Financial News & Analysis

FOMC Lift rates with only 0.50 % as expected

0.5% increased rates were taken by Markets with lots of optimism because Powell announced 75 BP hikes off the table for next two meetings. Sentiment was RISK-ON, instead of rate increases because trader's already priced in 0.5%.

Market Evolution NY Closed: 

• S&P 500 up 122 points to 4298, or 2.9%
• Nasdaq +3.1%
• DJIA +2.8%
• DXY 0.15%
• VIX -13%  

Taking out of the table 75 BP hike, for next two meetings, Powel will sustain a new bounce into risk assets but I think it's short-term (1-2 weeks) until it will have new inputs from economies. Anyways, FOMC meeting, it's a fundamental shift for Risk instruments.

In the currency markets we see movement according to the risk sentiment: AUD & NZD UP and JPY & CHF down.

Some important remarks from Powell press conference regarding economic statement:

• Inflation is much too high
• It's essential we bring inflation down to keep a strong labor market
• Price pressures have spread to a broader range of goods and services
• Wages are rising at the fastest pace in many years
• The labor market is 'extremely' tight
• There is a broad consensus that 50 bps hikes should be on the table at the next couple meetings
• We are prepared to adjust any of the details or our approach
• Lockdowns in China are likely to further snarl supply chains

You can read all here.

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BoA (Bank of America) 

Perhaps the most interesting moment at the press conference will be his response to a question about whether a 75bp hike is on the table.

Barclay's:

"At this week's May FOMC meeting, we expect the Fed to lift the target range for the federal funds rate by 50bp to 0.75% - 1.00%. May's hike has already been signaled to markets, with FOMC participants becoming increasingly receptive to front-loaded rate hikes amid resilient data on activity and intensified cost-push price pressures since the March meeting... Given the broad parameters for balance sheet normalization laid out in the March meeting minutes, we expect the monthly run-off caps to ramp up from $35bn in June ($20bn for treasuries, $15bn for agency MBS), to $65bn in July ($40bn / $25bn) and then to the maximum pace of $95 bn/month from August.

In the press conference, we expect much of the discussion to revolve around the speed at which the committee is prepared to lift its policy rate to neutral, with markets now pricing in 50 bp hikes in every meeting through September. We continue to expect 50 bp hikes in May and June, with the committee slowing the pace to 25bp per meeting from July onward as it sees signs of slowing inflation."

Morgan Stanley see rate hike by 50bp and SPX down to  3800 near term and 3400 long term.

Former FED according to Wallstreet Journal "Rates May Need to Rise Quite a Bit to Get to Neutral", he see rates to 5%.

Read entire article on Wall Street Journal.

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Yesterday  European markets news pave the road for an EU recession in the second half of the year.

• Eurozone April final consumer confidence -22.0 vs -16.9 prelim
• Economic confidence 105.0 VS Prior 108.5; revised to 106.7
• Industrial confidence 7.9 VS or 10.4; revised to 9.0 (Heavy Hit)
• Services confidence 13.5 VS r 14.4; revised to 13.6 

Euro area economic sentiment continues to fall further as the Russia-Ukraine conflict is not seems to stop.

Sales are also down in Germany, March retail sales -0.1% vs +0.3% m/m expected prior was 7.

Selling price expectations rose to an all-time high of 60.8 - up from 57.2 from (that is not good for inflation).

How we would expect to protect ourselves from this possible recession:

• Bought Precious Metals Silver & Gold (Yesterday we added some silver because was a good price)
• Bought Defensive Stocks like Gilead's, Philip Morris, Imperial Brands, TeamViewer
• Bought some REIT stocks 
• Bought Energy Stocks like: CNQ, PBA, ALVOF  (too late to act now on these areas)
• Bought some stocks exposed to Agricultural land & Soils like ALCO. 

Fear is growing at Highest levels since 2008, just take a look  on CNN Business FEARS picture above.

Our real time RIsk ON/OFF indicator.

