ASIA FX: USD/CNH Supported On Dips As Equities Weaken, TWD Lower

Jul-15 05:06

In North East Asia FX markets, FX trends are little changed for CNH and KRW, while TWD has weakened further. HKD remains close to the top end of the peg band (near 7.8500). 

  • USD/CNH saw a brief dip sub 7.1700, but has rebounded this afternoon, last near 7.1775. this leaves us within recent ranges. We saw early positive equity sentiment as Nvidia stated it will resume H20 chip sales to China, but property related indices have weakened. We saw home prices fall accelerate, while activity measures also remained weak. Q2 GDP was better than forecast, with IP growth accelerating further, but retail sales missed. This doesn't point to much rebalancing of growth away from the manufacturing side. The Urban Work Conference also pointed to urban development shifting from large-scale expansion to improving existing resources. This doesn't suggest a return to the 2015 policy of urban development, which had been speculated late last week.
  • Spot USD/KRW sits little changed, last around the 1383 level. Earlier highs in the pair were at 1385.7. The onshore equity rally has paused somewhat, unable to hold above 3200 at this stage.
  • USD/TWD is pushing higher, last around +0.20% above end Monday levels, putting the pair back close to 29.35. Local equities are higher, with the Nvidia news, likely providing positive spill over. Still, this is a seasonal weak period for TWD, amidst dividend outflows. We are now just above the 20-day EMA resistance point.

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US FISCAL: Available Extraordinary Measures Pick Up Ahead Of Tax Date

Jun-13 20:42

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.
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FED: Two Cuts Priced This Year Headed Into FOMC Week

Jun-13 20:28

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)
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FED: Summary Of Economic Projections: Higher 2025 Inflation, Weaker Growth

Jun-13 20:21

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

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