FOREX: USD Set To Finish Off Of Worst Levels
The USD has underperformed many of its G10 FX peers for much of the day, with ongoing policy uncertainty continuing to provide headwinds for the greenback after President Trump delayed the timeline for the imposition of 50% tariffs on the EU following a conversation with EC President Von Der Leyen.
- The BBDXY registered a fresh ’25 low, piercing the Dec ’23 low in the process. Bears will look to force a break of the ’23 closing low (1,200.41) next.
- A reminder that liquidity was thinned by the U.S. & UK public holidays.
- EUR/USD extended the recent bullish move, trading as high as 1.1419 before fading back to 1.1380. Next resistance of note seen at the 76.4% retracement of the Apr 21 - May 12 bear leg (1.1453).
- GBP/USD topped out at 1.3593 before a pullback to 1.3560. The 1.382 projection of the Feb 28 - Apr 3 - 7 price swing (1.3605) presents the next upside area of note.
- USD/JPY has recovered from the lowest levels registered in May (142.23 printed in Tokyo trade), with the wider risk reaction to the delay of the tariffs on the EU providing some counter. Spot last deals at 142.80 after reaching 143.08, with bears remaining in technical control. A move through today’s lows would expose the 76.4% retracement of the Apr 22 - May 12 bull leg (141.96). Bulls need to retake the 20-day EMA (144.66) to start turning the tide in their favour.
- Risk proxy FX (AUD, NZD, NOK & SEK) outperformed for much of the session on the U.S.-EU tariff relief but also faded from best levels against the USD.
- Note that AUD/USD cleared next resistance at 0.6515 before fading back to 0.6500.
- U.S. consumer confidence & durable goods data headlines on Tuesday, complimented by Fedspeak from Kashkari & Barkin and ECB speak from Villeroy & Nagel.
Want to read more?
Find more articles and bullets on these widgets:
Historical bullets
US TSYS: Extraordinary Measures And Cash Look Sufficient To Head Off X-Date
Treasury has about $164B in "extraordinary measures" available as of April 23 to avoid hitting the debt limit, per its regular report out Friday. That's out of a maximum total of $375B (they have used $211B).
- With Treasury cash looking healthy (around $600B), that's a fair amount of dry powder to get through the summer months to wait out the debt limit impasse. Tax receipts have looked strong with tariff revenues also starting to boost cash flows, further reducing the near-term urgency to adjust bond issuance.
- This has also helped push back analyst “x-date” expectations to later in the summer/September. We expect to hear from Treasury about its own x-date assumptions next week.
US TSYS: Treasury Market Trading Stayed Orderly In April: Fed Report
Liquidity across financial markets including the Treasury market deteriorated after President Trump's April 2 reciprocal tariffs announcement but market functioning was generally orderly, according to the Federal Reserve's semiannual report on financial stability, released Friday. (PDF link is here)
- Treasury market liquidity has been poor for years and yields were particularly volatile in early April, contributing to a deterioration in market liquidity, the Fed said.
- Nevertheless "trading remained orderly, and markets continued to function without serious disruption," according to the report, which looked at information available as of April 11.
FED: Ex-Gov Warsh: Fed Has Failed To Satisfy Price Stability Remit
From our Washington Policy Team - Some fairly sharp words today from ex-Fed Governor Warsh on the central bank (who for what it's worth is seen by betting markets as by far the frontrunner for the next Fed Chair):
- The best way for the Federal Reserve to safeguard its independence is for policymakers to avoid expanding the institution's role over time, including wading into policy areas that are outside its core mission, former Fed Governor Kevin Warsh, a leading contender to replace Jerome Powell as chair next year, said Friday.
- "I strongly believe in the operational independence of monetary policy as a wise political economy decision. And I believe that Fed independence is chiefly up to the Fed," Warsh said in a speech at a Group of Thirty event on the sidelines of the IMF meetings. "Institutional drift has coincided with the Fed’s failure to satisfy an essential part of its statutory remit, price stability. It has also contributed to an explosion of federal spending." His speech made no mention of Trump's tariffs or the appropriate monetary policy to deal with them.
- He said the ideas of data dependence and forward guidance widely adopted by Fed officials are not especially useful and might even be counterproductive.
"We should care little about two numbers to the right of the decimal point in the latest government release. Breathlessly awaiting trailing data from stale national accounts -- subject to significant, subsequent revision -- is evidence of false precision and analytic complacency," he said.
"Near-term forecasting is another distracting Fed preoccupation. Economists are not immune to the frailties of human nature. Once policymakers reveal their economic forecast, they can become prisoners of their own words. Fed leaders would be well-served to skip opportunities to share their latest musings."