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Yesterday, Advanced GDP was published and we saw horrible  values with -2.4% deviation from expected values. All branches of the GDB were in red.   

• Q4 final was 6.9% annualized
• Consumer spending +2.7% vs +2.5% prior
• Consumer spending on durables -4.1% vs +2.5% in Q4
• GDP deflator +8.0% vs +7.3% expected
• Core PCE +5.2% vs +5.4% expected
• GDP final sales -0.6% vs +1.5% in Q4
• Nominal GDP vs up 14.3% annualized in Q4
• Business investment +9.2% vs +2.9% in Q4
• Home investment +2.1% vs +2.2% in Q4
• GDP ex motor vehicles -1.3%

The decrease in real GDP reflected decreases in private inventory investment, exports, federal government spending, and state and local government spending, while imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased. Personal consumption expenditures (PCE), nonresidential fixed investment, and residential fixed investment increased.

The Real problem for the US Economy it's not that GDP is an inflation of 8%.

Economic growth returned in the years after the 2008 recession. The US entered an era of low growth but well below previous recovery phases. That sluggish economy is why the Fed kept rates low and launched QE (quantitative Ease).Fed officials talked of letting the economy “run hot,” and tolerate a period of high inflation in order to restore long-term averages.

Covid 19 and Ukraine-Russia war is threatening to change this high inflation with hiper-inflation (over 10%).That suggests recession might be coming anyway in 2022-2023, even if the Fed weren't tightening policy.

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The wall street Journal announced  yesterday that Germany will drop opposition to russian oil embargo https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-drops-opposition-to-russian-oil-embargo-11651155915?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1

That will have a huge effect on oil prices.Oil will surge if the ban will be effective this year.After the news oil climbed from 95 to 105.

Would be interesting if the Russian refinery (Rosneft) will process oil from Arabia. The Germany Government threatened Rosneft with sanctions if it did not process oil from other sources.

"Should Rosneft refuse to process non-Russian oil imports, Germany could put the refinery under state management under laws protecting strategic assets," (German ministry's).

German economy min on yesterday brief: 

"Higher inflation and slower growth is the price to support Ukraine"

• Confirms reports of 2.2% GDP growth forecast this year and 2.5% in 2023 without embargo
• Expects 6.1% inflation in 2022 and 2.8% in 2023

How much economic disruption are Europeans ready to tolerate for Ukrainian people ?

Euro is already at lowest levels against the US dollar 

The EU expects to remain dependent on imports of Russian gas for years (two three years at least). Russia’s move to halt gas flows to Poland followed Berlin’s decision to supply Ukraine with air-defense weaponry.  Russia will cut off Germany’s gas supplies if Berlin continues to ship arms. If supplies of gas were to be cut off tomorrow, Western European economies including Germany and Italy would face a severe energy deficit and a -2% on GDP. The economic effects would be catastrophic.

A sudden stop in the flows of Russian gas would mean industrial shut-downs and chains supply disruption because of economic shutdown. Southern European governments would demand more mutual EU debt issuance to relieve the economic pain. This is exactly what Germany has spent years trying to avoid. So, expect Berlin to do everything it can to keep Russia’s gas flowing in the near term, including dragging its feet over arms shipments to Ukraine, and paying for its gas in rubles, if that is what Moscow demands. Longer terms, Eu cut-off  russian gas, will be able to colapse & disintegrate Russia. War is already lost by Russian army, because you can't subjugate a free people and a country of the Ukraine dimensions with just 250K soldiers. When blitzkrieg is lost by Russia actually russian army lost the war.

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I have never seen in 20 years of investing such a confluence of fundamental factors pointing to a bear market scenario for stocks like this year.

First, it was the Covid19 pandemic outbreak that disrupted the supply chains, then it was the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. We’ve seen the Oil price ranging from 0 to 150$ starting with the middle of 2020 and up to 2022.

FED Chairman Jerome Powel finds that inflation it's non-transitory anymore and the EU representatives expect 7.8% inflation this year.

