USD: Still countering the seasonal trend

Yesterday’s composite PMIs were generally stronger than expected across main developed markets, although there were clear signs of softening in manufacturing on both sides of the Atlantic. The currency market isn’t drawing many conclusions in monetary policy terms and dollar crosses seem to be settling in the latest ranges ahead of the last big week of macro events before the year-end recess.

In the US, we’ll see retail sales for November today, and expectations are for a robust read – which should, however, have little bearing on tomorrow’s FOMC communication, given some volatility and distortion still in the data due to the impact of extreme weather events. Market pricing is firm on a 25bp cut, which is also our call and consensus.

We think something of a wait-and-see approach could dominate today and favour a further consolidation in the dollar’s latest gains. Ultimately, unless the Federal Reserve signals a more dovish path than the market implies (and we don’t think it will), a 2-year USD OIS rate around 4.0% remains the key counter-seasonal factor keeping the dollar from correcting meaningfully in the generally soft month of December.

Elsewhere in North America, Canada has been shaken by the resignation of finance minister Chrystia Freeland due to divergences with PM Justin Trudeau on how to deal with the threat of Trump tariffs. Trudeau has nominated Dominic LeBlanc as a replacement. He was part of the Canadian delegation that visited Mar-a-Lago last month given his latest responsibility for border security.

Turmoil in Canadian politics is adding a reason the bearish side of the loonie, which remains heavily affected by the prospects of North America trade tensions. Should this lead to a collapse of Trudeau’s government and snap elections, expect the anti-tariffs policy to be the key theme of the campaign. Still, now that the news of Freeland's resignation has been absorbed, we are not convinced USD/CAD needs to accelerate much further on the upside unless the Fed surprises markedly on the hawkish side. Both technical and seasonal factors point to the rally being stretched at this point – and we think it could stall after passing 1.430. That said, the outlook for next year remains gloomy for CAD, and chances of a shift to 1.45+ are tangible if Trump goes ahead with 25% tariffs on Canada.

EUR: Fiscal hopes should take time to come to euro's rescue

The eurozone PMI bounced back into expansionary territory (51.4) in December, driven by strong services. The manufacturing picture remains gloomy though, and Germany’s still-soft 47.8 composite PMI is preventing any tentatively positive news to be priced into the euro at this stage.

That might also suggest a higher probability of Germany parties increasing fiscal stimulus promises, after the no confidence vote yesterday officially paved the way for snap elections in two months. However, we sense that it will take markets embedding a more supportive fiscal story into the euro, as uncertainty about bending the strict German fiscal rules remains and we expect large European Central Bank easing to remain centre stage for the currency market.

Today, expect some impact from Germany’s Ifo and ZEW surveys, although the proximity to the FOMC risk events suggests EUR/USD may well remain anchored to 1.0500 today.

GBP: Hot wage data to keep EUR/GBP pressured

UK labour statistics published this morning are generally quite hawkish for Bank of England expectations, and are leading to a stronger GBP. Headline 3M/3M employment slowed only modestly to 173k in October, against expectations for only 5k. That is, however, an unrealiable measure and may be ignored. The same is true for the unemployment rate, which remained at 4.3%.

What is really important for the Bank of England is the surprise acceleration in wages. Both headline weekly earnings and the ex-bonus measure accelerated again above 5.0%. Crucially, this acceleration is all concentrated in the private sector (where wages grew 12% on a month-on-month annualised basis), where pay trends are more intrinsically linked to wider economic trends.

There are still indications that the jobs market market is cooling – e.g., lower vacancies than pre-Covid – but clearly today’s data is offering a reason for hawks to get louder in the MPC.

Ultimately, there is a compelling case for EUR/GBP to stay below 0.830 in the near term, with risks still skewed to the downside as the BoE will highly likely stay on hold this week, highlighting the striking policy divergence with a dovish ECB.

HUF: NBH will try to show the hawkish face again

The Hungarian National Bank is very likely to leave rates unchanged today again at 6.50%, in line with economists' expectations and market pricing. While inflation and GDP have surprised to the downside recently, the central bank continues to focus on FX. EUR/HUF has fallen from its highs around 415 last week, but even current levels in the 408-410 range are not enough reason to believe in sustainable financial market stability. The focus will be mainly on the press conference communication. In November, the main trigger for the FX sell-off was one vote for a rate cut, so that should not be a surprise to markets today.

