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FX

USD Hits 12 Month Highs on Renewed Turkish Geopolitical Tensions

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USD Hits 12 Month Highs on Renewed Turkish Geopolitical Tensions            

  • The USD Index (DXY) breaks through established multi-month range (94.50 – 95.50) Friday to close above 96.00 (at 96.36) for the first time since July 2017. The gains come amid a risk aversion spike led by an unprecedented 17% plunge in the Turkish Lira (TRY), against the backdrop of worsening US – Turkish relations following Turkey’s bid to jail a US pastor. Turkey’s refusal to release the pastor into US hands leads to President Trump to announce a doubling of tariffs on Turkish steel (to 50%) and aluminum (to 20%) exports to US. 

 

  • The coming week sees the release of US July data - retail sales where Citi analysts expect headline at 0.0%MM, industrial production down at 0.1%MM and U. of Mich. sentiment to rise to 98.5, all slightly softer than consensus and probably underlining the US “exceptional” growth narrative is already fully priced-in (USD neutral).

 

 

EUR & GBP: Euro stumbles on Turkish warning, sterling follows

  • EURUSD’s closed on Friday at near 1.1415. But as with recent overblown concerns regarding the Italian budget, Citi analysts also note that “contagion risks” from Turkey to European banks should also be manageable. 

 

  • Sterling also takes a hit on the back of the spike in Turkish led risk version while ignoring the UK Q2 GDP release (up 0.4%QoQ and up 0.6% in H1’18) that shows the strongest quarterly growth in UK services since Q4 2016. However, manufacturing growth remains weak, largely reflecting an easing in manufacturing export growth and overall, underlying growth remains modest.

 

  • The week ahead in Europe sees the German August ZEW survey that is likely to show expectations dipping slightly to -25.0 (consensus: -21.2). Citi analysts also expect euro zone industrial production to decrease -0.7%MM (consensus: -0.4%) and in the UK, expect core CPI to remain stable at 1.9%YY (consensus: 1.9%) and retail sales to rebound to 0.3%MM (consensus: 0.2%).

 

 

Commodity bloc: RBA downgrades near term inflation but raises longer term outlook; CAD’s less impressive jobs report offset by NAFTA news

  • RBA statement on monetary policy released Friday downgrades Australia’s 2018 underlying inflation outlook to 1.75% versus 2.0% prior, retains the end-2019 underlying CPI at 2.0% but raises the end-2020 underlying CPI forecast to 2.25% from 2.0%. The statement keeps Australia’s growth forecasts unchanged (end 2018 GDP growth at 3.25% versus 3.25%% prior , end 2019 GDP growth at 3.25% versus 3.25% prior, mid-2020 GDP growth at 3.0% versus 3.0%).

 

  • A strong July headline jobs gain in Canada but details less impressive - a solid headline gain of 54k versus 17k consensus and 31.8k prior (though mostly driven by part time jobs) but total actual hours worked are up just +1.3% in July, the lowest since Nov’17. Additionally, wage growth while elevated, also misses with hourly earnings rising 3.0%YoY vs 3.6% consensus forecast. More important for CAD though maybe NAFTA talks that seem to be back on the table with news last week that Canada could be re-joining trade talks with the US as early as this week.

 

 

This is an extract from the Daily Currency Update, dated 13th August 2018. Please approach a Citigold Relationship Manager if you would like more information.

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