The war between Russia & Ukraine also fuelled the inflationary pressure. The FED already hiked the interest rate, but The European Central Bank kept its benchmark interest rates unchanged, Australia & UK also will hike it in the following months.

Stagflation is our base expectation for this year and we’re avoiding buying Growth Stocks. We’re looking forward to start investing at lower prices.

Our recommendation for January to keep the Dividends Stocks and sell the Growth Stocks was beneficial: from year to date: 

• Vanguard High Dividend Yield Index Fund ETF (VYM) it's up with 0.9%
• Large Caps Ishares ETF (IVW) it's worst performing in red with -14%
• SPDR SPX 500 (SPY) registers -7% from 1 January
• Small Caps CORE (IJR) in red with -11,4
• Large Cap Value Stocks (IVE) -1% near to Dividend stocks
• Mid-Cap Value Stocks (IJJ) -3%
• SPHB (high Beta) -9%

What is the thesis behind this evolution?

The theory is that elevated risk of high inflation and slower economic growth favour the shares with relatively rich payouts.

In a recent letter to JP Morgan Chase (JPM) shareholders, Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon warned that the war in Ukraine could collide with rising inflation to slow the domestic economic recovery and alter global alliances for decades to come.

"They (referencing Ukraine and inflation) present completely different circumstances than what we've experienced in the past-and their confluence may dramatically increase the risks ahead. While it is possible, and hopeful, that all of these events will have peaceful resolutions, we should prepare for the potential negative outcomes."

What are our expectations for this year:

• 50 points rate hike in the EU in May, maybe 75 points if the Energy Sector and food prices will grow much more from now.
• The global economy, even before the rate hikes, is deteriorating far faster than the consensus expects.
• We expect consumer confidence to suffer in the months ahead and we will continue monitoring the indices.
• Food shortages and rising food prices can converge to a possible global food crisis in 2023 and social uprisings.
• Globalization is dead, and also the global cooperation between the major actors: USA, Russia and China for decades from now.
• European inflation is at the worst levels in the last 75 years - and the ECB will have no choice but to raise rates faster than the consensus expects.
• Europe will be in Recession from the middle of 2022.

In a recession environment nobody wins but what counts is who loses the least.

According to what we mentioned above, we prefer to invest in bank Indexes in Europe, because the banks are likely to benefit from a rate increase scenario that will happen this and in the next year, and we will avoid investment banks. We acquired the EXX ETF this month.

Also, we maintain our bullish view on grains and we consider now that it was a mistake to close some of our positions in March https://topfxinvest.com/blog/we-anticipate-the-food-crisis-in-2022 

We want to close some Energy positions with profits this year on CNQ, PBR, TPZ, PIF, ALVOF.

I see carbon Emissions contracts as a very good hedge against inflation and we acquired last month CARB ETF & NETZ stock in Canada.

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The S&P 500 is down 0.97% and the Nasdaq down 2.17%, both sliding further after the report's release of FOMC which see 0.5 hike until 4 May. Inflationary Risks have grown greatly because of Ukraine War and Shanghai lockdowns'

"Many participants noted that one or more 50 basis point increases in the target range could be appropriate at future meetings, particularly if inflation pressures remained elevated or intensified"

Some conclusions after March Meeting:

• Participants agreed Fed was ell placed to begin balance sheet reduction as early as the May FOMC meeting
• All participants underscored the need to remain attentive to the risks of further inflation
• 'Many' participants noted they would have preferred a 50 bps hike
• Many noted that one or more 509 bps increases in the target range could be appropriate at future meetings, particularly if  inflation  pressure s remained
• Participants noted that -- depending on developments -- a move to tighter policy stance could be warranted
• Participants generally agreed that after balance sheet runoff well underway, would be appropriate to consider sales of MBS
• Participants generally agreed to monthly caps of about $60B for Treasury securities and $35B for MBS

If you want to read all monetary policy's  please click  https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/fomcminutes20220316.htm

