When I first published the Three Phases model a year ago, one of the things I didn’t anticipate was that the Phases would go in cycles, rather than just be a one-and-done. With the benefit of hindsight, I can summarize the past year in markets with a pretty tight fit to almost two complete cycles through the Three Phases, with distinct events marking each transition from one phase to the next. Most recently, Fed Chair Powell’s remarks on January 4^th marked the second Phase 2 to Phase 3 transition of the past year, but if the Three Phases are truly cyclical, then what breaks the cycle and when? Reluctantly, I still feel that risk markets will riot one last time, probably before the summer, and that will force the Fed out of quantitative tightening. However, over the near term I think we’ll get a bit more reprieve from risk-off for reasons related to the way the Treasury spends money ahead of the debt ceiling expiration.

A key underlying premise of the Three Phases Model is that quantitative tightening (QT) is significantly restrictive for the economy. The idea is that asset price inflation reverses under QT, which ultimately affects the economy and the perceived future monetary policy pathway through tightening of financial conditions. Central banks then adjust in response, through dovish course corrections (now plural). Rinse, repeat.

Interestingly and perhaps surprisingly, over the next six weeks or so, liquidity withdrawal in the US is set to pause. Yes, the Fed is still rolling off about $50 billion per month of their securities portfolio, and yes, January 2019 is the first month the ECB is no longer expanding their balance sheet by 15 billion euros per month. However, offsetting this, the US Treasury is about to spend $150 billion more into the US economy than they borrow between now and March 2, 2019. That’s actually a net injection of cash into the economy because the Treasury holds their unspent cash at the Fed in a quasi checking account called the Treasury General Account (TGA). Since that account is held at the Fed and not with commercial banks, when the Treasury depletes the balance, that action resembles quantitative easing in terms of its impact on the money supply and total banking system deposits. This is true regardless of whether the Treasury spends money on wages and salaries or just lets bills mature. The Treasury is required to spend down the TGA at this time because of a codicil in legislation that passed on February 9, 2018¹, which temporarily suspended the debt ceiling, but prohibited the Treasury from borrowing unnecessary funds during the period of suspension. In effect, the TGA must return to its February 2018 balance before the expiration of the legislation on March 2, 2019. So this liquidity injection will offset the impact of QT between now and then, possibly sooner than later.

I believe liquidity withdrawal is a headwind to risk market appreciation, and equivalently since that withdrawal is likely to be briefly reversed over the near term, I am constructive on risk assets (High Yield, Emerging Markets) over the near term. I’m also relatively constructive on duration because increased liquidity should prevent long end rates from rising too much in a risk-on, and duration provides tape-bomb protection if any of the multitude of macro topics simmering in the background falls over the wrong way.

Once the TGA drawdown and debt ceiling extension are behind us though, I expect the brunt of full-speed QT with now zero offset from the ECB to once again affect markets negatively. That market pressure will likely force the Fed to stop or curtail QT. That will be the ultimate dovish course correction, and the Three Phases cycles will end. Such an action should avert a recession in 2019 and resume strong performance for risk assets.

¹ http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:31%20section:3101%20edition:prelim)