberts/EquityClock
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US FISCAL: Available Extraordinary Measures Pick Up Ahead Of Tax Date
Treasury had $144B in "extraordinary measures" available to keep the government financed as of June 11 per a release Friday. That is up from $84B a week earlier and the highest since April 28.
- However, TGA cash continues to fall, to $309B latest (lowest since early April) Combined with a pullback in Treasury cash ($376B), keeping the total resources available to avert an "x-date" in the summer at around $450B .
- There will be another uptick in Treasury cash in the coming days, and it's likely Treasury allowed some of the extraordinary measures to be rebuilt (ie not exercised) in anticipation of more cash coming in.
- This is likely to be the last major uplift before the summer at which point x-date speculation will pick up if Congress hasn't passed a debt limit increase by then.
FED: Two Cuts Priced This Year Headed Into FOMC Week
As we head into the June Fed meeting week, market pricing is reflective of the FOMC’s messaging (that we describe in our preview):
- The next cut is only fully priced by the October FOMC meeting, with September seeing a roughly 80% implied probability of bringing the next 25bp reduction.
- Exactly 50bp of cuts are priced through end-2025, implying two Q4 cuts.
- That’s a shift from just after the May meeting, after which the next cut was fully priced by September, and there were closer to three cuts priced for the rest of the year.
- Overall cuts are seen backloaded this year (after 15bp in September, 29bp of cuts priced in Q4 - Oct/Dec combined), but falls off in Q1 (just 21bp cuts priced, 9bp of cuts priced for January and 12bp for March)
FED: Summary Of Economic Projections: Higher 2025 Inflation, Weaker Growth
The MNI Markets Team’s expectations for the updated Economic Projections are below.
- As of the May meeting, the Federal Reserve staff – whose outlook tends to be broadly shared by the median Committee member – revised their forecasts for growth weaker in 2025 and 2026, “as announced trade policies implied a larger drag on real activity relative to the policies that the staff had assumed in their previous forecast. Trade policies were also expected to lead to slower productivity growth and therefore to reduce potential GDP growth over the next few years. With the drag on demand expected to start earlier and to be larger than the supply response, the output gap was projected to widen significantly over the forecast period. The labor market was expected to weaken substantially, with the unemployment rate forecast moving above the staff's estimate of its natural rate by the end of this year and remaining above the natural rate through 2027."
- On inflation, "The staff's inflation projection was higher than the one prepared for the March meeting. Tariffs were expected to boost inflation markedly this year and to provide a smaller boost in 2026; after that, inflation was projected to decline to 2 percent by 2027."
- Our expectations for these changes fall somewhere in between those projections and the March SEP – a slightly higher unemployment rate, substantially higher inflation in 2025 but to a lesser extent in 2026, and weaker GDP growth this year. Longer-run variables should be unchanged.
MNI Markets Team Expectations For June 2025 Summary Of Economic Projections Medians