More comments from treasury sec Yellen about economy and Russia Sanctions:

• US economy enjoying strongest job market in decades
• Americans financial conditions overall are very strong
• People are concerned about  inflation  and that's understandable
• Inflation erodes ability of households to make purchases
• Russian economy is reeling from sanctions
• We are put in place sanctions every weekend I do believe they are working
• It could see sky rocketing prices for oil and gas from a complete Russian export ban

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• I am carefully monitoring rotation from demand for goods back to services and whether that occurs without sparking inflation
• Expects balance sheet to shrink significantly faster than the last cycle
• Most low wage workers have seen wage growth that exceeds avg inflation
• War and covid lockdowns in China likely to extend supply chain bottlenecks and hurt growth
• After policy is more neutral, extent of additional tightening depends on the evolving outlook
• Fed will tighten 'methodically' through a series of rate hikes

Another Fed Speaks Fed's Daly: We'll be able to get inflation moving down by year-end.

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The rate hike was priced in and the market was on RISK-ON mode yesterday. Main question for the FED yesterday was, what percent will be the hike?

To stop inflation 0.5% was a better idea to hike but voters don't want to risk a recession with actual conflict between Ukraine-Russia. The surprise is 7 hikes in the dot plot instead of 5 hikes. The 10 years yield is now lower versus pre-rate decision level. Regarding the war in Ukraine, Powell said “The implications for the U.S. economy are highly uncertain, but in the near term the invasion and related events are likely to create additional upward pressure on inflation and weigh on economic activity. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia is causing tremendous human and economic hardship. The implications for the U.S. economy are highly uncertain, but in the near term the invasion and related events are likely to create additional upward pressure on inflation and weigh on economic activity.”

Regarding the US Economy, we have below stances: “Indicators of economic activity and employment have continued to strengthen. Job gains have been strong in recent months, and the unemployment rate has declined substantially. Inflation remains elevated, reflecting supply and demand imbalances related to the pandemic, higher energy prices, and broader price pressures.” You can read full press release here:

Surveying the FOMC's 18 members, the dot-plot showed that 12 FED officials predicted at least seven total rate hikes in 2022. On the high end, one FED official expects the central bank to raise rates above 3% during the year, from the level around 0.25% currently in force.

Please check below the dot plot below:

12 of 18 saw 0.9% in 2022, 11 of 18 saw 1,9% into 2023 annual median at 1.6%. Median interest rates for 2024 is 2.1%

Macroeconomic implications:

Energy Financials Sectors will outperform, we consider that it's a good time to buy bank's stocks and sell High growth stocks like tech. Instead of a short term rebound for Nasdaq's & S&P500, we see down in the long run. I can't see inflation slowing down in the long term and 0.25 it's not enough to calm but the FED was forced by the actual Geopolitical climate.

Euro will be much weaker in the long run than the dollar. Unfortunately for the EU, in the Eurozone there are plenty of headwind that affect growth: price of energy, war between Ukraine & Russia.

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Today ECB meeting, The tone was somber, with repeated risks on lower growth and higher inflation. Risk apetite is down 👇 because Russia-Ukraine war.

Inflation forecast:

1.  2022 Inflation 5.1% instead 3.2% in december 
2.  2023 2.1% vs 1.8%
3.  2024 1.9% vs 1.8%

Most important conclusions from Lagarde meeting are:

• Growth to remain weak in Q1
• Growth revised down in near term
• Energy costs pushed up Feb inflation 31% and prices have risen further
• How long high prices will last is uncertain
• Risks to the economic outlook have increased substantially and are tilted to the downside
• We have risk of a loss of economic confidence
• Path for rates will be determined by forward guidance

Conclusion according to Lagarde is  'highly uncertain'

Rate hike could come 'months after' or 'weeks after' the end of QE. Euro is forecast to be down in short term.

