As noted on Wednesday afternoon, the dollar managed its first monthly gain in four in February, leading some to wonder if we’ve seen a turning point for a greenback that’s been more “beleaguered” than Jeff Sessions after a Trump Twitter tirade.
Of course the dollar story is complicated these days. On one hand, you’ve got a ballooning deficit in the U.S. and worries that the Trump administration is still angling for a weak dollar policy to bolster U.S. trade. On the other hand, you’ve got rising U.S. yields and a Fed chair who delivered a hawkish surprise earlier this week during his first public testimony on Capitol Hill.
“There’s wariness that the rise in U.S. yields is mostly a reflection of bad inflation, with widening fiscal deficits sparking massive debt issuances and that’s weighing on the dollar,” Jun Kato, chief market analyst at Shinkin Asset Management said earlier this week, adding that “Powell surprisingly showed his color, suggesting more rate hikes than people currently think with confidence in the U.S. economy, but the dollar’s failure to extend gains shows how demand is stronger to sell the greenback on its rebound.”
Well, Bloomberg is out this morning summing up the views of Stephen Jen at Eurizon SLJ Asset Management and it’s worth at least considering these arguments because Stephen is, to quote Bloomberg, “is well positioned to rebound in 2H, benefiting from its haven status.” Here are the bullet points:
