A “risk-on “Delay

The news caught the market amid profit-taking inspired consolidation mode as the markets sentiment wave indicator had peaked. So, the headlines may have triggered a deeper overshoot than under normal circumstance. If President Trump is open to rolling back tariffs in exchange for hammering out a deal on the structural issues starting with intellectual property, then the bullish premiums would need to be marked up as this could open the door to a resolution on other major fundamental problems.

Equity bulls and those who believe President Trump would prefer not to have the trade issue unresolved into an election year, hoovered up the dip. After all, a possible rollback in a chunk of tariffs should be a monumentally more colossal affair than a delay in the date from mid-November to December.

But as I mentioned yesterday in my Asia wrap, with delay comes chance that risk-on sentiment has too long to ferment, stalls and then maybe reverses as the waiting game weighs. So deeper profit-taking in equities was not entirely unexpected.

Mind you on other trade talk cross-asset correlation like oil and yuan, where traders tend to wear trade war emotion on their sleeve; those assets aren’t precisely revelling in the afterglow of the rebound in US equity market as  significant doubts remain that President Trump will yield to China demands for a reverse in US tariffs before signing a deal. While its conceivable President Trump wants the political win, but it’s unclear if he is keen to bridge the trust gap and commit to a rollback before an enforcement mechanism is in place.

Oil markets

Oil fell after much larger-than-expected build in US crude inventories, and a reports that the biggest producers in OPEC aren’t pushing for deeper oil-supply cuts when the group meets next month.

The extremely bearish to consensus build in the EIA report was flat out bearish as it was lower exports which are contributing to the swell and providing poor global demand optics. The inventory builds and drops in exports is likely related to the COSCO sanctions. The sanctions are coming back to haunt oil bulls as a trifecta of negativity if you include the probable delay in singing the Phase one trade deal reported by Reuters, hammered any remnant of bullish sentiment into the ground.

It remains unclear if the OPEC meeting planned for December 5-6 will prove to be positive for sentiment. Saudi Arabia has its back against the wall as support for deeper production cuts continues to waver as key OPEC+ member like Russia jostle for position and a more significant tranche of the pie ahead of the December OPEC meeting.

It’s just not that, the quick round trip that Oil prices took after the September meeting might be starting to raise doubts about the effectiveness of production cuts.

But perhaps the most negative impression could be that OPEC and OPEC + nations absolutely despise cutting production to actively subsidise shale oil where producers don’t fall under any domestic or global supply agreement.

Gold Markets

Although lifting off the $1480 mat, gold is still finding it hard to compete with the jubilance in equity markets and rising US yields. But for now, the sharp sell of in gold has abated as consolidation mode sets in around the $1490 level. There is not a great deal of momentum behind the buys, which suggests defensive positioning rather than any fear of missing out type flows. With the S&P 500 gravitating to the 3075 levels and UST 10-year bond yields above 1.80 %, it’s probably challenging for gold investors to form any near-term bullish conviction

Currency Markets

Peak Aussie and Peak Kiwi seem to be setting in.

The short squeeze in NZD/USD looks to have run its course and now focus shifts to the market pricing for the November 12 RBNZ meeting which is now shading towards a full cut. With 17bps currently priced in so if the market continues to price in a full cut, one could expect the market will sell kiwi into that meeting. The stronger Kiwi does suggest the RBNZ will entertain the idea of a 25 bp cut.

The trade talk headlines have weighed on commodity currencies overnight, and while this could be a minor hic-up the US dollar continues to move to the beat of the US 10 year bond and as the market continued to price out US rate cuts further along the curve its conceivable that more long Aussie positions get abandoned as investors move back into the US dollar carry the King US dollar starts to reassert its presence once again.

Malaysian Ringgit

The delay in the trade talks has caused a bit of hic-up in local currency sentiment as the US dollar on the back of rising US 10-year yields remains the bastion of safety whenever a risk wobble occurs.

But taking their lead from the Yuan, local Ringgit traders likely booked profits and halted the rally ahead for the critical 4.13 level.

This article was written by Stephen Innes, Asia Pacific Market Strategist at AxiTrader