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After high Inflation in US and Europe, the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, a new event like war between two major countries affected the markets. War between Ukraine and Russia pushed this morning Gold over 2000$, Oil to 124$, Soybeans 1686$ and Corn to 775$. During war times precious metals, Oil and Grains perform well instead of risk assets like stocks.

High level of sanctions from the Western Economies will destroy the Russian economy in the medium term. The Putin regime will fall in the near future because you can't win a war completely isolated from western world and you can't govern with terror and mass-media censorship.

According to the last Russian laws, you can get 15 years in jail if you transmit information from the battlefield that is not what the regime wants. All social media are closed, also internet websites like BBC, CNN, The Guardian etc. If the Putin regime it's not quickly removed, the Russian people will live like in the North Korea.

Also, some important brands like Toyota, Ford, BMW, Mercedes, VW, Oracle, SAP, Mazda, Nike, PayPal, Apple, IBM, DELL, Mitsubishi have closed the doors to the Putin regime. The Russian currency is moving down by over 30%, and the Moscow stock market is closed for three days in a row.

With the US & EU already facing the highest inflation in over four decades, triggered by the Covid lockdowns and restrictions, and the February CPI release this week anticipated to show an escalation during the previous month, the real possibility of an economic recession is even larger.

Therefore, the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy meeting on Mar. 15-16, will start a new interest rate hike cycle and it's not advisable to be exposed on the growth stocks. We still own high dividend stocks in the energy and finance sectors and also, we are keeping our Gold & Silver positions. We anticipate further weaknesses in stocks this month.

The United States and European allies are exploring banning imports of Russian oil, Blinken said on Sunday, and the White House coordinated with key Congressional committees moving forward with their own ban.

"A boycott would put enormous pressure on oil and gas supply that has already felt the impact of increasing demand. Prices are likely to rise in the short term, with a move toward $150 a barrel not out of the question Such a move will put further pressure on global economies, pushing inflation higher, leaving central banks debating how quickly rate hikes should be implemented." according to some analysts from CMC Markets.

"The war has clearly increased the risk of a stagflation scenario for the euro zone, where you will have a stagnating economy and much higher inflation on the back of high energy prices," said Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro at ING.

We stand with the Ukrainian people that fight for their freedom and we want to help mothers with children that are refugees. Right now, we are facing a real drama on the Ukrainian border as the refugee and their children are staying over three nights on -15°C without food and water.

It's estimated that there will be over 10 million refugees this year, if the conflict does not stop soon.

If you want to help refugees, you can donate on these links:

https://www.unicef.org.uk/donate/donate-now-to-protect-children-in-ukraine/ 

https://donate.unrefugees.org.uk/ukraine-emergency/~my-donation

https://donate.redcross.org.uk/appeal/ukraine-crisis-appeal

https://www.icrc.org/en/where-we-work/europe-central-asia/ukraine

https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/

https://donate.careinternational.org.uk/page/100263/donate/1?ea.tracking.id=e75_orgsocial

https://www.peopleinneed.net/

https://msf.org.uk/

You can help Ukraine Army here:

https://www.portmone.com.ua/r3/uk/terminal/index/index/id/118103/

Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)

Glory to Ukraine!

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• The decision on rate hikes is not needed before June meeting
• Any speculation about calendar of future lift-off is at this stage premature
• We will retain our full optionality about pace of normalization
• Its calendar will remain a gradual, state-dependent and open in moving from one stage to the other
• Keeping net asset purchases open ended from October would not be appropriate
• APP purchases would end in Q3
• another way to enhance optionality could be to remove the word "shortly" from the forward guidance on asset purchases
• Optionality would mean that lift-off could possibly take more time if warranted

Decision on partial troop withdrawal has been taken added some optimism on markets (SP500 +1,58% NDQ +2,58) but we still have questions about inflation and growth

Oil & gold come back to previous levels.

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Yesterday was a special day for trading markets because of rising in CPI. Stocks were up with over 2% percent at the start of the US session but reversed sharply with over 5%. Inflation surprised markets expectations but more interesting was FED Bullard (a voter in monetary Policy's) reaction to CPI:

He sees a 100-basis point increase by July 1. 50 BPs in March but will defer to Powell. Would favour changing rates between meetings. FED balance sheet reduction may require asset sales.

