Once again there has been little fundamental news or economic data this morning in Europe with price action largely driven by expiring option contracts. In terms of key events, Putin says Russia should refrain from retaliating against US sanctions for now even as Bank Rossiya discovered Visa and MasterCard have stopped servicing its cards, and as Putin further added he would have his salary sent to the sanctioned bank – the farce will go on. Continuing the amusing “rating agency” news following yesterday’s policy warning by S&P and Fitch on Russian debt (was that a phone call from Geithner… or directly from Obama), Fitch affirmed United States at AAA; outlook revised to stable from negative, adding that the US has greater debt tolerance than AAA peers. Perhaps thje most notable move was in Chinese stocks which rallied overnight after major domestic banks said to have stopped selling trust products which were blamed for encouraging reckless borrowing and diluted credit standards. Speculation of further stimulus and the potential introduction of single stock futures also helped the Shanghai Comp mark its biggest gain of 2014 closing up 2.7%.
Despite expectations to the contrary, EM held up better than expectations yesterday. Indeed, some hoped that January’s selloff had strengthened EM positioning and valuations to better withstand a shift in Fed policy. Meanwhile other theories suggested that EM faces a delayed reaction to the Fed’s policy shift, much like January’s selloff came a month after the Fed’s taper announcement in December. Either way, a number of EMFX bellwethers including the BRL, MXN and TRY appreciated by 0.9%, 0.2% and 0.5% respectively against the USD yesterday. Rates markets were generally about 5- 10bp weaker across the board while EM sovereign credits were also wider. In Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan surprised many by vowing to block access to Twitter immediately for national security reasons.
Turning to the day ahead, there’s not a lot on the data docket but the focus will be on speeches from four Fed officials which are the first speakers from the Fed since Wednesday’s FOMC. Perhaps we’ll get a clarification or elaboration of the Fed’s message from Wednesday. Bullard speaks on a Brookings Panel on the topic of nominal GDP. Fisher discusses the pros and cons of forward guidance. Kocherlakota and Stein will be speaking in Washington on monetary policy.
EU & UK Headlines
Little European news flow however analysts at Barclays believe that there is a risk of hawkish surprises from the BoE with any upside surprises in data could very well cause the timing of the first hike to get pulled forward.
US Headlines
Fitch affirmed United States at AAA; outlook revised to stable from negative, adding that the US has greater debt tolerance than AAA peers.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs still believe a hike to the Federal Funds rate is far off, noting that Yellen did not mean to send a strong signal on the shift in the reaction function. GS central forecast for the first hike remains early 2016, with risks of an earlier hike.
Equities
Stocks are seen higher across the board, with basic materials and telecommunications outperforming, although there was lack of tier 1 macroeconomic data releases or fresh macroeconomic news flow. Of note, German DAX index outperformed its peers, with Commerzbank leading the move higher following a positive broker recommendation by Morgan Stanley, with the bank also stating this morning that its 2013 capital target was reached.
