Marketing Communication
FX Convictions
Group Economics Macro & Financial Markets
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30 August 2016
Profit protection adjustments We maintain our long USD versus JPY and long HUF versus EUR
Roy Teo
…but we bring our stop losses (profit protection) closer to the
Senior FX Strategist Tel: +65 6597 8616
current market level…
roy.teo@sg.abnamro.com
…so that we protect the positive performance so far
Long USD versus JPY; profit protection adjustment Since initiation on 23 August, our long USD versus JPY call has yielded 2% as financial markets have started to price in that Fed rate may hike sooner rather than later. Ahead of the US non-farm payrolls this Friday, we expect financial markets to buy the dollar on any dips.
Inflation in July 2016; lowest level since March 2015
Options market demand to hedge a weaker JPY rising
%
Level
Reverse scale %
1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 -0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0 Jan-10
-25
130
-15
125
-5
120
5
115
15
110
25 Jul-11
Jan-13
Jul-14
Jan-16
CPI ex food energy ex VAT YoY% (lhs)
1 0 -1 -2
105 100 Jan-14
-3 Jul-14 USD/JPY (lhs)
JPY NEER YoY% (rhs) Source: BoJ
Risk reversal skew
Jan-15
Jul-15
Jan-16
Jul-16
1mth USD/JPY risk reversal (rhs)
Source: Bloomberg
Separately, the pressure for the Bank of Japan to step up its monetary stimulus program has increased with inflation in July declining to the lowest level since March 2015. Demand in the options market to hedge potential weakness in the JPY has surged in recent weeks. We expect the JPY to decline further as investors unwind speculative long JPY positions in the coming weeks. Exporters and domestic life insurers are likely to hedge their overseas receipts if the JPY weakens. As a result, the upside in USD/JPY will likely be limited. Our short term target is 107 and we have raised our stop loss (profit protection) from 99 to 101.
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