While big banks blame the collapse in Q1 GDP on "residual seasonality" (more on that later), with BofA recently slashing its Q1 estimate from as much as 2.7% to just 0.2%, the reality is that something is not well with the US consumer. The latest proof of this comes from the most recent Bank of America credit and debt card spending data, which reveals that sales were once again down 0.1% yoy.
With the Yen soaring (and USDJPY plunging) some 10% in 2016, in the process crushing the tightly correlated Nikkei and leading to such outcomes as the largest Asian clothes retailer slashing profits by a third in just 4 months due to the strong currency, everyone has been wondering i) why is the BOJ waiting to intervene when it had no problems unleashing NIRP when the USDJPY was about 1000 pips higher and ii) when will it intervene again?
In a week overflowing with Fed speakers, moments ago NY Fed's Bill Dudley - who recently flipped from hawkish to dovish once again - took the podium in Bridgeport Connecticut to lay out his latest thoughts. Here is a summary of what he said in a speech titled "The National and Local Economic Outlook: An Update", courtesy of Bloomberg
It is not only BofA's "smart money" clients who have been selling the rally non-stop (and at an accelerating pace) for the past 10 weeks: so has the bank's chief investment strategist, Michael Hartnett, whose reluctance to embrace the mania has been duly documented on these pages.Below we lay out the reasons why he "remains a seller of risk."
From his latest summary note:
Three weeks ago, when the Fed and Janet Yellen shocked markets with their extremely dovish statement in which they admitted the US Federal Reserve no longer is US data dependent, and instead is far more focused on global developments and especially China's dollar-pegged currency (which makes it impossible for the Fed to be hawkish without causing further FX instability and leading to more Chinese capital flight), CNBC's Steve Liesman asked Yellen point blank a question which would seem otherwise completely taboo: does the Fed have a credibility problem.
This was her response: