"Fear is Still on Holiday"

From Marc to Market:

Overview: The heightened tensions between the US and China sapped risk-appetites before the weekend, but appear to be missing in action today. Equity markets have rebounded strongly. Nearly all the equity markets in the Asia Pacific region rose (India was a laggard) led by an almost 3% rally in Australia, which was seen as particularly vulnerable to the Sino-American fissure. The Nikkei is approaching its 200-day moving average as it reached the best level since March 5. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is up around 1% after a 1.5% gain yesterday. It is at its best level since March 10. The S&P 500 is set to gap sharply higher, above 3000, and its 200-day moving average for the first time since March 5. Benchmark 10-year bond yields are mostly firmer (US ~70 bp), but peripheral yields in Europe are softer, which is also consistent with the risk-on mood. Germany sold a two-year bond today with a yield of minus 66 bp and saw the strongest bid-cover in 13 years. The dollar is heavy. Among the majors, the Antipodean and Norwegian krone lead the way. The yen is least favored and is struggling to gain in the softer dollar environment. Emerging market currencies are higher, led by more than 1% gains by the Mexican peso, South African rand, and Polish zloty. Gold is consolidating at softer levels (~$1725-$1735), while oil prices continue to recover. July WTI is probing the recent highs around $34 a barrel.

Asia Pacific
The risk-on mood has not been sparked by any sign of a thaw in the US-Chinese tensions. Indeed, the PBOC set the dollar's reference rate against the yuan a little higher than the bank models suggested (CNY7.1293 vs. CNY7.1277). It was the second successive fix that was the highest since 2008. Still, the yuan snapped a three-day decline and rose less than 0.1%.

Legislation that makes it easier to crack down on dissent pressured Hong Kong, where the stock market fell more than 5.5% before the weekend, and forward points for the Hong Kong dollar exploded. The Hang Seng stabilized yesterday and gained more than 1.8% today. The 3-month and 12-month forward points are more than double what they were a week ago, but have eased from the extreme readings before the weekend. The situation is far from resolved despite the market moves.

The focus in Japan is on the government's second supplementary budget for nearly JPY1 trillion. It could be approved by the Cabinet as early as tomorrow and would nearly double the government's efforts. Japan is lifting the national state of emergency....

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