Markets
The week started off with some Bund underperformance, both vs US Treasuries and UK gilts. With the front end adding up to 7 bps, European money markets are slightly paring bets on ECB rate cuts. The terminal rate in the recent repricing was brought down to less than 2%. Such a supportive monetary policy stance isn’t something we consider necessary based on the current economic data, even if the picture isn’t particularly rosy. This week’s (German) PMI’s (on Friday) serve as a reality check and will be watched closely for signs of the economy further bottoming out. Greek Governing Council member Stournaras said in any case ”there’s going to be a number of cuts” and advocated going in steps of 25 bps, the next one all but certain to happen in December. Stournaras said borrowing costs could be close to 2% toward the end of next year. The UK curve joined the bear flattening move in Europe but the US parted ways. US rates were flat (3-yr) to 4 bps (30-yr) higher in a steepening move. Stocks trade on the backfoot in Europe and open mixed on Wall Street. The Nasdaq ekes out a small gain. Tech-heavyweights Tesla and Nvidia more or less cancel each other out with the former rising on speculation president-elect Trump will ease self-driven car rules. The latter slides over an overheating problem with its most recent chip ahead of Wednesday’s earnings release. Currency markets are uninspired. The Japanese yen underperforms on a speech by Ueda. The Bank of Japan governor kept the cards close to his chest, not offering any particular hint on a potential rate hike at the December meeting. USD/JPY recoups some of Friday’s gains but remains sub 155. The euro is generally better bid after a horrible two first weeks in November, though we remain cautious on its upside potential. EUR/USD rises to 1.057. EUR/GBP builds on Friday’s momentum to trade around 0.837 ahead of UK inflation numbers on Wednesday and retail sales and PMI’s on Friday. The greenback on a trade-weighted basis is on track for a back-to-back loss to 106.5. The crypto market captured some headlines with Bitcoin trading back above the 90k barrier. Gas prices on commodity markets hit a new one-year high as supply concerns add to higher demand. Oil prices rebounded the recent lows just north of $70/b (Brent) as well.
News & Views
Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis said at a Bloomberg event that Athens is planning to repay next year at least €5bn of debt outstanding under the Greek loan facility with maturities ranging from 2033 to 2043. Before year-end the Greek government will still conclude a €7.9bn repayment of floating rate debt (also under GLF) which matures in 2026, 2027 and 2028. Greece has already paid back loans worth €5.3bn in December 2023 and €2.65bn in December 2022 thanks to good growth and the high primary surpluses it is running. The Greek debt ratio is on a downward path since peaking at 207% of GDP in 2020. Next year, it is expected to drop below 150% of GDP. Improving public finances helped the country regain its investment grade status at S&P and Fitch at the end of last year after losing it at the start of the EMU sovereign debt crisis.
The Czech National Bank published remarks on a panel discussion in which CNB governor Michl took part last Thursday. He reiterated his view that we are now entering a phase of higher inflation volatility around central bank targets, with an upside risk. Some degree of restriction is necessary to ensure low core inflation. Looking ahead, core inflation may need to be slightly below 2%. Since this is not reflected in the CNB’s current outlook, they are already discussing the appropriate time to pause rate cuts, likely at the next, December, policy meeting. The CNB cut its policy rate by 25 bps to 4% in November with neutral rates estimated to be at least 3.5%. EUR/CZK trades a tad weaker today, at 25.30.
 PMI’s (on Friday) serve as a reality check and will be watched closely for signs of the economy further bottoming out.){kind=link}