What is in CPI to justify the reaction above?!

• Highest reading in 40 years
• m/m CPI 0.6% vs 0.5%
• Real weekly earnings -0.5% vs +0.1%

Core inflation:

• Ex food and energy +6.0% vs +5.9% y/y expected
• Prior ex food and energy +5.5%
• Core m/m +0.6% vs +0.5% exp
• Prior core m/m +0.6%

1. Housing +0.7%
2. Owners rent +0.4%
3. Food +0.9%
4. Energy +0.9%
5. Gasoline -0.8%
6. Medical care +0.6%
7. Apparel +1.1%
8. Services +0.4%

Only Ice scream is 👇.

You can read detailed report here.

What are the reasons for these readings?

First Supply chain bottlenecks because Covid outbreak and accelerated economic growing from 2015 just look at SPX500

Citi Bank now sees 50 basis point Fed

What will happen from here?

I'm expecting inflation to peak in April-May and rates to go near to 4% in the future. Are we at the starting point of a depression?!

We intend to grow up our exposure on Gold & defensive stocks.

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After the meeting between Putin and Macron, the markets have regained some losses from the first month of the year.

Macron: "Putin told me that he would not be behind any escalation in Ukraine". Instead, the meeting is not solving the problem between the Russia and Ukraine, but markets have anticipated a lower narrative tone in the future.

Better than expected, Atlanta FED GDP now rises to 0,7 from 0.1 also fuels a positive Risk tone.

Some good news from the inflation front announced by ECB Villeroy also helps stocks. Villeroy said:

“Inflation hump should be temporary.

French inflation is to gradually diminish within a month.

I guarantee we will do what is needed for inflation to return to around 2% over time.”

Stocks are up SPX500 0,84%, NDQ 1,21% DJI +1% and VIX -5.67%.

Instead of some support in stocks, investors are concerned about the tightening announced in March from FED.

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The ADP job data surprised to the downside this month: - 301K versus +200K estimate.

All economic branches were down this month:

• Goods -27K
• Manufacturing -21K
• Services -274K
• Transportation and Utilities -62K
• Leisure and Hospitality -154K
• Construction -10 K (Also Canadian Building Permit felt -0.3 over estimate)
• Education & Health Services -15 K
• Small firms -144K decline
• Medium firms -59K decline
• Large firms -98K decline

The fell was the largest since April 2020 because Omicron outbreak, according to FED officials.

BOE has increased official bank rate by 0.25 points to 0.5%, today.

Eurozone inflation hits new record 5,1% CPI versus 4,4% expected (Highest since 30 years), that will put more pressure on ECB today.

Bidden sent 3k US Soldiers to Romania Poland and Bulgaria.

IMF Chief Georgieva: Geopolitical tensions make uncertain outlook for global economy.

Regarding our portfolio, we shrink our exposure to growth stocks and closed some losing positions on companies that have large debts or lower growth expectation (ASAN, BILL, W, NVCR, RDFN), and further, we closed two days ago our grains exposure with 20% percent profits in three months. We expect to 💪 our dividend stock's exposure's and add to precious metal positions if we see another 2k points decrease in Gold and Silver after FED rate increases. We think market will retest soon, lower point from January and US Dollar 💵 will stay in upper zone. US dollar speculative positioning and bullish sentiment are surging. SP500 Retest Of January Lows  is about to begin.

You can check real-time  our risk-on/off tone indicator.

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No surprise yesterday Fed leaves rates unchanged, as expected. Bank of Canada also holds rates at 0.25%. Stocks have no major Impact on Fed rate decisions.  Before the news SPX500  growth was 2%, but closed at the end of the session in negative territory. Negative sentiment prevails on stock Markets  but Dollar (DXY) is up according to our yesterday article regarding Bank of America. Grains are up with important gains.