At the same time, the central bank will present a new forecast. While the GDP outlook should be revised down, inflation may see some upward revisions especially in the longer term. However, we believe the central bank will generally try to confirm the hawkish story today.

The market is still holding the IRS curve up after a selloff and outpricing almost all monetary policy easing two months ago. Currently, the market expects only two rate cuts in two years and the entire curve is very flat. While rates have indicated some normalisation of levels in recent days, yesterday the curve jumped up again by 10-24bp across the curve amid very low liquidity common for year-end. This suggests that the market may be significantly volatile while still appearing not to have stabilised after moves in previous weeks.

If the central bank delivers a clear hawkish message, we believe this could be positive for the HUF, which is now vulnerable after yesterday's sell-off in the rates market. At the same time, we believe the rates market should start pricing in rate cuts again given the weak economy and inflation below expectations. Moreover, the current finance minister will take over the leadership of the NBH in March next year, which the market sees as a dovish shift by the central bank, and we therefore believe the market will return to dovish pricing sooner or later. The HUF should try to stabilise at stronger levels by the end of the year, but medium-term we remain negative with a move to 420 EUR/HUF over the next year.

Source: AP

(Dec 17): China suffered the biggest outflow on record from its financial markets last month as the prospect of higher US tariffs posed more risks for the world’s second-largest economy.

Domestic banks wired a net US$45.7 billion (RM203.41 billion) of funds overseas on behalf of their clients for securities investment, according to data released by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Monday (Dec 16). That amount accounts for foreign investment in China as well as local residents’ purchases of overseas securities.

The rising tide of outflows signals souring sentiment toward the Asian nation as US president-elect Donald Trump’s vow to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese goods threatens to decimate trade between the two nations. Weakness in the yuan and local stocks, as well as the nation’s wide interest-rate gap with the US, are raising the risk of a vicious cycle of capital outflows.

“US tariff threats and interest rate differential factors are expected to fuel outflow pressure from China,” said Ken Cheung, chief Asia FX strategist at Mizuho Bank. “The dollar yield advantage is expected to keep the Asian currencies under pressure broadly,” he said.

Chinese stocks have lost their upside momentum since October, as stimulus measures announced by authorities lagged market expectations. The nation’s benchmark sovereign bonds now yield less than half of what Treasuries offer. The onshore yuan also is hovering near a one-year low, while a gauge of the dollar is close to its highest level since 2022.

Given these challenges, China may keep striving to revive growth momentum and turn sentiment around for capital to flow back into local assets with low valuations, Cheung said.

In a key policy meeting last week, China’s top leaders signalled more public borrowing and spending in 2025 and a shift of policy focus to consumption, in an effort to boost the economy. President Xi Jinping’s decision-making Politburo vowed to embrace a “moderately loose” monetary policy in 2025, signalling more interest rate cuts ahead.

Official Chinabond data also showed foreign institutions cut holdings of Chinese government bonds to 2.08 trillion yuan (RM1.27 billion) as of last month, the lowest since September 2023. Mainland Chinese investors bought a net HK$125 billion (RM71.62 billion) of Hong Kong-listed securities in November, the highest in more than three years, according to Bloomberg data.

Source: Theedgemarkets

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis

Bitcoin price remained supported above the $95,000 level. BTC/USD formed a base and started a fresh surge above the $98,000 and $102,000 resistance levels.

Looking at the 4-hour chart, the price settled above the 100 simple moving average (red, 4-hour) and the 200 simple moving average (green, 4-hour). It even cleared a connecting bearish trend line with resistance at $101,500.

The price surpassed $104,000 and traded to a new all-time high at $107,643 on TitanFX. The price is now consolidating gains above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $93,430 swing low to the $107,643 high.

Immediate support is near the $105,500 level. The next key support sits at $104,000. A downside break below $104,000 might send Bitcoin toward the $102,000 support. Any more losses might send the price toward the $100,000 support zone or the 50% Fib retracement level of the upward move from the $93,430 swing low to the $107,643 high.

On the upside, the price could face resistance near the $107,500 level. The next key resistance is $108,800. The main hurdle is now near $112,000.

A successful close above $112,000 might start another steady increase. In the stated case, the price may perhaps rise toward the $120,000 milestone level.

Looking at Ethereum, the bulls pumped the price above the $3,880 and $3,920 levels before the bears took a stand near the $4,000 zone.

Today’s Economic Releases

US Retail Sales for Nov 2024 (MoM) – Forecast +0.5%, versus +0.4% previous.