With the Fed contemplating whether to hike again next month and start "normalizing " its balance sheet before the end of 2017, the two other major central banks are facing far bigger problems.
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Two months after the BOJ quietly started tapering its QE program, when it also hinted it may purchase 18% less bonds than planned...
European and Asian stocks slumped on Thursday following the worst one-day drop in US stocks in 8 months, while S&P futures tumbled to session lows, down 0.3% to 2,350 after initially posting a modest rebound, following a new Reuters report alleging that Trump campaign members communication with Russians on at least 18 occasions, and which prompted today's risk off mood sending the USDJPY crashing by 100 pips from overnight highs of 111.40.
In its first bond sale since the presidential election and the first big test of investor sentiment after Emmanuel Macron won the presidency, France received more than €31 billion in demand for a 30-year bond offering, once again demonstarting the unprecedented demand for duration on the yield-starved continent where the ECB is happily gobbling up every interest-yielding instrument. With some €7 billion in ultra-long duration paper sold via a syndicate of banks, pricing at 30Y FRTR +12, tighter than the +14 price talk, the issue was more than 4 times oversubscribed.
Used to a fawning press corps and clueless politicians, perhaps Mario Draghi was expecting a warm greeting, a series of softball questions from Dutch lawmakers, and some late night entertainment on Wednesday when the ECB president made a rare visit to the Hague.
We start with the overnight observations by Mint's Bill Blain who points out something contradictory: on one hand Europe is said to be "fixed" with inflation expectations rising and the ECB preparing to take its foot off the gas pedal. On the other hand, "European Sovereigns will start issuing long bonds again.... A French 30yr is in the works, Italy and Belgium are both looking, while other rumours say the EFSF might be in the frame. ...