Ok, this was a hell of a week in many respects and that shouldn’t exactly come as a surprise because after all:
Exactly. Thank you Mr. President. Here’s how things shaped up for U.S. equities which fell hard to close things out on Friday:
Monday brought the Sean Hannity bombshell and all the jokes that came with it. Tuesday brought the Stormy Daniels sketch of the Tom Brady lookalike who purportedly threatened her in a gym parking lot over Donald Trump. Wednesday brought the announcement of snap elections in Turkey. And Thursday brought a reversal re: many of the dynamics we’ve become accustomed to of late in markets, as flattening turned to steepening on renewed inflation concerns and banks outperformed (as opposed to the financials fading blockbuster earnings).
Meanwhile, playing out in the background was the ongoing Russia sanctions saga and the attendant rally in the metals complex which, in combination with the run up in crude, pushed the Bloomberg commodities index to its highest level since 2015:
Oil hit fresh three-year highs but stumbled a bit early on Friday when noted cross-asset strategist Donald Trump cut his near-term/medium-term/long-term/acceptable-term price target citing dementia and other factors:
That, just days after he put on his FX strategist hat to weigh on a ruble collapse he caused and an imaginary yuan devaluation. This BBG headline sums it up:
“Strategery”:
The ruble managed to calm down after Trump appeared to dispel the notion that more sanctions are imminent:
Apparently, Russia is going to devise some kind of government department to deal with sanctioned companies – that according to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov who spoke to reporters on Friday.
The commodities rally came despite the best week for the dollar since February as the greenback responded to higher yields:
That, against this:
Things getting really interesting now, as 10Y yields are within shouting distance of 3% having moved quickly back to February highs and beyond (highest since 2014):
2Y yield highest level since September 2008.
It could be that the whole “dramatic steepening” meme that’s resurfaced over the past 48 hours is a bit overstated (just sayin’):
This:
And also this:
- U.S. IS SAID TO INVESTIGATE AT&T, VERIZON OVER COLLUSION: NYT
USDJPY touched its highest since February 21 on Friday:
Carney comments, lackluster inflation data, etc. killed the pound this week, which fell for four straight days:
Finally, make-believe space tokens rallied for a second straight week, marking the first back-to-back weekly gains of 2018. And as you can see from the following chart, it’s a super-“impressive” rally in the grand scheme of things:
