ECB signals, US threats, Roubini ’s predictions, and ruble limit

3. Juli 2019

Despite the extremely weak statistics from the Eurozone published on Monday and rather depressing data on producer prices, published on Tuesday, the euro tone was relatively good in the foreign exchange market yesterday. The reason was the information that the ECB is not ready to resort to additional monetary incentives. Therefore you should not expect to ease monetary policy.

Despite the record series of the US economic growth, a lot of experts continue to fear for the global economy a bright future in general and the United States in particular. So Nouriel Roubini in a recent interview noted that we might be headed for another recession. The world central banks have essentially exhausted their limit of instruments (it is simply impossible to easy monetary policy for many countries), and, at the same time, the debts of countries are increasing, which is a serious threat. The trade war is a trigger for recessionary processes says, Roubini.

The US seems to be interested in Europe, again. The United States, in an ongoing dispute over subsidizing the aviation industry (the European Union illegally subsidized Airbus Corp), is considering imposing tariffs on an additional 89 items with an annual trade volume of $ 4 billion, including cheese, pasta, whiskey, metals, and chemical products.

In this light, a sharp increase in gold is quite understandable.

Meanwhile, the majority of respondents believe that the ruble has reached its ceiling and it’s simply no way to grow to, Bloomberg's latest monthly survey found. In the future, the decline of the Russian currency is inevitable. Moreover, the state itself is interested in a weak ruble. Recall that the existing budget rule is aimed at artificially creating an imbalance in the foreign exchange market in favor of the dollar and against the ruble. For instance, since the fiscal rule has been imposed, the ruble fell against the dollar by almost 5%, but at the same time, oil prices rose by 17%. That is, the ruble becomes cheaper even if oil prices rise. Well, if they start to fall, it will just be cheaper as well but faster. In this light, it is useful to recall our constant recommendation to sell the Russian ruble on its any growth.

In terms of macroeconomic statistics, yesterday was relatively calm in terms of macroeconomic statistics. The index of business activity in the construction sector showed its lowest figures since 2009 (43.1, with forecast of 49.3).

Data on employment in the US from ADP is what we are interested in today. Recall that last time they signaled about future problems in the data from the NFP. So we closely monitor the indicator and prepare to sell the dollar in case of its failure. In addition, we are waiting for data on business activity and the trade balance in the United States.

Our trading recommendations for today: we are looking for points for sales of the dollar and the Russian ruble, as well as AUDUSD. We sell oil. We can not but note that gold current price is extremely attractive for sales, but do not forget to be careful.