Stocks shine and safe havens lose their luster

Last week began with hope of Congress passing another round of fiscal stimulus to combat the continuing economic woes felt by the American public. That sentiment provided a catalyst for investors to move from safe havens, like bonds and precious metals, into equities. As Congress struggled to agree on a deal, equities and rates were propped up by U.S. economic data, including inflation numbers and initial jobless claims that beat expectations. U.S. Initial Jobless Claims came in at 963,000, the first time posting under a million since March. Positive data in the U.S. contrasted with that of the U.K., which released data suggesting the country is in the worst recession it has ever faced.

Rates

Government bonds experienced a sell-off that pushed yields up throughout the week. The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield ended up nearly 15 basis points week-over-week, the largest gain seen since early June.

In addition, the U.S. high yield bond markets continued to heat up, and investment grade bonds continue to be highly attractive. In these conditions, corporates are still pursuing cross currency swaps to swap from U.S. Dollars (USD) to Euros (EUR) synthetically when issuing debt in EUR directly is less cost effective or there is less lending appetite. The pick-up from swapping 2.0% Fixed USD to Fixed EUR for 5-years is approximately 1.0% per annum, which has continued to compress, but still offers an opportunity to reduce interest expense and potentially also mitigate currency risk.
(Related insight: Register for the webinar, “Strategic Considerations for Cross-Currency Swaps” on September 10 at 2 p.m. ET)

FX

The U.S. dollar found strength early in the week as U.S./China trade tensions sent investors to the safety of the dollar. However, gains were pared back at the end of the week as a deal for the fiscal stimulus rescue package remained in a stalemate. As of Friday, August 14, EUR/USD was 1.184, GBP/USD was 1.309, and USD/CAD was 1.326.
(Related insight: Download Chatham’s Benchmark Study Report, "The State of Financial Risk Management," to see what peer corporations are doing to manage FX risk.)

Commodities

The prize for the most intriguing story of the week in the commodities world goes to gold and the rest of the precious metals complex. Precious metals have been enjoying a major rally this year, but the rally hit a wall in the beginning of the week; gold gave up the $2,000 level and surrendered nearly $170 of value over the course of a few days.

Other commodities were mostly range-bound last week, with Brent and WTI both trading within a $2/bbl range. This lower volatility makes options an interesting strategy to manage risk again.

Week ahead

U.S./China trade talks will likely add some distractions this week. In addition, the last FOMC meeting minutes will be released on Wednesday alongside a stream of other economic data to be released throughout the week.