Week in review
- Bank of England to buy GBP5bn of bond per day to steady market
- Australia retail sales 0.60% m/m
- China PMI for manufacturing
Week ahead
- RBA official cash rate
- Australia housing finance
- U.S. labour market report and nonfarm payrolls
Thought of the week
The swings in the markets in the last week have been extreme. The yield on the 30-year UK government bond moved by more than 100bps in one day last week as investors digested the institutional integrity of the UK government and the quick flip by the Bank of England from quantitative tightening to what is to be a brief period of further quantitative easing (although this is not its official title). However, what is really behind the market volatility has been the ramp up in rate expectations and tightening financial conditions as central banks double down on bringing inflation back to target. If this feels different to past rate hiking cycles its because it is. Since June central banks have embarked on most synchronized three-month period of rates hikes since the 1980s. This week’s chart illustrates just how different the change in financial conditions has been in the current rate hike cycle compared to prior cycles. It’s time like these that investors should evaluation the resilience of their portfolio is what are likely to be volatile times.
The tightness in U.S. financial conditions has been extreme
Change in financial conditions. Date of first rate hike = 0