{"id":104439,"date":"2017-04-06T06:40:12","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T10:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/?p=104439"},"modified":"2017-04-06T06:40:12","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T10:40:12","slug":"appetite-to-risk-evaporated-as-fed-signalled-double-tightening-whammy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/2017\/04\/appetite-to-risk-evaporated-as-fed-signalled-double-tightening-whammy\/","title":{"rendered":"Appetite to risk evaporated as Fed signalled double tightening whammy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"inves-3269140793\" class=\"inves-below-title-posts inves-entity-placement\"><div id =\"posts_date_custom\"><div align=\"left\">April 6, 2017<\/div><hr style=\"border: none; border-bottom: 3px solid black;\">\r\n<\/div><\/div><p>Article by <a href=\"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/contributors\/contributor-profile-forextime\/\">ForexTime<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"field-body\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>Equities across Asia fell on Thursday following Wall Street\u2019s biggest one-day reversal in 14 months after the Fed minutes indicated that officials are ready to target the over bloated balance sheet.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese Yen led the gains in currency markets, touching its highest levels in more than four months against the dollar. Government bond yields dropped across the globe, and futures markets are indicating further declines in U.S. equities.<\/p>\n<p>Yesterday\u2019s Fed minutes sent a couple of warning signs which have led to this reversal. The expected gradual increase in interest rates was not one of them given that this factor has already been priced in the markets. However, the discussions of reducing the balance sheet, currently at $4.5 trillion, wasn\u2019t received with open arms as it suggests a double tightening policy, \u201ccombination of higher rates and reduction in QE.\u201d This is likely to be the next hot topic in monetary policy actions, and the key question is going to be; will the Fed successfully remove unconventional policies without disrupting the markets?<\/p>\n<p>The more compelling message was related to equity valuations. Some Fed participants viewed equity prices as quite high relative to standard valuation measures. Well, there\u2019s nothing new here. Whoever is buying into this market already knows that valuations are overstretched, but this isn\u2019t the kind of message an investor wants to hear from the system which supported the 8-year bull market. We rarely receive such comments from monetary policy makers, and while it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a correction is due immediately, investors should become more cautious.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest one-day reversal in 14 years was significant enough to make headlines, but overall, markets still believe that Trump has their back, and whatever we\u2019re experiencing now is just some noise. However, in my opinion, valuations are not just high relative to standard measures, they are unrealistic. Earnings remain the key missing component of the most recent rally, and if we don\u2019t see a significant improvement in the next two-quarters, there\u2019s very little chances to keep going north.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s Xi-Trump meeting will attract all of the market&#8217;s attention. Trump already assumes it will be a \u201cvery difficult\u201d meeting, criticizing the trade deficit with China and job losses. The discussions will focus on global, regional, and bilateral issues of mutual concern according to the White House, but traders\u2019 spotlight will be on the trade part. The best-case scenario is the meeting ends peacefully, with both presidents shaking hands and probably playing some golf. But given that the two men are at opposite sides on several issues, \u00a0it is unlikely the meeting will end in such a way. If they don\u2019t get along and the US-China relationship becomes gloomy, expect another wave of risk aversion to hit the markets.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><em><strong>Disclaimer: <\/strong>The content in this article comprises personal opinions and should not be construed as containing personal and\/or other investment advice and\/or an offer of and\/or solicitation for any transactions in financial instruments and\/or a guarantee and\/or prediction of future performance. ForexTime (FXTM), its affiliates, agents, directors, officers or employees do not guarantee the accuracy, validity, timeliness or completeness, of any information or data made available and assume no liability as to any loss arising from any investment based on the same.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-54242 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/articles-analysis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Forex-Time-Logo.png\" alt=\"Forex-Time-Logo\" width=\"262\" height=\"90\" \/><strong>Article by <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/countingpips.com\/contributors\/contributor-profile-forextime\/\">ForexTime<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>ForexTime Ltd (FXTM)<\/strong> is an award winning international online forex broker regulated by CySEC 185\/12 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.forextime.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.forextime.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article by ForexTime Equities across Asia fell on Thursday following Wall Street\u2019s biggest one-day reversal in 14 months after the Fed minutes indicated that officials are ready to target the over bloated balance sheet. The Japanese Yen led the gains in currency markets, touching its highest levels in more than four months against the dollar. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","no-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104439"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":104450,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104439\/revisions\/104450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.investmacro.com\/forex\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}