Some stabilization in risk demand after yesterday’s sell-off is helping currencies correlated with economic growth expectations (high-beta currencies) to regain some of what they lost yesterday. Against this backdrop, the dollar’s rally is being thwarted, but any correction lower could be met with strong support as the Fed has taken a major lead in the tightening race, stagflation concerns have not gone away, and risk asset sentiment remains highly volatile. SPX also played its role when reaching a critical support of 4000 points, which can be perceived by the broader market as a technical buy signal.Futures for US stock indices are in moderate plus, not exceeding 1%. The catalyst for yesterday’s sell-off was broad market panic as central banks signaled their intention to hike interest rates at a time of deteriorating global economic growth prospects. These include stagflation in Europe, risks of a recession in the fourth quarter, continuing devaluation of the yuan as a sign of predicaments in the Chinese economy, as well as high degree of geopolitical risk related to the conflict in Ukraine. It is no surprise that the dollar is holding its positions and is not in a hurry to move into a correction despite the relative overbought (highest level in 20 years). Currencies that correlate with the business cycle were hit more than others, which also indicates the nature of the correction – investors are reducing their exposure in countries that show outstripping growth rate in the business cycle upswing phase. So, for example, since the onset of broader economy growth concerns, AUD, NZD lost 3-4% against the dollar while EUR and GBP losses did not exceed 1-2%:The slowdown in China affects the economies of New Zealand and Australia, for which the Middle Kingdom is one of the main trading partners while global liquidity concerns primarily affected the Norwegian Krone. Since May 5, the USDNOK currency has risen by almost 5%.The Fed said yesterday that liquidity in key markets is falling, which could result in investor flight. The warning exacerbated the fall.The economic calendar today is not particularly interesting, investors could pay attention to the NFIB report on small businesses in the US, in particular, how firms assess the situation with hiring. Also speaking today are a number of Fed officials, the focus is how intensified market correction will affect their forecasts for policy tightening and whether fears of stagflation in the US will be voiced.Demand for risk will continue to determine currency moves in the short term. Given the potential for SPX to rebound, there may be some demand for commodity currencies (CAD, AUD, NZD), the dollar may go slightly negative. However, as mentioned above, a steady decline in the dollar at this stage is unlikely and long positions on the correction towards 103.50 on the dollar index (DXY) look quite justified.EURUSD, in turn, may correct higher, however, given the discussion of the oil embargo from Russia, the potential for strengthening above 1.0650 in the next few days looks unlikely. Bullish momentum for the pair can be set by ECB officials such as Joachim Nagel and De Guindos, whose rhetoric will likely be associated with the prospect of a rate hike in July. However, the number of ECB rate hikes this year remains a subject of debate, and it is to these comments that the Euro may be particularly sensitive.Technically, the pair continues to stay in the range from 1.048-1.060 in anticipation of new important information. Such information will probably be the announcement of an embargo on Russian oil, since in this case the EU will likely face a new round of inflation, which, as the behavior of the pair in March-April has already shown, has a very negative effect on the Euro:
Source: Tickmill
