US Crude oil inventories stood around 80 million barrels above their average level for the same week over the 2015-2019 period.
Category: Market Strategy
Most of the conventional theses developed over the last fifty years failed to provide a satisfying framework to explain the dynamics of gold prices. Gold looks increasingly like an asset that is exposed to a complex set of systematic and idiosyncratic risk drivers. It is important to acknowledge all these factors before rushing to conclusions.
Despite all the macro projections that tend to discard a V-shaped recovery, the markets seem for now to price in such a scenario, perceiving the profile of the current recession to be more similarities with the 1991 and the 2001 recession than with the more severe recession associated with the GFC in 2007-2008. The probability of a sudden reversal in market sentiment following some unexpected bad news looks increasingly high. An abrupt end to the ongoing euphoria should not be dismissed. Hedging this potential outcome by buying equity puts or VIX calls might be a good way to prepare for this eventuality while preserving the gains achieved during this unprecedented rally.
Following the meeting of its Governing Council on June 4, the ECB announced an extension of its Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) with an additional enveloppe of €600 billion. The total asset purchases made by the Eurosystem (ECB+ National Central Banks) to counter the coronavirus crisis including PEPP and additional APP purchases is now expected to reach almost €1.5 trillion. The bleak outlook for inflation shows the profound deflationary forces at work in the Euro area. Judging from the experience of the last few years, we believe the ECB’s assessment of an uptick in core inflation by 2022 to be too optimistic.
the European Commission unveiled a €750 billion “Next Generation” recovery programme (€440 billion grants, €60 billion guarantees and €250 billion loans) over the 2021-2024 period. The Next Generation programme would preallocate funds to the Member States prioritising the green and digital transitions mainly through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (€560 billion). It includes additional cohesion funding for €45 billion. As we show in our analysis, Italy, Spain, Poland, Greece, Romania and Portugal would be the main beneficiaries of this proposal which is likely to meet resistance from the “Frugal four” (Netherlands, Austria, Sweden, Denmark).
For the first time in EU history, fiscal expenditure would be financed through debt issued by the European Commission and backed by all the Member states, along the line of a French-German proposal. However, while this proposal is a welcome step toward fiscal integration, it is still short of a Hamiltonian moment for Europe”. The countercyclical policies needed to close the output gap left by the coronavirus crisis will still have to be conducted at the Member State level.
the economies of Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Turkey have all been hit by the coronavirus crisis. EM currencies, equities and bonds have been particularly impacted by the global market fallout that occurred in February-March 2020. As has been documented by the IIF, Global investors pulled out their funds at record speed during that acute episode of market stress. Since then, the volatility of DM and EM markets has somewhat receded and the general sentiment toward risky assets has improved, not the least because the world’s major central banks committed trillions of dollars to support the markets and to put a de facto backstop on assets valuations . However, EM assets remains vulnerable to new waves of volatility and risk aversion that would trigger additional capital outflows.
the main focus for observers of the Chinese economy n the coming months and quarters should not be on the overall size of the stimulus package but on the nitty gritty details pertaining to the allocation of government-backed funds across sectors and geographic areas. In the context of an intensifying trade and technological war, a significant part of the effort could be geared toward insuring that productivity gains will be preserved in the post-Covid era by investing in Industry 4.0 and high tech ventures. Another area of focus is the need to reduce social inequalities – a subject that has been taboo for years if not decades in the wake of China’s transition to a market based economy – and supporting the build-up of an ambitious and comprehensive social safety net – targeting the rural population and migrant workers – that could increase social cohesion and preserve political stability in the years to come.
There are at least two ways to read the decision rendered by the German Constitutional Court – BundesVerfassungsGericht or BVerfG – on May 5, 2020 (BVerfG, Urteil des Zweiten Senats vom 5. Mai 2020), in the case opposing the ECB to a group of complainants claiming that the Frankfurt-based monetary institution went beyond its legal mandate, when it decided in March 2015 to launch a large scale asset purchase programme (APP) targeting first and foremost government bonds. We can read it through the lenses of an Economic Policy or through the lenses of a Constitutional law and Politics. From both perspectives, the ruling contains useful insights that clarify some complicated institutional questions and shed light on economic policy options available to the ECB and to EU/Eurozone Member States. The fact that this ruling comes in the midst of an unprecedented global economic crisis, stemming from the radical measures enacted all over the world to combat the coronavirus pandemic, makes it even more critical for investors to understand its rationale and contending claims.
A Pandemic OMT – P-OMT – might well be the most appropriate solution in the current context – and perhaps the only one that is available, especially if discussions around a common Eurozone fiscal package fail to produce meaningful results – in order to support individual Eurozone member countries, while preserving the overall financial stability of the Eurozone and the autonomy and credibility of the ECB.
IEA Monthly Oil Market Report April 2020 : Key takeways and our comments