Summary of FED announcement:

• Rates left unchanged 0.25%
• Taper pace unchanged but ending in March
• Taper was not expected to be sped up
• The Fed says it expects that it will soon raise the target range
• Risks are high from new variants of the virus.
• “Quite a bit of room to raise rates without hurting jobs. “
• We are of the mind to hike in March
• We may move sooner and faster on the balance sheet than before
• We will discuss balance sheet at the next two meetings
• Inflation risks are still to the upside, in my view

Market pricing suggests a 90% chance of a March hike

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Bank of America Research announce another rally for USD after today FOMC policy meeting.

"The Fed will announce the last round of asset purchases at the Jan FOMC meeting, and we see risk for a further hawkish pivot...Chair Powell is likely to signal the first hike at the March meeting and note that every meeting is live,"

"In our view, a hawkish FOMC this week should serve as a key catalyst for another leg of US dollar appreciation against lower beta FX . Our forecasts for EUR/USD and USD/JPY this year remain 1.10 and 118, respectively, and we see the risks of attaining that sooner" BofA adds.

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Bitcoin breaks below 40K, and we can't see any positive sign after having the Bitcoin banned by the Russia. Russia follows China’s policy; therefore, it has blocked the Bitcoin payments and also prohibited the Bitcoin mining. While a ban on trading and transacting with cryptos in the country is also on the cards, simply owning or holding Bitcoin and other tokens may be allowed: “the growth of cryptocurrencies use creates threats for Russian retail investors, financial stability and threats associated with the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit activities”, according to Bank of Russia. More here. Bitcoin transactions are very popular in Russia with volumes of approx. $5 billions / year. Russia is following China's policy because the government wants to control the money supply in the economy.

On the other meridian, FED wants to impose his own crypto and launched yesterday a new project. "This paper is the first step in a public discussion between the Federal Reserve and stakeholders about central bank digital currencies". More on this Here.

Some key benefits:

"It could provide households and businesses a convenient, electronic form of central bank money, with the safety and liquidity that would entail; give entrepreneurs a platform on which to create new financial products and services; support faster and cheaper payments (including cross-border payments), and expand consumer access to the financial system".

Any CBDC would best serve US interests by being privacy-protected, intermediated, widely transferable and identity-protected.

According to Powel: "We look forward to engaging with the public & paper not intended to signal it will make any imminent decision about the appropriateness of issuing CBDC".

This new sentiment catalyst pushed Bitcoin below 40K yesterday, and according to charts, the first level of support is 30K, then 12K.

What is your opinion on Crypto? How much will it go down from here Bitcoin?

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SPX gave back the gains at the end of the day, because investors lost conviction that an early rally had legs. Risk-On sentiment didn't last after China decreased rates. Fears of inflation and higher interest rates in accordance with Geo-Political conflict between Ukraine & Russia have sent markets in red at end of the session.

Concern that the Federal Reserve will aggressively move to raise rates this year is a much more powerful catalyst than Chinese bank intervention and stocks Earnings. Investors have been concerned about rising rates because they raise borrowing costs and could dent global growth prospects and douse the earnings outlook for companies.

Analysts at ING said geopolitical risks, notably the possibility of Russia invading Ukraine, could continue to add to pressure on rising rates concerns.

Gold & Silver touched new highs lifted by worries surrounding inflation and Russia-Ukraine tensions. Gold 1,842 & Silver 24.63 gains were unexpected in the short term when bonds are up and Interest rates are expected to grow but geopolitical context is also an important catalyst.

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We maintain our bearish bias on CHF.

Our expectation for four Fed rate hikes in 2022 means we now see US 10yr yields at 2.20% by 2Q22. The SNB remains one of the most dovish central banks in the G10, and we think widening yield differentials should keep putting downward pressure on CHF. We expect the further upside momentum in German Bunds yields should also weigh on CHF. Positioning in EUR/CHF has normalised somewhat compared to the beginning of the year but remains net short.

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