More Than The ECB

The ECB meeting and details about the asset purchase plan is the key event of the day. However, there is something else happening.  A string of disappointing US data and the sell-off in equities have sparked a bond market rally that again has caught many participants wrong-footed.  

The US 10-year yield had reached 2.62% on September 19. It fell back to 2.38% yesterday and is only a little above that now.  It is not just the long-end.  The 2-year yield was near 60 bp two days ago and is now flirting with 50 bp.  

This has sapped some of the greenback’s strength.  The main beneficiaries are those currencies that arguably are interest rate sensitive; namely the dollar-bloc and the yen.   These currencies were also beaten up, with significant losses last month.  

The dollar had been briefly and barely traded through the JPY110 level yesterday.  It reversed lower, posting a large key reversal in its wake.  There has been follow through dollar selling today.  It neared the 20-day moving average (~JPY108.00).  It has not traded below this moving average since mid-August.    

There have been several comments from officials, former officials and Japanese companies that have suggested that a weak yen is not an unmitigated favorable development.  We suggest there are three considerations behind such pronouncement, which the market had been quite happy to shrug off. First, ahead of the upcoming G20 meeting, the Japanese government took preemptive action to head off possible criticism that it was manipulating its currency. Second, Japanese officials may also be concerned from the backlash as well from the US Treasury, which is likely preparing its next report on the foreign exchange market.  Third, we recognize some merits of the concern in their own right. Here we suggest the pace of the yen’s depreciation may pose an adjustment problem for some businesses.