FX Talk - an Ebury podcast

What are the economic consequences of the mini-budget? Since the initial sell-off, the GBP has recovered in the past few sessions. What are the reasons for the recovery in the pound? 

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The main talking point has been the move below parity in EUR/USD for the first time since December 2002. The pair teetered on the brink of parity for a couple of sessions, before falling fairly comfortably below it on Thursday. A divergence in natural gas prices across the Atlantic was largely to blame for the move, with last week’s hotter-than-expected US inflation report enough to drive the pair through the key psychological level. 

We have, however, seen a recovery in the euro since then, with EUR/USD moving back above the 1.02 level on rising bets in favour of a 50 basis point interest rate hike from the European Central Bank when it meets on Thursday. 

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Time flies when you’re having fun. So, this is a good chance for us to look back on the first six months of the year, and talk about our main highlights in the FX market so far this year. We then look ahead, and talk about what we expect during the remainder of 2022.

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The Swiss franc was the best performing currency in the G10 last week after the SNB shocked markets by announcing a 50 basis point interest rate hike - the consensus was for no change. The bank also changed its wording on the franc, no longer calling it ‘highly valued’ and saying that it would be prepared to intervene in the market on both sides.

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Markets will have one eye on next Wednesday's FOMC meeting. The Fed is set to raise rates by another 50 basis points next week and signal more hikes are coming at upcoming meetings. This will be followed by the Bank of England’s latest policy decision on Thursday. 

But we’re going to focus first on Thursday’s ECB announcement, which delivered a long awaited hawkish pivot. In the bank’s statement, it explicitly said that it would raise interest rates by 25 basis points at its July meeting, and follow this up with another one in September.

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On the whole, most economies rebounded well from the COVID induced slowdowns in 2021, as an easing in restrictions allowed for an unleashing in pent-up demand. While the strict covid restrictions are a thing of the past for most of us, a number of other downside risks to growth have materialized of late, causing markets and central bankers to fret that a slowdown could be on the cards during the remainder of the year.

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We spoke on our last episode about the sharp sell-off witnessed in risk assets in late-April, which sent most higher risk currencies lower against the safe-havens, notably the US dollar. The US dollar index, which measures the currency against a weighted basket of its peers, rose to its strongest position in almost 20 years earlier in the week, as heightened global growth concerns triggered a ‘risk off’ mode in markets. 

The dollar has also continued to be well supported by expectations for higher US interest rates. At its FOMC meeting last week, the Federal Reserve raised rates by 50 basis points, as expected, the largest such move in more than two decades. The communications from chair Powell were again hawkish. He called the US labour market ‘very, very strong’, while once again saying that inflation remained ‘unacceptably high’.

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In FX, we’ve seen a classic period of ‘risk off’ trading. The US dollar has been by far and away the best performing currency, rallying sharply against pretty much everything else. Most emerging market currencies are down, with the exception of the Russian ruble, some more than 4 or 5% in the past week alone.

The major currencies have also suffered rather extraordinary sell-offs, in most cases to multi-month or multi-year lows. Two of the most notable examples, and the two currencies that we’ll focus largely on today, are the pound and the euro. EUR/USD has collapsed to its lowest level in more than 5 years, and was trading below the 1.05 level this morning. Sterling, meanwhile, is trading at its lowest level since July 2020, having now sold-off by more than 4% in a little under a week. 

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For the most part in the last month, we’ve seen an improvement in risk sentiment - the safe-havens have generally underperformed, notably the Japanese yen, which has slumped to around its lowest level at any time since I started working in the FX industry, and at the release of this recording may well have fallen to its lowest level since 2002. 

The higher risk currencies have generally rebounded, notably the Australian dollar and Norwegian krone in the G10, while among emerging markets: the Brazilian real, South African rand and (notably) the Russia ruble have led the rebound.

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