Macron Gets Debt Reprimand as S&P Hits France With Downgrade [Bloomberg]
Chicago PMI Unexpectedly Craters To Depression Levels [Zerohedge]
G7 finance chiefs back plan to leverage frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine [FT]
China’s Industry Threatens Entire Global Economy, France Warns [Bloomberg]
Unlikely topics often become key points in hotly contested elections as the voting public's focus becomes clear. The US national debt undoubtedly is the number one talking point as it is now more than $100,000 per citizen and climbing by a trillion dollars every hundred days.
And now George Soros, the man who broke the Bank of England, has voted.
Did George Soros Inject $135 Million into MicroStrategy? [TradingView]
Fed's Kashkari Warns of Big Losses From Commercial Real Estate [Bloomberg]
The cat and mouse game between Bank of Japan / Finance Ministry continued this week as USD / YEN ground up to 157.80 with 10 year JGB yields touching 1.10%. Slightly weaker US GDP and PCE didn't give us an excuse the test their mettle. Maybe Nonfarm Payroll is what we're waiting for.
Japanese CPI came in mixed so no clues there either.
Bank of Japan Core CPI YoY May 2024
Tokyo Core CPI May 2024
BoJ committee members talking rate hikes of course to help put a lid on USD / YEN but record intervention shows the resolve needed to achieve this.
Ueda says Bank of Japan will proceed cautiously with inflation targeting frameworks [Reuters]
Treasury buyback program [US Treasury]
Starting this week a program to buy back off-the-run treasuries sounded positive for markets that crave cheap money but in reality it's Treasury trying to ensure liquidity in the event of a sharp sell-off. Primary Dealers only want the most liquid collateral.
Poor 2, 5 and 7 year auctions maintained an ugly tone this week as the 10 year yield went from 4.40 to 4.64, and only the benign economic indicators calmed things down.
Yields Surge After Ugly 2Y Auction As Foreign Demand Tumbles [Zerohedge]
Q1 GDP revised down to 1.3% and PCE numbers slightly less than expected.
US GDP Q1 2024
US Core PCE April 2024
The Fed Thinks It’s Fighting Inflation. Think Again[Bloomberg]
USD / OFFSURE YUAN Monthly
China's economic recovery, aided by massive stimulus, seems to be waning as leading indicators point to a slowdown.
With Chinese EVs blocking ports, and a world scared of China dumping cheap products everywhere, it's ironic to think that without China's economy pulling the world out of recession 15 years ago, we'd be in a much darker place now.
China PMI May 2024
Shares of China Evergrande's EV unit soar after liquidators' stake sale deal [Reuters]
European Central Bank is ready to start cutting interest rates, says chief economist
But......inflation increased so next week's ECB meeting is going to be interesting.
Australia Retail Sales April 2024
Australia CPI Indicator YoY April 2024
Higher CPI and an RBA talking hiking / holding only is bad news for an economy that is clearly stagnant. Even the Treasurer, Chalmers, knows this.
Why businesses are pulling billions in deposits from NAB
ECB meeting is on Thursday and the FED and BoJ the following week, This leads us neatly to the G7 Summit, held in Borgo Egnazia, in Apulia, on June 13-15, 2024.
Watch out for some important announcements.
Also rumours that the 50 year old US - Saudi oil for protection deal is not to be renewed, are circulating. No more Petro Dollar, actually the US is now by far the world's biggest producer, would be catastrophic for US treasuries.