@hedgeye calls it #Quad2 reflation, but I rather prefer @jam_croissant’s colorful description of “endless gamma squeezes” oh so reminiscent of 🎉🍾🥳 like it’s 1999!
Let’s dig into the macro 🧮 for the week
2/15
A 🕊 #FOMC on Wednesday and a 💪🏼 #NFP report on Friday with underlying wage #inflation of 4.9% y/y was enough to ignite a rally in the $UST market ↗️
WTF, you say?
3/15
Indeed, the MOVE 66.30 ↘️ from 78.34 on Tuesday as the 10/2s curve remained 🥞 at 105
Here are the major factors in play as we head into the new year:
- Fed and Bond market at odds
- Bear steepener in play with 10Y3M de-inverting
- US inflation sticky with strong, above trend NGDP
- Employment weakening around the edges
- CBs around the world cutting (US likely on pause)
- Yen carry trade unwind round 2
- China stimulating
- Global conflicts increasing
- Trump presidency (tariffs, taxes, budget deficit, and debt ceiling)
- $USD Strength, elevated yields
$SPX and $BTC near ATHs (sentiment near giddy)
Let’s break these down
2/15
The Fed and the Bond market have been at odds all year
Coming into 2024, Fed Funds Futures markets were pricing 6 to 7 rate cuts. The bond market responded by driving yields from 3.87% on 12/31/23 to 4.7% in four months while the Fed stood pat at 5.25-5.5% FFs
Then came the summer growth scare
The 10Y dropped to a low of 3.603 coming into the 9/18 Fed meeting. Spooked by the SAHM rule trigger, the Fed cut 50.
What did the bond market do?
Turned tail and rose to 4.5% in 2 months, fell back briefly to 4.125% in early December before rising to 4.64% last week, following the Fed’s hawkish cut and likely pause.
I see this back and forth dynamic continuing with another growth scare coming in Q125. More Fed cuts to come after a January pause.
3/15
The consequence of Fed/Bond market interplay is the bear steepening of the yield curve
After more than a 2-year inversion, the 10Y3M curve de-inverted on 12/14/24
Previously recognized as the most accurate signal of a coming recession in the next 3-6 months, the 10Y3M curve has been written off as dead
I don’t think it’s dead, and we are likely to experience a contraction in 2025.